Educational Discourse

I’ve been thinking about where a person can have the greatest impact on educational change. I know as a teacher that, with the right administrator and connections with other educators, you can create change within the classroom and, if you are a lead teacher or given the encouragement, you can influence and impact other teachers. I don’t doubt that what each teacher does has an incredible impact on the students they see but as for impacting actual change in education, the influence seems to be slight in most cases.

As an administrator, I know that I have impact on change with the staff. It is part of my role as educational leader to be evaluating what we are doing and then examining what we might do differently to increase the effects on the students in the school. I know that initiatives from central office need to have my support and my backing in order for them to be successful. This means that I am always looking at how I might help teachers as they seek to improve what they are doing. At the division level, I know that being part of various initiatives allows for input at the ground level and can have an influence on the way that the division moves in relation to particular initiatives.

At the superintendent and director level, I’m still not sure about although I see that it is at this level that initiatives begin and movement takes place. It is at this level that the plans can impact many areas and have an influence on various system changes.

I guess each one has its unique ability to influence what is happening in the classroom and how the students are affected. The farther away from the classroom, the less direct the impact. However, for any major shift to take place, must it not have a catalyst at the senior administration level?

My reason for this is that I was so looking forward to working with teachers in using various technologies in enhancing some of the intiatives that were taking place in the school. Most of them begin at the division level but it was my hope that we would be able to infuse what we were doing with tools that would assist students in learning and creating. Thus far, I haven’t been able to do this because of the number of things that are going on and the time they are taking from my administrative time some of which I had planned to use for assisting teachers. As for the classroom level, there have been a number of teachers who have expressed interest but their time is being used working through the initiatives that have come to us.

As I watch and take part in the various conversations via twitter and other networks, I see that there are many teachers who are impacting their students’ learning. However, would there be a greater impact if, at the central office level, there were initiatives that gave supported this type of teaching across a greater number? I really want to create the conditions for teachers to explore new strategies and use some of these new tools but it seems, with all that we are doing, there is little left for such endeavours to take place, even for motivated teachers. Maybe it’s just a phase we are needing to adjust to and once these initiatives become part of the fabric of the school, we can explore different strategies. I just wonder if we’ll ever really have that oppotrunity or if I need to reexamine what we are doing and find the time regardless of what is happening. Any ideas?

It’s my birthday today, November 13th. No. I wasn’t born on a Friday either.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I do residential and commercial painting, during my many leisurely hours. Monday, which was an off day for us, was spent putting in a few hours painting some new Ready to Move homes that are being built in town. This new business venture has been a boom for our small community but, like in many areas, trades people have been hard to find so I’ve been enlisted to do help.

When I’m painting, I have quite a few hours to think about things of all sorts. It’s during this time that I contemplate how our School Improvement might look over the next few years or how our Code of Conduct will develop. I think about how we might engage a few of our students that are not interested or what we, as a community, can do for our youth. Today, during one of my less than deep moments, I thought about how the average person uses the browser and, on average, how many tabs they have open at any one time. (Hey, it was a long day;)

Now, I’ve found that I usually have about 10 tabs going at the same time as I keep tabs (ha ha ha) on various things. I have ClaimID, Pageflakes, iGoogle, school inbox, twitter, staff wiki, blog, admin wiki, planning wiki, class wiki and usually a news site open. Now, if someone has a twitter about a particular URL, I might check it out so the tabs could pile up. I do use delicious but I’m not very good at looking there. I’ve begun to reduce the number of tabs I keep open since it sometimes makes the browser become unresponsive when I awaken the laptop.

I also find that with my use of more online apps like Google docs, calendar and such, I have more tabs open as I add things to various places.

What’s your tab count? Do you find yourself with multiple tabs open at the same time? How do you track your tab use? Has it grown with the more online apps that you use?

 Edublog Award time is upon the edublogosphere and, given some of the already interesting discussions that I’ve seen about them, I’m going to voice my own opinion - not as any kind of moral conscience but just as my own opinion.

I’ve written about the edublogosphere and how, in a nutshell, it’s a case of some bloggers who have high profiles voicing ideas and thoughts and others following. For myself, it’s a case that there are blogs that I read regularly, blogs I find via other blogs and blogs I find doing searches just to see if someone new is around. I have also found a number of people who do most of their discussing in social networks which eliminates them despite their good ideas.

Why do we need these?

I get that we want to honour those who are doing exceptional work. We want to encourage people to use these tools, contribute to the blogosphere and a host of other things. I just don’t understand the why. With the Twitter becoming a tool I’m using as much as my blog, I’m wondering if we’re at a different point now. As teachers integrate tools and use them seamlessly with their teaching, there are new examples of Flat projects and people assisting others with these. The projects are becoming much more collaborative in nature with all kinds of people contributing to the overall success of the project.

Individual teachers might be using blogs but they might also see podcasting or use of ustream and video as being a better use of their time never making it to the point of posting because, face it, it does take time and dedication. As I talk about in my last post, some people are just very busy and being part of the edublogosphere isn’t one thing they do.

Doug Belshaw has been taking it on the chin for a few things lately. (Must of been his week!) If you go over to his post regarding his thoughts about the awards, you’ll see all kinds of comments from those who have very good points about why the awards are important to, well, the other stuff which has nothing to do with the awards. The main point, however, is pointed out by Karyn Romeis’ 

I don’t have a problem with the notion of the awards, I think it raises the profile of blogging per se and it always brings a few previously overlooked gems to my attention. That said, if Doug doesn’t like the idea, I think he should be allowed the space to say so and to give his reasons for saying so.

You can disagree with his reasons and give your own reasons. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the stuff comes up. Having said that, I’m not sure that I like what happens when people are campaigning to get their blogs nominated for various awards. I don’t believe that was the intention of the whole thing but I could be wrong. (Read through Josie’s comment on Doug’s blog. I don’t think it suggests that openly campaigning is what this is all about.

I really could care less. In reality, I’ve enough going on in my life as a father, community member and  principal without this. Right now we have an election going on in our province and I’m much more interested in that and how it could affect various parts of my life. I can see how this is important for some people and they see it as recognition for all the work they have done. Others see it as another “thing” to collect and put on the shelf - something to prove.

Sorry to all those out there, but I vote in elections. As for the awards, there are so many great blogs and writers that reducing it to a few just doesn’t do justice to the others. And if some of what is going on in the comments like found on Doug’s blog is what we get from having the awards, then I definitely don’t want any part of them. Doug shouldn’t have to put up with that just because of his opinion.

Once again, I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging barbs with Dan Meyers over at Doug Belshaw’s blog, I ran into Dan spreading joy and love again on the subject of the Edublog Awards. [My thoughts will follow in a future post]

Dan commented that

Kelly wishes his blog had a larger readership but doesn’t want to deal with Miguel’s criticism that his posts (which comprise long typo-ridden paragraphs) are difficult to read so he says, aw, screw blogs, blogs are out, Ning’s the place to be.

You wouldn’t mind an award for your efforts but won’t admit that your lousy ‘netiquette the last few weeks makes any nomination a tough sell so you say, aw, screw awards, awards are for celebrity cultists. [Note - I have no idea what he's talking about except the exchange that took place regarding tv which was months ago!]

I get too much of this from my students to invite it into my feedreader.

Now the entry that Dan refers to is one I did during the summer after having taken some time off from blogging and other web2.0 projects. I usually stick to discussing how technology affects my teaching and administrating in this blog but, just to clear things up a bit and maybe put some perspective on things, I’ll do some elaboration of my comments from this earlier blog.

You see, besides being the principal at the school, I do a vast number of other things. It was from this perspective that I commented

Of course, I wanted to be one of those who was at the forefront but, somewhere along the line, it didn’t happen. I didn’t become one of those “name droppers” that were mentioned and joined. In hindsight, that’s probably good.

Now, Dan must of missed the rest or didn’t read carefully. So, ….

This summer I was helping the local lumberyard owner begin his Ready to Move housing business. Now, I’m a journeyman painter so although I helped with building, my role in recent months has changed as I begin to paint the houses that are going to be moved. There are approximately 15 houses will need to be done so I’ll be busy at various times during the winter. I am also a referee for football, volleyball and basketball which means that I am busy many times during the week. I’m not sure how many games I did this year but it sure seemed like a lot. I also coach and have my  level 1 & 2 coaches in volleyball and basketball. I will be working on getting more training in different track and field sports in the upcoming year. This year I am coaching our Sr. Boys v’ball team and will be coaching the Sr. Boys b’ball team when it begins in the next few weeks. Now volleyball isn’t as intense as basketball. During the b’ball season I can expect to be away 5 to 8 weekends plus games during the week. I also do my own workout 6 days a week although I don’t do as much cardio during the basketball season.

My own educational pursuits have continued since my Master’s degree a few years back. I am a certified online coach for Harvard Education and continue to take classes. I also read as much as possible - some of you will remember my attempt at starting an online book club:( I edit several wikis - one for administrators and 3 that are school/class related and one that is used by the staff to organize various events for the school.) I continue to explore a variety of different web tools to see what might be useful for my teaching/administrating.

Professionally I am involved in different committees at the school, division and provincial level. This past year I served on three of our divisions reading initiative committees. I am also an administrator rep for the division technology committee. Up until a few months ago, I was vice-president of the Teacher’s Association but had to resign because of a change in my wife’s work - she obtained a job at the Regional College and has to drive 35 minutes a few days a week which means that I needto be home more in the evening. I administer a Ning group for the 40 odd administrators in the division plus belong to several other groups to which I occasionally add comments and discussions. I also write a monthly blog article for Leadertalk -  dedicated to educational administrators. My association with Scott McLeod has given me the opportunity to work with individuals from around the world and, on November 17, I will be part of a panel discussion organized by Scott.  I am the AP coordinator for our school and sit on the division committee that reviews AP courses for schools and I have had the pleasure of being an adviser to the Horizon Project.

As an administrator, I also have the responsibility of working with 200 odd students plus the 24 staff at our school. To this end, we have been consistently reviewing our vision, mission and goals and refining what we do as a school. This past year, our school division went through a massive restructuring where 6 small divisions were amalgamated into 1. One of the major changes was a restructuring of our local school board into a School Community Council. These SCCs have required some learning on everyone’s part and one of my roles was to help facilitate this change. During this transition we have put in $20,000 worth of playground equipment and playground upgrades to become completely wheelchair accessible. The SCC is also worked on various other projects that will aide students at the school. One program the group is exploring is a morning snack program for all students. As a K - 12 school, we have noticed that our high school students are hungry at about 10:00 and we are working at devising a program to fill this need. The group has also been working to reseed and upgrade our football field. I have been working with several different individuals through this process and, as of this weekend, we have had the field seeded and harrowed. All that remains is the installation of watering stations and then watering. Finally, over the past summer, we had many upgrades done to our school facility. Part of my responsibilities has been to make sure that various things are finished and completed as specified in the work orders.

The staff at the school is also being asked to implement new programs, especially focused at reading. With this focus, teachers are being asked to develop Professional Learning Teams which will address needs they identify. This has meant a great deal of study on my part. I also  help teachers meet in their PLT’s, usually by covering a number of classes at the same time. (Definitely has tested my teaching !) With the introduction of PLT’s at the school level, the administrative group has also been working with them to focus administrator growth. The PLT which I was part of last year was focused on teacher supervision and growth. One of the main tools we, as administrators, are using is the 3-Minute Walk-Through. In order to help facilitate discussion, I began an administrator’s wiki where I gather information about various types of supervision. This wiki has visits from all over the world besides a few from the administrators in the division.

As a member of the community, I hold 2 civic positions. The first is as a member of the Economic Development Council. Our role is to access information regarding economic development, focus or target particular areas where we believe there is a need and then try to fill that need through soliciting companies or individuals who might be interested. Thus far we have bee able to draw a fair number of people to the community which can be seen in a rise of 21 new students in our school this year. I am also the secretary of our local Care Team. This team was set up 2 years ago after the suicide of one of the students in the school. By working with the mayor, the two of us were able to draw together members of various organizations within the community and the surrounding health district. We began looking at a number of issues besides mental health and suicide with our focus on youth. Last year we successfully organized a day of speakers and local business people who talked to our youth about life after highschool. This year we are focusing our energy on coordinating a youth night with the idea that this will eventually lead to a youth program and center in our community.

Finally, I have seven children between the ages of 2 and 15. I try to spend as much time as possible with them, playing games, going to events or just hanging out and reading the paper.

So, when I said earlier that not being a big name was a blessing in disguise, I meant it. I have enough to do here with my family,  school and community without any additional distractions. As for the rest of what is said, I believe that Dan is confusing his months and weeks since I haven’t had time to do too much commenting or discussing since the summer.

If you read through the rest of the comments from that summer post, you will notice that they are not negative and Miguel’s suggestion, that my posts be shorter or I blog for myself, was taken to heart. I blog mostly as a reflection, looking at my role as an educational leader within the school and division.
I’m more concerned about the one-to-one discussions I have with the few who visit my blog. I try to read the people in my RSS two or three times a week. It depends on what is going on! As I state at the end

After nearly 2 weeks of no technology, I’ve realized that, like tv, which I don’t watch, I can still do my job and completely function without being locked into the various “tools” that are being used. I’ve been able to spend time doing other things, knowing that life is full of choices and it’s not the talents or gifts we are given but the choices we make in using them.

My reason for doing this? For one, I’m tired of Dan and his moral smugness, sarcasm and lack of tact. Secondly, he just grinds me the wrong way.

Dan, your tone and comments are similar to what I get in my office when I deal with a sarcastic know-it-all teenager. You’re right about not needing it in my RSS - that’s why I don’t read you. Unfortunately, in my administrative career, I’ve had to save the ass of  a few teachers like you but you won’t understand that since you don’t seem to get what this is all about.

It’s mindboggling the number of things that a person can suddenly find themselves involved with all of a sudden. Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking at the “art” of supervision and how to help the teachers in our school become better. This is not an easy task because each person has a unique personality that has to be taken into account during the process. In order to best help the teachers, I’ve been reading about different supervision ideas, like the 3-Minute Walk-Through, with the hope that I can better assist people in growing and changing. This can be a somewhat stressful thing, especially when there are changes that need to take place. In my role of administrator, I know that part of what I need to do is lessen this “stress” for the others in the school.

As the educational leader in the school, I also realize that part of my job is to set an example. However, when life gets busy, I’ve noticed that some of the things that I thought were a habit suddenly become foreign and I find myself wondering/wandering around trying to pull it together. The following is a list of things that I’ve noticed have “popped” up that just add to the “stress” of “administrating.”

1. My top goes missing. Jumpdrive top that is. This past week I cannot count the number of times that I’ve lost this pesky little thing. Now, I usually have a spot where I put it. This week I’ve found it in the following unlikely places: bathroom counter, shirt pocket, library desk and secretary’s desk. Each time I’ve wandered around trying to find the darn thing losing all kinds of precious moments. My first thought was “What was I doing in the bathroom with it?”

2. Papers get misplaced. This week I’ve had trouble keeping papers with which I’m working. I don’t know why but I’ve left them: in the staffroom on the lunch table, on my secretary’s desk, in a classroom and, yes, in the bathroom. I take them with me to go see someone and, oops, can’t find them. Again, the bathroom? (They’re not casual reading material!)

3. Misplace my laptop. Yes. It happened. I was going to do some observations and was interrupted on route by my janitor. We went to look at some things and when I finally was ready to go back to my observations, no laptop. Thank goodness, it wasn’t in the bathroom but I did find it in one of the storage rooms. I had to retrace my whole adventure with the janitor.

4. My clothes. Yes, you are  reading this right. On Wednesday, we had our Halloween costume parade. Of course I had to dress up - a chicken including orange tights! Thanks goodness, no pictures of that! When I returned to the bathroom to get dressed, my clothes were gone. Now, I could have sworn I got dressed there. Where did I find them? In the office. Seems I must have forgotten that I got dressed there. I thought the secretary was snickering a bit too much that afternoon. (I spent most of the afternoon walking the halls and teaching dressed as a chicken.)

5. My class. Friday I had a double period of my CPT20 class. Lost them. I went to the lab and not one was there. Where did I leave them? They were there before lunch. Seems they had a rather long math test and the teacher had taken them from my class to write the test. He did tell me but, when I showed up after lunch and there were no students I immediately went to check my schedule. I’m sure I had a class. I actually spent about 30 seconds wondering what was going on. Then I remembered where they were. Phew. That would have been a hard one to explain.

6. My mind. This has been the hardest thing to find lately. I seem to be going in one too many directions and then, poof, I’ve lost my mind. Friday I asked my secretary if she had seen it because I’d misplaced it. I thought maybe it would be like my clothes. No luck. I’m actually still looking for it.

I don’t know if anyone else has such things happen but during time of excess business, things I thought were habit, like putting my jumpdrive lid in my desk drawer, I find aren’t actually habits. Please excuse me as I have to go look for my mind. Maybe I’ll check the bathroom!