Amanda Spight Essay

Amanda Spight is the principal at Gladden Elementary in the Belton School District. Amanda worked as a special education teacher for three years, assistant principal at for two years, and this is her first year as a head principal. Ever since I met Amanda I have been captivated by her confidence and poise. Her kind heart and genuine nature is infectious. I admire her as a leader and friend. Amanda had never worked in her building before so she didn’t know how to tailor professional development. As a future principal, I may be leading a building that I know little about. She used observations and school leaders to assist her with making professional development decisions. What she discovered is that her school needed a more positive culture and climate. She sat down and made a prioritised list of what she wanted to implement in the school year. Amanda said that sometimes you need to just have fun. This school year Gladden staff had a chair racing tournament, giant volleyball games, and played human Hungry Hungry Hippos. It’s important to give staff opportunities to build relationships. A staff needs to know how to laugh …show more content…
Amanda sees her staff as her students. She is very intentional about everything that she presents to staff. She wants to model instruction in a way that can be taken back to the classroom. The three most important things to any professional development is rigour, relevance, and relationships. Professional development should be rigorous. Staff should be learning new things and gaining a higher level of understanding. The information should also be relevant to what they are teaching now. Teachers should be able to take what they learned and apply it the next day. Professional development should also give staff the opportunity to build relationships with each other. School families and competitive games are key to building and strengthening