Administrators and Blogging

Teachers are taking the world of blogging by storm.  For some reason, administrators have been lagging behind.   Here are a few ways school administrators can use blogs.

• Principal-to-Teacher
• Post end-of-the-year to-do lists.
• Post all updates to one place to avoid confusion and mixed messages
  
• Rather than sending e-mails to teachers school-wide, post them all to one blog to keep mixed messages from circulating around the school.  Technical difficulties (e-mails not reaching everyone) can be avoided.  This is another way of avoiding lost messages.  These posts will always be available unless deleted by the principal him/herself.
• Principal-to-Self
• Reflection on action research plans
• Action research works well with an ongoing log consisting of developments, ideas, literature research, data, etc.  A great place to compile all of this information is either on a wiki or a blog. 
• Reflection on actions and growth
• Learning log
• In my classroom, I have my students keep learning logs for various things (each continent, each time period, war, each leader, etc.)  I've also found that keeping a learning log on a blog is a great way for teachers to reflect.  I'm sure that it's also a great way for an administrator to keep track of things he or she learns throughout the school year or career. 
• Principal-to-Stakeholder 
• Newsletter substitute

These are just the things that I have thought about.  I'm sure that there are several other ideas out there!  Please share any additions.

• Additions to the newsletters
• For instance, at the bottom of a segment in the newsletter, you can add "See more photos at our blog at http://ourblog.blogwebsite.com 
• Ongoing newsletter
• Keep accomplishments or important announcements on the blog throughout the month in addition to printing a monthly newsletter. 
• Principal-to-Parent
• Forms
• Announcements
• Accomplishments
• To-Do lists
• Include anything parents might need to know
• Principal-to-School Board
• Accomplishments 
• Requests

Through action research, paths are created. Through reflection, paths are directed and redirected.

Action Research

Action Research

Action research is much different than traditional academic research. It requires much more work, but in the end a more relevant, useful, and well-rounded product is created.

The inquiry is much more than just asking a question, though that's exactly where it must begin. The whole process is based around a question. According to Harris et al., there are eight steps to administrative inquiry:

• Set the foundation (literature review/research)
• Analyzing Data
• Develop deeper understanding
• Self-reflection
• Exploring patterns
• Determine a direction
• Taking action for improvement
• Sustaining improvement (maintenance) (p. 5-7)

According to Dana, administrator inquiry is a systematic way of questioning

and researching, then using the findings to make an improvement.

In essence, action research requires asking a question, finding a solution, and taking action to make a solution. Then, a maintenance plan must be created in order to maintain the improvements made.

The benefit to action research is that anyone can do it. Rather than some academic in an office writing about the teachers “in the trenches,” those teachers are getting their hands dirty and doing the research themselves. (Dana, p. 5) They find real problems that need to be solved and find realistic ways of solving them. They create maintenance plans that are realistic and that work with their particular school environments.

Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., and Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps to improve our schools. Eye on Education Press.

Teaching in Circles, Squares, and Triangles.

I'm a big believer in getting "back to the basics."  So I was meditating and looking at Bloom's Taxonomy, hoping that maybe a new idea would just pop into my head.  I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, this new idea could bring my students into a new, higher realm of thinking. 

Instead of coming up with my next million-dollar idea, I started thinking about all of the different learning theorists out there.  We know more about the brain today than we have ever known before.  (What do we not know more about today than we have ever known before?)  Yet, we can't seem to agree on the best way of teaching.  (Or learning, for that matter!) 

First, there was Skinner.  This is the guy who apparently enjoyed being around dogs and giving them food, and making the poor things drool when they heard a bell.  Sure, his work led us to some of the great discoveries in the way that the mind works with the body.  But what did he really contribute?  He published books and articles, and played with peoples' minds.

Then there was Bloom.  I'm quite sure he was a great guy, and he has given us the building blocks for the levels of learning.   As I eluded to before, I often get back to his taxonomy because it helps me quite a bit in the way that I design the units that I teach. 

Now we have Marzano.  If you haven't heard of him, Marzano is the go-to guy in most school districts.  He has published a number of books which sit on the shelves of every principal's book case. (If you don't believe me, just go ask!)  You'll hear about him in all of your school-run professional development sessions.

Now we are moving into the era of Wiggins & McTighe.  These guys want us to go from knowledge to understanding.  They focus on designing curriculum, performance assessments, and instruction. Their big idea was Backward Design.

Why do we have all of these theories?  Why can't someone simply use the scientific method to test the theories and see if they work?  Why can't we just pick one and stick to it?
The answers are quite simple.  These theories are untestable because of the wide variety of clients we're dealing with.  Testing these theories with students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, countries of origin, standards of living, etc. would be an extremely overwhelming undertaking. And from what we now know, the results would be completely different for every subgroup in society.

The question should be why do we need a new theory every couple of decades?  Easy!  Our kids are changing.  The fundamentals of society remain the same.  But all of the changes to the auxiliary aspects of society change quicker and quicker as time goes on.  Children today are growing up in a word way more connected than the world I grew up in (and I'm a young teacher).  So what makes us think that these kids can go from a world of video-game playing and instant feedback into a world in which they have to sit in a room, read a book, and answer the questions at the end of the chapter?  Whether we believe they're changing for the better or for the worst, their ways of thinking are constantly changing.  And these theorists come up with what they believe is the best method of educating all of society.