Moving Forward

Summer 2011 is coming to a close and Red Lion Area Senior High is bustling with preparation for the upcoming school year. I am ready! Or am I? My head is swirling with a list of tasks that increases minute by minute; tasks that need to be checked off before students and teachers are welcomed back to the building. However, there is an even lengthier list of things I want to accomplish during the year to increase student achievement and to become a more effective instructional leader. Where did this inspiration come from? Well, part of the inspiration is my competitive nature to be my best for the community I serve and the other part of the inspiration came from the recent ISTE conference I had the privilege of attending in Philadelphia, PA.

I suppose one could call me an ISTE groupie. Drawers full of ISTE shirts are testaments to my travels to conferences in Philadelphia (twice), Atlanta, San Antonio, and Washington D.C. I attended my first conference in Philadelphia and I was hooked. At the time I lived near the City of Brotherly Love and commuted to the conference for 2 days. Anyone who has ever traveled through Philadelphia during rush hour can attest that this cutesy moniker is far from true and because of delays and other commitments, I did not get a full ISTE experience. However, I was determined I would go back and be more of a participant since I knew what to expect from a global organization that hosts tens of thousands of people dedicated to improving education through the innovation of technology.

With a lot of pleading to administration at my former district, I went on my ISTE circuit and every time I came back, my colleagues cringed. Back to the district I came with enough enthusiasm for every one in the district and more “out of the box” ideas that any one school could handle. Some ideas took hold, but not the systemic changes I was envisioning for my school. Week by week, my ISTE glow faded as more and more efforts and resources were spent on issues that did not affect teaching and learning. The gung-ho ISTE feeling left me in isolation and only to influence those that were in my class. The lack of support and encouragement from a larger group across the district was the death knell of my inspiration and motivation.

Fast forward, a couple of years and I am now an assistant principal at Red Lion Area Senior High. Change is a difficult process, but coming to Red Lion has been a homecoming for me. While I did not attend schools in the district, I am from York County and I am thankful every day that my family and I have decided to call Red Lion home. That commitment to the Red Lion community is solidified every day I enter the building with teachers and students who come prepared to teach and learn.

This intense commitment to teaching and learning was exemplified this summer with the generous support of the Red Lion Education Foundation who sent a cohort of administrators, teachers, and board members to attend the 2011 ISTE conference in Philadelphia. As if this amazing opportunity to network and learn with people from around the world was not enough, each person in attendance was presented with an IPAD 2! Equipped with the latest technology, individuals from the Red Lion group ran in a myriad of directions trying to capture as much of the conference as we could through speakers, panel discussions, presentations, poster sessions, and even a meeting with members of the ISTE Board! During the limited down time in the evenings, we continued to maximize the power of the group by sharing what we learned during the day and how we could take these ideas back to the Red Lion Area School District. The topic of improving teaching and learning infused every conversation and ignited my passion to be a better instructional leader. Finally, the support needed to sustain systemic change had been established and I knew 2011-2012 would be the year to bring the spirit of ISTE to the Red Lion Area School District. So while my to do list has grown exponentially since I first sat down to write my first post, I am confident the support that grew out of the Red Lion ISTE cohort will sustain the inspiration, motivation, and innovation needed to challenge our students.