Principal Connections

Tonight was Parent Teacher Interview and for the last few years, our Parent Council has paid for a staff dinner that is prepared by the students in our Hospitality program. This is so great on so many levels: 1. The appreciation shown by our Parent Council towards our staff goes a long way. 2. Eating a meal that is prepared by kids gives them a sense of pride and validation. 3. The ritual of sitting down and breaking bread together, if only a couple of times a year, is a very intimate way to build a strong sense of community with staff. Tonight, our Admin team decided to up the ante by serving. I think it's good to for staff to see Administrators showing their gratitude and respect for teachers and all that they do through simple acts of humility. Kind of takes the idea of servant leadership to a different level. It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Having the outfit helps!

I'm not so sure I gave the notion of leaving a legacy at a school in which I have worked a second thought. Not until a couple of days ago when such a comment was made and I have been thinking about it ever since. I'm not entirely comfortable with this idea. The context: I was given the task of learning how to create the master timetable and determine room and resource allocation for the next school year. I doing so, I was finally about the have the freedom to move and shake things up about to create a cross-curricular Chromebook lab where all of the Tutorial and Learning Strategies courses will be taught. This class room is far away from the often looked-down-upon "Special Education wing" of the school. I thought it was important to: 1.) invest the resources in these courses in order to equip the students taking these course, who are often at risk in so many ways, with a solid set of real-world technology skills while they recover their credits, and 2.) make a s...