Athens, Ga. – A short film by the University of Georgia College of Education on its Early Career Principal Residency program was among eight in the country selected for screening at the 2012 University Council for Educational Administration Convention Film Festival.
The five-minute film was produced, directed and edited by Ron Braxley, a digital media producer in the college’s Office of Instructional Technology. Film submissions were reviewed by a five-member panel of peers according to categories, which included connection to conference theme, video production quality and insights into leadership preparation.
The Early Career Principal Residency program was selected for a federal Race to the Top Innovative Fund grant, which is being used to provide support to young administrators in high-need schools who are participating in the UGA program.
The two-year professional development program began a few years ago in a partnership between the college and the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders. The program provides opportunities for new principals to learn how to enhance their leadership and problem-solving skills from leading researchers, scholars and current educational leaders.
The program kicked off in fall 2010 on UGA’s Athens campus with the first cohort of 16 principals from nine school districts in the state. Sessions are held throughout the year in Athens and at GAEL conferences around the state.
The three-year grant of approximately $156,000 has provided opportunities for 10 additional early career principals to participate in the second cohort of the program.
The program includes face-to-face seminars, interactions with experts in educational leadership, performance-based activities linked to job-embedded learning, a coaching component to provide ongoing support, the development of a community of learners made up of early career principals across the state, and the integration of technology to connect the cohort and support content delivery, said Jack Parish, coordinator of the ECPR program and faculty member in the college’s department of lifelong education, administration and policy.
Other films selected to be screened include:
Awakened (Tonya Little, North Carolina State University)
Halifax, N.C. (Prin Cert Students, North Carolina State University)
Master of Education in Education Policy (University of Washington)
Reflections (Ashley Bass and Tyler Watts, University of Missouri-Kansas City)
The language of advocacy: Perspectives from both sides of the desk (Timothy Salazar and Meagan Salazar, University of Utah)
Social Justice Training (Matt Militello, North Carolina State University)
Vanderbilt’s Leadership Capacity Building Program in Abu Dhabi (Vanderbilt University)
The films will be shown Nov. 17 from 3-5 p.m. at the UCEA Annual Convention in Denver, Colo. The sessions will include an introduction to the films and a question and answer period facilitated by the filmmakers. For more information, see www.ucea.org/registration-2012/.
To view the COE film, see http://youtu.be/X8x6LTqwNwU.
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