reflection paper 1

As a member of an educational organization I was particularly intrigued by the information I learned this past about the survey tool.  I have used a variety of survey tools in the past but really like the ease of this one and the variety of options it gives in setting up the questions.  The automatic calculation of the data is a fabulous feature as well and will save untold amounts of time.

Being a principal of a school I am continually encouraging the use of data to drive our instruction, planning and purchases. The survey tool would be quite helpful in securing additional data from all of our stakeholders, but specifically from our students, their families and their teachers.  I can easily seeing myself or anyone on my staff assembling a survey to assist with learning more about what types of prizes our students may wish to have access to for our weekly drawings or using the survey to gather their ideas about possible new courses they think would enhance or better support their educational experiences. For our parents providing them easy access to online surveys is a cost effective manner to learn more about what they feel are good things about our district and/or school. Most families have access to internet so with a number of reminders and some encouragement I believe we could get good representative data from our families. And for staff I see using the survey as a wonderful way to garner thoughts and comments from quickly and confidentially.

The time spent learning about setting up and then creating a basic Google site was quite valuable for me it provided a tremendous opportunity to learn about the behind the scenes activities that go into producing a site.  Though initially I believed websites to be a job designated to the highly technical person, it do believe with some time and repetition I could pull together a site that would be useful to whoever ventured upon it. The information I learned during class was in many respects, a starting point for how I might be able to work with my staff and our Instructional Technology department head to possibly restructure our current site and make it more interactive and easier to locate things.  For example we are currently our school is in the first year of our “The River View Way” program which is based on the Positive Behavior Intervention Support framework. Based on what I experienced in class last week I can see limitless possibilities with the number of things we can do to reinforce the message we want to send about our school.  Ideas such as student’s role modeling appropriate school behavior on video clips, a playable principal’s message and the taping of student meetings all flooded my mind as possible ways to get the word out to all who go to our website to learn more about us.

A lot of possibilities about how to improve our organization’s use of technology was learned in class, however the one new learning I look forward to using the most would be the use of google docs and it abilities regarding attachments.  I could not agree more with whomever said we waste a lot of time and energy sending attachments back and forth and then back and forth again with tweaks.  It was most refreshing to hear, as I have never used google docs prior to last week, that there was a way to eliminate these numerous email trains of attachments that quickly fill up mailbox.

Dan Joseph

auto

My first eighteen years were spent in far northern Wisconsin learning how to navigate life with five brothers and sisters. I have many pleasant memories of my growing up years and try to get back to the homestead as often as possible to visit with my father and sibling who still live in the northwoods. I graduated from high school in 1984 and from the UWSP in 1989.

Having completed college I landed my first job on the beautiful western lakeshore of Lake Michigan as a primary teacher. That same year is was fortunate enough to marry my college sweetheart. I spent one year at my first placement and was then hired in another district as an intermediate teacher and spent the next twelve years teaching at elementary schools in the same district. I also served as a Dean of Students at the local high school. While teaching at the elementary level I began and completed an Educational Leadership Masters program at the University of Wisconsin.

In 2002 I was given the opportunity to become an elementary principal in a school district on the north end of the Fox Valley. For the next six years I was that school’s principal and then in 2008 was asked by my superintendent to transfer to the district’s middle school where I have been since.
My wife and I have two children. Our oldest child attends college on the western side of the state and our  daughter is a junior in high school. My wife is a teacher in the same district my daughter attends and we have been married 22 years.