John Boyd is the Principal of Ste. Genevieve High School in Missouri, where he leads with a passion for innovation, efficiency, and creating memorable experiences for students and staff. A proud SGHS alum, he returned to teach for seven years, served three years as Assistant Principal, and is now in his fourth year as Principal.

Named Missouri’s 2023 Jim L. King High School Principal of the Year, John also serves as President-Elect of the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals. 

John has a passion for integrating AI, coding, and automation. He’s developed tools from digital hall passes to real-time dashboards that streamline operations and enhance communication.

With over 30 years connected to Ste. Genevieve, John is committed to reimagining possibilities for learning and staff empowerment. He and his wife, Sierra, are the proud parents of their children, J.B. and Emery.

Previous episode https://williamdparker.com/2023/pmp357-leading-your-hometown-school-with-john-boyd/

Thinking Outside the Box:

John often utilizes AI to help him think outside the box and solve problems in completely new ways. He shares how, as an assistant principal, his principal and mentor, Chris Hoehne, took pride in thinking through problems analytically. This mentor inspired John to develop the skills he uses now to integrate coding into their systems. One way that John has integrated these skills into the systems at his school is by using them for attendance reports, a task that used to take hours to complete. Typically, John takes time each summer to build these pipelines. While the front-end work takes time, the systems that John builds end up saving him and his team a lot of time. 

Practical Uses:

One way that John utilizes AI in his school is through a digital hall pass system, a system that John built himself. His process for building these tools starts by thinking about what he wants the tool to do. In the case of the digital hall passes, John used AI to create a form that takes data and processes it on a Google Sheet. Each classroom in his school now has a kiosk in it that allows students to fill out a hall pass request before they leave, and it is where they check in when they get back to the classroom. The hall pass system is set up so that administrators are notified if a student has been out of class for more than 15 minutes, and meet-up notifications for students who should not be in the same place at the same time. John finds that this hall pass system is very helpful for his school. Another way he utilizes this technology is for scheduling sports physicals, which has saved his secretaries and support staff a lot of time. 

Navigating AI with Students and Teachers:

Although John embraces using AI as a tool, he acknowledges that it is a topic that requires nuance. Recently, John, along with his staff, has begun having conversations about the need for consistent language regarding AI for students and teachers. It is important for teachers and administrators to have consistent messaging about AI so that students know when it is appropriate to use and when it is not. Without that messaging, it can be confusing for students. There is a definite need for teachers to be able to monitor whether AI is being used or not. The best solution to this is for teachers to know their students and to build relationships with them. Through intentionality, teachers, principals, and students can navigate these new technologies with confidence.

Staying Connected:

You can stay connected with John Boyd via email at jboyd@sgdragons.org. 

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