Since the hiring season is ongoing, I figured I should help aspiring and new school administrators in some way.  After all, connecting and collaborating is so important in education today. 😛

Ever since I became a school administrator, I am continually amazed at how versatile one must be to occupy this position.  The notion that a principal is “that guy” who only sits in the office, is untrue and rather shallow.

Over the last eleven years I have required knowledge and skills in several different aspects of education.  Some (but not all) of these were not taught in my university classes or pre-teaching work.  In fact, on many occasions, people probably thought I should already know this stuff.

My helpful, (but not conclusive) list for the “newbie admins”. (Inhale…)

1. Know everything about teacher supervision even if you have never supervised before.

2. Know how to help each teacher in every subject area in your school.  (Be careful here because those senior math and science teachers can be crafty)

3. Make sure that school budget is in line or else…yes, those finance people get edgy.

4. Be THE instructional leader in your school.  Being a PE major was your past life, get over it.

5. Become a facility manager/custodian.  Hey-if the heat is not working or a toilet won’t shut off you will hear about it, especially if the custodian is not there.  Yes, you may need to grab a mop on a semi-regular basis.

6. …vomit clean-up in the grade 1 room! (actually, I avoid this one!)

7.  (insert kid name here) just had a major accident and is in the washroom waiting for you! The smell hits you when you are still 50 paces away.  Being a male near the elementary wing has its drawbacks.

8.  If student’s cook something…anything, you are expected to eat it.  They are so proud of their “dish.”

9.  Know more than the basics of first aid and how to deal with each injury.  Being able to fix on the spot is a big asset.

10.  Catering/wedding planner knowledge is vital as you will prepare and set-up many meetings.  You may not need to cook, but the following is crucial:

• tables and chairs must be set up properly. Those division office people get worked up about this.
• The treats/snacks are VERY IMPORTANT.  This will make or break you.  Dry cookies and weak coffee/juice are a major faux-pas.  Don’t get groundskeeper Willy to make the juice.
• Sound system should be good.  If it messes up, you need to fix it.  Same goes for the media projector.

11.  Pest control officer.  Yes, you may be asked to deal with mice, stray dogs, a gopher in the shop.  Hey, I live on the prairies.

12. Be able to give the right consequence for any disciplinary action.

13.  Be a good listener.

14.  Constantly communicate, check and re-check.  You’ll be glad you did.

15.   …

There are more skills, but the list is long enough already.  Feel free to share yours.

I have to make juice!

As we head into April we begin the last term of the school year and recently concluded our last set of P/T Conferences.

P/T Conferences can be interesting.  Since I teach, I have conferences that deal with kids in my classrooms, but I also deal with other school issues.  You get both roles being in administration.

I approached this last round of conferences much the same way I always do.  I try to encourage, help,  as well as discuss achievement.  Above all, I try to answer parent concerns the best I can.

Am I doing OK?  I think so, judging by people’s demeanor.  When I have handed out evaluation forms, the feedback is generally positive.

However, I knew this year, my work and attempts at consistency were paying off.

When I stated to parents, “I hope I helped you,” I received the following more than once.

“Yes, you did – as always.”

Keep working hard Dave!

(The last line was the pat on the back attempt but I have trouble physically doing that!  Hence, my idea of shameless self-promotion!) 😛

Recently, I was searching for ways I could further support my staff in technology.

Earlier, this year, we made technology a common goal across our staff, where each member  could use their growth plan (PPGP) as a method for furthering their own personal development.

Although the progress has been somewhat slower than what I’d hoped, we are making progress.  I was pleased when a staff member asked that I sit down with her and review Google Reader and then do a follow-up session on Twitter.  As long as staff keep working towards their goal, I’ll help along the way.

I have found that in-school support is not enough and teachers were not scheduling their own support from others to a high degree.   I decided I needed to help more, so I turned to our division support person.  The questions I asked myself were:

1.  How can I support teachers?

2.  If someone comes to our school for support, how do we use the time wisely that it benefits teachers and thus students?

3.  How can teachers have time to focus on their session during the regular school day?

I told my staff that I wanted to continue to help them with their technology goals.  To do this, I booked our division tech. coordinator on three separate days.  I looked to see where teachers had prep. periods so they would not have to worry about class coverage, etc.

Next, I created a GoogleDoc and asked staff to contribute specific topics for their session.  This way I could gather all the session topics in one document without looking at continuous emails, sticky notes, etc.  Then I could schedule the teachers to a specific period.  Once complete, I could send the link to the document to our tech. coordinator and he could prepare for each day well in advance and not be surprised by the topics being asked for, thus maximizing the time allotted for each session.

Although my experience with GoogleDocs is still relatively new, I found it to be quite useful in coordinating these PD sessions and was actually a time saver!

Further uses for Google Docs. are already being created!