It's here - the first day of school.
Your new school supplies are on the table. Your new school clothes have been laid out and tried on more than once. You're going for that certain look to impress on the first day of school. You toss in your sleep, wondering if you'll make new friends. Wondering if the kids will like you. Will your teachers like you? You'll worry that you might forget something or that you'll spill something on your shirt in the cafeteria and everyone will laugh. You fear you'll oversleep and be late.
This is how it begins for the school principal. I guess the teachers and students have similar butterflies.
It's an unusual year in Lake Forest. After several years of no changes we now have new leadership teams in 4 of our 6 schools. Retirement took some fine people from us. We'll miss their experience and expertise. But these new principals are something special. I think you're going to like them. More importantly, I think they're going to help lead Lake Forest Schools to a whole new level of student success.
Mr. Cave moved up from the middle school to Lake Forest High School. Mr. Brown, from Seaford, is now principal at W.T. Chipman. Mr. Martin came to us from Appoquinimink to be principal at Central Elementary. Dr. Amory is at Lake Forest South after successful years in Milford.
Mrs. Clark at East and Mrs. Wynder at North now represent the old experienced leaders. I'm teasing, they're both very young.
Today we had some "meet and greet" time at the primary schools and orientation day for 4th, 6th and 9th graders. I made it to all 6 schools and everyone seemed to be having a great day. On Monday, everyone will be here, then we're off to another successfull school year.
I'll probably not sleep a wink on Sunday night.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Blogging in Lake Forest
OK. We're going to try this business of blogging. Over the summer I've read some articles about school district superintendents using blogs as another means of communication. I've always been open to new ideas and I'm comfortable with technology, so I think we'll give it a try.
What you'll find here are occasional musings on educational issues. I may respond to a question from staff, students or community members. I may respond to comments left on the blog by a reader. I may write about a hot button issue in the community. Or, I may simply tell a story from my experiences.
For instance, as Director of Instruction, communications was one of my many responsibilities in rural Pocahontas County, West Virginia in the mid-80s. This was challenging. The County had a total of 9000 residents in 1000 square miles. There was one tiny weekly newspaper. TV news came over the mountain from Roanoke, Virginia. We had no local radio until a group of enterprising folks got together and wrote some grants to fund a "public radio".
They built the radio station on land next to our high school. There was one paid staff member and the rest of the work was done by volunteers. A friend of mine, the County Agriculture Extension Agent, did a couple of hours on Wednesday morning as a volunteer DJ. With his assistance, I did a weekly call-in live radio show on education issues. I'd start a topic, he'd ask a few questions, then we'd open up the phone lines which could be quite risky.
One day I mentioned that the athletic boosters were looking for donations to help with the development of a new baseball field. One lady called and requested the DJ play a special song. She is live - on the air. He advised her that he'd play her song if she'd pledge some money to the new ball field. She responded that the chickens had been laying really good of late and she had extra eggs to sell, so sure, she'd give the extra money to the baseball team.
Pioneering live call-in radio in the 80s has now been replaced with blogs.
On a blog, people can read what's been posted any hour of the day or night. On a blog, they can comment at any time as well. On a blog, they can say what they want and remain anonymous.
It is for that reason that I'm going to reserve the right to review comments before I allow them to be seen by all. I assure you that I won't be editing the critics. I'll just be watching for inappropriate language and personal attacks on employees. Those won't see the light of day.
Otherwise, we'll see what happens. Let's get the blog thing started!
What you'll find here are occasional musings on educational issues. I may respond to a question from staff, students or community members. I may respond to comments left on the blog by a reader. I may write about a hot button issue in the community. Or, I may simply tell a story from my experiences.
For instance, as Director of Instruction, communications was one of my many responsibilities in rural Pocahontas County, West Virginia in the mid-80s. This was challenging. The County had a total of 9000 residents in 1000 square miles. There was one tiny weekly newspaper. TV news came over the mountain from Roanoke, Virginia. We had no local radio until a group of enterprising folks got together and wrote some grants to fund a "public radio".
They built the radio station on land next to our high school. There was one paid staff member and the rest of the work was done by volunteers. A friend of mine, the County Agriculture Extension Agent, did a couple of hours on Wednesday morning as a volunteer DJ. With his assistance, I did a weekly call-in live radio show on education issues. I'd start a topic, he'd ask a few questions, then we'd open up the phone lines which could be quite risky.
One day I mentioned that the athletic boosters were looking for donations to help with the development of a new baseball field. One lady called and requested the DJ play a special song. She is live - on the air. He advised her that he'd play her song if she'd pledge some money to the new ball field. She responded that the chickens had been laying really good of late and she had extra eggs to sell, so sure, she'd give the extra money to the baseball team.
Pioneering live call-in radio in the 80s has now been replaced with blogs.
On a blog, people can read what's been posted any hour of the day or night. On a blog, they can comment at any time as well. On a blog, they can say what they want and remain anonymous.
It is for that reason that I'm going to reserve the right to review comments before I allow them to be seen by all. I assure you that I won't be editing the critics. I'll just be watching for inappropriate language and personal attacks on employees. Those won't see the light of day.
Otherwise, we'll see what happens. Let's get the blog thing started!
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