Jane Blomstrand is an educator with over 30 years of experience in schools. She is a former teacher of the year and has held many different positions in education including classroom teacher, literacy specialist, elementary school principal, and director of a teacher-credentialing program. When her grandkids started school they began to ask her, “What DOES a principal do all day?” So, when she retired, she enrolled in a creative writing class and began recording many of the stories that happened during her time as a principal. Encouraged by her classmates she published Meet the Principal: My Journey Beyond the Curriculum, an anthology of her experiences. Most principals have stories like these. Some stories will make you laugh, some will make you smile, and hopefully, some will touch your heart.
Currently, Jane is enjoying coaching new administrators. She and her husband, dog, and two cats live in Northern California.
My vision of education
A quilt hung in my office when I was a principal. It has a special meaning for me. I looked to it more frequently than I ever imagined as a reminder of where my focus needed to be for whatever decision I was about to make. How that quilt came to be, is part of my journey.
I was at university getting my Administrative Credential and was required to complete a project representing my vision of education. It could be narrative in the form of a thesis paper, or an artistic portrayal. I gave it a lot of thought and finally came to the conclusion that as a thesis paper it would most likely sit on a shelf and never get looked at again. However, a visual representation could be displayed wherever I worked, and would serve as a constant reminder of what was most important to me about educating students.
