Do what we expect of others (Culture of Learning)

This past week I have embarked on a new journey.  I have taken many classes both face to face and online. I have taken courses at 7 different colleges or universities.  This week I tried something new, I joined a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) for leadership 2.0.  This is something that I am interested in, and I believe after the first session, that I will learn a lot.

As principal I promote anywhere, anytime learning from anyone.  It is about time that I practice what I preach.  Every time someone approaches me with a question about how to do something, I Google it.  I have gotten pretty good at searching and sending the videos or pages that I find, but I could be better.  One day I searched for how to search better (I know it sounds confusing).  What did I find?  Power searching with Google , a free online course open to anyone.  So I sat down, watched some videos, completed some practice, and learned.

I expect that my teachers will be continuous learners.  They should be learning all the time and they have access to a huge amount of information, available online for free.  Students have access to the same information.  I truly believe that we as educators need to shift from teaching content to teaching learning.  If students know how to learn, they can learn anything.

In my office I have a few things hanging on the wall:
Our vision statement:

"South Eastern School District...Providing progressive education to strengthen the global community"

 My Daniel Pink sentence: Was I better today than yesterday?

"He broke down the barriers of education and allowed teachers and ALL students to learn together."

And this picture:

 

"I want my teachers to be innovators in the classroom because of their principal not in spite of their principal" @gcouros

In order to promote progressive education and model learning, I will commit to blogging my experiences, both positive and negative.  This blog will become an online portfolio of my learning.  My hope is to use this space to connect to my teachers and students online portfolios.  Someone who has never stepped foot in my building, should know what great things we are doing here.  Through comments and feedback I will continue to grow, learn and lead SEMS-East to be the best school it can be.