C4T #1

The Principal's Principles: Hope, Opportunity, and Courage

I was assigned to Mr. Bernia for my first C4T assignment. His blog is entitled "The Principal's Principles," which I thought was both catchy and appropriate for the subjects his posts about. When I first viewed his blog, I came across his subtitle which said "I am a middle school principal striving to make the world a better place, one day at a time." I was immediately excited to read what he had to say because I could sense his positivity right off the bat. The first post I read of Mr. Bernia's was "3 words for the year: Hope, Opportunity, and Courage." He spoke about the preparation he and his staff were making for the upcoming school year, and he decided to speak about hope, opportunity, and courage in the first staff meeting he held with his teachers. He began by saying that teachers are sometimes the only source of hope students see on a daily basis, and he said that it is our charge as educators to give our students hope. He then used an example of giving students opportunity. He described how his school took a trip to see the movie The Hunger Games, and in the car on the way there, he discovered one of his students had never been to a movie theater before. He was a source of opportunity for this particular student. He ended by discussing how we should have the courage to focus on our students rather than ourselves.

In my first comment to Mr. Bernia, I began by introducing myself and explaining how I would be commenting on his blog for my EDM310 class. I gave him my email address and links to my blog and the class blog where he could get in touch with me if he wished to. I then praised him for the inspirational post he made. I agreed that teachers have the huge task of being a source of hope, opportunity, and courage for students, and I told him that as a future teacher, my goal is to positively impact students' lives. I also told him how important I thought it was that we put aside our own needs to focus on the needs of our students.

The Principal's Principles: Begin with the end in mind

Mr. Bernia's second post I read was "Begin with the end in mind." He described how important it is for educators to begin each school year with the end results in mind. He wants to focus on the instruction that will lead to students mastering new standards. He listed several common core standards from the Smarter Balanced assessments: students will need to think through the questions, do some analysis, and answer; students will need to take more time for each question; time on task has to increase. He ended by emphasizing that his main goal as a school administrator is greater student achievement.

In my comment to Mr. Bernia, I again praised him for a wonderful post. I told him how I agreed that each of the core standards he listed was relevant to schools today. I then described how I understand now more than ever as a college student how important is is to take your time when it comes to assessment. You must slow down, read the questions, and do the very best you can. I told him how nice it was to see an administrator so focused on student achievement and how it was great that the students were his main priority. I look forward to possibly hearing back from Mr. Bernia, and I will definitely continue reading his blog posts.