This is the text of an email I sent out today:
Teachers,
What do you need?
I would like to get a team of teachers together, preferably no more than 7, to share practices and concerns, troubleshoot solutions, and provide direction for the future of the laptop initiative by identifying needs of teachers and students that must be met in order for this to be more successful. While I am grateful for the opportunity to have spoken with you as a staff regarding our intentions to support you in your digital classroom management, I feel it is important to have an opportunity to listen, as well.
The group would not meet often – I know we are all very busy, and I don’t want to give you one more thing to be concerned with. I do feel it is important for us to meet at least 2-3 times before the end of the current semester to give administrators time to plan and respond and, in turn, allow the group to respond to and contribute to those plans before they are implemented or presented to staff.
For the last year and a half, we have been integrating the laptop initiative into our classrooms. When that initiative was given to us, I met with a number of GHS and central office administrators to come up with a variety of supports for you, and the first year of the program taught us a number of things we needed to add and tweak for this year. This has been a learning experience for all, administrators included.
I admit that “What do you need?” is a question that we should have asked you before planning anything when the Board approved the laptop initiative in the summer of 2011. This, too, is a different kind of learning experience, for me in particular.
I would appreciate your input. Thank you for your time, and please let me know if you are interested in participating in this conversation. You are always, of course, welcome to respond to this email with any relevant thoughts or pop in to my office for a chat.
Noah Tonk
Assistant Principal
Goshen High School
Twitter: @goshenprincipal @GHSProfDev
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