What Was I Thinking?

I recently posted a blog which got  negative feedback from Principals. Eight to be exact. Which is a lot. Especially when you consider all of them don't follow my blog. I'm particularly sensitive about this because I just recently had a conversation with our local paper about unintended consequences of an article they published.

I mentioned this to a friend who said, you always know what you're doing. Well, yes and no.

Yes - I was frustrated with some 6-month communications I had been having with the district - and No, I was not having any issues with the Principals. Principals have the hardest jobs in the school system (harder than the Superintendent), and a good Principal needs to operate without threats to be effective. What I posted was perceived as a threat to those eight principals - that their teachers could by-pass them and go straight to the board. This should never happen. I repeat, never happen. Teachers need to understand they work for the Principal, just as the Principals need to understand they work for the Superintendent (there are policies available to all staff for appeals). The Board only has responsibility for one employee, the Superintendent. To those Principals who were upset, I am sorry.

Then there were other Principals who were upset  the public may believe they were restricting their teachers ability for online professional development. And for sure, we have Principals who talk with their teachers about how to get professional development from online sources and help them find and coordinate the resources that are available online. These Principals are true 21st century educators.

In these tight budget times, administrators who believe in professional development - and balancing the budget - embrace and communicate the valuable resources available online. They help their teachers find online professional development because we just can't afford to send people all over the country.

The video below is an example of a 21st century thinker:
K12 Online Conference Opening Keynote: A Moral Imperative by Dean Shareski


And another view: