It’s important for me, as a high school principal, to stay up to date on the latest trends that affect our students and be prepared for potential impacts on education. I am currently in my third year as a principal. Previously, I served as an assistant principal for two years.  

I try to take advantage of every opportunity to gain new insights and experiences. I have attended conferences with the Louisiana Association of Principals and the Louisiana Department of Education. I’ve also attended the National School Leaders Advocacy Conference and most recently UNTED. I thoroughly enjoy being able to network with other administrators and acquire information that will help me in my profession. However, for building administrators like myself, it is often difficult to break away from campus and receive high-quality professional development.  

The webinar series that NASSP offers aligns with my goal of attaining quality professional material through convenient means. What first sparked my interest in exploring the webinar series was when I saw the topic of AI in education and its use in instruction. In April, May, and June, I attended the three webinars in the series: “The School Leader’s Role in Supporting Staff in AI-Driven Instruction,” “School Leaders Building Tomorrow’s Schools: AI Instructional Tools and Classroom,” and “Successes, Challenges and Insights: School Leader Interactive Conversations Around AI.”  

DeRidder High School’s leadership team from left: Teacher Leader Brad Parmley, Assistant Principal Kelly Billiot, Assistant Principal Carmen Wingate, and Principal Sammy Smith. Photo courtesy of Sammy Smith.
DeRidder High School’s leadership team from left: Teacher Leader Brad Parmley, Assistant Principal Kelly Billiot, Assistant Principal Carmen Wingate, and Principal Sammy Smith. Photo courtesy of Sammy Smith.

AI is definitely a hot topic, especially in education. AI is everywhere now, and the fact is when most school leaders like me received our education and training it didn’t even exist and was not a topic that needed to be discussed. Nothing prepared us for dealing with AI’s tremendous impact, which is why these webinars are so important.  

The individuals leading these webinars are not just experts in their specific field, but they are also education professionals who are engaged in the use of AI in their day-to-day operations. Having these training opportunities in a webinar format easily fits into an administrator’s jam-packed schedule. Just as we can’t always leave to attend training off campus, it’s also difficult for us to carve out even an hour of time in a day to take part in a webinar such as this. I was able to attend one of the webinars while attending a state tennis tournament in which our school was competing.   

For the other webinars, I either watched them live or later since they’re recorded if my schedule didn’t allow me to watch them live. The content of each one was relevant and purposeful. After attending them, I shared what I learned about the effective use of AI in classrooms and how AI could make daily operations more efficient with my team, and we even put things like using AI for creating documents into practice immediately. ​​We’ve also been able to share information with our English department about the proper use of AI by students with their writing assignments.  

I am excited about the next professional development opportunity that NASSP provides, and I encourage every high school administrator to take advantage of these webinars. 

About the Author

Sammy Smith is the principal of DeRidder High School in DeRidder, LA, and the state coordinator for the Louisiana Association of Principals.  

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