Now that I am done EC&I 831, I want to continue using this blog to reflect on my first year as an in-school administrator. Kelly asked a five part question on his website and each part would require a blog entry. I am going to focus on the question, What areas need improvement?
I guess that all schools are looking for the "perfect" attendance policy. In my limited experience as an administrator and with my 18 years of teaching in my career the most accurate statement about attendance policies that I have heard is that all attendance policies will do in the end is punish the students with honest parents. We all know of situations where a parent/guardian has blatantly lied to the school about an absence because they don't want anything "bad" happening to their child or they believe that the school has no business interfering in their business.
So, I guess this is a call for help. What do your high schools use for attendance policies? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Perhaps if we put our universal heads together, we might be able to come up with an attendance policy that actually does what is intended ... make school a high priority in the life of all of our students.
I look forward to reading your responses.
Mathman33
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Reflections
I know this is a week after our last class but I have always needed time to reflect on the past 13 weeks of class. Besides after I drove home from my f2f class last week I had to pack to get ready for the trip to Saskatoon the next day as a majority of our administrators were going to the Safe Schools conference in Saskatoon. Anyway, here are my thoughts about EC&I 831.
1) I am glad that I took a second online class. The first one, let's say, was bad. This class restored my faith in what an online class could be if someone put the time and effort into creating it. It also helps when the professor has the skills that Alec does.
2) One challenge that I faced was not being able to get in on all of the back-channel discussions during class. I loved the discussions but I could only read them and there were times I found myself typing a response only to realize that this was recorded and I could not reply. It was unfortunate that I was taking a f2f class on Tuesday nights in addition to this class, but it was the only way that I could finish my degree by April so that I could work on my golf game for summer. It was 13 very long and grueling weeks, but I hope it will be worth it when I get my handicap back down to where it was before I started my Masters degree three years ago.
3) As I have written earlier, PD is valuable when you can take something that you learned and apply it in your practice. There are many skills that I will be able to take from this class and apply them in my school. Part of the learning was in skills with programs like Animoto or VoiceThread, but some of it is knowing that there are a number of free resources out there that teachers can use and those programs engage students and produce a quality product. And even if I don't know of a tool that I can use, I know that I will be able to call upon my the people in my expanded network of contacts for assistance.
4) Finally, thanks to everyone in the class for your comments, support and commitment that you have made to this class and your fellow classmates. Corey and Dean - I will meet you on the stage at Convocation!
Mathman33 (Walter)
1) I am glad that I took a second online class. The first one, let's say, was bad. This class restored my faith in what an online class could be if someone put the time and effort into creating it. It also helps when the professor has the skills that Alec does.
2) One challenge that I faced was not being able to get in on all of the back-channel discussions during class. I loved the discussions but I could only read them and there were times I found myself typing a response only to realize that this was recorded and I could not reply. It was unfortunate that I was taking a f2f class on Tuesday nights in addition to this class, but it was the only way that I could finish my degree by April so that I could work on my golf game for summer. It was 13 very long and grueling weeks, but I hope it will be worth it when I get my handicap back down to where it was before I started my Masters degree three years ago.
3) As I have written earlier, PD is valuable when you can take something that you learned and apply it in your practice. There are many skills that I will be able to take from this class and apply them in my school. Part of the learning was in skills with programs like Animoto or VoiceThread, but some of it is knowing that there are a number of free resources out there that teachers can use and those programs engage students and produce a quality product. And even if I don't know of a tool that I can use, I know that I will be able to call upon my the people in my expanded network of contacts for assistance.
4) Finally, thanks to everyone in the class for your comments, support and commitment that you have made to this class and your fellow classmates. Corey and Dean - I will meet you on the stage at Convocation!
Mathman33 (Walter)
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