Learning & Leading 30 Miles Out to Sea

I have found keeping up a blog to be challenging.  It is certainly not for lack of ideas or opinions to share.  Instead it is about making the blog part of my routine and also feeling comfortable to share ideas and opinions without giving the impression that these ideas/opinions will translate to instant and rapid change at my school.  While I had the excuse of writing a dissertation for not blogging in the past, there really is no longer an excuse now that I have earned my Ed.D. and the dissertation is complete http://gradworks.umi.com/36/16/3616041.html.

Since my last blog post, I have been the middle school principal on the island of Nantucket.  It is a unique place where we have a student population that is made of up of urban demographics, yet located in a remote, rural setting 30 miles out to sea.  Today as I write this entry, we are in the middle of a Nor’easter.  These storms have become routine – however it brings attention to where we live.  Today there are no boats and no flights on/off the island due to the high winds and rough seas.  Thankfully most of the year features terrific weather for all four seasons.

We face the same challenges that other public middle schools face throughout the Commonwealth and the country.  However, we also have additional challenges because of our location.  For example, teacher recruitment and retention are challenges in many school districts.  On the island, due mainly to high cost of living and a significant housing shortage, it is incredibly challenging to find highly qualified teachers to fill open positions.  Unless candidates already have some connection to the island, most simply do not even apply.  Another example is that our student-athletes need to be dismissed early (very early) for away games due to the travel time to get to opponent's field/court/rink. 

In this blog, I occasionally hope to write brief posts on my thoughts on education and leadership.  These posts will include thoughts on technology in schools, homework, standards-based grading, and differentiation, among other topics.  Stay tuned.