Fluent Essays

Leadership Impact Plan Paper Due at the end of Week 3. Your program has provided many opportunities for you to cultivate your competencies as a leader. The Leadership Impact Plan Paper provides an opportunity for you to assess and reflect on your leadership journey and the knowledge and skills you have developed over time to help you guide and provide direction to others.  Using the Individual Student Profile information (completed in the first course in your program) as a springboard, consider your growth as a leader and document your change over time as a result of your participation in this program. In a five to seven-page culminating paper, reflect on your personal and professional growth as a leader during your program journey and how those experiences contributed to and will continue to contribute to you becoming a more informed, reflective, and responsive leader in your field. Personalize your reflection by providing examples of how you translated the knowledge and skills you gained in your coursework into practice and authentic leadership experiences and how you will continue to develop your leadership skills.  Reflect on the following questions to guide your response: · How have you grown as a leader during the course of your program journey? · What leadership qualities are most important to you, and how have these qualities been enhanced by your graduate experience? · Which leaders in your field or profession have influenced your transformation and why? · Revisiting the reflections written in courses, in what ways have your goals or thinking about your profession changed? · What are the implications and applications of your learning and leadership for your profession? · How can you apply the leadership competencies you have gained or improved to make a difference in your personal and professional life and in the lives of others? · How will you continue to develop your leadership skills? Before you begin writing, review the rubric for this assignment. Organize your thoughts so that you have a section in your paper for each of these topics: · Reflection – How has your past knowledge and experience guided your growth as a leader? · Connection to Experience – What connections can you make between your experiences as a leader and your academic knowledge? · Connection to Discipline – How does your work as a leader cross disciplines? How does one field of study inform another? · Risk Taking – What risks have you taken while in your program? How have you moved beyond what is comfortable to what is new in your role as a leader? · Ethical Perspectives – When have you had to consider ethics in making decisions as a leader? · Initiative – How have you demonstrated that you have been willing to take the first steps in a leadership action? A template for the Leadership Impact Plan Paper has been provided for you in Student Commons in the Capstone Experience Resources. APA and Writing Checklist · Title page (Use title, author’s name, author’s institution, course prefix and number, course instructor name, and assignment due date.) · Title on first written page · Introduction · Use headings · Conclusion · References with doi# or url Length: The double-spaced paper should be 5-7 pages in length.  Overall format:  · Compose the paper in a Word document. · Leave a one-inch margin at the top, bottom, left, and right. · Use 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font. · Organize your paper with APA-formatted headings and sub-headings. · References: Follow APA format. Running head: LEADERSHIP IMPACT PLAN PAPER Capstone Experience Program Leadership Impact Plan Paper Lisette Lacosta American College of Education LEADERSHIP IMPACT PLAN PAPER 2 The reason I enrolled in this program was to expand my knowledge on early childhood development, education and appropriate practice. By meeting these goals, I hoped to improve my practice as a behavior analyst and better collaborate with teachers and other therapists. I work with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and related developmental disorders. Before I enrolled in this program the teachers of the children that I work with often frustrated me. I also noticed that they were often frustrated by me. I realized that although we had similar goals, we were trained differently and had different approaches. One of my main goals was to understand the teacher’s perspective and learn what they know. I thought that if I can relate and understand the educational approach, I would have better relationships with teachers and ultimately improve the way we treat our students. I definitely feel I have grown as a leader throughout the course of this program. Primarily I have learned a great deal that I have been able to pass on to colleagues and supervisees. Additionally, I feel that I have achieved my goal of improving collaboration with teachers. Many of the teachers I work with are open to my ideas and have taken my guidance. I have also improved my practice and become a better leader to my students. I have noticed that I have been more successful in helping my students achieve their goals. The leadership qualities that are most important to me are humility, empathy, fairness and ethics. I believe all of these qualities have been enhanced by my graduate experience. The reason I enrolled in the program as a behavior analyst shows humility in that I did not consider myself an expert and wanted to learn a different perspective. I LEADERSHIP IMPACT PLAN PAPER 3 feel this characteristic has been enhanced throughout the course of this program with each class. Empathy is very important when helping others, particularly children. I believe learning different developmental theories and family dynamics have helped me to be more empathetic, patient and understanding with my students. Being fair, firm and consistent can be vital in being an effective educator. I learned this through several courses in this course as well as through discussion posts with peers. I consider using data and literature to make decisions to be an ethical obligation in our line of work. I think we can actually do damage to our student if we do not use accurate information and use ethical practices. This program has enhanced my knowledge and ability to conduct research and find evidence-based information. Many colleagues and leaders influence me in my profession as well as in the educational profession. I try to attend at least one behavior analysis conference per year. In these conferences I have been able to listen to and meet some of the pioneers in the field of behavior analysis. Two of the most inspiring leaders that I have seen in these conferences are Dr. John Friman and Jose Martinez. Dr. Friman is a patient, open and humble professional who works with kids, teaches in college and conducts research in the area of behavior analysis. He is inspiring to me because he uses data and research when he presents but he is also humble and open to a different perspective. Jose Martinez is also a professor as well as a an owner of a successful behavior analysis company. Jose Martinez is passionate and goes to great depths to ensure he is doing the best he can for his students. I have seen him cry when telling stories of the kids that he works with! I am also very much inspired by some of the teachers that I have the privilege of working with. LEADERSHIP IMPACT PLAN PAPER 4 My favorite topics that I learned and studied in this program were the developmental theories. As a behavior analyst I have studied the behavior theory extensively and I was no longer considering other important theories as possible clues to understanding my students. Curriculum development was not my favorite but definitely the most impactful. I had never written or even read lesson plans. I have been able to implement what I learned in the curriculum classes by researching standards to writing full curriculum for a social skills group. Research methods was another very valuable class to me as I learned to comfortably and efficiently research peer reviewed journal articles in order to use valuable information when making treatment decisions. Throughout this course I have changed the way I work with children as well as communicate with parents and teachers. Some of the knowledge and practices that I acquired in this course I have been able to apply immediately in my work. I have discussed different learning theories and made suggestions to teachers about classroom set up and instruction. I have used my knowledge and research to better understand what goes on in the classroom and in the home with students. I have also created a curriculum based on what I learned in this program. The leadership competencies that I have applied and will continue to apply will improve the learning and growth of the students that I work with. I feel I become a better researcher, communicator and behavior analyst. I feel I can have more educated conversations with colleagues, parents and students. I now make sure to use evidenced-based and current journal articles to inform my decisions. Ultimately, what I LEADERSHIP IMPACT PLAN PAPER 5 have learned in this program has made me a better behavior analyst and has ensured that my students are more successful in achieving their goals. I would like to continue to develop my leadership skills beyond completing this program. I will continue to attend conferences and will probably include occasional educational conferences in addition to behavior analysis conferences. Eventually, I would like to present at one of these conferences. I will also continue to use peer- reviewed journals to learn and keep up with the most up to date practices in my field. At this end of this year, I would like to get certified in Behavior Analysis. With this certification, I would like to take on more supervisees in the field of behavior analysis in order to help other young professionals. I have learned a great deal in this program that I will use and cherish throughout my profession. I believe by combining therapy and teaching, I can make great differences in the students that I work with. I also feel that I can bridge the gap between the two professions. A lot of times we all have the same outcomes but we just speak different languages. If we can get on the same page, we would be more successful in helping our students reach their goals. Individual Student Profile Individual Student Profile Individual Student Profile Deborah Quirch Reiners American College of Education Starting my Master’s in Early Childhood Education I declare my professional goals and I am be stating my learning philosophy. I will further be going over three goals that I state individually via this master’s degree program and some ideas on how I will turn them to action to accomplish the stated goals. This paper will remain for future referencing to observe and track my individual growth during my transition at the American College of Education. Since I emigrated from my original country, I discovered my new vocation to be an educator. Worked as a behavior therapist for more than two years, and then a Behavior Analyst, gave me the opportunity to knowledge an amazing world when you have the responsibility to teach children and prepare them for their future. Subsequently, I began going through the processes of being a qualified educator and I recognized I had consequently found the desirable place for me. I spent my work time-sharing with kids between ages 2 through 9, with different behaviors characteristics, verbal communication problems, and deficits in their skills acquisition. I love my work and, especially teaching and training little kids. Educating my students remains one of the utmost significant jobs for the future of my children and me. I trust that learning needs to remain accessible for every learner irrespective of the barriers on the way, whether it is language, poverty, or a divergent style of learning. As an educator, I never merely teach pure academics. I teach a student, especially a child about change acceptance, growth, and utilization of skills being learned in the classroom in the real world. For me, I have often found enjoyment in learning as well as growing as an individual. I think it remains vital that teachers teach contemporary children to become life-long knowledge seekers. This will make our children continue growing and changing thereby changing and developing the world we are living in. This emphasizes and reinforces the need for teachers to set their students up to become efficacious at this. My first goalmouth is to have a greater comprehension of how I can effectively integrate and utilize technology into my teaching kids. I utilize a range of tools when designing my therapies alongside activities, however, I really would wish to integrate additional technologies into my work and activities to make my teaching increasingly interactive as well as a way of effectively collecting data on every learner. Fortunately, I have recognized that I can turn this goal into action by researching divergent apps and tools and attempting to use them out with my children. My second goal is to become increasingly active in my school surrounding. I have been working with an elementary school since last year and I attend several events that involucrate parents and community. I would wish to take up more leadership roles, training parents, school workers, therapists, and active leaders in our community to collaborate directly with our kid’s knowledge and grow. I have recognized that I can turn this goal into action by holding talks with the people who are currently in leadership positions in our community, preparing events with the direct collaboration of our school and students, like career fairs, community job presentations, and cultural activities. My third goal is to emphasize increasingly on how I can make my students feel that they own the classroom environment. Whereas my students are currently comfortable and will be caring for the classroom, I would wish to provide them additional ownership which shall instill lobe and pride of their classroom and subsequently transferring to their everyday lives and their entire learning path. Every day students can be more involved in their learning experience. Research suggests that the incorporation of some interrelated activities in any teaching pattern can significantly boost student’s engagement. This engagement is done emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally — thereby positively influencing the learning and knowledge of students (Cujba, 2017). I am increasingly delighted by myself taking up this risk and challenge of beginning a master’s degree program. It shall be a test to remain a full-time worker, solely being in my fourth year as a behavior therapist, and attempting balancing of the things which need to get done. Nonetheless, I am feeling as if this program shall assist me significantly on my path towards being a well-sought-after therapist I able to be. I am looking forward to growing as both educator and learner. I believe that I will strictly follow these three goals and turn them into real actions based on the steps I have stated above to ensure they are all achieved both for my good and that of my students. I am aware of the hard challenges ahead, but I remain steadfast and unbowed having realized that every progress comes with challenges. I am fully prepared to innovate and navigate across every obstacle that will come my way towards the accomplishments of the above three stated goalmouths. Reference Cujba, Sergey, 2017, How to engage students in learning? https://raccoongang.com/blog/how-engage-students-learning/