Last weekend was our annual Varsity Varieties Show and it was simply amazing to see all the talent on stage and behind the scenes! The Arts, both visual and performing, are a major aspect of GLHS, helping us to create a positive school brand. I often talk about our school brand with our students...
Early during the 2010-2011 school year, my Principals Advisory Council came up with the idea to engage parents and community members by teaching technology classes once a month. We were cognizant of a potential gap that was occurring in terms of technology tools our students use, we use, and our parents use. If we...
2011 has been an amazing year for me professionally – a year of great change at NBCS and a year of outstanding opportunities, travel and thinking for me. It has also been a year of new connections. I am going to try and capture some of the main insights during 2011 gained in...
Cross-posted at “The Wejr Board” blog. I recently had the honour of presenting to a neighbouring school district about my journey in developing on online personal learning network (PLN) and becoming a connected leader. The slides from the presentation are below but here is a brief (ok, this is LONG for a blog post)...
On October 21st at 8:30 am, George Couros and I will host a workshop / discussion at The Educational Computing Organization of Ontario’s Conference exploring how leaders and aspiring leaders in the field of education can use online tools and social media to develop leadership competencies across the Ontario Leadership Framework. Watching the pre-conference chatter on twitter, I noticed...
Have you ever read one of those emails that just got under your skin? You know that email or post that just elevated your blood pressure to the point where you felt like your head was going to explode? You then frantically type out a response and hit the send button only to think,...
We often look to our past through a lens of ‘that is how things should be done today’. This past week I have read a few articles and posts about how we need to return to the old, better ways of doing things and how ‘kids these days’ are lazy and have such a...
At the opening Junior High School faculty meeting, I shared that I would be referring to us (internally) as “JH 2.11.” Like version software, such as OS 10.6 or Windows 7, the Junior High School is adopting an internal nomenclature that will help us remember that we are striving to improve and grow. The...
Steve Bollar is an Upper Elementary Principal of Hartford Upper Elementary in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. He is passionate about creating a positive school climate and school culture one student, teacher, parent, and staff member at a time. If you are a tenured teacher or administrator think back to the day you got tenure. ...
“Instead of worrying about the message your school is sending on social media platforms, consider the message your school is sending by NOT engaging with social media at all.” M. Peacock via Ferriter, Ramsden, Sheninger. A few years ago, I was speaking with a friend of mine who has a strong online presence, Kye...
Not even out of school for a week and my mind is already churning for the next school year. We have so much happening in our state right now, as I think most do, concerning budgets, time tables, paradigm shifts. Hard to pause when there’s so much left to be done in the year....
Cross-posted at the Huffington Post. A few weeks ago I was fortunate to have the NJ School Boards Association (NJSBA) visit to produce a live event called Learn@Lunch: Technology as an Engagement Tool. You can view the archive of the event here. A little over two years ago something like this would have never happened at New...
Nearly every day for the past three years I have read the “Words of Wisdom” first thing in the morning over the PA system. If I am not available to read the message, one of the Assistant Principals gladly reads the message. The “Words of Wisdom” messages are part of a character education initiative...
Caveat: Although not a member of the Millenial Generation, I should disclose that I scored an 87 on the Pew Research quiz, “How Millennial Are you?” Go ahead and try it out At W. Erskine Johnston PS, we switched to a school blog a little over two years ago. Our next move was to link...
Social media is a dominant topic in our society right now because of the large numbers of people and organizations using it to connect with people all around the world. The more that I have read books such as “Open Leadership“, the more I am seeing the alignment of using the Internet to connect...
I am not a music guy. I appreciate one’s ability to create music, but I can’t read music at all. However, I absolutely love attending quality high school music performances and observing sight-reading events. Have you ever experienced a sight reading at an adjudicated music competition? If you haven’t then you are missing out...
One of the key events of the year is when the President of the United States holds the State of the Union Address. Each president has addressed the nation in order to convey a specific message and move the nation to action. One of my mentors named Keith Bell has been a successful and...
Milton Chen, the longtime Executive Director of Edutopia, has a terrific new (2010) book, Education Nation. John Robinson has very effectively reviewed and summarized the book at 21st century principal; as John says, “Chen’s book provides many ideas for educational innovation and reform. It is a great addition to the 21st century administrator’s book...
Upon becoming Principal of New Milford High School in June of 2007 I made it one of my primary goals to work hard at sharing with my stakeholders all of the accomplishments centered around teaching and learning occurring on a routine basis. As Principal I was aware of these things, but I was pretty...
The Chronicle of Higher Ed recently ran a valuable piece (November 19) containing many inspiring anecdotes of university reputation-building success entitled “How to Build a Perception of Greatness.” In it, they “outline some principles of slowly and sustainably building a perception of greatness,” drawing upon examples at dozens of colleges and universities. ...
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