My First Email

This past week I received my first email from a student. I know this may sound like no big deal to many of you, but this was truly revolutionary to me. The student simply stated he had heard about a new student technology assistance team we were starting and he wanted to know how to get involved. A very simple request but it had a profound impact on me.
As a principal, I do my best to get to know the students. I enjoy the time I get to converse with students in the morning and in between classes. I love talking with students and encouraging them through a sincere greeting and a smile. I relish the moments when I get to spend a few extra minutes with a student and they share with me a story about something happening in their life. I am conditioned like Pavlov's dogs to rush out to the halls when I hear the bell ring so I can catch a few moments of interaction with the students. However, this one student email completely changed my thought process and made me think I may be missing a key opportunity with my students.
Being in a 1:1 school, I have talked numerous times to our staff about the various ways they can use technology to enhance student learning. We have talked about 24/7 student access and I have witnessed countless incidents of teachers using technology tools to leverage learning opportunities beyond the classroom. As a principal I do my best to model the use of technology to enhance communication and learning for our staff. I believe I need to be a lead learner and to not ask anything of our staff I would not be willing to do myself. Between school blogs, a school Facebook page, Twitter posts and collaboration, and Google sites for professional development and building communication, I am continually trying to model the power of technology for our staff. Which is why I can't believe I missed it. After receiving my first email from a student I began to ask myself:

• Why have I limited myself to using these web 2.0 tools to communicate and collaborate with staff?
  
• Why haven't I leveraged these tools to make myself more open to students?
• What possible opportunities have I been missing to communicate with students beyond the halls?

From school announcements to student recognition, mass student emails and Google sites (similar to what I do for our staff) could open up a whole new window into communicating with students. While the face to face interaction I get with students in the hall, in class, and during their free time will always be vital, leveraging technology to communicate with students could be very empowering to kids. Looks like I have found a worthy summer project.