Always looking to improve
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Endless stacks of book line the tables and floor of the school’s Information Resource Center, or IRC as it’s known.
Construction is taking place, which has forced the school’s administration to relocate its offices to the IRC. And students were coming in droves Wednesday morning and into the afternoon with paper slips and forms of all kinds, either waiting to be approved, signed, confirmed or looked at by various faculty and staff.
For Pittman, who started on July 1, this has meant a week of meetings, both with parents and staff in preparation for the new school year.
“I want a smooth start to next year,” said Pittman. “We are undergoing modernization, so that is going to be a goal, to make sure there is a smooth transition for our students and our staff.”
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“We need to make sure that we continue to support them for their future endeavors,” said Pittman.
Her first few days in La Cañada have been positive, and a “family atmosphere,” Pittman said. High expectations abound on campus, she says, not only from faculty, staff and parents, but from the students themselves.
Her teaching philosophy evolves around two things that she believes go hand in hand. First, she believes that all students can and will learn. It is their job as educators, Pittman says, to do whatever they can to make sure that all students are successful and are not only meeting but exceeding their personal goals as well as the goals of the school.
For her second philosophy, Pittman turns to her favorite quote: “If better is possible, good is not enough.”
“We need to continually and constantly look at ways to improve our teaching, to improve what is going on our campus,” said Pittman.
No new programs will be introduced for now, said Pittman. The school’s Student Teacher Enrichment Program, started last year, will continue to be active at LCHS and receive her full support. STEP, as it is known, provides academic support and enrichment to students where they can receive support in one of their academic classes — a sort of supplemental instruction. Pittman feels La Cañada High School is the hub of the community, as such she wants to continue offering the programs that her school has excelled in.
Pittman began her career as a high school math teacher at Long Beach Unified School District in 1999, teaching at Jordan High School in Long Beach. She moved out of the classroom to become a math curriculum coach at the school where she conducted professional development for the 30 math instructors at that school. She left in 2006. She then served as assistant principal at Wilson Classical School in Long Beach and Pioneer High School in Whittier. Pittman holds a master’s degree in educational administration and is currently pursuing her doctorate in urban leadership.
“It’s just a way of looking at leadership styles and moving a school forward in 2009, in comparison to what it was before,” said Pittman of her doctoral work. Her studies, she says have a lot to do with the goals of LCHS in terms how the school can use concrete data to improve what it offers to students as well as the importance of working as a community to meet that end.
“We’re analyzing our work based on concrete information,” Pittman said.