HS Principal

I recently attended a performance of our high school musical, “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” As the high school principal, attendance at such events is mandatory, but as I leafed through the program I reflected on the notion that it didn’t feel like an obligation: I genuinely wanted to be there and was excited about the upcoming performance. I was not disappointed. It was a great show, was an excellent representation of weeks of hard work, and everyone went home happy and satisfied (I assume).

In the after glow of good feelings I started thinking about the kinds of comments one generally hears from folks not connected to such an event. It is important to first think about the latter part of that statement: generally these events are attended only by people “obligated” to attend: parents of the actors, friends of the parents of the actors, friends of the actors, administrators, etc. You know what I mean. The assumption by outsiders is that high school musicals, plays, concerts, etc. are not of “professional” quality and therefore not worthy of their patronage. I have to admit that I have probably felt this way as well. I am guilty of making that assumption.

I am not going to pretend or try to promote attendance at high school events. They cannot compete with Hollywood, professional theater, etc., nor are they meant to. They are, like everything we do in education, part of the process of learning and being educated. What I felt struck by after the performance was the same feeling I used to get as a teacher when I came across a well-written essay, a profound point expounded in and exam, an amazing insight scribbled in a student journal…I was in the presence of growth, discovery, and learning. I was watching student learning…it was there on stage being presented to me in real time. I had never realized that before and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I am definitely going to have to give this more thought and get back to you. I have stumbled upon something important in my own understanding about education and am definitely interested in hearing what others think about this.

Enjoyed working with my colleagues in Managua this past week. We accomplished a lot and had some good presentations regarding professional development. A lot of the same issues as in the past were raised; the discussions vary and I always come away from them with excellent information and new perspectives.  I felt very supported when I presented my idea for a video/tech event for next year. I am currently working with Steve, our ed tech guy, on fleshing out the details and then the fun begins: we get to plan the event. We are very excited. Our work will include a lot of research (to keep it in line with similar events throughout the US), developing rubrics, deciding on themes, planning the filming trips, etc.

I introduced the gang to twittering. Many of them already knew about it, obviously, but I gave them tools such as tweet deck and spent some time explaining why they should twitter and the kind of value they could get from it. I don’t expect they will all jump on board, so as I have been finding cool articles I have simply been emailing the URL’s to them instead of simply sending out a tweet.

I wish I had had the chance to explore Nicaragua. Managua itself is not an impressive city. Sad in many ways. But my sense is that Nicaragua has much to offer. I liked visiting the American school and especially enjoyed a visit and dinner at St. Augustine, a relatively new school that is doing quite well. The owners hosted the dinner and gave us the grand tour. Very impressive.

I often forget and then am suddenly reminded that, as principal, I am considered intimidating or scary. I don’t think of myself as anything but friendly, open, approachable…but then suddenly there is some shuffling outside my door followed by a pause and then a timid knock. It is a terrified student (or, more likely a group of students–strength and courage in numbers) acting as if what they are about to ask or say is the riskiest thing they have ever done. They hem and haw and it is clear their fear is genuine. These same kids, not 5 minutes ago, could have been smiling and saying hi to me in the halls, sharing a joke with me, but now they are facing The Principal and it is completely different. I now understand their bewilderment and confusion afterwards. You see, I don’t change character, even when I am The Principal. I try to maintain my same demeanor, tone, and level of interest. I don’t joke or try to make light of the situation, but I also don’t shift into disciplinary mode or stern mode or whatever. I close the door if the situation warrants, but for the most part I try to let them see that I’m the same person I was 5 minutes ago, only now I’m being called upon to make a decision, pass judgement, or whatever. I understand that situations require differing sets of skills, but I reject the assumption that principals must play pre-determined, stereotypical roles for given situations. The confusion kids feel is based on the assumptions they make about adults and probably based upon past experiences.

Spring break is right around the corner…

Steve (our ed tech guy) has hooked me on Twitter. Pretty incredible. I was skeptical and actually registered months ago but did nothing with it. Now that i’m on I definitely see the potential. It is an absoultely essential tool for professionals who want to stay current in their fields. It connects you to like-minded people and they share in manageable portions the information you may want to investigate. Like any internet based tool it can be a time waster if you approach it without a purpose, but that is the beauty of having an experienced tech guy like Steve show the way. He came in, helped me set up, and then used his personal network to help me link with others. Then he sent out a notice that I was someone “interesting” and others may be interested…and voila. I am now building an incredibly valuable network of resources. I haven’t even begun to tap into its usefulness.

Swimming is not an AASCA sport but we do offer classes and a program after school every spring. We also organize a competition with our sister school in Guanacaste each year, alternating the site between our campus and the Guanacaste campus. This year the competition will be held in Guanacaste.

If your child is a swimmer and would like to participate in the competition, the trip is open to everyone. You do not need to be involved in the after school swim program to participate. Just have your son or daughter inform the PE teacher.

The competition takes place from April 17 – 19. Here are the details:

1. We are leaving Friday, April 17 around noon

2. Swimming competition will be at CDSG pool Saturday morning

3. We will be camping at CDSG gym

4. We will eat at CDSG cafeteria. Breakfast 1700 colons, lunch, 2200 colons, dinner 2,200 colons

5. I still do not know how much for the bus

6. We are coming back Sunday morning, because we are taking varsity soccer teams also

We need lots of swimmers so please sign up.

The sessions were mostly tech related though my particular sessions were on critical thinking. Though not tech related I consider critical thinking important to the development of tech in the classroom. Here is how I see the connection: one of the biggest issues relating tech in the classroom is that we simply replace old methodologies with high tech ones, i.e. more bells and whistles (to use an overworked phrase). In other words, we don’t do posters we do power point, we don’t type we word process, etc. CT is one of the first steps to get teachers to change their thinking. Once they can make this pedagogical shift, they can see how implementing new technology is not about doing old things a new way but a shift in thinking and an attempt to teach new skills among other things.

It is the day after professional development and I am both exhilirated and exhausted. I conducted three seminars on critical thinking and enjoyed working with my colleagues. One of the seminars (the one I repeated) was me delivering information, but the other involved some group work and the groups seemed to respond positively to the activities.

Today we are gathering feedback via the web and so far the results have been positive.

I have decided to try my hand at blogging. I hope this approach will replace my need to communicate via monthly newsletter. Until you get comfortable with this medium I will also include a one-page, bulleted list of information for the upcoming month. In the meantime, for those of you brave enough to boldly go where no parent has gone before, let’s explore the possibilities of a blog.

My goal is to send you updates on the high school as they occur. In the true spirit of blogging I hope to use this opportunity to explore educational issues with you, share my thoughts on the latest educational reading that I am doing, share links of interest to high school parents, and report on activities throughout the school. You have three options with my blog. I recommend you put your email address in the box under Subscribe2 to on your right. Each time I add a post to my blog you will receive the blog in your email. The second option is to wait each month and I will re-send my blog link along with the one-page monthly update.  The third is to return to this site whenever you want to check on the latest happenings in the high school.

I will also create pages you can access on this blog concerning various topics. For example, I hope to have a page with information for all students and parents new to CDS. I also hope to create other pages that will serve as quick references or resources for parents. I am open to your feedback, so please do not hesitate to reply with your thoughts, ideas, and questions.

I also want to have some fun with this blog and demonstrate the kinds of things going on in the school. When my son was a student I knew what was going on all the time because I worked at the school. We did not have a lot of those “what did you do at school” conversations because usually I already knew from talking to his teachers. Not fair, I know, but it made me sympathetic to parents who struggle every day to get a few bits of information from their teenagers. I hope this blog will supply that information in a fun and demonstrative way. Here is an example:

One of the web tools we recently shared with our teachers is a cartoon/movie making program called Xtranormal. Using this program I created an interview where I tell you about upcoming events in the high school. Watch the following video:

I created that video in a few minutes, mostly by typing the dialog. All of the animation is scripted, though I have some control over it and can add other features from a menu of actions and gestures. Personally, I am using the tool with my Spanish tutor to practice writing in Spanish. You can choose from a number of languages including Japanese, Portugese, German and French (in addition to Spanish and English), and the characters will speak in the language you type. I can imagine the Spanish teachers will love using this program as a fun way to have students demonstrate their language acquisition skills as they create dialogues and monologues in Spanish.

As you noticed from the one-page summary or from watching the video, March is an extremely busy month beginning with our 9th graders leaving for their river rafting trip to the Pacuare River on March 11. They have been meeting with their teachers and the group leaders from Adventures Under the Sun and are eager to tackle the rapids.

The Pacuare River is a much politicized river. Check out this link to learn more about the issues surrounding the Pacuare:

http://www.pacuareriver.com/

I would like to end this first blog by sharing a video I came across on YouTube. I think you will find it appropriate and amusing. Enjoy.