Sunday, January 30, 2011

New semester anyone? New semester resolutions anyone?

The school year is half-over; hard to believe!
In my high school, we just finished final exams for the first semester And now after all of the final evaluations are completed, it's time to start new classes and in many cases this gives students a chance to re-focus!
We usually make New Year resolutions on Dec. 31st but maybe the best time to do this is right now.
My "new semester" resolution is to be an energetic lead learner as the principal and I want to get into many classrooms and talk to students and teachers about what they are learning in their classrooms. I don't need to go to the gym or change my eating habits and because of that this has the potential to be a resolution that I can actually stick to.
Regardless of the Many sources of noise around me, my goal is to lead and engage the students and adults in my school to be the best learners they can be so we can all make the school a better place of learning.
I wish all the students and my staff an excellent second semester!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The time to start, is now . . .





This is my first post on my blog.  I have been reading many blogs including, The Principal of Change, and The Wejr Board, as well as Connected Principals, and it has been refreshing to be able to learn from colleagues outside my school division about matters that all administrators are experiencing across Canada and in the U.S.
My hope is that I can also begin sharing important things in my own journey as a principal as I continue to lead the learning agenda in my school.
I am now moving from reading and thinking to actually starting; to actually being brave enough to share!

The important thing is I started; rather than planning to start or thinking about starting, I just started.

I think this is true of many things we do as school leaders; we just need to start.
It may be :
- popping into more classrooms
- phoning more parents to share the cool thing their son/daughter did at school that day
- inviting a teacher to share an innovative idea at a staff meeting
- asking your superintendent to come out to your school to see a presentation by some creative students
- asking the really tough questions when meeting with a struggling teacher
- etc.

As leaders in schools, we are bombarded with change and we need to make decisions that many are depending on at warp speed.

But today, it's time to start blogging!