Thank You

Thank you to all of the WMS teachers that came in this week to chat.  It was great getting to know people.  Time to gear up for our social at Harrison Park to meet parents.  I hope many families are able to make it on Saturday August 13.  It will be a great event with lots to do for the kids at the park!

Building Relationships

This week I am meeting with various teachers at Williamsburg to begin building relationships and gaining their insight to the school. I challenged them to answer these questions: What do we keep doing? What do we stop doing? What do we start doing? My experience has taught me that the teacher perspective is so very important and vital to effectively running the school - their job is not very thankful, not very glorified, and extremely difficult. Therefore, the knowledge they posses and can share is invaluable to school administration. While holing informal meetings with the teachers, I get to know their personality and passions just a bit more. What a great way to get to know the school. I am looking forward to the rest of my open meetings!

Technology

I know I have blogged about this before, but I feel compelled to do so again. I am a big fan of technology, but sometimes I wonder if it really helps us. Since I have started my new position, I have been plagued with technology issues which seem to be making me less efficient than I would want. Logging in, printing, and emailing have seemed to be an adventure every day. Does this mean I need to not rely less on technology to communicate? But doesn't that make me antiquated or less efficient? I guess this has taught me to always have several plans in place in the event that something doesn't work, or Plan B fails. The good news is that my satellite office works perfectly :)

Starting my new adventure!

Today marked the first day of my employment with Arlington County Public Schools as the Principal of Williamsburg Middle School. I am looking forward to getting to know the WMS learning community and building relationships with a new cohort of professionals.