Thursday, June 27, 2013
Interview with a Technology Director
Yesterday, we had the opportunity to Google "hangout" with Thomas Murray, who is the technology director for the Quakertown Community Public School District. He challenged the class #EDG646 to really think about our philosophies when it comes to technology and teaching digital citizenship. Mr. Murray was very passionate about teaching the students how to be responsible users rather than acceptable users which is what most of the internet agreements state. He also stressed at the end "what kind of principal are you going to be...are you going to step back and let teachers try new things...are you going to punish the teacher if something that they try is new and they fail?" I think that for me my perspective would be to help and ask questions because again the job of an administrator is to support teachers. They need to be able to feel that they are supported and that they can explore different techniques. Most of the time when teachers explore it is on their own time. If we stiffle this we restrict the educational opportunities of our students. Thank you to Tom Murray for joining our class @thomascmurray
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Nice summary of our visit from Tom. I agree that as the principal, you do need to support teachers in risk-taking. How will you build in opportunities for teachers to do so throughout the school day? I also like how Tom stressed the importance of an RUP v. an AUP. Thanks for sharing here!
ReplyDeleteRisk-taking is huge and not an easy sell with teachers. As an educational leader you want to avoid a "gotcha" culture. Teachers should not live in fear of their administrators. Conversations about teacher failures or imperfect lessons should be based on learning opportunities and chances for growth. Keep the conversation positive. When a teacher or teachers take risks be sure to applaud their efforts and exult them to the rest of the staff as an example of successful risk-taking. I'm guessing this is not an easy thing to embed within a school culture.
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