The Principal's Bark

Week 28-Simon Estes...a true Iowa Icon coming to HDHS.

This week is the week...Simon Estes will be in residency in Hampton Thursday and Friday.  He will be addressing HDHS students as well as CAL students and West Fork students during a school assembly at 1:45 on Thursday.  Some students may not know who Simon Estes is now, but I guarantee they will know who he is after they meet him and hear him sing.  He will perform God Bless American for Franklin County students.  After singing, Estes will talk to students about his journey from small town Iowa boy (born and raised in Centerville, IA) to a celebrity known around the world who has sung for presidents, kings, and queens.  What a treat to be able to but an Iowa icon and great role model in front of our students!

Multiple positions have recently been posted for the 2010-11 school year at HDHS:

Alternative School Teacher

9-12 Special Education Teacher

Technology Integrationist

1/2 9-12 Social Studies Teacher

The Iowa Tests of Educational Development will be administered to all 9-11th grade students next week.  These are the standardized tests in which schools measure growth and are compared to each other by.  Students must do their best on these tests so any encouragement you can give your son or daughter the better.  We take 2 tests each day for three days.  We look forward to getting results back and being abel to share them with parents and students.

Download Test Talks

Download ITED Schedule2010

Download ITED Senior Schedule

Week 27-Planning "The Game Changer."

Thank you for those parents who made it a priority to come to parent teacher conference this past week.  Though it is still a good time to network with teachers our attendance was drastically down.  Normally at spring conference high school attendance is down anyway but this year it was at an all time low of under 40% parent attendance.  I don't necessarily blame parents for not coming because they don't want to hear from teachers.  Rather, I believe the technology advances with PowerSchool that enables parents to stay informed on a daily basis about their child's education is to blame for low attendance.  I'm also not sure this is a bad thing.  Maybe parent teacher conferences need to look different and be more efficient for parents? Maybe with each student having a laptop next year, students should demonstrate learning with technology and parents wouldn't necessarily need to come to the building to meet with teachers?  How could we make parent teacher conferences more meaningful?  How can conference evolve into a more efficient time to partner parents and teachers?

During parent teacher conferences I also hosted an informational meeting about the 1:1 laptop initiative that was recently approved for the 2010-11 school year at HDHS.  To my surprise, only 4 parents came to the informational meeting both nights combined.  I'm not sure this is a good thing or bad thing at this point.  I'm hopeful this means that parents are trusting the school to plan and carry out the initiative without their input and resistance.  My fear is that parents feel too busy to be informed about the laptop initiative now and will later claim it happened without their input.  I will be talking to the local Kiwanis and Rotary clubs in the near future about the laptop initiative in the near future and welcome feedback and questions from parents anytime.

Download Public 1.1 Presentation

Simon Estes will be visiting HDHS to perform for and address Franklin County students on Thursday, March 4th at 1:45.  Over 1100 students will hear his address.  Simon is personally looking forward to kicking off his tour in Hampton and talking to students.  See Leon Kuehner's interview with Simon below.

http://simonestes.hamptoniowa.org

Week 26-Ticket to 21st Century Learning...Approved!

I'm excited that our H-D school board has approved the 1:1 laptop initiative at HDHS for the 2010-11 school year.  This means that every 9-12th grade student will have a laptop during the school day and to take home.  Students will be assigned a computer that they may customize and use for both school and personal use.  The research on this initiative is clear.  Students will become more responsible.  Students will also be able to be creative in ways they have not been allowed at school before.  They will be able to network with other students and adults from around the state, country, and world.  Students will also get a leg up on using real-world software and applications that will help them become college and career ready.

Download 1.1 Laptop Presentation to Board

With any great reward comes work and risk.  This initiative is no different.  The work began months ago and will continue inevitably.  The work will be worth it and many people will be amazed at how creative students really are when we allow them to show their learning in different ways.  Between now and the roll of computers to students during school registration days next fall there is much work to do including writing policy, ensuring hardware is in place for many more computers, hiring a tech integration person to help lead the 1:1 initiative, professional development for teachers, and promoting and answering questions about the initiative between now and then. 

This week is parent teacher conferences in the district.  At the high school, parents will notice that while they wait to talk with a teacher, videos of 1:1 schools will be playing on the TVs.  Hopefully this will be a good visual for parents who have not been able to visit a school that already gives each student a laptop.  This initiative is very different than anything most parents and community people have every seen nor experienced in their own education.  Furthermore, both Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6:15 I will be hosting an informational session in the high school library for any parents or community people interested in hearing more about the 1:1 initiative at HDHS.  I will also answer any questions.  The district has also set up a website designed to get information to parents about the 1:1 initiative and research to support it.  You can view those resources at:  http://www.hdcsd.org/schools/high/onetoone/onetoone.html

I am personally very excited to be leading this initiative and very happy that our school board showed that despite the tough economic times that student achievement and learning cannot take a backseat to the almighty dollar.  We only have one chance to educate each student.  With this one chance, students, parents, and society deserve the best education possible for our future workforce and leaders.  What job doesn't use a computer these days?  If you think this 1:1 initiative is expensive you are right.  However, I would be scared to think how expensive it may be if we didn't do it either for our students.

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Download The One-to-One Guide