 Hello everybody, welcome to Finding Your Future. I'm your host Parker Wagner and today I have my very first cast, Dr. Duane Priester. He's been an educator for 24 years and he is a professor for North Arizona College. And 24 years is a long time, it's almost twice as long as I've been alive. So thank you for being on the show. My pleasure. Thanks. I have a series of questions that I want to ask you because I'm very curious. So I'm just going to hop right into it. So the first question is, when you're a teacher for many years, how does being a principal differ from being a teacher? The level of responsibility changes dramatically and I think the thing that I sometimes describe is, I miss being a teacher because I'm another level removed from the students and I'm always reminded of why I got into this business is because I enjoy being around students. So so much of my job now is really focused on dealing with adults and its outwardly facing. That's good, so do you think like dealing with kids is what impacted you to become a principal? Oh sure, you know when I, in the classroom, I really enjoyed that one on one interaction. The feedback that I got from students, the opportunity to watch them learn and grow and, but sometimes what happens is you'll get a principal who'll come into your room and say, hey I think you'd be a good principal and that was the beginning of my journey. That's nice. So how did you get the job at Mid-Pacific Middle School Principal? How did that come along? I was working at Hawaii Preparatory Academy on Hawaii Island and a friend of mine mentioned that there was an opening here on Oahu at this particular school and I knew a lot about Mid-Pacific. I knew a lot about the changes that were happening here. The fact that the head of school at the time was very aggressive and he was very forward facing and it's a school that I wanted to be a part of. The other contributing factor was my wife is from Oahu so a lot of her family's here so that was a big incentive too because she really wanted to come home and be around her family. That's a good story. So do you like your job and what about it do you like about it? What do you like about it? I love it. I love it. I just enjoy getting out of bed every morning knowing that I get a chance to come and work with students. I get a chance to work with incredible teachers and administrators. People who are very forward facing, they think much like me in that they are very focused on the future and how we can provide the best for our students. So the response to your question is what is the thing that really drives me or what makes it so interesting and it's the students and the people that I get to work around. That's great. Do you have any challenges like what things help you or hurt you about being a principal? I think the challenges for me is I serve a population of students who they're much younger than I am and they're getting younger every year as I get older. So there's a challenge in keeping pace and making sure that what I'm doing is really matching what they need for the future and really making sure that we are adequately addressing the needs of students like yourself. That's the big challenge that I deal with is really just making sure that I'm on pace. That's, well you made it a great point so like what was so far like the biggest challenge you've ever had, like the biggest step back as a principal? That's a tough question. Wow. I threw a basketball. You know it's the biggest challenge that I've had or the thing that I've faced is you get to a point in your career that you recognize that you will make mistakes. As educators we always want to get it right and as a principal the expectations to get it right increase dramatically and coming to the realization that there are times when I don't always get it right, there are times when I have to take a step back and say I didn't get it right this time and ask myself the question what will I do differently next time and be willing to put myself out there and be vulnerable. That's kind of the same way for like us students because there will be challenges and we need to overcome them. Right, right, right. That's pretty neat. It's okay and that I say this to the teachers all the time as well as the students it's okay to make mistakes as a matter of fact sometimes mistakes are a good thing because we learn and we grow as a result of those mistakes. That's great. So how has technology innovative at MAPAC been going like how has it been? Are you like for it or opposed it? Very much so. Very much so. So a lot of what we've done especially over the course of the past 15 years is really try to make sure that what we are doing in terms of technology is really it's going to serve our students and serve our students well. We're very much focused on making sure that we have a very solid academic program as a matter of fact the academics really underpin the technology but the thing that we want to make sure as we progress as a society and we know that society is changing dramatically all the time we want to make sure that the changes that we're making are at the right pace and not just pacing along but really thinking forward and for us that technology represents the future of our students. We know that our students are wired in all the time so how do we make the most of that how do we teach our students to be responsible users to know how to access that technology but access it in ways that they really are effective users and their responsible users also. If you've seen on Saturday I've recorded something here about like technology at Mipat and I'm all for it like I feel that students can use it to like access emails and like do their homework and stuff and I feel it's a great way not only to like the school but it can help save paper and I thought it was pretty cool. How did you guys like make the deal with Apple? It's you know I'll give you the reader's digest version of that story. We went to a one-to-one iPad one-to-one device and we chose the iPad several years ago but prior to making that decision we spent a lot of time probably five years before just discussing what we thought would be the best platform for our students. We knew that we were moving moving to an increasingly increasingly mobile world and the decision to go laptops excuse me go iPads as opposed to laptops we felt at the time and it was the right feeling to have but we felt that that mobile device something that was fluid something that our students can take almost anywhere and it was accessible it's something that they can put in their hands we felt that that would be the best use for them. The other thing and you mentioned this earlier the use of paper we also knew that we were moving towards more towards a paperless society and we wanted to be responsible users as I mentioned earlier so we chose the iPad just because we knew that that was a piece of technology that was it was early it was introduced early but we knew that it was in the early stages of development. Well thanks for touching on that I was very curious about that so where do you see it going for the future like what do you want my pack to look like 10 to 15 years from now? I it's it's hard to say what it will look like what I want it to look like is an institution that's always responsive to the needs of our students it's very easy for educators to become comfortable with where they are at the present time it's also easy for us to look back on our experiences as as young educators and and our experiences as students and say this is what our students need to have in order to be successful but I think as an institution we need to continue to be nimble we need to continue to as as Wayne Gretzky says we need to anticipate where the puck is going so we can actually get there when we need to be there. Do you think you drew inspiration from your principal like how did being a principal come along as far as being like also an educator like how what like inspired you to do that? My high school principal was actually a colorful character and and I don't say that in a bad way he was very much in touch with his students he whatever he had a chance he was in the classrooms and he was on the athletic fields and he took the opportunity to get to know who we were and reflecting back on my high school experience I I said if I was ever a principal that's the kind of guy that I want it to be and I always wanted to have a good relationship with students oftentimes principals have that reputation for people being the big scary guy who kind of stays in their office all the time and only deals with discipline I wanted an opposite experience I wanted to be in the middle of students and as much as possible having an opportunity to work side my students ask them what they're thinking what they need and then be responsive to those needs. I think you did like a great job because I don't feel here going into your office I mean only when like I do something but alright so like what did you do as a kid like what kind of as far as academic were you more like an academic person or a sports person or what were you or did you join like clubs. I had a really interesting high school experience I like to say I got along with most groups of group of students in high school I was a football player and a wrestler and but in addition to that I was an avid reader I've always been a huge comic books fan but then there's another side of me too because I grew up along the coast so I was a skateboarder and a surfer as well going through high school so I had all of those experiences and it was a very rich experience so those I think having relationships with different groups of friends I could I could have great conversations with those students who are very academic those students who are very athletic and those students who were sometimes where I come from they were called the beach bums so I could I could vacillate in and out of those groups. That's very good to have like a lot of friends because that way you can like get more knowledge from them and that's what I've learned because I've started myself with a lot of different friends yes and they would they all have unique like lifestyles so I'm gonna touch on another question how did how did the Northern Arizona University job come along like how did that come along because you know that's a long way to get to a wife from there yeah we were we lived in Arizona for seven years seven years yes seven years we live there and I started as a teacher then became an assistant principal and a principal and the school district that I was working in one of my colleagues taught afternoon classes for Arizona University and at the time I was entering a doctoral program and he suggested he said hey you should pick up a class here or there so I started teaching one class for Northern Arizona University as an adjunct professor and then it picked up into two classes in the three classes so I worked for them for a number of years so that's how that came about and it was an opportunity I felt that it was an opportunity for me to not only touch my students but also get a chance to impact those teachers who were going into or the potential teachers as they were going into the business of educators I wanted them to have a real world look into what schools were actually like as opposed to just at university perspective well thanks for telling me more about that um we have a break coming up so I'll see you guys after this break right you can be the greatest you can be the best you can be the king conveying now your chest you can be the world you can be the war you could talk to God don't banging on his door you can throw your hands up you can be the show so I'm gonna throw a question at you that I actually want to know um so I'm interested in video production and I said that on another live show we did at think tech so what is what does the future hold for like some person like me who loves video stuff so we have very deep roots in video at mid pacific um as you know mr. takuta who is the middle school video teacher he's now that we call it now digital media he's he's been a long time um he's worked at a number of stations here in Hawaii he's been teaching video for a number of years and interestingly enough we've taken in we've taken an interesting turn in video at mid pacific um on the one hand it looks like we pulled back but um on the other we're now actually going much deeper video has evolved and one of the things we wanted to do was to make sure that our video program is keeping pace with what's happening at the industry level so when you look at video at mid pacific now as opposed to five six years ago we're now starting to get into the digital digital side of video we're starting to bring in different elements like um like 3d technologies and and how that will interface with video so as our students are actually transitioning out of middle school into high school you'll go much deeper into video and as you go into high school into the university or high school into work they'll you'll you'll actually have a much broader rich experience in video so you'll be that much more prepared and you'll actually and there's a certain level of thinking that comes with that as well and we want to make sure that as we prepare our students that they they have a breadth and a depth of knowledge in that area so since i have you here on the spot let me ask you in middle school experience were you more of a good student or were you more of a rebel yeah thanks for putting me on the spot um you know to be honest with you and i think this is why i one of the reasons that i enjoy being a principal so much um as as my as my wife says i was a little bit rascally i was klohe in in high school not in a bad way but i i enjoyed i enjoyed my surroundings and i liked having fun sometimes i had too much fun so um because i because of that experience and because i was on both ends um i now have a better um understanding of how to work with my students and and and i understand that at this particular age students like to push the boundaries a little bit but that's just it's it's part of being a student so i have a lot of patience for that and and sometimes i actually smile and chuckle because i remember my days in high school okay so um what did what did you like doing in middle school and high school did you play sports or where did you go to school so um yes i played i played sports and you know it's interesting that you ask that question because i think about um as i oftentimes reflect back on my high school experience i was a i was an avid football player and i really wanted to play college ball um i'm a little too short for what i wanted to do but i was always very aggressive and because i injured myself in high school or i was injured in high school um wrestling was my fallback so i ended up wrestling in college but i knew that there was not a professional career in wrestling so as i moved out of high school into the university um i really started to focus more on my academics because i knew that there had to be life beyond sports so in your opinion what makes the mid-pack special what puts it like per se put a hole what makes it like out there again um you know the thing that you know the thing that i'll talk about mid-pacific um the thing that really makes us unique we are we are a school that we really do focus on the needs of our students we really do focus on being one community as a school the elementary middle and high school teachers work together the middle elementary and high school principals work together and we routinely have conversations about the needs of our students and in those conversations we're not afraid to change we're not afraid to evolve we're not so fixed in our positions that we don't recognize that next year may need to look different than it did this year and i used the word earlier and i think the word one of the words that best describes us is that as a school we're nimble we are willing to make the adjustments when necessary but we don't make those adjustments for adjustment's sake we make those adjustments because it's in the best interest of our students and when we look at their needs we don't put our needs above the needs of our students and i think that makes us unique we really are this special community and it's and i and i oftentimes have said it's the uniqueness of our school is baked in our dna it's who we are we've always done things that's different than other schools and we're not afraid to continue in that direction and we're not afraid to say that so onto the next question i had um what motivates you to keep coming back to the school every day and like what motivates you to wake up every morning i am i am charged by all of the possibilities and the opportunities the last two weeks the three principals and i we've been we've been talking about what we're going to do for the coming year we talk about how we are going to move together as one unit as opposed to our individual schools working in silos we have we regularly have discussions with our head of school um dr turnbull who's also a visionary and and other senior administrators we have we're always thinking about what's next and how we can best serve our students how we can provide a professional learning environment for them but ultimately the thing that drives me is all of those decisions that we're making we make it with our students in mind that's the key and we listen to we we make an effort to listen to what our students are asking us so this is um this is kind of like a funny one because i hope i hope you could recommend me a little bit so for me and my generation do you have any recommendations i would say you know um and i want you to hear this in the spirit that i'm saying it i for your generation i would say don't be afraid to fail don't be afraid to be a risk taker and what i say the when i say fail that means don't feel like you have to operate in your comfort zone there are going to be things that are going to motivate you things that you're deeply passionate about and i would say pursue those passions with all of the spirit that you have and understand that you may try five things four may not go well but that's okay it's okay to push yourself forward i would say um embrace as many different peoples as you can ask lots of questions don't be afraid to build relationships with people who think differently than you do who do things that are different than you because that and that will enrich your life experience that will open a number of pathways for you so um so i know i'm going to chase your subject again a little bit um has the past couple years been difficult on the teachers and um and is it like also difficult to accept the new technology in their classrooms anytime you're over 35 something new is challenging okay um so the short answer to your question is yes it's been challenging for the teachers it's been challenging for us as administrators and i think the reason that it's challenging um we are as educators we are serving a population of students who are digital natives in that you grew up in this world of technology we are immigrants we we were not born into this so trying to understand it trying to make sense of it trying to make sure that we're doing the best for you is it's a challenge for us um for years and i used to describe my cell phones this way when i when i got a phone my son would program it for me but now i learned that i have to learn to do that for myself and i have to i have to go after the technology and and i've said this to my faculty on a number of occasions and because i it's something that i live by i said you have to be comfortable with not being comfortable because it forces us to always change evolve and grow well just so you i mean are you you're working around this technology what about you are you comfortable with it um yeah i'm i'm pretty comfortable like it's it's a hobby of mine and i just loved it and i keep on using it and it kind of became a hobby that i'll do like every day and it was fun and that's why i'm pretty comfortable with it so when you're at mid-pacific do you think that the teachers have served you well do you think that we are really providing you with the technology oh yeah it's great so um moving on to um your family do you do your kids um consider you strict yes they um i have two sons and um i would say they did and um because i grew up with a very i grew up with a mother who really she kept close reins on us she raised four children and um she wanted to make sure that we were always behaving and that we would be responsible grew up to be responsible citizens that's what she always told us she she did not want to hear that we were in trouble and um so she kept pretty tight reins on us and for my sons i wanted them to grow up and be responsible citizens as well so i really kept tight reins on them but i i also gave them a little more freedom than my mother gave us but um i managed from a distance so yes and i i now have grandchildren and my wife and i as much as we want to make sure that we tell our son how to raise his children we have to back away but he's starting to do some of the things that we're doing as well right so i have one final question to ask you and then but we can just wrap this up so okay what what does a future hold for you well um i you know i i feel like i have a lot of good years ahead of me um i hope you think so too as a student um i have a lot of good years ahead of me and i i'm i'm deeply passionate about what i do um i i had this conversation with my wife earlier um as a matter of fact this weekend and and both her both her and i are passionate about our work and um i love serving the students that i serve um the teachers that i work with they give me energy i enjoy being around them they challenge me they force me to grow and to think um i'm in i'm in no hurry to grow up so i want to be in this business around kids as long as i can well thanks for um being on the first episode of our future and i look forward to doing another one with you soon my pleasure i look forward to it thank you all right thank you