C4T Assignment #1

The Principal's Principles

Link to Mr. Bernia's Blog:
The Principal's Principles

In Mr. Bernia's post from August 30th, he talks about beginning the school year with these three words: hope, opportunity, and courage. He goes on to say how it is the job of educators to bring these three things to students. I particularly liked the paragraph about opportunity. He writes about a child who had made it to 8th grade without ever going to a movie theater. I think it is so important to find opportunities to get students out of the classroom in order to experience new things. Overall, it was an excellent post about how educators affect students' lives.

For my comment to Mr. Bernia, I wrote that this was a wonderful post to start the year off. I told him about studying to be an Elementary school teacher. I also went on to say that we should incorporate his three words of focus (hope, opportunity, and courage) into our daily lives as well as our classrooms. The ending really tied it together for me, when he says "if not us, who?" it made me think. I wrote,"I think as educators it is easy to forget how much influence one has on students. It really is amazing, if we take the time to do so, how much we can affect a child’s life."

The second post I chose to comment on was from August 17th. I was once again moved by Mr. Bernia's post. The title of this post was "Begin with the end in mind". In this post Mr. Bernia talks about how, after spending the day learning about and planning for the Common Core standards, he walks away with Stephen Covey's famous habit in mind. He then proceeds to discuss the use of assessment in order to have successful implementation. He says that by focusing on what we want students to achieve, we can focus on the instruction needed to gain mastery. He then lists several items from Smarter Balanced assessments. He concludes by saying that student achievement is one of his top two priorities (safety being the other).

My comment to Mr. Bernia was filled with praise. I also believe that focusing on the end from the beginning is a good habit to use in life as well as in education. I praised this post, just as I did the first one. He is a well spoken/written blogger. I also wrote how, of the items he listed from Smarter Balanced assessments, the one that stuck out to me most was allowing more time to focus on the task. I wrote to Mr. Bernia that too often in the classroom we are rushing to the finish line. I believe if we slowed down a little we would allow students a greater opportunity for understanding as well as retention.