Featured Guest Post - Life of an Educator: Dear Principal

I love reading blogs, especially those of other educators who I admire and strive to learn more from. Justine Tarte is one of those educators. He recently wrote a post on his own blog from the perspective of a teacher to a principal regarding the upcoming school year and things they would like them to do (or do differently). 

It was a great post that was deep and though provoking for all administrators as we move forward into the new school year. As a true, first year administrator as well, it gave me reason to think about how I would like to approach this year. 

I want to come out the gates quick and with a ton of energy and passion. And I know my teachers do to. But the school year is a marathon, not a sprint. I don't want to burn out my teachers the first weeks of school nor do I want to push them so hard that they push back even harder. As Justin points out, some of my teachers are coming back with their own ideas that they learned over the summer. They want to try out some of things they learned, or didn't have time for last year.

 So, let them try it our their way. Help them grow and learn from mistakes. 

Just like a Zombie Run, school years are a marathon. Take your time, pace yourself and run with a pack. 

You can follow Justin on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/justintarte

Check it article below:




Life of an Educator: Dear Principal: Some things I need you to know...: Dear Principal, I'm sure you are just as excited as I am for the upcoming school year. The summer has been full of learning for me an...

BYOD Model Lessons

Over the past two years, Green Brook has been developing a Bring Your Own Device policy for our students to bring in their personal devices to use for learning. Part of the process of implementing this policy is to give sustained, professional development to our teachers so that they can see what BYOD is all about and how to use it in their classrooms. 

Mrs. +Sarah Diczok - Vajtay  and Mrs. Laura Philip, two amazing educators at GBTPS, became our model teachers and educators during this PD process. Laura and Sarah created model lessons in their classes. We then used a peer-to-peer observation model to invite small groups of teachers in to view the lesson LIVE and in person. The first groups were based off of content areas but the second groups were mixed. The small groups were also invited to participate in a group reflection period right after the lesson to talk about what they saw, issues with BYOD, and how to overcome the pitfalls of using devices in your teaching. 

The road to a BYOD pilot has not been easy and it has come with many challenges, some of which we have not even faced yet but so far since the pilot started in March, our network hasn't imploded, our classrooms are still buzzing, and our teachers are using BYOD ideas to help deliverer great lessons.

The results have been more than what anyone could have hoped for!! During the last two lessons, our educators learned about using devices as great learning and teaching tools in a variety of ways. 

1. Using Socrative or a QR code to start off a lesson or Do Now. 
2. Implementing a short video to provide notes. 
3. Device management using similar terms such as "show me" or "devices down."
4. Large and small group assessment 
5. Lesson closures via collaborative tools such as NearPod

The purpose of these types of lessons is to give our educators a chance to see what BYOD looks like to give a picture of what it can look like in theirs. While the pilot is just starting to finish up for our 8th grade students, the hope is to expand the pilot to other grades in our schools so that even more teachers and students can use these powerful devices as learning/teaching tools and to help their classrooms knock down walls and engage in true, 21st century learning models. 

Mrs. Diczok-Vajtay talking about Socrative with her students. 

Eager Listeners Pt. I 

Eager Listeners Pt. II

Engaged students. 

Devices down procedure. 

Listening to a video and taking notes.