Week 3 Instructor Guidance As you were reminded in Week 2, remember it is a good idea to look ahead to Week 4 to prepare for the group activity – ask questions now in our Ask Your Instructor if you are unclear about any of the requirements for the group activity.  WEEKLY LEARNING OUTCOMES Before moving any further, please take a moment to review and reflect on our learning expectations for the week; these are also listed with their alignment to each assessment for the week on the Week 3 Unit page: · Discuss key ideas, values, and beliefs when creating a vision statement at the school. · Devise a plan to include all stakeholders in the planning, creation and implementation process. · Develop activities, for all stakeholders, in the vision creation process. · Discuss the need to include district goals in regards to creating vision statements.     · Analyze the resources that each set of stakeholders brings to the successful implementation of the school vision. · Discuss different strategies for stakeholder ownership in creating the vision statement WEEK 3 – OVERVIEW In Week Two, you provided justification on creating a new vision to your school board and school stakeholders. Additionally, you compared different visions to identify key components that comprise an effective vision. This week we have two discussions and an assignment. Review the guidance below and be sure to review the full instructions for each assessment on the Week 3 Unit page. Discussion 1: In the Who to Include discussion, you reflect on which stakeholders are most effective to include in the modification or creation of a new vision for the school.  Discussion 2: The Planning Activities discussion is where you go more deeply into the vision process and determine what types of activities you need to plan to ensure the stakeholders have enough information to successfully create a vision.  Assignment: The assignment Join the Visionary Team is another opportunity to be creative and put your technology skills to use while showing what you know about recruitment to participate in a vision modification or creation. You will create a flyer that you could place in the school to attract stakeholders into joining a committee to create the school vision.  INTELLECTUAL ELABORATION Another Committee!   As teachers, we are planning, creating, and teaching students and attending to all the intellectual and physical labor that teaching entails. We are busy professionals often with busy personal lives to manage as well. Often teachers stay long hours at their school site to ensure our practices are providing enough learning for the students to succeed. When we are faced with being put on a committee, it typically reduces our direct focus on our classroom activities. However, being on a committee is a significant duty as it is one of the best ways to have your voice heard around the school and to learn with your peers about a range of topics influencing your classroom practice.  As lea.

1. Week 3 Instructor Guidance
As you were reminded in Week 2, remember it is a good idea to
look ahead to Week 4 to prepare for the group activity – ask
questions now in our Ask Your Instructor if you are unclear
about any of the requirements for the group activity.
WEEKLY LEARNING OUTCOMES
Before moving any further, please take a moment to review and
reflect on our learning expectations for the week; these are also
listed with their alignment to each assessment for the week on
the Week 3 Unit page:
· Discuss key ideas, values, and beliefs when creating a vision
statement at the school.
· Devise a plan to include all stakeholders in the planning,
creation and implementation process.
· Develop activities, for all stakeholders, in the vision creation
process.
· Discuss the need to include district goals in regards to
creating vision statements.
· Analyze the resources that each set of stakeholders brings to
the successful implementation of the school vision.
· Discuss different strategies for stakeholder ownership in
creating the vision statement
WEEK 3 – OVERVIEW
In Week Two, you provided justification on creating a new
vision to your school board and school stakeholders.
Additionally, you compared different visions to identify key
components that comprise an effective vision. This week we
have two discussions and an assignment. Review the guidance
below and be sure to review the full instructions for each
assessment on the Week 3 Unit page.

2. Discussion 1: In the Who to Include discussion, you reflect on
which stakeholders are most effective to include in the
modification or creation of a new vision for the school.
Discussion 2: The Planning Activities discussion is where you
go more deeply into the vision process and determine what
types of activities you need to plan to ensure the stakeholders
have enough information to successfully create a vision.
Assignment: The assignment Join the Visionary Team is another
opportunity to be creative and put your technology skills to use
while showing what you know about recruitment to participate
in a vision modification or creation. You will create a flyer that
you could place in the school to attract stakeholders into joining
a committee to create the school vision.
INTELLECTUAL ELABORATION
Another Committee!
As teachers, we are planning, creating, and teaching students
and attending to all the intellectual and physical labor that
teaching entails. We are busy professionals often with busy
personal lives to manage as well. Often teachers stay long hours
at their school site to ensure our practices are providing enough
learning for the students to succeed. When we are faced with
being put on a committee, it typically reduces our direct focus
on our classroom activities. However, being on a committee is a
significant duty as it is one of the best ways to have your voice
heard around the school and to learn with your peers about a
range of topics influencing your classroom practice.
As leaders, it is our job to ensure that teachers are not feeling
overwhelmed with the myriad of duties assigned; that they
desire to serve on committees that will help costively to have an
impact on the school. Consequently, as leaders we benefit from
fostering the relationships between other stakeholders in the

3. school; by doing this we ensure diverse group on committees.
Both of these tasks, including teachers and other stakeholders,
are not necessarily without challenges!
Challenges are discussed by Epstein and Salinas (2007) with
regard to barriers to parents’ (one group of stakeholders)
involvement in schools: "Parents believe that they are not
welcome. It comes in part from their own education history.
They often have had a less-than-satisfactory experience with
their own schooling, and so they don't feel like [being involved]
is guaranteed to be a good experience" (p. 13).
As leaders and teachers we must understand the background of
our stakeholders at the school in order to engage stakeholders in
the school processes.
The question then becomes, how do we foster stakeholder
relationships?
Another work (Epstein et al., 2009) identified six types of
involvement which are the keys to successful parent school
partnerships.
1. Parenting
“Assist families with parenting skills and setting home
conditions to support children as students. Also, assist schools
to better understand families” (para 1).
2. Communication
“Conduct effective communications from school-to-home and
from home-to-school about school programs and student
progress” (para 2).
3. Volunteering
“Organize volunteers and audiences to support the school and
students. Provide volunteer opportunities in various locations
and at various times” (para 3).
4. Learning at Home
“Involve families with their children on homework and other

4. curriculum-related activities and decisions” (para 4).
5. Decision Making
“Include families as participants in school decisions, and
develop parent leaders and representatives” (para 5).
6. Collaborating with the Community
“Coordinate resources and services from the community for
families, students, and the school, and provide services to the
community” (para 6).
By taking a look at the barriers, stakeholders have to
volunteering in the school along with identifying ways to break
down these barriers. We can begin to build relationships with
school stakeholders to help the school obtain and retain
stakeholders who share in our school vision.
Planning Effective Meetings
Jennings (2007) wrote a wonderful book titled Leading
Effective Meetings, Teams, and Work Groups in Districts and
Schools. In this book, Jennings discusses how we first need to
decide on an end goal, and then work backwards to design a
meeting that will be relevant and effective. For example, if we
want to create a school vision, then our ultimate goal is to walk
away from the meetings with a vision statement.
The next step is to decide who should be included in these
meetings. Jennings (2007) notes that you should ask yourself
some questions before choosing committee members. One of
these questions should be, are the people you have chosen
diverse enough to provide a mixture of complementary skills
and styles or are they too diverse which could create conflict in
the meetings? As leaders we should not just randomly choose
committee members because they have expressed an interest.
We must consider the ending goal and how these committee
members will work together efficiently to produce the goal.
Another item to take into consideration when creating a

5. committee, according to Jennings (2007), is that “an educational
administrator must carefully attend to the way in which
authority is allocated between the group and the administration”
(p. 101). Deciding early on how the information will be shared
among the committee, school and other administration personnel
should not be overlooked. There needs to be a direct chain of
command to ensure the end goal will reflect the school
demographics and goals.
Think about your own previous meeting experiences. What were
some of the highlights of good meetings you attended and the
low points in bad meetings? How as a leader will you ensure
every meeting you have will be meaningful for each and every
participant?
References
Epstein, J. & Salinas, K. C. (2007). Partnering with families and
communities. Educational Leadership, 66(8). 12-18.
Epstein, J., Sanders, M., Sheldon, S., Simon, B., Salinas, K.,
Jansorn, N., Voorhis, F., Martin, C., Thomas, B., Greenfield,
M., Hutchins, D., & Williams, K. (2009). School, Family, and
Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, (3rd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
Jennings, M. (2007) Leading effective meetings, teams and
work groups in districts. Alexandria, VA. ASCD.
Required Resources
Required Text
1. Gabriel, J., & Farmer, P. (2009). How to help your school
thrive without breaking the bank. Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
a. Chapter 5, pp. 65-75.

6. Recommended Resources
1. Marzano, R., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School
leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria,
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Week 3 - Assignment
Join the Visionary Team!
This assignment is your opportunity to demonstrate your ability
to meet the following objective: Discuss the need to include
district goals in regards to creating a vision
statement and Discuss different strategies for stakeholder
ownership in creating the vision statement. Additionally, this
discussion is your opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of
Course Learning Outcome Two and further demonstrate your
mastery of the MAED Program Learning Outcomes Two and
Five.
In Week Two, you created a presentation that detailed the need
for creating a new school vision. In this week’s assignment you
are to create a school flyer that will excite and recruit
stakeholders to join you in creating this new vision stated
clearly as the underlying purpose. The flyer will outline the
(who, what, when, where and why) needs of creating a vision
statement to the stakeholders.
Content
Use the software of your choice to create the flyer.
Recommendations include: Smore, EdrawMax, or Microsoft
Publisher.
· Audience: Create a flyer appropriate for all school
stakeholders.

7. · Positions: Discuss the various positions in the school as
stakeholders and co-developers in creating the new vision
statement on the flyer.
· Responsibilities: Outline the responsibilities the stakeholders
will assume when creating the vision statement on the flyer.
· Time and Location: Describe the timeline for the project and
where the collaborative opportunities will take place for the
stakeholders on the flyer.
· Description: Describe why the vision statement is being
created and what you hope to accomplish on the flyer.
· Layout: Majority of the flyer space is filled in with the
required information.