Chief Learner's Thoughts
Connecting the dots between what students want, enjoy and need.
Archive for Leadership
February 11, 2009 at 2:00 pm · Filed under 21st Century Skills, Core 6, Leadership, Technology, Toolbox for learning
Last week at the State of the School, I communicated how St. Raphael is leading the way in Catholic Education in the 21st Century. This leadership came through the hard work of everyone at the school. If you missed the meeting please watch the presentation on our website.
The changes that we have made in the last few years are what propelled us to the front. As educators we researched and implemented new teaching methods, purchased new teaching and learning tools, and have worked to include the 21st Century skills by embedding them in the core subjects. Throughout this process we have expanded our focus on the spiritual development of our students.
At the middle school level we have added laptops. One goal for this addition was to improve the students writing abilities. Now the students are able to spend more time editing and improving their writing skills and less time simply recopying their rough draft. This has resulted in an increase in the understanding of and application of the English language. The laptops also allow our students to communicate their learning through a variety of methods. These skills are required in the 21st Century.
We recently added a document camera in each classroom. These cameras allow an image to be enlarged onto a screen. The image can be either 2-D or 3-D or a live demonstration. We are already seeing results in the form of improved understanding because all the students can see and hear the instructions, the students are able to display their work for class critiquing, and classroom management is improved because the students can stay in their desks to see the demonstration instead of huddling around the teacher.
Our most recent focus has been to expand on teaching the 21st Century skills to the students. We realize that it will take many hours of planning to incorporate these skills into all lessons. This work is exciting for us as we see the value in our continued improvement.
I am excited that our leadership is being recognized. In April I will be presenting at the National Catholic Education Association Convention in Anaheim. My presentation will focus on how the leadership in Catholic schools can transform schools to successfully educate students for the 21st Century.
It is an exciting time to be at St. Raphael’s Catholic School and I am proud of the work my staff has done to bring about these important changes.
January 15, 2009 at 12:05 pm · Filed under 21st Century Skills, Leadership, Technology
Recently we have had the new Superintendent and the Director of Personal from the schools team of the Archdiocese out to visit our school.
Marty Frauenheim, Superintendent, attended our special Our Lady of Guadeloupe Mass. This was a special Mass thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Marsh’s homeroom and Sister Therese Ann. Following Mass, Marty met with Father Juettner and I and then had a tour of the school. Gary Wilmer was at St. Raphael for a meeting and then asked for a tour of the school. He is a former Catholic school principal and loved being in the school and watching the students in action.
Prior to coming both guests explored our website and commented on all that we offer. They were impressed with our theater and our use of technology to teach the 21st Century skills. St. Raphael is really leading the way in Catholic education. I hope everyone can attend the State of the School to learn why we are leading the way.
November 24, 2008 at 11:33 am · Filed under 21st Century Skills, Leadership
Yesterday I read an article about the website Wordle.net. This website creates a “word cloud” out of select writings. A person may write an original piece, cut and paste some text, or link it to a blog for analysis. Using the submitted words, the website then creates an image. The most frequently used words appear in the largest font and the least used words are much smaller. The author may then change colors and fonts for greater effect.
I decided to try this for my blog to get a visual representation of what I emphasize when writing. The resulting image appears on my blog, and you can see that by far my top-used word is “students”. The next three are “school, learning, teachers,” followed by “excited, skills, 21st Century, world, different.”
As a school leader, I focus my energies on students and creating an educational environment that challenges them to learn and grow. It was nice to “see” that my professional writing does indeed communicate this focus.
But Wordle has many more possibilities.
I’m challenging my teachers to use this website in their classrooms. Ideas include poetry study, spelling lists, writing that includes a specified word list, and artwork. Wordle will enable them to effortlessly differentiate lesson plans and engage students using multiple intelligences. All this ties back into my goal of creating an innovative educational environment. As teachers and students become comfortable with this new tool, I’ll be curious to “see” how their Wordle creations reflect personal word choice.
September 5, 2008 at 1:10 pm · Filed under 21st Century Skills, Core 6, Leadership, Technology
The new school year began this week. This start was quiet as everyone fell into the routine that has been established over the last few years. While that sounds wonderful it is a little too uneventful for me. Each of the last three years brought changes and the challenges that went with them. It is this type of challenge that makes coming to school each morning exciting. This quiet start has made me realize that even though nothing big or new is on the horizon, we still have a very important challenge to face this school year.
Our most important goal is to prepare our students for their future. This includes what I call the Core Six; developing strong communication skills, learning to embrace challenges, becoming problem solvers, becoming collaborators, becoming critical thinkers, and embracing diverse ideas and people. To help the students gain these skills we as educators need to look at how our classrooms are structured, how information is presented, how we engage students and how we ask the students to demonstrate their learning.
We know that our school and classrooms should look different than they did in the past. In the 21st Century we have many more tools available for teaching and learning and additionally we need to approach students differently. Our students want to learn through real world experiences, work as collaborators and they see technology as a foundation for life, not a tool like we adults do.
This is no easy task for educators to embrace. However it can be done and the staff at St. Raphael’s Catholic School has embraced these changes over the past three years. To continue on this journey the staff will need ongoing training and support for implementing these tools and methods. School leadership has to support teachers as they try new ideas and embrace challenges. Parents need to desire an educational program that is different than their memories of elementary and middle school.
This is what I see as my challenge for the new school year: Helping the staff and students work together in new and innovative ways that will help the students gain the skills required for success in the 21st Century. I know this is no easy challenge but it does get me excited to come to school each morning.
July 10, 2008 at 10:30 am · Filed under 21st Century Skills, Leadership, NECC, Technology, Toolbox for learning
During the last three years I have learned the value of using a variety of tools to engage students in learning not just content but also the 21st century skills. Employers are looking for employees who have a different skill set then they did even ten years ago and schools need to prepare their students for this reality. To help me better understand how to do so I joined the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and attended NECC in Atlanta last summer. I was very excited to bring what I had learned in Atlanta to St. Raphael last school year and I saw how it benefited our students.
As I have learned the value of embracing the 21st century skills, I realized that many of my principal colleagues are not fully prepared to lead their schools through the changes needed to expand the teaching of the 21st century skills. During our Springfling and Techtober-fest I heard from various Archdiocesan teachers and principals their lack of training or knowledge on the 21st century skills. They expressed they felt unprepared to begin the journey their school needed. These experiences helped me to be elected to the Communications Chair position of the ISTE subgroup -Special Interest Group Administration (SIGAdmin) this past spring.
At NECC in San Antonio the newly elected chair, vice chair and I met for the first time. These two individuals and I are excited to be in the leadership role to help other administrators gain the knowledge and resources needed to make changes in their schools and districts. On Tuesday July 1, we led the SIGAdmin annual meeting. The meeting was attended by 23 of our members and we began to select the most important goals for our special interest group to accomplish in the next year. School administrators have the largest impact on the climate and learning that takes place in schools. Our special interest group is made up of over 4000 members so we know our leadership will have the opportunity to impact students all over the world. I find this exciting and look forward to working closely with other administrators who want to share their knowledge with the goal of preparing students around the world for their future.
