And Then There Was the Blog

The Friday Memo did its job well for 8 years. It was good, but in the back of mind was something better.

I had been maintaining the blog you are reading now for about a year. The simplicity was appealing. I could compose it from anywhere. People could read it from anywhere. It required no paper, no ink, no toner. It was self-saving. Where to "file" the information was a non-issue. It was already filed in cyberspace, and the click of a mouse could take you to any post from the oldest to the newest.

When school began in the fall of 2005, the Friday Memo had been replaced with a blog dedicated the faculty and staff at our school. That initial post is here.

Posts appeared weekly throughout the school year. I tried very hard to maintain the same concept as I had with the Friday Memo. There would be one post which would contain all of the information people would need to know for the next week. Checking the blog just once a week was enough.

At the end of that school year, I moved on to a position at the central office. The blog was not something that was maintained after I left. It does remain as a sample of how a principal can communicate with faculty and staff in a paperless manner.

Furthermore, the blog offers a huge advantage over e-mail. I find few people who have mature systems for managing the information they receive via e-mail. This blog provides a medium that is focus and is maintained in a single place. Information from a week ago, a month ago, or a year ago is retrievable from any computer.

In a world where far too much is far too complex, the blog is something easy enough that I will actually maintain it.