What was the very last thing you did to postively impact public education? I think mine would be to reorganize the master schedule to better serve our students in need. It was nto an easy process, but I think it will benefit our school.
I have recently finished my second year as a principal. Each year I have done an anonymous online survey. All of the teachers are requested to complete the survey. I have created the survey using google docs as it stores it and makes it easily sortable, etc…
The results of the survey are used by me for my professional growth. I try to be reflective as I study the results of the survey. I will tell you up front - it is very tough to open yourself up for an anonymous survey. You must go into knowing that the results will help you get better! I am a very reflective person and I have to keep this in mind. One of the things I try to do is create a synopsis of the results to share with the teachers and the leadership team. If something keeps coming up, good or bad, there is probably a big need to look into it. I try to see what “the middle” is saying and make these my top priorities.
This survey has become a tool that I value greatly. It guides my professional growth and hopefully keeps me attuned to the needs/desires of my staff. It will also be interesting to look back at each year once I have 10 years in!
Another school year has come to a close. It has been a challenging year with all of the budget cuts. I know this is the same pretty much across the country. The good news is that our school continues to achieve even in the face of these hardships. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of educators. We have been in the process of planning for next year for a while now, but that really gears up next week. One thing we will be working on is a NOT to do list.
In education we often add so many things and sometimes to take stuff away when we do this. Our leadership team is going to sit down and see what we still do that is either unproductive or duplicating something else. It should be an interesting session and I look forward to our NOT to do list. Have you created a NOT to do list before for your school?
A colleague of mine and I will be presenting a session on using technology to increase your professional and personal productivity to a large group of principals at the SCASA middle level conference in a few weeks. I am a “heavy” user of technology and know how beneficial it has been to me over the past few years.
The group will have a very wide range of technological backgrounds. Some of the principals are proficient in many technologies and some have very limited experience. I want to somehow appeal t each and everyone n the audience. The presentation will be about two hours.
What should we include in our presentation? I know I would like to start off with a poll everywhere demonstration. Here are some ideas we have so far:
poll everywhere
twitter - for developing a PLN and for school communication
podcasting
What do you think we should include?
Has Anything Changed?
I was going to post this entry 2 years ago. I put it together and saved it without ever publishing it. I was sorting through my admin. panel this evening and happened upon it. It was an article about cell phones from Jan. 2008. Clearly, we know there are many advantages to using cell phones in the classroom. However, I wonder if we have come very far in actual implementation over the past 2 years?
_________________________
Many schools are forced to spend a lot of time on cell phones. Here is an article out of N.Y. Maybe if there was a more widespread use of cell phones as learning tools, they would be more accepted at school.
Confusion Over New York
Cellphone Ban in Schools
From - http://www.cellular-news.com/story/28376.php
Students returning to school this week in New York face a dilemma over what to do with their mobile phones when they enter the school property. Under a City Council law passed last September, pupils are allowed to carry phones with them on their journey to school - but not to then carry the phone into the school, causing confusion at the school gates. Plans by some schools to set up secure lockers for the mobile phones have been delayed by at least a year.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” Lashea Suggs, a pupil at the Young Women’s Leadership School told the local New York Post. “How can you bring your phone to school and have nowhere to put it when you get to school?”
City mayor, Michael Bloomberg imposed a ban in 2006 after he introduced metal detectors at some schools to help cut down on knife crime - and mobile phones were amongst the items confiscated. Responding to parent pressure who said that mobile phones were essential for safety reasons, the city council passed the new law which was aimed at forcing the Department of Education to find a solution to allowing children to be near their phone, without disrupting school lessons.
Enterprising local retailers have seized the opportunity caused by the confusion and for a charge will store a students mobile phone for them during the day - allowing them to collect the phone when they are heading home again.
There is a legal challenge to the ban - but it wont be heard until next month at the earliest.
Posted to the site on 3rd January 2008
I wrote this article a few years ago when I was an assistant principal. I am currently serving on the NASSP A.P. task force. I thought I would re-post this article to shine the light on one of the most challenging positions in education. I hope you enjoy!
One of the most important roles in a school is that of the assistant principal. (Disclaimer: I am currently an assistant principal, so these may be a bit biased!). The duties of the assistant principal are wide ranging and quickly changing. The job has always entailed student discipline and supervision as well as other managerial tasks such as bus duty, scheduling, event coverage, “key keeper” and so on. However, assistant principals are asked to delve more and more into curriculum and improving student achievement.
Most assistant principals welcome this new requirement. I have never pulled into the school parking lot excited about bus duty or making sure all of the doors are locked during an emergency drill. I am quite certain most of my colleagues feel the same way. I am an assistant principal so I can impact students. I want to increase student achievement and allow each and every child to be the best they can be. I want to be an instructional leader. I want to gather and analyze data to improve instruction. I want to build relationships with kids so they have another person looking after them and encouraging them through the tough times we call school. I want to work with other adults collaboratively in the best interest of kids.
Many, if not all, assistant principals do these things. We know it is expected of us and we enjoy doing it. We know it is in the best interest of the students. However, many assistant principals struggle to find a way to balance the time demands of being an instructional leader and a manager.
I do not always want to do bus duty. I do not particularly want to sort the bins of testing materials for the state assessment. However, I know these are parts of my job and I always complete them with the most diligence and professionalism. All of this presents an issue. How can an assistant principal use the time afforded to “manage” the school and still be the instructional leader that he/she wants to be?
The National Association of Secondary Schools Principals recently selected 15 administrators for a task force on the assistant principalship. I was honored to be one of those selected. We will be spending a lot of time on defining the role of the assistant principal. I am truly excited to be part of the task force and eagerly look forward to working with colleagues from across the nation.
Assistant principals were stretched on time before the accountability aged rolled in. Taking care of the nuts and bolts of school operation takes a tremendous amount of time. What are some of the ways an assistant principal can complete both managerial type duties with more instructional focused ones?
I have worked directly with 9 or 10 different assistant principals during my time as a school administrator. All of us have aspirations to be a building principal. Two of them have already been promoted to lead their own school. We realize that to prepare ourselves for our future role, we need to be the strongest instructional leaders. Handling referrals are one thing, but if we are ever to be entrusted to run our own school, we know we have to stand out from the crowd. We decided to develop procedures to give ourselves time for the instructional duties we wanted to perform.
At my last high school we made a fundamental change to how we handled student discipline. Previously, we were each assigned a part of the alphabet and if one of our students received a referral, we handled it. We often found ourselves in the office for a good part of the day. One of my colleagues came up with a great plan. Our school was rather large and there were 5 assistant principals. Instead of handling student discipline via the alphabet we created a schedule that allowed us to be out of the office for 3 full days a week (sometimes even 4 days!). Two administrators were assigned to discipline each day. When you had discipline duty, you were often handling referrals all day. This kept you tied to the office, but it created much more time during a given week to observe classes, work with data, and do the things we really want to do. A positive unintended side effect was that referrals were handled much quicker as well.
At my current middle school we have 3 assistant principals. We handle student referrals for our grade level. I have tried to implement a few procedures to use my time as efficiently as possible. I always make it a point to handle referrals as quickly as possible. I think the teachers enjoy this and it is better for the students. If a student misbehaves in class and three days later I ask why they did what they did, I will usually get a look of confusion. Maybe they are trying to get out of trouble, but three days to a middle school child is similar to how I feel watching my beloved Dolphins this year (for the non-football fans, the Dolphins are 0-11!).
I try to schedule a time each day to handle student discipline issues. The 7th grade students attend their elective classes the last two periods of the day. I generally handle referrals during this time. It keeps them in their core classes as much as possible. However, I am a true believer in the benefits of the arts, so I am not so sure this is the best plan possible. Of course, some incidents require immediate attention and these are handled as they arise. At my school, most of the incidents seem to occur outside of class. I make an attempt to be as visible as possible during class change. Hopefully, this is preventing some incidents before they occur.
If you surveyed assistant principals, I think the number one issue would be finding time to be an instructional leader in light of our other responsibilities. I would also predict that these instructional duties are why just about all of us chose this profession. I hope serving on the task force will allow me to learn from others on how they manage their time.
I am a middle school principal.
As I continually reflect on my craft, one of the recurring questions is, “Am I doing all I can to encourage my teachers, counselors and administrators to excel in their position or I am I somehow holding them back”?
Of course, I am trying to support everyone in my building to allow them to grow and flourish. I continually give anonymous surveys to my staff so I can monitor this.
Here is my question to you:
What can principals do to allow their faculty and staff to flourish and what well intended things holds one back? (Of course, I am not looking for names, etc…I just want to know what I can do and what to watch out for!)
I recently received a request about how I do my principals podcast. I would love to share this info with you. I do not claim to be an expert in podcasting, but what I do works for me. I create a podcast that I call Principal’s Podcast. It is geared toward the parents of my school. The podcasts contain a variety of information about the happenings around campus. I plan on stepping it up a bit this year, both in quality and variety.
Currently, all of the podcasts I have done are audio only. I am planning on creating some vodcasts. I would also like to interview various stakeholders on the “show”. I will review the steps I use to create a podcast. Once it is created, I simply post it on a blog. This blog is dedicated to my school and again, is aimed at the parents. It includes both podcasts and written entries. Here is the link (it is also linked from our school website):
http://sullivanms.edublogs.org/
I have also recently used google docs to conduct a survey on the blog.
In order to podcast you only need a minimal amount of tools:
Computer, of course!
Some type of microphone. I have a headset with earphones and an attached microphone. I think I purchased it at Best Buy for around $15.
You will need some type of software. I use audacity, mostly because it is free and I was able to figure out how to use it! I am sure there is easier/better software out there for a price.
You will need somewhere to post your podcast. In my case, I post it to the blog mentioned above.
Here are the steps I follow to create a podcast:
Go to audacity.sourceforge.net (first time only)
Click download audacity 1.2.6 (first time only)
Click on audacity installer (first time only)
Click save, follow directions (first time only)
Download LAME MPS Encoder (you need this to convert audacity files to mp3’s)(first time only)
Follow directions for windows (first time only)
Open audacity
Write script for podcast or wing it! I have done both.
Record the podcast – click stop when done
Go to file, click export to mp3
It will be in libmp3lame…..folder
You can use podbean.com for free to host a blog, where you can post your podcasts.
It is really easy to do. The hardest part is finding the time to keep producing the podcasts. I do not know how many parents listen, but I know there is an audience because I usually embed a trivia question for a prize. At least this lets me know someone is listening. As I mentioned earlier, I plan to add video on occasion and conduct interviews as well. I hope these directions are clear, but remember I do not claim to be an expert! However, if you give it a try I think you will be hooked!
Over the past two years I have been exploring Web 2.0 tools. I see the need to create a school environment that is applicable to the lives of our students. They are so connected at home and I am working to make sure they can be connected at school. You have probably heard the saying that kids are required to unplug when they cross the threshold of their school. While this is true in many regards, it is important to infuse as much technology as we can. At the same time, I think it is important not to simply “do” technology. There should be an objective that ties into the curriculum. Fortunately, with so many tools out their it is becoming easier and easier each day.
I want to share with you some of the top tools I see that can make an impact in schools. I will then share with you some of these that I have seen used effectively in schools.
Blogs-I have been writing on this blog for almost two years. It has been a great way for me to express my thoughts and organize my thinking. Of course, I do not post as much as I should, but it is always a work in progress. There are many classroom uses for blogging. Blogs give students an audience while they write. They are no longer just writing for the teacher. This almost always leads to quality writing. One of the biggest benefits of blogging is it allows the shy student to participate. Many students that are hesitant to engage in a classroom discussion find blogging as a way to participate in class. Blogging led me directly into twitter.
I am sure mot of you reading this are on twitter. If you are not, go directly to twitter.com and sign up! I have learned more from my PLN on twitter than almost any other professional development resource. You get to learn and interact with others who are working in your field. I started by following a friend in education and followed the people he followed. It grows from there. I try to share as much as possible with them and they definitely return the favor. I have also created a twitter feed for my school. This is an easy way to send out updates on the happenings of the school. You can see me on twitter at @mwaiksnis. My school’s account is @smfalcons.
Podcasting-This is another way to communicate with your school stakeholders. I have a principal’s podcast. The audience is still growing and I plan on continuing it this year. To gauge the amount of interaction, I always include a trivia question for a small prize. We always get parents calling in, so I know someone is listening. There are many direct uses of podcasts in the classrooms as well. I have seen them used as a culminating activity on a research project. I have seen them used in conjunction with photo story. There are many other uses as well!
It seems like there are an endless array of Web 2.0 tools out there today. Blogging, podcasting and twitter are my favorite. They are all easy to learn. If you are attempting to integrate technology in your school, I would reccomend these as a starting point. I taught a Web 2.0 class at my school and the teachers seemed to love it.
Other tools that I use include:
Google Docs - Tons of possibilities. I recently created surveys using google docs. The best part is the results are sent into a spreadsheet so you can easily sift through your data. This is a great way for a teacher to get to know their students.
Mind meister (online mapping tool)
Glogster
Wikis - We have a staff wiki. It is a great place to store resources. We also post important forms and documents. I used wikispaces when I created the wiki.
Poll Everywhere-you can create polls that students or teachers can use via computer or cell phone. Results are displayed immediately for instant feedback.
Wordle
This list would go on and on, but these are most most used tools. What do you use on a regular basis?
This is the time of year when it really starts to get hectic. Our teachers return this week and the students will follow next week. Our administrative team has been busy all summer getting ready for this week. Actually, it began last school year. We still have a few finishing touches to complete before Wednesday, but we will be ready.It is hard to describe what we do all summer. My father asked me, “What do you do all summer? Is there really work to be done?” I am sure most people not in education probably feel the same.
Scheduling is always a mammoth task that begins the previous school year and often finishes very close to the start of the new year. However, there are many, many things to be done in the summer. We started a google doc this year with everything we had to work on. This helped us stay focused as we worked throughout the summer. Here are SOME of the things we did over the summer:
Interviewing and hiring - the most important job for a principal in my opinion
Scheduling - we joked when we were 75% completed that if we were professional baseball players with a batting average this high we would be rich!!
Curriculum - began laying the foundation for the school improvement. We will be ready to get to work on it as soon as the teachers arrive. Created framework for new gifted and talented program, worked on professional development plan, analyzed data - lots of it!, created observation forms, created lesson plan templates, moved to electronic referrals, had discussion on observations and our role in assisting teachers, met with professors from Winthrop University to set up a tutoring program for our ESOL students, installed Promethean boards, continued to develop our remediation program, talked about upcoming data conferences.
Professional Development - Admin team attended our district conference, discussed articles and learned about new technology, attended week long district leadership retreat, discussed best practices,trained other administrators in data gathering….
Facility Needs- painting, tile work, bulletin boards in common areas, strip and wax floors, repair a million things, added digital picture frames for each grade level to showcase student work, added a few touches to spruce up the office area, added “educational traffic” signs in the parking lot, and more.
Community-created schedule for our Parent University series, met with local businesses in hopes of creating partnerships
Completed all sorts of things like duty rosters, lunch procedures, bell schedule, assigning supplements, hiring coaches, BUDGET
Discussed books and our goals. Held a leadership retreat to set our course for the year, went to many meetings.
These are just what comes to mind as I sit here and type. I know there was so much more. Once you start putting it on paper it makes you realize how busy you are during the summer. It is a different kind of hectic than the school year, but busy none the less.
I am ready for the teachers and students to return!
