Even More New and Exciting

Well I am officially now 27 days into my new job as the Director of Technology and Instruction for The  Gibsonburg Exempted Village Schools I have learned a great deal in a short time, and one of the most important things I have learned is this: When we work in the field of education and we work closely with others we think we have a good idea of what they do in their job. Since moving into my new role I quickly discovered that I only had a vague idea of what a technology director really does.

It is an interesting job and one which really takes great people skills. Trying to support the technology for 100 staff members and 1100 students is a tremendous challenge for one person. Printers, computers, servers, phones, fax machines, oh yes and did I mention printers are problematic. Then if the wireless access points are making traffic too slow, people lose patience QUICKLY.

A few recommendations...Be sure to back up your documents and photos frequently!!  I recommend finding a cloud-based service such as Google to back up important docs and pics, in addition to your external hard drive or some other form of media. Cloud-based apps are free, or very low cost and as a Google engineer told me "your docs are sitting beside mine on a server, do you think we aren't going to keep things running and secure?"

The Director of Instruction part of my new position is one which I am very comfortable with. The new challenges of the upcoming new assessments in 2014-2015 are real, but certainly manageable with good planning and teamwork.

In other areas of our world...Amber is the new Cross Country Coach at Elgin High School outside of Marion, Ohio. They had their first Invitational last Saturday and she is already making a great impact on her runners, their effort and their attitude. Her excitement reminds me of my days as a cross country coach and my first meet back in the fall of 1988.....seems so long ago...yet I remember it like it was yesterday.

Stephanie is now 7 days into her senior year at BGSU and is planning for the fall softball season for the BG Club Team. She is also working at Buffalo Wild Wings and studying. So proud of her.

Brittany is now 7 days into her freshman year at BGSU. She has moved into her dorm and has a nice roommate. She'll be home for the long Labor Day weekend soon and I miss her (so do her doggies).

Love my family and friends!  God's Blessing to you all!

New and Exciting

New and exciting information from our family:
Amber and Mark Moore are now engaged!! Officially Since early yesterday morning (June 11, 2012). We are all happy and excited for them!!

Also..Amber has taken a new teaching position at Marion Elgin High School starting this fall. She will also be coaching track and possibly Cross-Country... They will be moving into an apartment in Delaware, Ohio at the end of the month.

Stephanie continues to live in Bowling Green this summer and is working at Buffalo Wild Wings. (BDubs) She has a new man in her life Mr. Alex Wohl and they seem to be very happy. She will be entering her final year at BGSU this fall and will be joined by her little sister, Brittany (Bubby) as a new Falcon in the BGSU Class of 2016. Bubby will be living in the dormitory and making new friends and experiencing college life first hand.

Peg and I continue to try to keep up with the girls and I think we both are a little nervous about this new thing called "empty nesting." We'll still have the dogs to keep us company :-)

Have a great day!

Thom

Reflections....Things I Think I Know...But Maybe Didn't?.....

As I approach my 51st birthday, I find myself reflecting more. Here are some of my recent observations (in no particular order).... When you are young and independent and your parents offer advice/suggestions you wonder where did they come up with that idea??? Thinking we know it all, we may not follow their advice. Then, following our own path we sometimes make mistakes and have to "learn the hard way." If we had only listened, things may have been much easier, but then we wouldn't have learned the lesson.

As an educator, I think sometimes we need to remember this with our students. I notice that sometimes teachers feel the need to always be in control, plan the lesson/activities and provide the information. Yet students want to question and "learn the hard way." Which may cause the students to learn and remember these lessons better than if they were passive receivers of information.

Another observation is on the recent incidents with the Ohio State Football Program. It just goes to show how easily life can change. While Buckeye fans and supporters have enjoyed the success of the football team and former Coach Jim Tressell, I learned that when your career is in the hands of 18-22 year old student-athletes, you cannot possibly be aware of everything they are doing. Try as we might, we trust them to make good choices, show good character and be good teammates. Unfortunately these kids choose to not follow good advice and instruction, but they choose to learn some lessons the hard way. (see reference above) While we as fans are disappointed, this situation is just another incident of young people learning valuable lessons. Like I tell students every year, "if you chosse to break the rules then you are also choosing to accept the consequences for your actions." I think the extension of this lesson is can the rest of Buckeye Nation learn from this incident and move forward? Because kids make mistakes and learn from them, can their teammates, coaches and administrators learn too. In my experience, this is one of those times when we can say "we'll evaluate what has occurred and not make that mistake again." While there will be a heavy price to pay for the Buckeyes, I believe they will be back.

I was very impressed by the first press conference by new Buckeyes Coach Luke Fickell. I know he was very well coached and prepared for how to answer the media's questions, I like the "all in" philosophy the was using. If the team can all buy in to this philosopy, and do a little more monitoring of each other and use peer pressure to keep those who may be looking to stray in line, I think the Buckeyes will be just fine.

As our three daughters get older, I have also observed that I continue to use the same statements with them, that my parents used to use with me.... While all three of our girls are doing wonderful things, I still continue to be reminded of the things my parents said to me when I was young, that I am now saying to them :)

Thanks mom and dad for the great advice and also for allowing me to learn the lessons that I needed to "learn the hard way" and not putting me down for it!! I appreciate the things that you have done to help me become the father that I am today. (with Father's Day coming up this Sunday, it's a good time to thank my dad).

Even though This phase of my life is quickly winding down, I find myself continuing to learn and enjoy the new opportunities in education. With advances in technology and social networking, learning opportunities are amazing. While the system of education is very slow to change, we must embrace the opportunities available to us. Having lessons and lectures recorded and available to students either before or after the class period is a new concept, but what can be better for students than having the opportunity to be at home or at school and be able to go online and open this morning's math (or any other subject) class and watch the lesson step by step? Seeing the teacher's examples as they write them on the board, hear the teacher's voice as they expalin the steps, and be able to pause, rewind and review again as necessary.

Wow what a powerful tool that is!

For parents to be able to sit down with their children and see the same information, it will enable the parents to have a "refresher" they may need to remember the things they need to remember to help their child.

I also like the idea of turning the classroom inside-out (or upside-down) and having the lecture/lesson recorded and having the students watch the information prior to coming to class and then using the class time for the teacher to assist the students as they work on problem solving in class. (Just another observation of where we are going in education)

Thanks for reading my ramblings, feel free to comment if this has stimulated any thoughts....constructive criticism is welcome :)

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there including my dad Dave Loomis!!

Ready, Set, Present!

This is my first trip to the Dayton Convention Center in Dayton, Ohio. It is a beautiful place, easy to get to and easy to move about in once you arrive! I am attending the Battelle for Kids "Great Teachers Make Great Schools - Teachers Conference 2010! Tomorrow afternoon I have the wonderful opportunity to share some great tips for improving student achievement in the classroom and on the OGT through the use of Classroom Response Systems. All the prep work is done and now it's just a matter of keeping the fingers crossed that all the technology works as well as it does at GHS, my house and here in the hotel room tonight! Looking forward to making the pesentation!

The second thing was I was able to eat dinner with amber tonight since she now lives only about an hour from Dayton. She drove up and bought me dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse! So neat that she bought her dad dinner since she now has a full time teaching job! So proud of her!!

A Great Day

Today I attended an outstanding conference in Columbus about 21st Century School Design and was able to hear two wonderful speakers: Christian Long and Randy Frazier discuss the changes in education and "education 2.0" as well as how education in our current age is chaniging rapidly and how the design of schools can help the learning process.

I received some good affirmation that the 21st Century Learning Program we are implementing at Gibsonburg High School is certainly the right approach to help engage students , help teachers collaborate with students in our building and around the globe, and help the students grow in this rapidly cahnging worl we live in.

Thanks so much to Christian long for offering new thoughts ideas and resources to help with this program.

A Sad Day

Today is a sad day, on of our seniors died this evening of an apparent suicide. He had a difficult life and decided to end it. This will be a difficult week and tommorow will be a tough day with our kids at school.

God will ease his pain now. Please say a prayer for Eddie and his lovcd ones!

Catching up....w/Coach Loom

Been awhile since I had free time to post on here. Work, coaching softball and attending to school and home activities has not allowed me much free time to access the computer at home. GHS JV softball team is 5-3 after knocking off Elmwood 6-5 tonight in a thriller second straight game we've won in our last at bat and still undefeated at home!

A fun group of girls who are coming together and continuing to improve! A good thing for me and I hope the girls can view me as someone other thatn the "mean old principal!"

Strange thing happened tn=onight, I logged on to the online course for learning podcasting that I have been participating in for the last three weeks and due to an executive order from the governor, our accesss to the course has been elimniated by budget freeze! Many unhappy students because we paid for this course! Stay tuned for updates!

Just signed up for a Twitter account. Anxious to see what the rage is all about!