CHRIS
TOY
Diary #8
Hi-Tech,
Low-Tech:
It's All in a Day's Work
It's Sunday night after a busy week and another busy one ahead. Although I joke about how it's a good thing I like working as a principal in middle level education since I spend so much time doing it, I can't think of anything else I'd choose to spend 10-14 hours a day doing.
I was out of the building Thursday and Friday attending the state's annual middle level conference. It was especially interesting this year because of Maine's decision to provide all 7th and 8th graders with personal access to wireless laptops and home access to the internet. I moderated a panel discussion which included Maine's Commissioner of Education, the director of the project, the director of staff development for the project, a teacher, and a college professor. We were a little worried that attendance would suffer at 3 p.m. after a day of workshops and a wonderfully warm autumn afternoon in the mountains. Over 150 people attended the discussion. It was scheduled for an hour. We extended another forty minutes to allow for more dialog and allowed individuals to approach the panel informally after the session ended. It was clear from the questions raised that all staff development resources in the state must be focused on preparing the teachers prior to the students receiving any devices. It is also important that the superintendents, principals, and technology coordinators have a shared vision of what teaching and learning will be like when all students are sitting in classes with personal access to word processing, databases, spreadsheets, and the internet. I think we need to keep in mind that this initiative is not so much about the devices, hardware, software, and networking as it is about the potential for transforming teaching and learning in schools. It was interesting, and gratifying to note that most of the questions from the audience were about how teachers would be prepared to teach with the new technology. The questions relating to hardware, maintenance, costs, and management were there, but not at the forefront. My thought on these other problems is that these are great problems to have! Without the initiative, we'd have nothing to troubleshoot. Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . Of course being out of the building for two days creates its own set of issues for me to think about. I don't have an assistant or co-principal. Fortunately, I do have some veteran teachers who are willing to be "on call" while I'm out. Even so, I really need to be mindful of how often and for what reasons I'm out of the building. The pile of emails, phone messages and notes pasted to my door reminded me of the variety of things that cross my path in a 48 hour period of time. Of course the emails were the most out of control. There were 150 of them even though I had cleaned out my mailbox before leaving for the two-day conference. Most were from the MiddleWeb listserve. I took me a couple hours to read through, sort, and forward those messages to a separate staff folder created especially for MiddleWeb messages. Other emails were from teachers, the central office, and parents. A dozen phone messages included requests for meetings from the architect and the construction company working on our building expansion and renovation as well as parents with concerns, and some requests for information from the central office. An interesting message was left by a parent who wanted to know if the school would be joining in the Secretary of Education's request that the Pledge of Allegiance be recited at 2 p.m. on Friday as a sign of solidarity. I was too late to consider the request. Tomorrow I'll catch up with the notes left on my desk, make sure I get into some classrooms, and attend the weekly administrative team meeting. From considering a statewide technology initiative and its implications for transforming teaching and learning to talking with contractors about building schedules, to helping a student open a jammed locker, I find my job to be constantly challenging and never predictable. I do like it!
