A quote for resolutions

If you think you can do a thing or that you cannot do a thing, in either case you are right. ~ Henry Ford

Thinking about the New Year

Why is it that the New Year always brings reflection and the inevitable list of resolutions of things to do? We all need to have closure to things and the brisk feeling of a fresh start. That is my best guess anyway. I was really inspired by a fellow principal blogger and his resolutions, so I am going to attempt to create a list of doable resolutions for 2008(....is that possible, 2008!? My seventh year as principal at PHS? My 10th as a building administrator? My 19th year in education?.......OK, too much reflection is going to depress me!)

Anyway...here they are in no particular order:

1. Work hard to integrate our new Work Keys software...the WINS solution into our everyday curriculum. This should help our students prepare for the world of work as well as better prepare them for day two of the PSAE


2. Help our Data Committee and Department Chair break down our recent EXPLORE and PLAN scores into usable data for making curriculum and scheduling decisions.


3. Student motivation. Work with guidance and mentoring team to more fully develop our scholastic and career planning initiatives for students. Develop incentives for students to attend school, stay in school, and do well in class and on the PSAE.


4. (saved the most important for last!) BE MORE VISIBLE IN THE CLASSROOMS! Have more time to interact with staff and students.
   

Don't forget to ask me how I am doing on these! What are your resolutions for this year?

Blogging through the snow......

(I originally posted this about two months ago. I am reposting it with a few changes.)

Why do I blog?

1. I have found that the practice of putting my thoughts together about our school, how we impact our students, involve parents, incorporate technology, and attempt to change in what I consider to be revolutionary times (in education) allows me clarify where I stand on many issues. It is as much about self examination and professional growth as it is trying to move our institution forward.....if those two things can be seperated. I will have to admit when Ms. Hill challenged our faculty to examine the aspects of Web 2.0 and she told us many teachers as well as administrators were blogging, I was very apprehensive about it and even thought putting my thoughts into words for public consumption could be dangerous (how I do not know, but it sounded like a good excuse!), but now that I have tried it, I must say I really like it!

2. I cannot expect staff to try new things if I am not willing to. I have done blogcasts, podcasts, twitters, blogs, and Skype and will be trying more as time goes on. I want to use this technology to engage staff in the same way they can engage their students. Web 2.0 tools simply make doing what used to take a lot of effort very easy. I can remember teaching my own students in Comtempory Problems how to make webpages, with Google Pagemaker and Blogger, making a web page is as easy as typing a paper. Students love to post their work online. The interviews that some students did in which they interviewed veterans or family members about their experiences in "living through" history could have been digitally stored and available for many to hear and learn from! Individual staff members have different comfort levels and I realize that not all teachers can make a giant leap in using technology in class. The beauty of web 2.0 tools is that they empower the student and put them in charge of their learning. You do not have to use fancy computer stuff or other tech gadgets to do that!

3. It is a great way to communicate. As many of you know, I am not the greatest communicator. (I heard that!) By forcing myself to "address" our staff, students and community stakeholders I do believe I have been able communicate more effectively. I know I still have a long ways to go, but blogging is allowing me to grow in this area. I am amazed that this page gets about 30 visits a day! I wish more people would tell me what they think. Some schools have done a very good job of creating an online learning community. This medium can allow for the exchange of ideas and information in a very transparent way. Click here or here for great examples!

4. I am hoping to encourage our staff to use this medium to engage students, parents and the community. We have seen a few examples in this school how blogs can be used. We have only scratched the surface. If you are truly interested in seeing how a blog can be used as a "virtual" extension of your classroom, see me. There are some great examples. Blogging is the first step in moving towards what I believe is a shift educators must make in order to reach students. Teenagers are spending lots of time online on social networking sites sharing thoughts, ideas and creating some fantastic stuff (and some not so great stuff too!) on places like Facebook and MySpace. They will naturally gravitate and become engaged if we incorporate the best features of the everchanging information age in how we engage our students!

I think the mediums by which students communicate and are entertained have advanced to the point where we must consider those influences and change our pedagogy accordingly

'Tis the reason!

This is one of the toughest times of the year for our high school staff. They are trying hard to finish up the final unit of the semester, preparing final exams as well as trying to catch up on the mountains grading. There is so much to do it can be downright overwhelming! Throw on top of all that the fact that all of the students are anticipating being away from school for two weeks and the effect of the Christmas rush and I believe that the faculty can feel as though it's burden is unbearable. I, like all of the other staff, get immersed in my job and what I consider important and sometimes miss opportunities to help where help is needed. As a high school principal I am focused on data and PSAE results, school safety issues, staff evaluation, our across the curriculum literacy agenda, staff development, recruiting new staff, budget development and problem solving what seems like a million day to day questions from students, staff and parents. I spend a lot of my time thinking about how to integrate technology into instruction, how to motivate students and how involve the community in improving our program. I am always looking toward the future and trying to learn new things.

.....But it never fails, a situation will occur or a conversation will happen that causes me to take a step back and consider what is really important. Several years ago, around Christmas time, a student came into the office and asked for withdrawal papers and informed me she was going to drop and get a job. As always, whether it is me or the assistant principal, we try to take the time to discuss this decision with the student and try to reason them into considering all options rather than dropping out. At first the student did not want to discuss her decision with me. Her mind was made up. She was of the age that she did not have to have parental consent and she seemed determined to carry out a plan that did not include finishing high school. I knew this student fairly well because I had been her elementary principal and had developed a rapport with her to where we would talk to one another when we saw each other and tease each other about our favorite sports teams. On this day, however, she was not in any mood to talk to me and refused to tell me the reasoning that had led her to this decision. I knew this student had developed a good professional relationship with a teacher on staff, and as a last ditch effort I called this teacher in to talk with the student. What unfolded as I witnessed it was a remarkable conversation between a teacher who cared for her students and a student who both liked a respected her teacher. I could tell that their relationship had become one in which the teacher had a vested interest in the student and that the student felt cared for in her presence. I will not divulge the content of their conversation, but suffice it to say, the student remained enrolled, graduated, and went on to a two year technical school. Last I heard, she was married raising a child and gainfully employed in a good job!

Sometimes you will never know the affect you have had in the way that you deal with your students. Sometimes, like in the example above, you will see the positive results. Even though this time of year can be very tough for us, it can be even tougher for our students for various reasons. Our staff does a great job of doing what is important....and that is keeping students our number one priority!

How do we make it compelling?

To listen to audio file of this post, click on the player below.


Since I have joined the "education blogoshere" (people talking about education online), I have found myself pondering about how we can make what we do for our students more compelling. I have been reading with great interest what the young men and women over at Students 2.0 have been blogging about. All of the current posts that are available are quite credible, and considering that they are all pre-college students, their analysis and writing are very impressive (or just plain impressive no matter what age!) I have been following the discussion (or comments) following a post entitled "The difference between “teaching” and “preaching” and have found that it shadows my own thoughts about educational reform. I know that I have talked alot about technology and changing how we engage our students, and in turn have generated interest and disdain from those who have listened. I do not believe that reforming education should be based on teaching students how to use technology as an end in itself. Technology is changing to fast for that, and besides it seems as though a good share of our students are ahead of us anyway. I think reform needs to change the way that we approach teaching students. We need to allow them to be more self directed within the paremeters we set. Technology is simply a set of tools that students can use to find, process and create new information. With technology students can collaborate and network with their classmates both inside and outside of the classroom. Technology can make the classroom become transparent and allow resources, including people from all levels of expertise and parts of the world, to become available to our students. To make what we do compelling does not require extensive use of Web 2.0 tools but they certainly seem to engage learners today. I have asked my son to create a blog and begin discussing what he is doing in class (we started this just today.) He could not wait for me to read what he had posted. I asked him if he wanted other people to talk about what he had to say. He was amazed that somebody might be interested. He now wants to be an expert on atoms and elements in case anyone wants to comment on his post! Compelling? It was today anyway! I had him read a post over at Students 2.0 entitled Global Villages and told him it was written by a 14 year old student. He was amazed and a little unsettled that someone so close to his age could write so well and seemed to have such an amazing grasp (his words) on the Internet and how it was helping her learn. One thing I have learned is that I do not have all of the answers, but I do know that we need to question how we do things now, if only to confirm that what we do is best for students and also to motivate us to continually search for compelling ways to engage them! WHAT DO YOU THINK?

You knew it was only a matter of time!

Click on the link to the left to look at this blog being done by students from a variety of different schools. Interesting stuff so far!

A podcast using gabcast

Gabcast! PHSprincipalBLOGpods #2 - My First Gabcast podcast

Using gabcast for the first time


You will need to click play at least twice!

Thoughts about staff reaction

Video of this post
When I talk about change and show the staff things that suggest how education seems to be stagnant in a time when change is happening so rapidly, I am not saying that we are doing a bad job or that we have to work harder. We may need to consider how we work and changing what we can as we learn how to. I have no doubt that you as a teacher are doing the best you can and working hard to do what is best for our students! We must not let ourselves feel put down simply because someone suggests we consider doing things differently! Every other profession requires constant change to meet the demands of a changing market. If they don't change someone else comes in and does it better! We have never experienced this to a strong degree in education....until now. The competition is coming because the world is "flattening" out. We are in direct competition with other economies. Competition is a good thing. It forces innovation and makes things more efficient. We have great faculty that needs to know I support it! I will continue to talk about change and try to make it happen where I can. I do this only because I think it is best for our students, not because I do not value what you do or how hard you work!

When shift happens.....phs discussion

Staff,

Thank you for your attentiveness during today's faculty meeting. I am not sure how most of you reacted to the viewing of Karl Fisch's "Shift Happens." I hope the content makes you think (and post to the comments below). I also hope that the medium of the message starts you thinking about using some new methodologies in your classroom!

The following set of questions is from shifthappens wiki spaces:

Did You Know? is intended to be a conversation starter. Questions such as the following are good ways to start conversation: What are your initial reactions to what you saw in the presentation? How are these changes manifesting themselves in your personal lives? professional lives?

What do we think it means to prepare students for the 21st century? What skills do students need to survive and thrive in this new era? What implications does this have for our current way of doing things?
Do we need to change? If so, how?
How do we get from here to there?
What challenges must we overcome as we move forward?
What supports will we need as we move forward?
What kind of training will we need to move forward?
What kind of commitments will we need to make (with each other, our students, and our community) to move forward?
Who's scared? Why?
What will we do next? What are some concrete actions that we can take in the near future?
Is it possible for a teacher to be an excellent teacher if he/she does not use technology?

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Professional Development

View BLAST(blogcast)of this post

The State of Illinois requires all teachers and administrators to attend so many hours of professional development to be eligible to get re-certified and continue in their position. As an administrator, I must average 20 hours of professional development per year and attend a "special" conference called an Administrator's Academy at least once a during the calendar year. The biggest complaint that I have about these required hours is that most professional development opportunities are scheduled during a school day when students and teachers expect to see their principal in school. I understand why the State requires these hours and do not disagree that all educators need to stay current on educational practice, not unlike any other professional occupation, so I have tried to keep the best attitude about it and get the most out of them.

Which brings me to the main point of this post(yes, I do have one...I think). Yesterday I attended my annual Administrator's Academy in Charleston. The title of the workshop was called The Digital Leader @ School. I will say that this one of the most engaging conferences I have attended for some time. The presenter, Meg Ormiston (her website which has a lot of really cool tools, ideas and etc...), did a great job with the material and really knows her stuff! The experience really illustrated the point that we as educators must keep current! Information is growing at an incredible rate and we understand this, but the tools for learning and collaborating are changing just as fast and I am afraid we are falling behind at just as great a rate. In some instances we are banishing the tools by making them against policy or are blocking their access on the Internet because we are afraid of what might pop up or how it will affect the network. In many cases we are using new tools like the old ones!

I am trying my best to model some of the new tools available on the Internet and I am hoping that staff will try to learn about and integrate some of these technologies to engage their students.

Some of the new stuff that I have learned about or have set a goal to become proficient with include:

Twitter I am not sure how this will integrate into the class room. If you look at the upper right hand column of this blog you can see what I am twittering(I wish they would have picked a better name!) about. Basically if I type it in....it will be displayed. People can subscribe or follow my account and keep up with what I am doing or thinking. It might be great for a social group of geeks (like me minus the social part) to keep up with each other. Class room use???? Let me know what you think.

Skype I think this has a lot of potential for many different things. It allows you to phone from a PC(personal computer) to any other connected PC(and if you want to pay, any landline or mobile phone too). It will also allow for live video during a call. Conferencing is possible with multiple users. The ability for your classroom to expand to include other classrooms and experts in their field could revolutionize what you are doing.

RSS Really Simple Syndication. Most news outlets, newspapers, blogs and etc have RSS feeds that you can subscribe to(including my blog!)and get an update every time that something new is posted. If you have an iGoogle account, you can set up your home page to receive whatever your favorite feeds are and you can have all of your favorite information available all on one page! VERY CONVENIENT!

Google Sketchup As the website says:

Google SketchUp is a powerful yet easy-to-learn 3D software tool that combines a simple, yet robust tool-set with an intelligent drawing system that streamlines and simplifies 3D design. From simple to complex, conceptual to realistic, Google SketchUp enables you to build and modify 3D models quickly and easily. If you use Google Earth, Google SketchUp allows you to place your models using real-world coordinates and share them with the world using the Google 3D Warehouse

To Be added as I get time!
Google Page Creator
Advanced Google Search
Google Docs
Wikipedia
Wikis