Leadership the First Class

How appropriate that I would take my first leadership course on the day I meet the new principal of our school. This is our 4th principals in the past 5 years. The first principal, Sr. Marie Estelle was an outstanding leader. She lead a private Catholic grade school together at the capacity of 350 students when other schools around us were failing with attendance lower than 100. She was loved by all and ruled with the dignity of grandmotherly matron. Everyone respected her.

When the merger took place, all that held us together was thrown away and treated with disregard. Our track record could not stand against the evil forces that destroyed our wonderful school. We have struggled with incompetent leaders and an uncooperative staff since, and our attendance now, after 4 years and the merger of 4 schools is at an all time low of 285 students. We are cutting staff each year and our future looks bleak. I have been a part of this school my entire life and am crushed to see what was once a shining star for education is now struggling to keep it's doors open.

Strong leadership with a cohesive staff is what we need. I will work to get the most out of this class to try and assist our new principal in any way I can to bring about the positive change that is needed to turn our school back on a course of progress and excellence. Possibly this is the boost I need to get us on the right track? I can only hope!

Content Management Systems

Wow, last class was packed full of information. I have my homework (or summer work) cut out for me. I would really, really like to have a CMS in place when the kids return next school year, but I have to do a lot of research before I can make that happen. This class as full of valuable information and now I have to decide what system to go with.

Paying for off site support seems like the easiest way to go, but on our tight budget paying an annual fee may not be in the budget. We are very fortunate and have a wonderful tech who maintains our server at a very reasonable rate, so maybe on site is best for us. I will have to talk to him and see what he thinks.

Even though I am feeling more confident in my html skills, I have a long way to go. There is so much to learn and remember! I so wish I would have been introduced to this earlier in my life, before the part of my brain that learns foreign language hadn't hardened over ;) And all this on top of my crazy life! The end of the school year teacher luncheon ended at 1:15 on Friday, I picked my cousin and her family up from the airport at 1:30. I had everyone over on Friday, the wedding was Saturday, we had 2 Fr's day celebrations on Sunday, everyone was back over on Monday to celebrate my birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary. Tom and I were able to have a few hours to ourselves on Tuesday for dinner and I kicked them all out of the house today so I could get my homework done! Not to mention that my allergies are in full swing and my meds are making me so soooo very sleepy.

With all said I do have a good start to my new webpage for the coming school year and can feel good about accomplishing that.

Last Class

I should have used Nvu for the midterm. It really didn’t make much sense for me to learn Nvu and then take the midterm using html. I should have taken the test with what I had been learning. I know after this course I will never use html again, I will use webpage software and that is what will be most beneficial to my students and I. That is what this whole masters program is about, making me a better teacher with technology, learning tools that will enhance the learning experience for my students. I can see the benefit of understanding html, which I do, but knowing exactly where to place the tags is an obstacle I just don't have the time to tackle right now. It causes too much frustration, especially when I know there is an easier way.

This course should be offer earlier in the program. It is a good course and I would love to have done this with my students this year. I could have done so much with them and this knowledge. Now I am sending them off to high school without this knowledge. Also this is such a busy time of school to be learning this. More technical knowledge at the beginning of this masters program would be very beneficial to all of us. I know I will tackle it with the jr. high early on in the school year.