Technology in the Classroom

As a new school year begins, the challenge of setting attainable goals as a school, classroom or district come to the front of the list of things to do. My thoughts in regards to this issue come from a variety of sources, but I wanted to share a couple of web pages that give me direction in regards to the start of a new school year.

The following website comes from an education technology professor in the College of Education at Kansas State University Cyndi's Education Technology Place

The second is a blog posting from a principal in New Jersey that lists different ideas to creating a great learning environment for teachers and students A Principal's Reflection

Risk Assessment for Students

This topic comes up in Kansas after a week of severe storm warnings and several tornado sightings in the area. When is it too dangerous for students to be out and about compared to the lack of opportunity that is taken away because of the weather? As an administrator the safety of students is one of the major components of the position, but at the same time I feel it's important to still provide opportunities. There is a line between taking those opportunities away and keeping a student or child safe. To me it would be an interesting topic to survey the parents in the community to find out where that level of safety v opportunity exists.

What separates the compliant from the rebel?

As an assistant principal a large portion of my daily job involves monitoring student behavior during passing periods, classroom observations, break times, etc. This focus on student behavior brings about the question of the comparison between the compliant/rebel behaviors. I would be curious to know the thoughts of other people and what the beliefs are about why some students choose to be compliant, while others choose to be defiant.

Ko Chang Island, Thailand

 

Global Learning

As I worked through the master's degree program for education leadership at Wichita State University, a portion of our time was devoted to sharing thoughts with Australian educators. At the time, several WSU professors were from Australia which gave insight into the need to form the international connections. Since finishing the master's degree program, my wife, two of our children,her family and I took a trip to Thailand during the summer of 2007. Since that summer our interest in global education has intrigued the both of us to the point that we greatly understand the need to share thoughts, routines and other details of life with those in different parts of the community and world.

What is leadership?

Leadership in the eyes of students often times signifies those in certain types of roles in the classroom or school building itself. The captain of a sports team, student body president, or the most vocal student are all visuals that teenagers picture when given the term leader. The goal however is to teach that leadership is more than just taking on more responsibility, but being able to help out the greater cause no matter how big or small the task.