Episode Details

Mike St. Pierre, a Catholic high school leader in New Jersey, explains how to handle technology integration without wasting money. Try small experiments in a classroom, and move slowly on anything school-wide. He also shares the morning routine that keeps him steady and why he reads well outside education.

St. Pierre describes how his school let student teams redesign an outdated classroom, then present to a panel in what he calls Shark Tank meets HGTV Dream Home. The room is set to become a YouTube studio, an interview studio and a writing lab. He also points to Los Angeles Unified's iPad rollout as a warning.

What you'll learn

• Treat classroom experiments as low risk and school-wide rollouts as high stakes, and research the second kind before you commit.
• Pilot a one-to-one program with a single grade first, as St. Pierre did with eighth graders, and go school-wide in year three.
• Give students a real design problem, a coach and a panel to present to, then get out of the way.
• Start your day on your own terms, whether that means arriving early or reading quietly before the building fills up.
• Read widely outside education, as St. Pierre does, so you don't become the boring administrator who only reads Education Week.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why gadgets alone do not change learning
• 4:03 Students redesign a classroom, Shark Tank style
• 7:58 Tying student projects to standards and curriculum
• 12:33 Where to experiment and where to be careful
• 14:17 Why rushed tablet programs fail schools
• 17:11 Rolling out one-to-one over three years
• 23:03 A morning routine and daily reading habits
• 29:11 Start your day on purpose

Times are for the episode without ads. Your player may be off by the length of any ads.

Questions this episode answers

How do you decide which school technology experiments are worth the risk?
St. Pierre says classroom-level experiments have almost all upside and little chance of loss, so teachers should try new things and fail forward. Whole-school initiatives need homework first: find out who else has done it, learn their pitfalls, and go slow at first so you can go fast later.

How should a school roll out a one-to-one device program?
St. Pierre's school started with one group of eighth graders for a year, expanded a little the next year, and went school-wide only in year three. That let staff tell families what they had learned from two years. He calls a rollout a multi-year commitment.

What should a principal do first thing in the morning?
St. Pierre says to start your day on purpose and on your own terms. For him that means getting up at the same time, reading the news and about ten blogs, and journaling. He suggests arriving early, or having coffee with a quiet book, so you don't feel rushed.

About Mike St. Pierre

Leader of a Catholic high school in New Jersey, writer at mikestpierre.com and co-host of the Techspiration podcast.

Links and resources

• Mike St. Pierre show notes
• Transformative Principal website

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