Bruce Hird

November 1, 2011

Principal Thoughts…

People often ask me, “why can’t we just do things the way we used to?” I guess for me, I recognize that the world is changing very rapidly and that we must learn to change and adapt or get left behind. The world of education is certainly no exception. In fact, the education of our children is happening whether the school influences it or not.

Television, movies, and the Internet are especially significant as “educators.” If you consider how powerfully these media influence our children you may begin to understand the great challenges of education. We live in a “visual” and “digital” world! Our students expect to use visual information to help make sense of the world. Therefore the challenge for schools is to provide digital and visual instruction that teaches standards driven content. That is no easy challenge.

Laws, mandates, and policies that must be accounted govern school operations and education. This is the “accountability” piece of education. We all must be accountable to someone or something and schools are no exception. This is a difficult thing for many to understand and some folks would rather “fight than change.”

This is my 5th year as a principal. I can honestly state: “the accountability of providing an adequate education has increased more in the last 4years than in my previous 28 years of being a teacher, coach, and now a principal.” I suppose some folks may be confused about the increased accountability. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the amount of data gathered and analyzed. I just know that changing and adapting is a necessary function of education.

Why can’t we just “do things the we always have?” My easy answer may be: “because those ways just don’t work like they used to.” An analogy might go something like this: “would you rather enjoy the Huskers on an HD flat screen with surround sound or listen to it on AM radio?” I know, I know. There are still a few of us “old timers” who may prefer the AM radio. For the other 99%, I know what they will choose.

At Brady Public Schools, we must make important changes, adapt, and embrace improvements to our school system. Some of these changes are inconvenient and not always met with enthusiasm. I do believe that: “Change is inevitable, adapting is optional, and complacency is fatal.”

What do you think?

Brady Public Schools welcomed 6 new teachers and about two dozen new students on Thursday, August 18th.

Secondary students were paired with elementary students and led the younger students through an orientation of school procedures. Brady School staff provided the orientation of several important aspects of the school including: cafeteria, custodial, bus evacuation, office, library, and activity procedures.

“The students and staff were simply great!”
We had a smooth opening 2 days.

Communication is absolutely critical to all organizations. As principal at Brady Public Schools, I find that communication with all staff and students is a challenge. Face to face communication is most desirable and therefore, I make consistent attempts to be in all areas of the school to observe and have conversations. I also use typewritten memos or flyers to put in staff mailboxes or post in high traffic areas for students. I think these are often ignored or hardly noticed. My communication method of choice is email. I find that email is not very effective or not as effective and thorough as I need it to be.

I would like to determine the most effective method of reaching all stakeholders at Brady Public Schools. Will it be “social media” such as Facebook? Will I need to make phone calls to each individual? Should I use US mail?

What do you think?

I enjoy reading blog posts in the following links:

http://1to1schools.net/ (This site has great relative topics for 1 to 1 schools.)
http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant (A great site from Dr. Scott McLeod)
http://schooltechleadership.org/ (This site has links to the most relevant 21st tech learning sites.)

How about you?

The 1 to 1 laptop initiative at Brady High School is still fairly new to us. I observe that most students are benefiting from having a personal computer to enhance their ability to learn effectively and 24/7 at their desire. I also observe that some students are not adhering to the expected guidelines and/or not being good digital citizens. As principal, I have had to hand out consequences to laptop violators at a higher rate in the past month. Some students are clearly not making the effort to be good stewards of the laptops they are privileged to use.

I am interested in knowing how others (teachers, students, parents) feel about this issue.

"Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in
themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals."