When I began my role as an assistant principal, many of my mentors prepared me for a rewarding but sometimes isolating job experience. Fortunately, working in a large school system at that time, I did have opportunities to network with other administrators. When I was offered a job as an assistant principal in a school district that was less than 10 minutes from my home, I jumped at the opportunity (at the time I had 3 children all under the age of 4, so being close to home was important to me and my family). At the end of my first year at Red Lion Area Senior High School, I was having a discussion with my superintendent, assistant superintendent and principal during my end of year evaluation regarding opportunities to network with other administrators in the surrounding area. I shared that one aspect of the job that I missed working in a small school district versus working in a larger school district was the opportunity to network with other administrators. As a result of this conversation, I was encouraged to seek out different opportunities to increase my professional network. During my second year in Red Lion, I was given the opportunity to attend the PAESSP State Conference and the ISTE National Conference. Both conferences were great opportunities for me to network with other educators and I left each conference refreshed and excited about education!
Attending the ISTE conference was an “Ah-Ha” moment in my career. My school district understood the importance of the ISTE vision (Thanks to our Director of Technology, Jared Mader) and our education foundation paid for 20 members of our school community (teachers, administrators and board members) to attend the ISTE conference. In addition to paying for the conference, the education foundation suprised the teachers and administrators who attended the conference with new IPad 2's to use at the conference and for school! The ISTE conference was especially rewarding to me because I realized that there are networks of educators just an email, tweet or blog away! I also realized that the post conference excitement doesn’t have to end—I can continue to follow other educators and learn from and about their challenges and successes.
If I want to be a true instructional leader, I know that it is important to model behaviors that I expect from my teachers. With this idea in mind, one of my goals that I took away from the ISTE conference was to set up a blog (Thanks to Ben Smith for showing Kate and I how to set up a blog). I have enjoyed reading many blogs online and now I am taking my first steps in putting my own thoughts into blog form. I don't know what direction my blog will take me, but I am excited to give it a try! Any suggestions or advice to a new blogger are appreciated and welcome!
