Blog Review #5: The Education of an Elementary Principal

http://timslack.blogspot.ca/

My final edublog review is about an elementary principal in Ottawa.  Tim Slack's thoughts and experiences provide a different insight to the challenges of integrating technology from a school wide perspective. His blog demonstrates how technology in education can expand beyond some classroom lesson plans.  He does a great job communicating with parents, fostering school involvement and showing leadership.

Tim Slack connects with parents through a school website, a Twitter account and other media such as screenr where he created a video with school information for parents.  He created a "flipped parent announcement", adapting and explaining the flipped classroom concept through the video.  Parents can see that this school is actively involved in creating an environment for the 21st century learner, while helping parents understand some of the new technology.

I also liked his efforts to implement school wide activities using technology.  He created an online survey where students could vote for a name for his fish in the office.  He was pleasantly surprised how the whole school became engaged in the activity.  One of the learning implications he noted was that students and teachers were exposed to google forms and were able to try something new.  Another activity I liked was a school wide pumpkin challenge where each class created a "wordle" using words to describe their carved pumpkin.  He includes the related expectations for teachers and is able to differentiate the activity for each grade in his school, JK - 6.  The wordles were all shown at a school assembly and he provided a prize for the winning class.  What an awesome way to introduce both students and staff to educational applications of technology!

In my opinion, he demonstrates leadership through risk taking.  He is willing to try new things, adapt and learn from mistakes and reach out to others, through his blog, for feedback on trying new ideas, such as a flipped staff meeting.  Some of his posts discuss issues such as "The role of homework in an elementary school", and "Reflecting on school use of technology".  He acknowledges the need for change and that there will be a great learning curve getting everyone involved.  Take some time to read through this interesting blog!