Dear Gahanna Lincoln Students and Parents,
The 2014-15 school year is
quickly approaching. The entire staff at
Gahanna Lincoln High School is excited about the new year. For those of you whom I have not had the
opportunity to meet, my name is Bobby Dodd and I am honored to be the next
principal at GLHS.
I would like to take this
opportunity to introduce myself to you and discuss my background and my
educational philosophies. As a former
teacher and coach for over thirteen years, I believe it is important to create
a culture where students believe they have the opportunity to be
successful. That being said, students
must also take advantage of their opportunities to be successful. Success just doesn’t happen. Success is earned. One of my favorite quotes about success is
from Aristotle, “Success is an art earned by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do. Success, then, is not an act but a habit.” We are going to challenge our students at
GLHS. Our students need to respond with perseverance
and resiliency. Students will encounter
pinnacles and obstacles throughout the year.
It is imperative that our students continue to grow when they reach the
top and use the feedback given to them when they are struggling to achieve
success. It is imperative to grow from
our failures. As motivational speaker
and author of Shift Your Brilliance Simon
Bailey says, “Failure is feedback. Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”
I know what it is like to
have to persevere when confronted with academic struggles. From high school to graduate level classes, I
have always had a difficult time adjusting academically. It didn’t matter how good of a school I attended
at the time or how good my teachers and professors were, I did not adjust well
to new academic situations. My struggles
included poor academic practices such as not utilizing my time outside of class
effectively, not taking advantage of collaborating opportunities with my
classmates, and not utilizing all of the resources I had at my disposal to help
me succeed. But in each instance of my
schooling, I found a way to confront my academic challenges and eventually
succeed. Please understand this didn’t
just happen. I earned it, as Aristotle
says, with training and habit. Spending
the extra time with teachers and professors, maximizing the use of my
resources, and working with other people enabled me to succeed. I realized I needed to make these things a
habit in my life in order to succeed after I was finished with school.
I believe it is important to use
innovative teaching methods to help students grow and compete with other
students around the country. You know as
well as I do, our society is constantly changing. We need to prepare our students for these changes. Our teachers will use different methods of
instruction to help our students adjust and be prepared for the opportunities
of tomorrow. As administrators, parents
and stakeholders, we need to support different teaching methods that may be
different from how you and I learned while we were in school. While our students may struggle at times
adjusting to different methods, it gives our students and teachers the
opportunity to differentiate their learning.
It is necessary for us to embrace innovation and continue to support
different methods of instruction that help us continue to be a leader of
innovation in our state. We need to
continue to focus on innovation in and out of the classroom. This summer, I read Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Confidence in Us All,
by David and Tom Kelly which explained the need for continuous effort towards
innovation, “The organizations, communities, and nations that thrive are the ones
that initiate action, that launch innovation cycles, that learn by doing as
soon as they can.” We will continue to
focus on innovation to provide our students with the best opportunities to
succeed and compete with other students from around the country.
We are extremely proud of our
successes at GLHS. Take it from someone
who is coming in from another district, Gahanna has an abundance of excellent
programs, organizations and teams that set us apart from other schools. A great example of this is the musical
production of Hairspray performed
this past year at GLHS. It was an
amazing production that many staff, students, and parents played a vital role
in to make it such a success. It was
truly a team effort. You could see in
the faces of the staff members, students, parents and community members how
proud they were of our students. As my
family and I sat in the crowd, it was evident that everyone had ownership in
the performance. I still hear people
talk about the performance like it was yesterday. That is truly something special. The performance was a great example of
teamwork and collaboration. If you look
at other groups at GLHS such as our teacher, athletic teams, school counselors,
administrators, secretaries and custodians, they epitomize teamwork and
collaboration. Our successes are built
from the foundation of a collaborative environment where as professionals we
focus on our duty to our students and community.
GLHS continues to be a
dynamic place with many educational and extra-curricular opportunities for our
students. Our vision remains strong as
we are educating our students for the challenges of today and opportunities of
tomorrow. One area of opportunity for
our students is the new Innovation Generation program recently established in
our school district. This program is a
new state initiative allowing Central Ohio high school students to gain skills
needed for jobs of today. Central Ohio
districts had the opportunity to focus on a variety of programs that were
beneficial to their districts and communities.
Gahanna Jefferson has chosen to focus on advanced
manufacturing/engineering and health care due to the industry partners in our
area. With the grant funds, GLHS is now equipped
with a distance-learning lab where students and staff have the opportunity to
connect globally with other classes and schools. In addition to the distance-learning lab, Gahanna
Jefferson also has a mobile fabrication lab (Fab Lab) where students and staff
have access to laser cutters, 3D printers, and robotics among other
technological resources. Students and
staff have the opportunity to work with advanced technology and local industry
leaders such as DynaLab and other engineering and manufacturing companies to
continue to build relationships with the local business community. Innovation Generation has also allowed us to
offer a course titled Introduction to Engineering. This course utilizes curriculum from the Project
Lead the Way educational engineering program.
We are excited about the new opportunities for our students and staff as
we continue to prepare our students for the opportunities and challenges of
tomorrow.
We are continuing our focus
on our core values at GLHS of Purpose,
Respect, Integrity, Diversity,
and Excellence. Our theme this year at GLHS is “Everyone
Counts.” We will incorporate each of
these values and our theme into our mission of educating students for today and
tomorrow. We will use these core
principles to guide us as we continuously seek to improve our teaching methods
for growth of the whole student, inside and outside of the classroom. We encourage all of our stakeholders to
participate in this journey with us by encouraging behavior of our students
that focuses on P.R.I.D.E. and
communicate with our teachers to learn more about innovative learning
opportunities for our students.
The staff at GLHS worked very
hard this summer to improve in their profession. We had many teachers who received
professional development by attending conferences and enrolling in classes. I believe as a school and community we grow
together. If you follow my twitter
account (@bobby__dodd) you will often see me use the hashtag
#WeGrowTogether. As adults, we need to
always search for opportunities to grow, whether it is in our profession or as
humans. The best way to grow is by
utilizing collaboration and working with others. The education field is no different. GJPS Superintendent Francis Scruci recently
wrote about our district staff and how they continue to improve while school is
not in session (http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/gahanna/news/2014/07/15/straight-talk-summer-doesnt-mean-break-for-everyone.html). The staff at GLHS takes pride in their craft
and is constantly looking to improve to help our students.
Two of our teachers at GLHS,
Cindi Macioce and Chris Wagner, recently attended a Broadway Teachers Workshop
Conference in New York City. They were
able to collaborate with other instructors from around the world and work
together to discuss possible changes to their instructional strategies this
upcoming year. Also during the summer, Mrs.
Macioce earned the 2014 Educator’s Voice Secondary School Teacher by the
Academy of Education Arts and Sciences International (http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/gahanna/news/2014/07/29/educators-voice-macioce-earns-secondary-school-teacher-honor-from-academy.html). This is a great honor for one of our staff
members.
The summer allows our teachers time to expand their knowledge and gain useful professional development from a variety of resources. Many of our intervention specialists took part in training this summer to become highly qualified in different content areas. This will enable our teachers to work with students in multiple content areas, collaborate with other teachers, and build stronger relationships with students. We have also hired highly qualified teachers from surrounding districts to fill vacant positions at GLHS. These teachers bring experience to GLHS in utilizing different types of teaching methods and we are excited for them to be a part of our team.
As a member of the GLHS staff
and building principal, I feel it is important to discuss how I have been
growing as an educator. One area I
looked to focus on this summer was communication tools. I wanted to make sure that we are doing
everything we can at GLHS to communicate our message and keep our stakeholders
informed. I read Eric Sheninger’s book Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for
Changing Times last month and it touched on a variety of new useable forms
of communication tools that we will use at GLHS. Another area where I am growing
professionally is focusing on creativity and innovation in education. We need to continue to educate all of our
stakeholders about the importance of innovation in education. By reading different books and communicating
with my personal learning network using social media, I believe we can create a
vision for GLHS that incorporates all of characteristics that make our
community great: the families, industry, leadership, traditions, and passion
for the growth of our students.
I enjoy reading different
books, blogs, and social media feeds to grow professionally. I usually concentrate my readings on
educational and leadership areas. As we
know, reading is a great way for all of us to become more knowledgeable and
also a great way to relax. When we take
time to read, we model for our children and students the importance of
knowledge, growth, and education. Some of
my favorite books that I have read this summer include Tribes by Seth Godin, The New
School by Glenn Reynolds, Creative
Confidence by Tom and David Kelly (as mentioned earlier), and The ONE Thing by Gary Keller. I suggest reading any of these books as they
don’t only relate to education but also they focus on the basic principles of
leadership.
One of the blogs I enjoy
reading is The Connected Principal
which includes posts submitted by principals from all over the world. Another blog I enjoy is Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. It focuses on the different types of
technological resources and tools that are currently be used in classrooms. Finally one of my favorite blogs to read is The Principal of Change by George
Couros. George focuses his writings on
leadership and good teaching, but also writes about experiences we all deal
with in life. Books, blogs, and other
readings allow me to analyze great minds in education and visualize how we can
incorporate different concepts and methods at Gahanna Lincoln High School for
years to come.
A group of people who know I
love to read is my family. Not only am I
thrilled to be a part of the Gahanna Jefferson school district, but so is my
family. I have three daughters: one in
college at Ohio University, a soon-to-be freshman at Gahanna Lincoln, and an
eight year old daughter who will be in the third grade at Blacklick
Elementary. We recently returned from
our family vacation eager to take the next step in our lives of transitioning
to Gahanna. While moving and changing
schools are normally arduous tasks, my family and I are using the transition as
an opportunity of change. This change
allows us to self-reflect and realize how fortunate we are. Sometimes change can be scary and leave
people with a feeling of a sense of insecurity.
The challenge of change is overcoming those feelings and taking advantage
of the opportunity change creates for you.
In our case, it is the opportunity to be a part of something special in a
great community with great people.
On behalf of the staff at
Gahanna Lincoln High School, we are excited to be able to work with your
students this school year. As we prepare
our students today for the opportunities of tomorrow, we will encounter many
different paths along the way. As
parents and community members, we need to understand that preparing our
students for these opportunities means we will need to change our traditional
educational practices. The timing of
change is everything as Seth Godin states in Tribes, “Change almost never fails because it is too early, it
almost always fails because it is too late” (p. 119). As I stated above, let’s take advantage of
the opportunity that change presents and create an educational experience for
our students that is unmatched in our area.
As educators, we will not be able to do this alone. I invite you to join us in this cause and
meaningful endeavor. We need to work
together to make a difference in our students’ lives so they will help the
Gahanna community to continue to grow and help make Gahanna Lincoln High School
one of the best schools in the country.
In order to stay connected
with everything going on at GLHS, please remember to follow us on Twitter
@GLHSLions, follow me on Twitter @bobby__dodd, like us on Facebook at Gahanna
Lincoln High School Lions, and utilize the school website (http://www.gahannaschools.org/Schools/Lincoln_High_School/SchoolLincolnHigh.aspx)
to locate important forms and information regarding GLHS. You can also use Remind to receive text
messages regarding events and information at the school. Just text the number (424)-543-6350 with the
message @glhsinfo in the body of the text message to receive messages from
GLHS. Also, please make sure we have
your updated email address so you can receive emails from GLHS. Please contact the school counselors if you
need to update your email address with the school.
Again, it’s great to be a
part of the team at GLHS and the community of Gahanna. Remember to plan on attending our Open House
at the high school on Tuesday, August 26th from 7:00-9:00 pm. Please contact the office if you have any
questions regarding the start of the new school year.
Aim Higher,
Principal
Gahanna Lincoln High School