Blogs on Leadership

One of the easiest things for any tech person to forget is the presence of non-instructional types in the building. There's so much great technology out there for school administrators, but tech support often overlooks them because their job focus is helping classroom instruction. There is tremendous value in reaching out to on-site administrators and seeing what they need. Here are some of the benefits to thinking about your administrators when it comes to tech support.

I'm not just a college dropout. I chose to leave school in fifth grade to become an unschooler -- the self-directed form of homeschooler. While my peers sat in class during middle and high school, I found mentors, organized collaborative learning groups, took college courses, lived in France, helped build a library and generally directed my own education.

A few weeks ago while discussing a topic for the next new teacher chat on Twitter, a pre-service teacher sent me a private tweet. She asked if I knew the best way a principal should work to support new teachers on their campus. I responded by saying that I thought it would make a perfect topic for an upcoming chat. As a result, our November 2 chat topic was "How should a principal support a new teacher?"

Welcome back to our series on becoming a 21st century school or district. For the earlier installments of this series, please scroll to the bottom of this page.

We have covered a lot of ground since we started this 7 step series. We have talked about embracing the 4Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) and embedding them in professional development (step 4), and curriculum and assessment (step 5). But, the goals of your initiative can't be accomplished if your teachers aren't supported in making them happen in the classroom for each and every student.