Data Phones!

Our district has recently switched to I-Phones as our form of cellular communication for school administrators. We were offered the opportunity to personally purchase them at a discounted rate, with the district picking up the majority of the cost for the plan. I had not used a data phone in the past, so it was a new world for me. After initially having my doubts of the usefulness and time it was going to take to make the switch, I am now a believer. Having this phone makes my life much easier. I can check and respond to emails while away from school, look up student information using the Lumen application, and schedule events using the phones calendar. I'm learning how to do new things on this phone everyday. I recently attended a principal conference in Columbia over a three day period and not once did I feel out of the loop as far as what was going on at school. What a great tool!

Intercom System is the latest Storm Casualty at Fair Grove

If I were a storm chaser I would move into the city of Fair Grove. Well, not just into the city, but right next to the school complex. That is where all the action is! Last weeks torrential rains and lightening storm not only played havoc on our network and Internet access, but also took out capabilities to our intercom systems. To make any announcements at the high school, we now have to deliver the announcement to the entire district. No more direct room feeds or hallway calls, it's all or nothing. The good news is that they should be fixed within the next two weeks. After what we have been through the last few months our staff tends to laugh it off. We'll make it! It really does make you appreciate a fully functioning technology equipped school. I have joked about the over use of technology in previous post, but how could we function without it.

When the Network is Down Our World Stops!!!!

Have you ever had one of those days when you had planned to get a pile full of paper work completed and maybe even a last minute technology assignment? Of course in today's world that requires a working computer with a working network. So you can imagine my dismay when after logging into my computer this morning nothing worked. That was the scene at Fair Grove R-X schools at approximately 7:15 AM. The storm from the previous night hit our district's phone lines, which required the phone company to come out to make repairs. Yes, another storm, that's just what we needed at Fair Grove. I believe I witnessed one of our teachers twitching and convulsing after hearing this announcement come over the intercom. "Teachers and administrators your computers will be useless today for virtually all operations and will probably not be working until the network phone lines are repaired by tomorrow, so just deal with it." At least, that's how I heard it! So, because I had little that could be done in my office, I had to do common things such as; walk the halls and talk to students, rekindle old relationships with teachers, complete observations on paper with a pen, pick up trash in the hallways, and even help my assistant principal with supervision. Can you imagine having to do this everyday! Well, luckily the network was up and running by 11:00 AM. I got to finish my assignments, oops I mean my paper work, and life was good again. Thank God for technology.

Credit Recovery Programs

We are in the process of beginning a credit recovery program at Fair Grove High School that will be implemented before and after school. The online programs we are currently exploring to help get this program underway are Odyssey Ware, Nova Net, A+, and Education 2020. Our hope is to provide students who have made mistakes academically, an avenue to make up credit in a timely manner. If we can help even a few students get their diploma each year, I believe it is worth the time and money.

Technology! How much is too much?

After completing last week’s assignments, I started to contemplate about how we get so wrapped up in the bells and whistles of technology, and if it starts to take away from the important things. Don’t get me wrong, I feel I’m as progressive as most in the area of implementing and practicing the use of technology. But how much is too much? Does the constant technology use; filling out reports, checking email, blogging, twittering, texting, calling, and receiving constant information take away from our day to day contact and relationships with people? Real people! Not the facebook comments made by our pictured friends or the twitter messages viewed on a daily basis. Where do we draw the line? Are we still teaching our students to communicate face to face? Does the time spent with technology take away from real contact we could be having with our friends, families, and students? There must be a balance. Every once in a while take a step back, shut off the computer , turn off the i-phone, heck even shut down the fax machine, and enjoy real conversation with real people. Oh, by the way, don’t get me wrong, I’m not throwing away my new i-phone. Just thinking out loud!

My first few weeks as a high school principal have went extremely well considering our building situation after the May 8Th, 2009 storms. We are currently utilizing six class rooms in the MS building and the remaining east hallway classrooms of the high school. This creates one quarter-mile long hallway that connects to the middle school, (it may not be a 1/4 mile but it sure looks long). It's a bit crowded, but our faculty, students, and staff have made the most of it. Technology has been a significant issue as we rebuild our school. When we lost our walls and roof of the west hallway it ripped out many of our network cables. We have made incredible progress getting our network back online, but have had several computer issues along the way. Many teachers have not been able to make use of our student information system because their computers are not online with the network yet. Back to the old attendance slips! Patience, patience, patience has been our theme of the month.

First Blog

I have always wanted to blog. Now I can. My first post as a blogger.