Being Connected - why it's important for Principals

                                         
         https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Okains_Bay_02.jpg
          By Schwede66 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0                            

I've had a few jibes that because I am a sole-charge principal (and have been for the last four months), I'm not required to do staff meetings. I reply with, "How insulting! My staff meetings involve me chatting to the mirror in my office." People tend to think that because I'm generally on my own at my school, my slice of paradise, that there's no one to talk to or to run ideas past. They're partially right, but mostly wrong.

In fact, the honest truth about being a sole-charge principal in a rural, isolated school is that my networking becomes more intentional. 

I've never been more grateful for a Twitter feed, the VLN, Facebook and the likes. I've never been more grateful for developing strong relationships with my board, the local cluster schools and ECEs. I've never been more grateful to have Skype or a landline to ring someone at the drop of the hat. I've never been more grateful than to have former colleagues that continue to lend a hand and collaborate. 

I'm truly excited about being at small school. The opportunities for my students to engage in a variety of learning methods using tech are fairly endless. My future goal is to establish a nationwide, rural schools network (schools of less than 20ish students...) so that these students can engage in online collaboration. (If there is a network like this out there already, please let me know!) I know that being a connected teacher means I need to work equally as hard to ensure my students are connected too.

Enjoy the Connected Educator month. I value the chance to give back after months of leaching other ideas!

Tim de Vries

Okains Bay School

@tim_de_vries

Images sourced from 

 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Okains_Bay_02.jpg 

          By Schwede66 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0