Director of Technology

It is time that I can announce my promotion at St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju to Director of Technology for the coming school year (2025-26). I have actually stepped into the role as of two weeks ago. The pervious Director of Technology had an emergency and needed to leave a little early, so I took over the end of the year processes. It is an exciting and busy time, but it has given me the opportunity to begin building the teamwork that I would like to see moving forward. The administration was offering me a new office in the Admin Building, but I have decided not to take it. Mr. Johnson (Head of School) and Mr. Jeong (Director of Business) have both supported this idea. The physical and mental distance it would create between myself and my team is counterproductive in my mind. Instead I will have a work station in the ES IT Office and in the MS/HS IT Office. I will move back and forth between the two areas. I have been currently doing this and the benefits have already been clear. The IT techs have gotten to know me better and I have gotten to know them. Genuine trust has started to be built and bonds beyond the simple employee and supervisor roles have formed. As a small team, trust and relationships are important. I want to continue these relationships in the next year and being in the trenches working with them is the best way for the bonds to continue to grow.

#pubpdasia Reflection

First, I want to give another shout out to @maplesyrupedu for creating the concept of #pubpd. It really is simply brilliant. Second, I want to give another shout out to @clos_gm for bringing the idea to #Asia with #pubpdasia. And Third, I want to give a shout out to all the educators all over Asia who jumped on this idea and arranged multiple locations where live f2f events happened while the Twitter chat was running. I think we are on to something here and it has the potential to be huge. The next #pubpdasia will be happening in January and the amazing duo of @mcelroy23 and @cho_liz are going to be the moderators.

Reflection on #pubpdasia:
The best part of this event was the combination of a live Twitter chat and face-to-face discussions. In Cheongna we had six participants, which was actually five more than I thought I'd have. Things are really busy at school these days and not many folks are really in to Twitter, but that was part of the magic. Two of our directors showed up, this I did not foresee at all, but it was great. One has been trying Twitter and the other one said, "I haven't touched my account in a month and probably won't again until the next time." One of our English teachers showed up, and at one point he asked me to tweet something for him, because he isn't really interested in Twitter either. Do you see what was happening? People who saw no purpose for Twitter were suddenly seeing a use for it. And people who probably will not get in to Twitter were still part of the discussion. This is a perfect synergy. And that, my friends, is my big takeaway from this event. We need to be doing more activities like this in the future, tying f2f social gatherings with social media events.  We were discussing ideas that came up from the questions asked during the chat, but being able to think about our own context and things that would work at Cheongna Dalton School. I'm hoping to get more people out in January, but even if I don't find more people to join -- I am sold on this idea.

Personal Learning Networks

Educational Leadership: 5 (Good) Ways to Talk About Data

The November issue of Educational Leadership was titled Doing Data Right. Of course, as educators we should be doing our best to improve instruction and assessment with data informing our choices, but it is a much easier thing to say than to do. One of the featured articles (5 (Good) Ways to Talk About Data) in the issues dealt specifically with how to move a school in the right direction with regard to working with data. The research that has been conducted about professional learning communities suggests that this five components are necessary to have data drive instruction and assessment of student learning.

• Component 1: Students are the shared responsibility of everyone.
• All of the students go to the same school, no matter the age -- take ownership and be involved. In my experience, this matter can be dealt with by vertical teams. The more teachers from various grade levels know each other, the more they seem to feel joint responsibility over all students. In the article, it was specifically pointed out that a team should take responsibility for everyones success and failure. This helps build trust.
• Component 2: Conversations about data include healthy disagreement.
• The key word is healthy. People need to be able to talk about what the data means and how it should be used. These discussions will involve differing opinions, but everyone must act professionally and with trust. 
• Component 3: Conversations about data engender trust rather than suspicion.
• Principals and teachers need to work together. The data shouldn't be used to point the finger, but to better understand how improvements can be made.
• Component 4: Data teams take a solution-oriented process.
• Focusing on the solution, rather than the problem. Looking at the data and asking, "What can we do better?" "How can we teach or assess better?"
• Component 5: Data teams know what they're expected to accomplish.
• Clear guidelines for what needs to be accomplished, but also room to explore the data and the conclusions. The article pointed out some examples where they witnessed teams trying to complete all the questions, rather than really thinking about the answers/solutions. On the other extreme, there were some teams that didn't seem to have any clear guidelines on what should be done. You need to have structure, but not so much that it becomes busy work for teachers.

Datnow, Amanda, and Vicki Park. "5 (Good) Ways to Talk About Data."Educational Leadership Nov.     2015: 10-15. Web.