Jonathan Seal

I have worked in education for 15+ years, with the last 13 spend in Connecticut. I'm looking for opportunities to move my family closer to our family roots in the west. I have a passion for education and seeing all students succeed. I want to take what I've learned in Connecticut to the western part of the US.

I believe an excellent administrator must be a good listener, an excellent collaborator, a brilliant problem solver, have excellent communication skills, and be a caring leader. Administrators must listen to many points of view to be able to effectively make good decisions. Excellent administrators also take the time to collaborate and work with others. Administrators need to know how to use data to make decisions, solve problems, and to base those decisions and solutions on scientifically researched methods and ideas -- all to maximize success.

My three best skills are technology integration, collaboration, and problem solving. I have gained these skills through both study and applying what I learned throughout my fifteen year career. I will highlight just a few of the examples of these skills and attributes.

Twenty-First Century skills, and the world with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and the internet, have changed how knowledge is accessed and the exclusive need to memorize facts. The amount of information available to humankind, with an internet connection, is incomprehensible. However, many of the tests created by teachers, districts, and states are fact-based tests with a scattering of higher order skills on the better assessments. We are not preparing students for our current society.

I would like to pursue many areas of professional growth. Two of the top choices would be incorporating more mastery based learning in secondary schools (both middle and high school), and using blended learning to increase student engagement and achievement. I believe these two areas complement each other well.

This school year (2012-13) I've made my first real effort into flipping my math classrooms. I've had mixed success and anyone who begins the process will probably acknowledge. I will attempt to captures some of my reflections here on this blog, mostly for my own sake, partly to force me to actually put in writing my thoughts, and hopefully so others won't make the same mistakes I've made.

Teaching requires work that gives great rewards. I believe all students can learn. As an administrator I must help both the faculty and students to realize that everyone can learn. I have had the opportunity to touch many lives while teaching math and chemistry, and more recently as a department head. In motivating teachers in my department, I help them learn to give students life skills guided by state and district-mandated curricula. In addition, I use my skills, knowledge, and experiences to help motivate my department to teach the students to problem solve and become lifelong learners.

As a long time member of the educational technology community in one way or another, and a weekly listener of a number of educational technology podcasts, I have been thinking about how as a future administrator I can bring my knowledge of technology into the school. Over the past few years I have also been increasingly frustrated with my curriculum as a math teacher.

    Spring semester 2009 was by far the most productive internship experience I have had during the whole program. In addition to spending a full week at my internship site while they were in session, I felt I connected with the administrative team in a very positive way. I also managed to meet most of my goals. Until this semester, I viewed the internship requirement as a proverbial hoop that needed jumping through. Now, after gaining a consistent view of how the school operates, I see the value to my experience of the internship requirement.