A Principal’s Blog You Should Read
I don’t know exactly where “G-town” is, but Kimberly Moritz is the principal at their high school, and she blogs. Check out G-Town talks. Now, if you can.
Kimberly started blogging in July. You could browse the whole archive in about 30 – 45 minutes. And if you start, you will want to keep reading.
Look, none of us know if a principal in real life resembles what they write, but this writing looks thoughtful, balanced, and open in a way that too few of our principals are. Looks pro-kid, pro-teacher.
The school, btw, sounds like 1000 kids, about a quarter Seneca with the rural(?) (maybe small town?) problems that sound familiar to big city folks.
I’m not going to track back to each of the 21 posts, but if you click more you can read some excerpts —>
Cell phones: (Cell phones, etc. in schools)
How do we reconcile the students’ desire to text and connect to friends 24/7 with the teachers’ need to engage the student?
Huck Finn: (Huck Finn)
As the principal, I struggle with supporting the teacher’s right to make decisions about content and novels and rigor and the failure rate.
On filtering: (What’s education got to do with it?)
It’s still there, kids are still curious (thank goodness) and we’re left out of the equation. Bring it on blogging world.
Alternative School: (Don’t underestimate the power of a teacher)
…working … with representatives of the Seneca Nation regarding drop out prevention. … The intent was to provide another opportunity, another way for our Native American students who are not succeeding in our public schools.
Jail: (How do we measure a man)
… a student … was struggling with a decision. … two months of jail time with 3 years of probation or four months of jail time with no probation. … He figured the four months were better because he’d never manage to stay out of trouble for three years, but he didn’t want to miss so much school.
Teacher Quality: (And more to the point. . .)
[Another blogger writes] ‘Any board member who is not paying close attention to teacher quality in the district is not paying close attention to student achievement.’” I would suggest that more to the point would be to replace the words “board member” with “administrator”.
Dropouts: (How many students may I leave behind?)
I know that some dropouts are acceptable because despite our best efforts, and I sincerely tell you we make them, we can’t do anything to change the course of their lives. I hate to put that in writing, but it’s true. And every school has those students who return every September for no good reason.
Talking to Kids: (Let’s just ignore the whole technology gig)
“Look, I don’t want you learning about sex from … (his buddies). … I want you to ask me, so I can give you good information that you can rely on AND we can talk about the implications.” That’s the same conversation we need to have with students about using the web appropriately and we’re NOT doing it.
JD2718 
Jonathan,
Thank you for posting about my blog, I’m honored. We are a small town school, Gowanda High School, in Western New York. I taught for ten years and was an active association member, lobbying with NYSUT in the Committee of 100. I’m passionate about my job and our students and have found the blogosphere provides me with the connections that I need for my own professional growth. It also helps me get some stuff out of my head when there’s just too much going on. We need more teachers to consider the profession. As most know, we lack talented administrators as the opportunities continue to grow without enough good competition. Perhaps you should consider it? The principal really can make a huge difference with the opportunity for substantial change.
It was kind of you to suggest I might consider being an administrator, but it is not something I would like to do. I place myself squarely on the labor side of the labor – management adversarial relationship. That will not change.
We do our bit in our own ways. I teach, share ideas with other teachers. I work through my state professional organization.
I try to help new teachers as much as I can.
In my school I play all sorts of support functions. Scheduling is a big, ugly task. And mine.
But most of all, I am a union person. I am the Chapter Chair in my school, I serve on various committees. I participated in something or other at NYSUT last spring. And more than any of these details, it is where my committment lies.
But again, thank you. It is flattering for someone to suggest you should consider doing their job.
so many blogs, so little time… but that’s for hooking me up with G-Town. Not sure if it will become a must-read or not, but it was nice to spend some time soaking it in. I love blog for the spontaneous connections they breed.
Where did the blog go? Any word JD?
Yesterday it was up. Last night it was gone. I wrote to her asking what happened, but no response yet.
Maybe she’ll come in under a different name, to protect herself from the nay sayers. You know what they say, when a door closes a window opens. Her blogs were not only well written, they were truthful, thoughful, and direct… a scarey reality for some.
And she’s back. I think people should disagree with her, at times. She was attacking controversial topics. She seems very open to the discussions. Can that openness on a blog, on the web, translate into openness with the teachers in her school? I’d like to believe it is possible.