21st Century Administrator

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2012-02-11T15:01:00.000-06:00

Please continue to enjoy the great information on this blog. For my most recent updates, tumble on over to my tumblr site @ http://www.tumblr.com/blog/21stcenturyadmin.

2011-09-26T22:01:00.000-05:00

This is priceless!

Rainy Day Fund or BUST in Texas!!!!!!

2011-04-07T08:15:00.000-05:00

It is pouring in Texas! It's not enough to be aware. You MUST be vocal to your reps!

Find your representatives here.

Related articles

Joe Smith: Getting Our Legislators to Understand How Public Schools Got in This Fix -April 6 , 2011

House Committee Tackles School Finance

State budget cuts would cripple schools

Spring Branch ISD To Cut 350 Jobs
Katy ISD may lay off as many as 600 employees

Fort Bend ISD is cutting nearly 500 jobs

Finance-S/C on Public Education Funding - 4/7/2011: Time: 8:00 AM, Location: E1.028 (Hearing Room)

SIGs During Advisory

2011-01-15T21:20:00.000-06:00

This is the first year, since I have been at my current campus, that we have an Advisory period each day. It lasts only thirty minutes. Every day has a specific focus, a purpose. Embedded throughout is the strong belief that building genuine positive relationships with students is fundamental to our educational system. That being said, today I'd like to share with you this "best kept secret" we've got under wraps. It's actually no secret at all, just not very many people know what we're doing. Anyone is more than welcome to come and visit. I'd be happy to roll out the red carpet. Friday is the day that's so unique. It's the day we have our SIGs (AKA Special Interest Groups) during the Advisory time period. From my perspective, it feels a bit like being in Santa's Workshop for half an hour each week.

Over the summer break each teacher was asked to think of something that they love, that they're passionate about, and could share this interest with kids. And so they did. Listed below is just a sampling of things chosen:

American Idol
Art (Paints/Pastels/More)
Basketball
Book Study
Cake Decorating
Cards
Charity Sewing
Chess
Cultural Music
Electronic Games
German
Guitar
Harry Potter
It's an "I" Thing
Jewelery Making
Legos
Medieval Studies
Mystery Theater
Old Fashioned Games
Photography
Recycling
Scrapbooking
School Spirit
Virtual Tours
Walking
Web 2.0
Yoga

There are several others. Students select their top five choices at the beginning of each of the four grading periods. They are then assigned to a SIG. During the first grading period, 87% of our 1200+ students were able to get into their number one choice. Any student that didn't, automatically gets bumped to the top of the list for the next go round. In other words, they will definitely get their first choice at the next grading period.

It's beautiful! Our nurse, receptionist, data specialist...you name it, they all get involved (by choice). We have it scheduled just prior to the last period of the day. It was placed there based upon teacher input. I was hesitant at first. I'm a believer now. It's the perfect time of the day. We debated on having students grouped by grade level, but decided against it. Students are meeting and developing positive relationships with staff members and students that they will see throughout the year; relationships that would otherwise have gone unknown. Some SIGs are very service-oriented in nature. Many involve team/group work throughout. Students look forward to it. The staff looks forward to it. More and more we have parents and community members becoming involved. We love our SIGs!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T23:56:00.009-06:00

Let me briefly state how very much I've missed posting. Suffice it to say (in brief) life happened. You just never know what individual challenges you may have the opportunity to face, seemingly coming to you from no where. Enough about that. Let's get right to the good stuff!

Some things you'll want to familiarize yourself with are the Android 2.2 Platform (2.3 is almost here), QR Codes, and the infinite potential for quality educational applications being developed for Android devices. At first glance that might sound a bit...well, boring. Believe me, once you start checking into it, it's going to knock your socks off!

Here we go:

1. Android 2.2 Platform (Highlights)

The Android 2.2 platform introduces many new and exciting features for users and developers. This document provides a glimpse at some of the new user features and technologies in Android 2.2. For more information about the new developer APIs, see the Android 2.2 version notes.

New User Features

Home

New Home screen tips widget assists new users on how to configure the home screen with shortcuts and widgets and how to make use of multiple home screens.

The Phone, applications Launcher, and Browser now have dedicated shortcuts on the Home screen, making it easy to access them from any of the 5 home screen panels.

Exchange support

Improved security with the addition of numeric pin or alpha-numeric password options to unlock device. Exchange administrators can enforce password policy across devices. Remote wipe: Exchange administrators can remotely reset the device to factory defaults to secure data in case device is lost or stolen. Exchange Calendars are now supported in the Calendar application. Auto-discovery: you just need to know your user-name and password to easily set up and sync an Exchange account (available for Exchange 2007 and higher). Global Address Lists look-up is now available in the Email application, enabling users to auto-complete recipient names from the director.

Camera and Gallery

Gallery allows you to peek into picture stacks using a zoom gesture.

Camera onscreen buttons provide easy access to a new UI for controling zoom, flash, white balance, geo-tagging, focus and exposure. Camcorder also provides an easy way to set video size/quality for MMS and YouTube.

With the LED flash now enabled for the Camcorder, videos can be shot at night or in low light settings.

Portable hotspot

Certain devices like the Nexus One can be turned into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared with up to 8 devices.

You can use your Android-powered phone as a 3G connection for a Windows or Linux laptop by connecting their phone to the computer with a USB cable. The connection is then shared between the two devices.

Multi-lingual languages

Multi-lingual users can add multiple languages to the keyboard and switch between multiple Latin-based input languages by swiping across the space bar. This changes the keys as well as the auto-suggest dictionary.

Improved performance

Performance of the browser has been enhanced using the V8 engine, which enables faster loading of JavaScript-heavy pages.
Dalvik Performance Boost: 2x-5x performance speedup for CPU-heavy code over Android 2.1 with Dalvik JIT.
The graph to the right shows the performance speedup from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2 using various benchmark tests. For example, LinPack is now more than 5 times faster.
Kernel Memory Management Boost: Improved memory reclaim by up to 20x, which results in faster app switching and smoother performance on memory-constrained devices.
New Platform Technologies

Media framework

New media framework (Stagefright) that supports local file playback and HTTP progressive streaming
Continued support for OpenCore in Android 2.2

Bluetooth

Voice dialing over Bluetooth
Ability to share contacts with other phones
Support for Bluetooth enabled car and desk docks
Improved compatibility matrix with car kits and headsets

2.6.32 kernel upgrade

HIGHMEM support for RAM >256MB
SDIO scheduling and BT improvements

New Developer Services

Android Cloud to Device Messaging

Apps can utilize Android Cloud to Device Messaging to enable mobile alert, send to phone, and two-way push sync functionality.

Android Application Error Reports

New bug reporting feature for Android Market apps enables developers to receive crash and freeze reports from their users. The reports will be available when they log into their publisher account.

New Developer APIs

Apps on external storage

Applications can now request installation on the shared external storage (such as an SD card).

Media framework

Provides new APIs for audio focus, routing audio to SCO, and auto-scan of files to media database. Also provides APIs to let applications detect completion of sound loading and auto-pause and auto-resume audio playback.

Camera and Camcorder

New preview API doubles the frame rate from ~10FPS to ~20FPS. Camera now supports portrait orientation, zoom controls, access to exposure data, and a thumbnail utility. A new camcorder profile enables apps to determine device hardware capablities.

Graphics

New APIs for OpenGL ES 2.0, working with YUV image format, and ETC1 for texture compression.

Data backup

Apps can participate in data backup and restore, to ensure that users maintain their data after performing a factory reset or when switching devices.

Device policy manager

New device policy management APIs allow developers to write "device administrator" applications that can control security features on the device, such as the minimum password strength, data wipe, and so on. Users can select the administrators that are enabled on their devices.

UI framework

New "car mode" and "night mode" controls and configurations allow applications to adjust their UI for these situations. A scale gesture detector API provides improved definition of multi-touch events. Applications can now customize the bottom strip of a TabWidget.

2. QR code

(Quick Response code) A two-dimensional matrix bar code that is used to identify products. It can store up to 4,296 alphanumeric or 7,089 numeric characters. Depending on the level of error correction applied, it can restore from seven to 30% of the missing data.

Created by Japanese Denso Wave, Inc. and standardized by ISO, Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS), JEIDA and AIM, QR codes are increasingly used to identify the URL of a company's Web site so that mobile phone users can photograph the code and retrieve information about the organization. Some companies have created billboard-sized QR codes for this purpose. To promote the use of its Android phone visual search application, in 2009, Google sent more than 100,000 custom-coded QR codes to U.S. establishments. It suggested they place the code in a prominent location for "mobile tagging." See bar code and Google Goggles.

Roll Your Own
To create your own QR code, visit the Kaywa QR code generator at http://qrcode.kaywa.com.

2D QR Code

The QR code is used to mark products as well as identify establishments. It is recognizable by its four squares with dots in the middle and holds up to 4,296 alphanumeric and 7,089 numeric characters. For more details, see QR code.

QR Codes

QR codes can contain a phone number, text message, plain text or a URL (examples above are the URL www.computerlanguage.com). QR codes are identified by the four squares with dots in the middle (red arrows), used for alignment. The horizontal and vertical lines (highlighted in yellow) that alternate light and dark are also alignment symbols.

3. Android (Educational) Apps - Androlib.com is my most favorite place to locate apps. It's search capabilities are a bit more advanced then some of the other sites of used. Don't get me wrong, there are others that I like. This just happens to be the one that gives me the most bang for the buck, within the shortest amount of time. Go try some searches for yourself (example - "Math Applications"). Watch and be amazed!

There are many Android capable devices out there. You may even have one already, and not even know it.

1. Android .2 Platform Information taken directly from: http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.2-highlights.html

2. QR Code Information taken directly from: http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=QR+code&i=61424,00.asp

I plan to post biweekly. Don't ever hesitate to shoot me a quick e-mail @ SusanF95@gmail.com, with any topics you'd be interested in seeing me cover.

Two Great Conference Opportunities

2010-08-26T22:49:00.000-05:00

The Global Education Conference, co-chaired by Steve Hargadon and myself, November 11-15, 2010. The call for participation is now available here: http://www.globaleducationconference.com/call-for-presentations.html.
The Mobile Learning Experience, organized by Kathy Burdick and Tony Vincent, April 6-8, 2011: http://mobile2011.org/. The proposal session form can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/mobilelearningexperience

What a great post on PLNs by Eric Sheninger!

2010-08-25T23:05:00.000-05:00

Image Credit http://21clc.wikispaces.com/PLN

Check out Larry Fliegelman's Simple Plan to Increase Parental Involvement

2010-08-25T00:32:00.000-05:00

Inform, Invite, Perform (and Feed): A Plan to Increase Parental Involvement

I often hear other principals mention that they struggle with getting parents more involved in the school. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked how I might tackle this. After much thought and research and a meal or two, I have boiled down my solution for this long-standing struggle.

I've come up with a three (OK, four) part plan for increasing parental involvement in schools. Inform, Invite, Perform, and FEED!

Inform
For many, this is the easiest part of the plan. Put out tons of information in several different formats. The time honored newsletter is a great way to start. Most parents will appreciate an email newsletter with tons of information about the school. Remember to create a predictable publication schedule and stick to it; I've had emails from parents asking about my newsletter when it was only a few hours late. Most important for a school newsletter would be to include many voices. Although the principal might have an interesting things to say, it is the voice of the teachers that will really grab the parents' attention. Put the staff on a publication schedule and insist on it.

With the advent of Web 2.0, stopping at a one-way newsletter is just so 20th Century. Start a blog about the school. Create a school Facebook page. Send out Tweets throughout the day to your parents.

Finally, use every opportunity in front of parents to communication a piece of your message. The Band Director allowed me to grab the microphone while the Jazz Band was setting up. I took the chance to speak about some of the work we were doing.

Do not be afraid to ask the teachers to participate via class newsletters, class websites or blogs, and more.

In short, give an overload of information about the school and their child's experience. Parents want to know.

Invite
Most folks won't show up if they are not invited. So, invite them. Often. During the school year, I will photograph a really wonderful bulletin board or display of student work, post it to my blog, and invite parents to come in to see it in person.

Of course, to invite someone you must have something to which to invite. In other words, create programs and experiences that include parents. Invite parents to assemblies (if you have the room). Ask them to come in and volunteer in the library. Maybe parents will help out in the office. Parents can read, so get them in to class to be mystery/guest readers. Build a database of parent skills and then ask for help on a project. Ask parents to join a Site Council or Parent Advisory Board. Introduce new parents to the PTO president. Just ask.

Sort of like a baseball diamond in a corn field, ask them and they will come.

Perform
Not so fast, I say. Sure, some parents will come every time they are asked. It's the other parents that we are trying to get involved. One sure fire way to have more parents attend school events is to have more students perform. A good concert or play will bring them in. How about an art show with student docents? Talent show, recital night. Make some of these events part of the curriculum - not extracurricular - involve more parents.

But, performing is not just for the arts anymore. A good old fashioned science fair will attract many moms and dads (even some grandmas). There are many variations on the science fair idea that will work as well (states, inventors, countries - depends on the curriculum). While not typically called performing, students presenting their research or their work is a prime time to invite parents in. Don't just show the powerpoint while parents watch. Instead, the child will actually present her work to mom and dad (could be a great prelude to a student-led conference).

If the child has to be there to perform something, the parents will come too.

FEED!
The parents like food as much as the staff does; as much as the kids do. Serve food and more parents will come. It doesn't matter what as long as you are offering up free food. You might even create a sense of community through some sort of spaghetti dinner or something (but that is the topic of a future blog post).

So, there you have it. My very first three (four) part plan. If you want to increase parental participation: Inform, Invite, Perform, and FEED!

140 New Things Being Tried In Classrooms This Fall by Richard Byrne

2010-08-23T22:45:00.000-05:00

Recommend a Keynote for the Global Education Conference

2010-08-22T22:04:00.000-05:00

The Global Education Conference is a completely online event that takes place November 15-19, 2011. For more information see http://globaleducationconference.com.

K12 Online Conference 2010 (see info. from Wesley Fryer)

2010-08-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

Announcing Keynote Speakers for #k12online10

By Wesley Fryer ⋅ August 22, 2010 ⋅

The K-12 Online Conference is a free, online, annual professional development conference offering opportunities for educators around the globe to share innovative ways web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. Our conference this year will take place in October, and will include four different strands: Student Voices, Leading the Change, Week in the Classroom, and Kicking It Up a Notch. Our conference is entirely organized and facilitated by volunteers, which include a conference organizer for each strand. Our conveners for 2010 include:

Amanda Marrinan, an educator in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Jose Rodriguez, an educator in Los Angeles, California, USA
Maria Knee, an educator in Deerfield, New Hampshire, USA
Wesley Fryer, an educator in Edmond, Oklahoma, USA

Today we are pleased to announce our keynote speakers for the 2010 K-12 Online Conference: Cultivating the Future! As we have the past four years, we will kick off the conference with a pre-conference keynote (the week of October 11, 2010) and follow that up with forty different presentations over the next two weeks. These will include two keynote presentations per week, in each of four different conference strands. “Live events” will also be planned during and following the conference, to provide opportunities for conference attendees to engage in interactive discussions with presenters following the Ustream “Echo webcast” model we utilized in partnership with EdtechTalk in 2009 and early 2010. This year’s conference will also feature an exciting closing keynote!

Great Post from Ignacio IV Lopez, Ed.D.

2010-08-20T23:26:00.000-05:00

Negative Teachers: What can Positive do for you?

          How are successful teachers still “growing” their students toward success on top of extreme measures of accountability, juggling various programs, and wearing the many reform hats in schools? What I’ve learned working with some Chicago public turnaround schools facing drastic changes is that attitude does matter. Teachers who remain positive in their thinking toward a better future for their students and the school community are often the teachers who stay, who are committed, and who grow their students toward success. When teachers are able to synthesize what some might view as a-laundry-list-of-programs into one packaged approach for achieving student success they are successful.
            It’s one thing to say you’re a positive teacher; it’s another to act like a positive teacher to portray a demeanor of understanding and calm while occasionally venting some frustration. This idea of linking positive thoughts to student success is not uncommon. The power of positive thought can be framed in various ways including titles like, Trust in schools (Bryk et al. 2004), The Passionate Teacher (Fried, 2001), and 13 Steps Toward Teacher Empowerment (Zemelman & Ross, 2009). I’m not looking at how teams in schools functions positively, I’m looking at how individual teachers are successful and remain positive in educational settings that are going through various transformations. What are some specifics that have made teachers successful in turnaround schools? Some might think that the power of positive thinking, or of being a positive person, involves instinct. You’re born with it or not. The reality is when working with students all educators should have the positive mindset that every child can learn, and that every teacher is going to try their best to meet the needs of their students.
            We might be able to assess the power of positivity amongst our teachers in our schools. We can always find the complainers or “quackers” as I have mentioned before when working with teacher leaders, in reference to ducks who go around quacking all day. I have known many principals who have given up on their “quackers” because it’s draining. Having to continuously debate and follow up with teachers who are nothing but complainers or pessimists is exhausting, but so is working with our most difficult students. We ask our teachers everyday to not give up on any of their students, in return building administrators should not give up on their teachers. We’ve all heard about No Child Left behind, I’m wondering what our thoughts are with the notion of No Teacher Left Behind? Are administrators finding ways to help grow their teachers? Some might argue that there’s a difference between a toxic teacher and a complainer. Often an administrator might move to remove what they feel is a toxic teacher. In my experience there are a variety of elements that can lead to a teacher becoming toxic; however, the question here is what have administrators done to truly intervene with these types of negative teachers? What questions can administrators or teacher-leaders ask of teachers who are toxic or quackers? In my experience working with turnaround schools successful teachers who have seen student success in their classrooms and who have managed to step-in-positivity often carried with them many professional qualities some which include: having a growth a plan, remaining deceptively standard, understanding a sense of physical approach, educated beyond schools walls, and have managed to be the inspiration for other teachers.

Having a Growth Plan
            What are our positive teachers doing, how do they exist in an out of schools that makes them successful with their students in situations that may be seen by many has too hard, too demanding, or too many programs? Working in the turnaround schools with new teachers and mentor teachers I noticed a pattern among teachers who were successful with juggling the transition into a new career, deciphering the culture and climate of the school, and acclimating to the profession. Teachers who were successful with their students, based on school benchmark or interim assessment data, thought in growth terms. This idea has two sides. On the one hand teachers who thought in terms of seeing, visually either using data graphs, charts, or other visual means to show student gains, were more successful in engaging their students on the idea that they could learn. There were no letter grades or percentages given to students, there were only visual representations of how well a student was growing in a selected number of skills. Students could easily read their own bar graphs, line graphs, or other charts showing growth. When teachers thought in terms of growth they thought in terms of synthesizing content with skills. One teacher said, “It wasn’t about Shakespeare in my English class, it was about making sure my students could read independently and write. Specifically, I wanted my students to grow in understanding the author’s approach…I wanted my students to learn that they shouldn’t be taken a fool on the street or in the real world. Students should know what’s coming at them.”
            The other side of thinking in growth terms connects directly back to the individual teacher. Teachers who had a plan, not just for their classrooms but for their personal life and profession, often had greater success with their students. Teachers who saw themselves going back to school to get endorsements, certificates, or other degrees often thought more positively about their situations and often were able to connect to how students learn because they too were learning. In one observation a teacher told her students, “I’m just like you guys…I gotta go home and study tonight too, but let me tell you how I get through it… I create a study schedule for myself. Getting through your essays, planning for us for tomorrow, then having to do my homework isn’t easy, but I make it happen.” Many teachers say they are lifelong learners, but there is a difference between saying you’re a lifelong learner and actually applying the action behind the words.

Deceptively Standard
            Teachers who are successful have positive attitudes about their students, are in charge of thinking about growth both for their students and their own lives, and know how to synthesize life with content that is relevant to students. This is a common “best practice” that all good teachers know how to do. Except in school situations where teachers are faced with a myriad of support programs successful teachers were sensitive to the idea that students were so overloaded with common educational buzz words that the mere mention of the word ACT or College Readiness would shut the entire class off for good. Instead of just manipulating content to reflect current pop cultural themes that students would be interested in, positive-thinking-teachers addressed the child’s emotions, demeanor, and attitude all while connecting to college readiness standards. Without the ability to think positively about moving students forward and synthesizing the state exams or assessments this type of atmosphere in a classroom would not exist.
            In one case a teacher said to his students, “Everyone in here is an expert. You all know that? You are all experts. What does it take to be an expert? It takes the ability to read, the ability to persevere, and self-discipline.” He went on to explain to his students that he knows they all posses these qualities because they’ve proven it to him already. He asked his class, “How many of you have ever finished a video game all the way through?” Most of the hands went up and heads nodded. “You see, that’s perseverance! You took on the challenge and you got through it.” He went on to give several other life examples which students easily connected to. He then posted these three items on a large post-it paper in the front of the classroom. Every day he reminded his students that they were all experts. Whenever a student didn’t turn in his homework or was late he’d say, “No homework? Remember, self-discipline. You’re an expert…”
            The ability to frame the learning environment around being an expert, and proving to the students that they already possessed the qualities of an expert, lent itself perfectly to success on assessments. In this classroom students felt prized and awarded, they understood the value of assessment as a means to understand their growth and expertise. In this classroom the teacher knew students were unwarrantedly brainwashed to shut down at the sound of educational buzzwords like ACT or standards. In this classroom knowledge was framed around growth as an expert toward a desired destination and every so often challenges (assessments) were placed as road blocks, but thoughts on self-disciple and perseverance, would assist students in building confidence to successfully overcome those challenges.

The Power of Approach
Teachers who are conscious of their demeanor and physical presence have success with students. This idea does not involve teacher’s changing their physical traits, but thinking about how their posture, presence, and demeanor in a classroom can affect student learning. Successful teachers have commented on how their physical approach, and consciousness of it, is very important to their instruction. In addition to checking their demeanor successful teachers in turnaround schools have been able to reflect on their physical stance in the classroom as well as their verbal approach to lessons or situations that arise in the moment of instruction. A teacher, who is asked by the administration to participate in an assessment practice, having to take time out of their instruction, can enter his or her classroom and say to the students, “Ok, don’t blame me but we have to go to the lab today to take the practice test. It shouldn’t take long then we can get back to the real instruction.” This approach can be received negatively by students thus causing disengagement and reducing the chances students will do well on that practice exam.
            I have seen teachers in urban settings juggle the various programs and administrative demands thrown at them in negative ways. These negative emotions, whether a teacher is aware of it or not, can ultimately be communicated back to their students, which can lead to poor student performance on practice tests and on the real tests. One positive-thinking teacher in an urban school I was working in handled the situation completely differently and saw positive success both with behavior and academics. When asked to take time out of his instructional day and take his students to complete a practice test in the computer lab, the teacher walked into his room and told his students, “So, we have an excellent opportunity that has unexpectedly come up today. We’re going to the computer lab for half the period so I can better understand where each of you are in terms of reading comprehension and reading strategies…I’m hoping the information I get from you today can best help us in this class with any reading activities we do. We’ll have an opportunity to see how much we’ve grown since the last time we took this practice test.”
            Never in his communication to his students did he let the students know how upset he was with the decision to cut instructional time. He wanted to make sure that no matter what his students received the most out of their time with him that day. Understanding our approach as we exist in front of students can help alleviate student anxiety and can assist in producing positive returns from our students. If a teacher frames the situation both verbally and with suggestive slouching-dragging-body-language, showing frustration and disappointment, students will feel the bluntness of the situation and will become less engaged.

Educating Beyond school walls
Once teaching becomes a profession in the heart and mind of a teacher they begin to exist as teacher even outside of the school setting. Successful teachers don’t let this bother them, they embrace who they become. In making my way in and out of urban settings I noticed successful teachers were also teachers outside of the school. Some teachers literally taught in other venues like Sunday school or at the local YMCA. Others spoke freely about not thinking twice to tell a child at the grocery store to “be polite” or to “help another person.” Educating beyond schools also involves looking at how we as teachers speak with our friends in various situations. Seldom do teachers even know that they are correcting their friends or asking them, “did you understand what I just said, do you need me to repeat that?” Phrases we would most commonly hear in a classroom. One teacher told me about how his friends often teased him because he continually asked after he finished his thoughts “Do you know what I mean?…it’s just a habit because I’m constantly asking my students in the classroom if they understand, or if they need me to say it again.”
            Education beyond school walls also goes beyond our actions it’s also connected to the idea of informing others about the teaching profession. In many situations young teachers have told me that when they tell their non-teacher friends they’re teachers, many of their friends say, “Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know how you do it?” Teaching others about the realities of teaching, using positive dialogue is important for the continued movement and growth of the teaching profession. One teacher said, “I get angry at some of the teachers who come to school and punch in at 8am then punch out at 3pm…this is a profession, not a job. We don’t need teachers who see our students as ‘work’ we need teachers that see our students as human beings. If teachers want a job they can go to Burger King, if they want to be in a profession they should stay and teach for as long as it takes.”

Be the inspiration for other teachers
There are teachers who work and move students, then there are teachers who work, move students and other teachers. There is something about teachers who can lead by example and really be the inspiration for other teachers. What I’ve learned working in the public schools is that sometimes the idea of being the positive inspiration for other teachers is acknowledged, known, and practiced. Although some might see this as a taste of arrogance or conceitedness positive teachers know when the “quackers” are around and know at the right moment when they should lead by example to show that efforts can indeed be made. As teachers we can often tell who the negative-nelly is in the room. The rule that I’ve come to live by is: If you can’t spot the complainer, you might be the complainer. Positive thinking teachers know how to spot those teachers who are really just dragging through life and often lend a helping hand when others just want to stay as far away as possible. In my experience in the turnaround schools the positive thinking teachers didn’t complain about the complainers, instead they asked competing questions or push-back questions that helped others walk into an epiphany like, “this isn’t about me or my music program, this is about our students.”

Conclusion
Are our teachers thinking positively? There are a variety of life-world circumstances that can exist in a person’s life that can deter them daily from existing in a positive way with their students. Successful teachers know how to work through some of life’s situations in an effort to best meet the needs of their students. Administrators and educators alike should be asking themselves if the environment they work is a positive one, and hostile one, a complacent one, or a positive-inspiring-self-determined one. I have been working in several different urban high schools ranging from turnaround schools to selective enrollment schools. What has caught my attention every time with successful teachers is this idea of positive thoughts and positive demeanors when working with students. I have spoken to teachers and have seen their students’ achievement scores. Teachers who can articulate a growth plan, who can frame learning in a way that doesn’t turn off their students, who positively approach students, and who aren’t afraid to exist as a teacher outside of school have seen success in growing their students academically. Here are some questions to ask yourself, or to ask your staff about the nature of positivity in your school.

1)      Does your administration value every teacher, even those who are our biggest complainers?
2)      Do your teachers think in terms of growth terms for their students and for themselves?
3)      How do your teachers approach a new situation? How does the administration approach a new situation?
4)      Are teachers in your school involved in teaching positions or situations outside of the school?
5)      Can you identify teachers in the building you know will be an inspiration for other teachers?
6)      Can you spot the complainers in your school? (If you can’t, you might be the biggest complainer)

Check out this Great Article from the Innovative Educator

2010-08-19T21:52:00.000-05:00

6 Ways to Use Cell Phones to Strengthen the Home-School Connection

Step three in the 5 Steps to Harness the Power of Cells in Education is strengthening the home school connection. Once parents/families experience ways cell phones can be used as a learning and connection tool they will become empowered and more open to using the devices as learning tools with their students.

Here are six free and easy ways to get started.

Google SMS - Translate
Teachers and families can use Google SMS Translate to send text messages to one another if they speak different languages.
How: Text 466453 with the words Translate and your message to (recipients language) i.e. Translate How are you? in French. Google SMS will reply with: Translation: 'how are you' in English means 'como estas' in Spanish. The teacher can text the translated message to the student’s parents and vice versa.
URL: http://www.google.com/mobile/products/sms.html

Drop.io - Free Voicemail Box
Set up a Drop.io account where parents can leave you voice mail anytime without interrupting your lesson.
How: Drop.io assigns a voicemail number to the creator's account. The teacher simply shares this number with her student’s parents. They can leave a message anytime. Drop.io makes it easy to name and comment on any audio recording making it easier to remember any important information about the caller such as noting if you’ve returned your call, any important documents you want to have on hand, and/or serving as a reminder to what you discussed.
URL: http://drop.io

Send group texts for notifications
Set up group texting in a service like Swaggle or WeTxt to notify parents about important events, question of the day, celebrations, exciting accomplishments, cool projects, assignment due dates, etc. If you have a multii-lingual student body you may want to group parents by language.
How: Go to the website and enter your phone number where you will receive a password texted to your phone. You can create groups as appropriate for your students parents. You will be asked what you want your name to be. Set this to the name the students/parents know you by or if that is taken consider adding your school mascot i.e. MsNielsenTigers. Next you invite parents to join either by entering their numbers in your phone or on the website.
URL: http://www.wetxt.com or http://www.swaggle.mobi

Poll Your Parents
If knowing what your parents are thinking is important to you, Polleverywhere is a great tool. It enables you to let parents have a say and show them their thoughts and opinions matter. You can poll them or request open response using Polleverywhere.
How: To use poll everywhere the teacher sets up an account at which they’ll be assigned a number for participants to send their answers. Within the message respondent enters the code corresponding to their response. This looks similar to what you see on popular shows such as American Idol. Without any additional equipment or need to download software within seconds educators will have parent responses. Another nice feature is that it doesn't matter what device your parents are using as text message, web, and smartphone responses can be instantly combined.
URL: www.polleverywhere.com

Use Wiffiti for Parent Feedback
Ask your parents questions, thoughts, opinions, and have them text answers to Wiffiti. Maybe you want to know what your parents are expert in and would like to share with your class. Perhaps you want to know your student’s birthdays. Have your parents send in the student name and birthday to a Wiffiti board.
How: Send a group text to parents asking them to share and text to Wiffiti. Everyone will know everyone well very soon.
URL: http://wiffiti.com

Twitter for Live Class Updates on Your Website, Blog or Wiki
Description: Twitter is a great tool that allows you or your students to instantly make the home-school connection by updating your class website, blog, or wiki. Simply tweet important or interesting events happening in your class and have it feed into your selected online space. Parents and families have an ongoing window into your classroom. Educators may want to Tweet information themselves or allow students to use their cell phone to Tweet items of interest when they arise.
How: Once you have a Twitter account set up you’ll visit http://twitter.com/devices and enter your phone number so you can update Twitter from your phone. You will then go to your desired online space (website, learning network, blog, wiki, etc.) and paste in the Twitter feed embed code. You can select the widget you’d like to use here.
URL: www.twitter.com

Once parents are comfortable using cell phones as an extension of the classroom you may be ready to move on to the next step. Enlisting parents to partner with students on homework involving the use of cell phones.

Posted by The Innovative Educator at 6:50 AM

Authentic Engagement Activity for Teachers

2010-08-18T18:45:00.000-05:00

Authentic Engagement by Susan

District Network Down? No problem.

2010-08-18T00:30:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wondered what you'd do if your district's server went down? So many things we do are directly associated with this - e-mail, student management systems, Internet, etc.

There are programs that permit you to keep your student management data in the palm of your hand, such as Principalm. Want to give that staff development session? No problem. Just take along your 3G netbook and your external hard drive, and you are good to go. See my personal recommendation in one of my previous posts - Have Terabyte, Will Travel. It's a great idea to have a campus Twitter site set up. That way you can keep your parents aware of any outages, in the event that they are trying to communicate with you, yet unable to get through (due to the outage). If you give these suggestions a try, you won't be disappointed!

Staff Developement

2010-08-16T19:15:00.000-05:00

Today was a marvelously wonderful day, filled with great campus PD. We started out the day with a "Getting to know you better in 2010" activity. We will use the information gathered in this to recognize our amazing staff throughout the school year. After this there was a quick little Jenga activity that focused on authentic engagement. Next up, a group shared some of the information about our Foundations program. Afterwards, we learned about this year's first day count procedures. Before breaking for lunch, Shannon Wallace (with Premier), came to give us all a great session on effective utilization of our student and staff planners. The staff planners also go hand in hand with the campus-wide staff book study we'll be doing. The book is Classroom Instruction that Works. Departments will take turns, during faculty meetings, to share what they've learned. They can be as creative as they want in their sharing. The goals is to learn from one another, and be able to go back and apply this learning campus-wide for the good of students. The afternoon session was all about The Nurtured Heart Approach, brought to us by Nancy Kling. This was a fabulous session that concentrates on focusing your energy on recognizing things that students aren't doing wrong (yes, wording is intentional); not on what they are doing wrong. She does such a great job!

As we move throughout the week we'll focus on education transformation, digital natives/digital immigrants, and student engagement.

Exciting!

Slide Rocket

2010-08-15T23:12:00.000-05:00

I've just completed my first Slide Rocket presentation, with some back-to-school information. It took a little bit to acclimate myself with the way that it functions. However, I can now absolutely see what all of the talk is about. It is certainly more dynamic than PowerPoint. Give it a try. For thirty days, you can get it for free!

Check Out This Great Article from Texas ASCD

2010-08-14T23:00:00.000-05:00

Back-to-School – Are you prepared?

When we say back-to-school preparation, we aren’t talking about the tax-free weekend on August 20-22, 2010 here in Texas. We are talking about classrooms/offices straight and in-order, lesson plans/schedules up-to-date, goals set for the year, and pure excitement. Are you prepared?

One way to be prepared is to start out with a plan and what better way to set a plan then to consult with your mentor? How many of us are mentors or have one? No matter the years of experience you have in education, it is always a good idea to be involved in a mentor-ship. The word mentor, as described by the on-line Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mentor), is a “trusted counselor or guide.” Now, who doesn’t need a guide? When we think of educational mentors, most of us think of new teacher mentors. In many schools, a new teacher mentor is someone on staff at the same school that will work with a brand new teacher for a semester or maybe a year. This is great for brand new teachers, but it would also be great for teachers who have been teaching for a while, and even administrators. Creating morale and building teamwork could only help schools/districts. How else are newer teachers able to learn tried and true best practices? How are teachers who have been teaching for 15+ years going to learn from newer (younger) teachers about how 21st Century students are learning through technology? Mentor-ships are great for both the mentor and the mentee. In this setting everyone is learning.

On a website called BNet (http://www.bnet.com/article/how-to-start-a-mentorship-program/212133), is an article called “How to Start a Mentor-ship Program.” While the website is meant for businesses, I think we can get a lot out of the information provided. For example they state: “People who mentor often are more productive, better socialized, and less stressed, Scandura says. They also tend to develop a loyal network of supporters, gather valuable perspective from younger employees, and gain insight into other parts of the business.” Does this sound like something that would be good in schools and districts? The website goes on to list the key elements of a mentor-ship:

Decide what goals you have for the program – what results you are looking for.
The essential aspects of a program like this.
The pairing process of a mentor and mentee.
Tips.
Setting Rules.
Receive updates on program so you can change and alter the program to meet everyone’s needs.

As the school bell rings to begin school for most of us towards the end of the month, are we prepared? Now is the time to prepare our teachers/administrators for a successful year.

We hope your 2010-2011 school year is wonderful!

First Day Back for Teachers

2010-08-14T00:08:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day back to school for all teaching staff. It was so very wonderful to see everyone back after a great summer break. For the most part this was a day that teachers worked in their rooms. We had a small breakfast; introduced new staff; and completed an activity aimed at focusing, teamwork,and building connections. The activity started by grouping people according to their birth month, in groups of six. Each group was charged with selecting their group vision for this campus; or, the most important goal for the campus to reach this year. Vision or goal was strictly up to each individual group. We had some of each. After that, each group decided on five sure-fire ways to sabotage the attainment of the goal or vision. They ranked them in order of most destructive, and selected the top three of these. With these three, they turned them into a positive commitment that the group could make towards reaching the goal; and/or seeing the vision through to fruition. Each group then shared their goal/vision, and the commitment to work towards attainment of such. They had such great things to share.We'll be creating a compilation of all these quality goals/vision and commitments to share with the campus, in order to remember and remain focused on what matters most throughout the year. What a great team of people I am so blessed to work with!

Great Article from Ian Jukes

2010-08-12T22:52:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Are iPads, Smartphones, and the Mobile Web Rewiring the Way We Think?

It took an offer to appear on a national TV show for Wade Warren to reluctantly give up what he calls his "technology" for a week.

That was the only way, his mother says, that he would ever pack his 2006 MacBook (with some recent upgrades, he'll tell you), his iPad tablet computer, and, most regretfully, his Nexus One smart phone into a cardboard box and watch them be hustled out the door of his room to a secret hiding place.

Wade, who's 14 and heading into ninth grade, survived his seven days of technological withdrawal without updating his 136 Twitter followers about "wonky math tests" and "interesting fort escapades," or posting on his photography product review blog, or texting his friends about... well, that's private. But he has returned to his screens with a vengeance, making up for lost time.

Though he's vowing that he is going to reduce his screen time, "I haven't really noticed a sharp drop in my computer usage," he concedes in a phone interview, with the faint sound of computer keys clicking as he talks. The idea behind the show, called "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Middle School Unplugged," was that time away from gadgets might cause young people like Wade to see the benefits of disengaging from their screens and connecting in person with friends and family.

But it seemed to have the opposite effect on Wade: "I sort of learned the magnitude of how [technology] helps me." Not carrying a phone was a factor in his getting lost on his own in downtown San Francisco, near where he lives, an experience that troubled him.

Wade is a "digital native" whose world – half in cyberspace, half on terra firma – is breeding what might be called a new species of thinkers. The early 21st century may be a watershed moment in how humans learn and communicate, a change perhaps not equaled since the invention of the printing press nearly six centuries ago.

Today's technology may be determining not just how we spend our time: It actually may be "rewiring" the way we think, how we experience the world around us.

Techno-Cassandras fret over what's happening to our attention spans, our ability to think and read deeply, to enjoy time with our own thoughts or a good book.

Is technology making us dumb and distracted or turning us into expert information finders and magnificent multitaskers? Is being connected online 24/7 good or bad? Is there even a good way to tell?

Techno-enthusiasts scoff that those concerns are nothing new: Socrates, it's pointed out, thought that writing itself would harm a person's ability to internalize learning, the printed word acting as a substitute for true understanding. Technologies such as printing, and in recent decades television and the pocket calculator, have all served time as villains only to become innocuous, commonplace parts of modern life. Why should helpful new technologies from Facebook and Twitter to iPhones and laptops be any different?

Those caught in the middle are aware that something significant is happening, but wary about whether they or others are grasping the big picture. Is technology making us dumb and distracted or turning us into expert information finders and magnificent multitaskers? Is being connected online 24/7 good or bad? Is there even a good way to tell?

"I think it's subtler than, 'Is [the Internet] making us smarter or making us stupid?' " says Nicholas Carr. "It's how it's making us smarter or how it's making us stupider that's interesting."

Mr. Carr's book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," is currently bearing the standard for the techno-worried. In it, he begins by telling of his own trouble in reading at length and thinking as deeply as he once could. After some research he concludes that too much time online is not only changing the way his brain works, but everyone else's, too. "The possibility that we're altering some basic things about the way we think without carefully weighing the consequences is troubling," he says. "However important it is to connect quickly with others and exchange messages, there is also a crucial role for solitary thought in our intellectual lives. And we seem to be rushing to dismiss the importance of solitary thought."

Mr. Carr's book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," is currently bearing the standard for the techno-worried. In it, he begins by telling of his own trouble in reading at length and thinking as deeply as he once could.

His plaintive cry: I want my old brain back.

"As we practice these very busy modes of skimming and juggling tasks, we think we're being productive and, you know, sometimes it can be quite entertaining and quite fulfilling," he says in a Monitor interview. "But what I don't think we fully realize is that we're altering in a deep way our ability to pay attention, our ability to be contemplative, to be reflective – the things that we might be losing."

Carr, a gifted writer admired for his ability to examine and explain the effects of technology on society, is hardly alone. Others, including scholars and scientists, are asking the same troubling questions, especially about the young "digital generation" whose members are growing up in their own screen-filled worlds.

"The brain of a child who is immersed in six to seven hours of digitally dominated media daily and reads only a little off-line will have differences from a child immersed only in books and who learns to attend, concentrate, and think about what he or she reads," writes Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development who directs the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. "The problem with much of our digital media is that they engage attention quickly and then engage again and again. Children are constantly moving to the next piece of information.... My worry is that children are becoming wonderfully engaged with the superficial levels of information but unaware of the need to probe and think for themselves."

Nora Volkow, a brain researcher and director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, agrees: "The technology is rewiring our brains."

A two-class society may develop, with a mostly younger generation who are "the people of the screen" and a mostly older generation who are "the people of the book" – with two quite different ways of understanding the world, theorizes British neuroscientist Susan Greenfield.

"At the beginning of the 21st Century, we may be standing on the brink of a mind-makeover more cataclysmic than anything in our history," she wrote in 2006. "The science and technology that is already becoming central to our lives will soon come to transform not just the way we spend each day, but the way we think and feel."

"The brain of a child who is immersed in six to seven hours of digitally dominated media daily and reads only a little off-line will have differences from a child immersed only in books and who learns to attend, concentrate, and think about what he or she reads," writes Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development who directs the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

Humor essayist Garrison Keillor recently summed up the generational difference this way. "[O]ur children are writing up a storm, often combining letters and numerals (U R 2 1derful), blogging like crazy, reading for hours off their little screens, surfing around from Henry James to Jesse James to the epistle of James to pajamas to Obama to Alabama to Alanon to non-sequiturs, sequins, penguins, penal institutions...," he mused in a New York Times essay. A young mind today won't stay focused on any one thing, "like a hummingbird in an endless meadow of flowers," he writes.

Others say they just have an innate feeling that Carr and his ilk are on to something. John Miedema, who lives in Ottawa, says that he can tell the different between reading online and in print. "The quality of the memories feels different" online, says Mr. Miedema, the author of the book "Slow Reading." "The quality of the memories is less rich than it is when I read more slowly."

His "aha" moment, Miedema says, was when he read Carr's explanation of the difference between quick skimming and scanning on the Web, which lodges in the brain's short-term memory and is quickly lost, and the long-term memories that a more thoughtful kind of slow reading provides. "I share Nicholas Carr's feeling that my brain has been rewired," he says.

Among the pet peeves of those critical of online reading are hyperlinks, those underlined words or phrases that when clicked on take the reader to another Web page. "The Web is almost built for distraction," Miedema says. "The links are designed to take you away from what you are reading." The evidence, he says, is clear. "People don't really read on the Web." They skim, he says.

Some research shows that online browsing doesn't result in learning that really sticks. "We're often not learning when we're multitasking; we're just skimming the surface," Dr. Wolf says.

Some research shows that online browsing doesn't result in learning that really sticks. "We're often not learning when we're multitasking; we're just skimming the surface," Dr. Wolf says.

Even common courtesy can be a victim of our obsession to stay online. In a widely quoted passage in Ken Auletta's book "Googled: The End of the World as We Know it," Google cofounder Larry Page is scheduled to meet with Barry Diller, a high-powered media mogul. But during their meeting, Mr. Page continues to stare into the screen of his mobile device. "[Diller] said to Larry, 'Is this boring?' 'No. I'm interested. I always do this,' Page said. 'Well, you can't do this,' Diller said. 'Choose.' 'I'll do this,' Page said matter-of-factly, not lifting his eyes from his hand-held device."

Some polls and studies seem to back up the "Internet is rewiring brains" argument. Nearly 30 percent of Americans under the age of 45 say using devices like smart phones and PCs increases their feelings of stress and makes it more difficult to concentrate, a New York Times/CBS News poll found last month.

Other polls point to the pervasive allure of being "connected" online. One found that a third of women ages 18 to 34 check their Facebook accounts as soon as they wake up in the morning, even before they visit the bathroom or brush their teeth. And while some 54 percent of teens send text messages by phone to their friends daily, just 33 percent actually talk face to face with them, a poll from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found.

Americans are living more of their lives online. A Harris Interactive poll last winter found American adults surf the Net on average 13 hours per week, not counting e-mails. The number was just seven hours per week in 2002.

And while only 23 percent of adults think they personally spend too much time on their Internet-linked gadgets, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey earlier this year, 75 percent think young children spent too much time online and playing video games.

Americans are living more of their lives online. A Harris Interactive poll last winter found American adults surf the Net on average 13 hours per week, not counting e-mails. The number was just seven hours per week in 2002.

But plenty of high-powered intellects remain skeptical that hours spent online is "rewiring our brains" or making us dumber.

"It's indisputable that the Internet has made us smarter.... The range of things you can explore in a day is just fantastic compared to 20 years ago," says David Weinberger, senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "There's no question that we feel the Internet has made us better researchers, better thinkers, better writers."

Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard, points out that one kind of deep thinking – scientific research – is flourishing today as the Internet allows unprecedented levels of collaboration and cooperation. "Discoveries are multiplying like fruit flies, and progress is dizzying," he wrote last month in The New York Times.

Paul Saffo, a longtime Silicon Valley technology forecaster, says the engineering students he teaches at Stanford University in California show outstanding skills in what he calls "associative memory" – how to know what to look for. "They're fast with [making] connections," he says. "Yes, they're probably less likely to read a 500-page book than their parents were. But ... I can remember when I was in college, I didn't exactly leap at the opportunity to spend a day reading a 500-page book either."

The "rewiring our brains" argument could just as easily be blamed on watching too much television, "if it's even really happening," Mr. Saffo suggests. "I've had an e-mail account since 1984. And I've got two computers running in here. But the biggest problem in my office is tripping over all the books."

What the Internet has done for him is "cut in on my time" to read books by giving him more choices and temptations, he says. "But it hasn't made me become more shallow."

Perhaps the printed book, revered by old-school scholars as the ideal vehicle for promoting deep thinking but bereft of hyperlinks and static and unchanging, is actually holding back our thinking process and intellectual endeavors, Mr. Weinberger argues.

On the Web, if a writer allows readers to comment he can't expect to command an argument without interruption. But his thinking may be stimulated by what others have to say.

Books "are not the shape of knowledge," he says. "They're a limitation on knowledge." The idea of a single author presenting her ideas "was born of the limitations of paper publishing. It's not necessarily the only way or the best way to think and to write."

Paper requires a writer to divide topics and to "close them off," Weinberger says. "All these are very unnatural things. The world does not consist of topics that begin on Page 1 and end on Page 256. The Internet has a better ability to reflect the structure of knowledge than books do."

On the Web, if a writer allows readers to comment he can't expect to command an argument without interruption. But his thinking may be stimulated by what others have to say. "It seems to me we're better off for that," Weinberger says. "It's going to be distracting, sure," he adds, but if they're saying interesting things, "that's also enriching.... Isn't that better?"

The world, as Internet visionary Ted Nelson has written, is "intertwingly," full of cross-connections among myriad topics that can't be neatly divided up. Those chains of relationships map neatly with hyperlinks and the "webby" online world. The discomfort being felt by those old enough to have known a world without the Internet may not persist, Weinberger says. "Now we have a generation coming up that hasn't lived through the transition" from a print world to an online world, he says.

No one, including Carr and Wolf, argues that people in the 21st century can or should stop using the Internet and gadgets that link to it. And no one really knows what the right amount of online activity should be or how individuals can best manage it.

"It has to begin with people questioning [the use of technology] in their own lives," offers Carr, who says he didn't intend his book to provide answers so much as to examine the problem. "We're all responsible for how we spend our time and the choices we make."

People addicted to being online are not going to stop using the Internet altogether, "anymore than a food addict is going to stop eating food," says Kimberly Young, a psychologist in Bradford, Pa., who is founder and director of The Center for Internet Addiction Recovery.

For children, getting them involved in real-world activities is a start, she says.

People addicted to being online are not going to stop using the Internet altogether, "anymore than a food addict is going to stop eating food," says Kimberly Young, a psychologist in Bradford, Pa., who is founder and director of The Center for Internet Addiction Recovery.

"If young people are engaged in band, swimming, extracurricular things where they're meeting other kids, I think they're OK," says Dr. Young, who notes that while Internet addiction has not been formally recognized as a mental problem in the United States, it is already being treated by professionals such as herself.

Wolf makes sure she stays off-line at specific times. "For a half hour before bedtime and a half hour in the morning I do nothing digital," she says.

Then there's the software solution. Freedom, a program developed by Fred Stutzman at the University of North Carolina, locks users' computers out of Internet access for up to eight hours at a time.

Even if we've lost our ability to read deeply, we can regain it. "Our brains are very adaptable and flexible," Carr adds. "If you change your habits, your brain is very happy to go along. The hard thing is to change your habits."

Meanwhile, Wade Warren's mom, Stephania Serena, is living on the front lines, trying to decide how to manage her son's immersion in the digital world he spends so much of his life in.

"I'm not the perfect role model necessarily for my kids. I work on the computer, I'm on a lot," says Ms. Serena, who is a designer and photographer. "It's crazy. I think we need to be more disciplined and it's really hard." She's been known to keep working on her iPhone while trying to fix dinner at the same time.

"I think it's hard enough for adults, but it's a million times harder for kids," she says.

She knows Wade is a child of the Internet. "One of his first sentences was 'on, off, peto.' 'On, off, computer.' He called it 'peto.' We have a little recording of it," she says.

It may come down to personal responsibility. "You have to be in charge. You can't let the computer be in charge," she allows.

Wade did some cooking with her during the week his gadgets were hidden away, and his mom noticed the new level of attention to others. "Since then we've been making ice cream," she says. "I wish he spent more time outdoors, but we're getting there."

Thoughts Near & Dear

2010-08-11T23:19:00.000-05:00

Everything happens for a reason.

Bloom where you're planted.

Don't take it personal, even if it's intended that way.

Always leave a place better than you found it.

First Education Administrator Chat

2010-08-10T23:13:00.000-05:00

I've been very much looking forward to the chat tonight. What a great hour it was, sharing with and learning from other administrators! They were such a great group of people to collaborate with. I'm already looking forward to tossing around some more ideas with them next month. If you missed out, please feel free to check out the archive by clicking here. Our next chat will take place on 9/17 at 9pm CST. Please feel free to send me any topics you'd like to propose for our next #edadmin chat. Make sure to share this information with other administrators that might like to join us next time too.

Timely Article from Rebecca Peterson

2010-08-09T23:49:00.000-05:00

Find Hidden Opportunity in 3Rs: Reflect, Rethink, Reinvigorate

My mental calendar year always refreshes in August. I plan my life around the highs and lows of an academic calendar. So it is at this time of year I make my professional resolutions, and from what I’ve read on the Twitter, #edchat and #edtech lists, I am in good company.

This year I am thinking specifically about impact: The impact my graduate students have on their k-12 students and the impact our eLearning group has on both our faculty and students. Most specifically, I am thinking about the impact of modeling great practices, especially in the use of digital media and eLearning environments that are truly viable and replicable in a school environment.

To get my thoughts flowing, I’ve been using the following process for the past three years to reinvigorate my teaching, scholarship, and the way I lead and manage.

First, I reflect on any issues that need to be solved or addressed. Usually upon reflection (including consultation with peers), I almost always find hidden opportunities and untapped potentials. I consider these opportunities and then determine what kind of change, or rethinking, that needs to occur personally, curricularly and/or organizationally to foster these new ideas. At this point I am feeling pretty refreshed and invigorated. Ideas are flowing, especially on trying to carve out solutions to old problems. From here I craft a couple of tangible resolutions or goals for the year to focus on.

The trick is to keep things manageable and scalable. This is the hardest part. When crafting a goal or resolution that is bigger than just your own personal work, make sure you list the tangible aspects of what you hope to personally achieve. Remember this is about reinvigorating yourself for the upcoming year so picking something like “Get all my colleagues to use Moodle” is something that might be absolutely the right thing to do, but may not be something that you can achieve 100% on your own, without enlisting the support of other stakeholders. If you don’t have stakeholder support yet, perhaps a more tangible reframing of the goal might be “Help my colleagues understand the benefit of using a tool like Moodle” is a stronger, more focused start. (And this will help build stakeholders and support).

I find there is an important distinction between reinventing and reinvigorating. In the spirit of resolutions, to invigorate is to generate energy, excitement and focus. I don’t think we want to enter a new academic year saying we are reinventing with our students and colleagues. We do want to begin the year with reinvigorated spirits so we can create fertile ground for student and faculty potential to flourish. This year is my resolution is to make instructional impact one student, one course, one faculty, and one department at a time.

What hidden opportunities are waiting for you to discover? Comment and let us know!

Brand New Website Launched for Administrators

2010-08-08T12:45:00.000-05:00

You much check out this wonderful new website: Connected Principals

This site was launched just yesterday by George Couros. Below is a quote from him, on why he wanted to develop such a project.

"I really wanted to encourage others to see the many contributions that administrators provide for not only social networking, but through the wonderful projects that are being done at their schools. I also thought about creating a resource that would be beneficial to current administrators and those that are interested in going into administration."

All I have to say is - WAY TO GO George! Click here to learn more about George Couros.

PLNs Spelled Out

2010-08-07T23:01:00.000-05:00

Interactive Mirror

2010-08-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

Hmm...what's next?

Leading the 1st Education Administration Chat - Please Join In!

2010-08-05T19:59:00.001-05:00

Our 1st Ed. Admin. Chat will be Tues. 8/10 @ 9:30CT. Vote for your topic at http://twtpoll.com/2ss6ui. Then join us on 8/10 @ http://tweetchat.com/room/edadmin #edadmin

NOOKstudy

2010-08-04T21:07:00.000-05:00

What do you think? Could this soon impact K-12 too?

My Guest Blog Post from WEB 2.0 LEARNING

2010-08-03T17:50:00.000-05:00

Stop Dipping Your Toes and Jump Into Web 2.0

We are so fortunate to have such wonderful web 2.0 tools, quite literally at our fingertips! Can you possibly imagine why any educator would not be completely ecstatic over these beauties? In general, I believe that it all boils down to a couple of things: a lack of understanding, and a feeling of being overwhelmed. Once people come to understand the power of the tools, it tends to significantly minimize that feeling of being overwhelmed.

For anyone not familiar with Delicious, it is a social bookmarking website. It will import your bookmarks from another location, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc. You then have the opportunity to label each of your bookmarks with “tags” that you associate with each of the sites. Anytime you’re trying to find one of your bookmarks, it’s as easy as logging into your Delicious account; typing in a keyword (tag) then clicking the enter button. You can also save bookmarks straight to Delicious, and access them from any computer.

Case in point: At one time I bookmarked my favorite websites on my home computer, my work computer, and so on. I always wanted to have my favorites at my fingertips. Sure, I’d heard about Delicious. Other than just hearing about it, it was an utter unknown to me. Then “it” happened. My home computer was laid to rest, rendering all of those bookmarks lost forever. It wasn’t long after that when I took a risk and learned about Delicious. And wow! It took all of two visits for me to understand what a powerful tool this would be for my life, and how extremely helpful it would be in my work.

Anyone that is really trying to get a good grasp on tools that work best for their particular situation can easily bookmark them on Delicious by common keywords. For example: Voki is a great free avatar-generating website. Using this as an example, the tags could be “Web_2.0” and “Avatar”. Anytime you bookmark sites of this nature, using common “tags” enables you to quickly and easily pull them up in groups. This is a great way to start your very own personalized, easily accessible, collection of top tools for you.

A few of my personal takeaways for Web 2.0 tools:

They have enabled me to communicate with a greater impact.
They’ve helped me to streamline information collection, utilization, and sharing (see my Gl.am sample at http://gl.am/1rZA4, which also happens to have a few tools you can use).
They also happen to be pretty fun to use.
Go2Web2.0 has a wonderful compilation of tools by category. Don’t become overwhelmed by the shear volume of tools. Just take a few for a spin, and see what you absolutely love!

Faxing Minus the Machine

2010-08-02T23:10:00.000-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

Looking for a great way to send and receive facsimiles, without having to maintain a fax machine? MyFax is a wonderful option! What I love most about it is the ability to send and receive a fax from anywhere. All received faxes come to me courtesy of a PDF file in my e-mail inbox. Talk about convenient!

This ia ONLY a sample of how you can use VOKI:

2010-08-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

Taming the E-mail Monster

2010-08-01T16:23:00.000-05:00

E-mail is great! It’s been used, for well over a decade, to both send and receive information. It can be helpful, or a hindrance. On any given day, I typically receive between 300-500 e-mails. It can become all-consuming. These e-mails come from a variety of sources: parents, educators, students, sales people, professional organizations, and so forth. There's no way (that I'm aware of) to simply come in an hour early, and just knock them all out real quick. Many of them require great thought, action, and response. This is not something I’d do well to rush through at all. Keeping all of this in mind, I plan to approach my e-mail in a much more methodical way for 2010-2011. If you find yourself in similar shoes, this too may be of help to you. In the past, I've typically used the “first in first out” approach. I will continue to start with that premise in mind, making a few adjustments (some are carryovers; others will be new in practice for me):

Create four folders - Professional Organizations, Professional Updates, Professional Development, and Follow-Up On (Choose yours according to your needs).
See if there are any e-mails marked as urgent - read them first.
Go back to the “first in first out” approach and quickly work through each e-mail. If it's not from a parent, educator, or student; then, it goes into one of the abovementioned folders (for later review).
Now, we’re at the meat of the e-mail. For each one I open, I want to make sure to give an appropriate response. Below are some examples with responses:

E-mail: Just a reminder for you to attend the 3pm meeting at…
Response: A “thank you” is nice; but, no response is required.

E-mail: Mrs. Carpenter, I’d like to have permission to paint all of the girls’ bathrooms with…
Response: I’ve just now read your e-mail. Let me check into some things, and I’ll be back in touch by Friday. (They know their e-mail is being checked into, and when to expect a follow-up.)

E-mail: I’d like to know where to find a copy of the school supply list.
Response: This one should be delegated to an amazing secretary, for follow-up that day.

It’s important for people to know that they are important, as are their inquiries; and to also know that they have not been forgotten. It’s also important for that “e-mail monster” to not confine you or me to a chair. My commitment to myself is to check e-mail in this fashion at least 2-3 times per day (sometime in the morning and afternoon, and possibly near lunch). This enables me to tame my “e-mail monster” for sure!

One very important rule of thumb that I swear by - DON’T EVER, EVER, EVER e-mail anything out that you would not feel comfortable seeing on the front page of the New York Times!!!

21st Century Skills - Habitudes

2010-07-31T21:08:00.000-05:00

Today, through the 2010 Reform Symposium, I had the good fortune of attending (virtually on Elluminate) Angela Maiers's Keynote titled "What the Heck is a 21st Century Skill Anyway?". There were approximately 150 others attending the very same session as I. One of the questions she posed to all, concerned the topic of 21st Century Skills - specifically how many people had been provided a set of guidelines of these exact critical skills we're all buzzing about. Only about five people raised their hands. She was out to prove an excellent point. We all agree that these 21st Century Skills are something that students must be sufficiently equipped with, and able to use fluently, in order to succeed in our future society. As far as a list goes, she refers to them as "Habitudes" - a combination of habits and attitudes that are critical for our students to learn, use, and apply; if they are to thrive in the future. Click here to learn more about Angela and her work. She also has some wonderful information on her blog about PLNs.

All that being stated, there's one more day left of the totally free Reform Symposium 2010. If you can only pop in for one session, it will have been well worth your time. Click here for tomorrow's schedule.

Have Terabyte...Will Travel

2010-07-30T20:15:00.000-05:00

I often wonder... how many people deal with the same affliction as me?

My name is Susan, and I'm an information junkie. You name it, I save it (information, that is). You just never know when something will come in handy in the future. Let's say you're looking to write a welcome back to school letter. If you've got a copy from a previous year, you're one step ahead of the game! Somehow, it just gets those creative juices flowing, to have a frame of reference.

Back in the day, I might have been working on a letter at school. Not having completed it to my satisfaction, I would do one of a few things to make the needed changes:

Take home my laptop, to continue my revisions from there
Email the file to myself, so that I can open it up on another computer at home
Save it to a flash drive, to open my document up at home

While each approach certainly has varying and degrees of effectiveness, in regards to task accomplishment; efficiency is certainly at issue. Taking home the laptop is quite cumbersome. Emailing the file to myself created multiple similar files (i.e. confusion). The flash drive (128 MB) was my favorite of the three options. This brings me to one of the most amazing finds:

THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE (1TB)

I started using an external hard drive a couple of years ago, and wouldn't want to go back to the "old way" for anything. Instead of saving everything to a computer, that might unexpectedly be rendered unusable, I have my files with me at all times. No matter where I go, I'm as close as a USB port to anything that I might need to work on. That being stated, it's a pretty good idea to have a backup as well. Some people keep everything on their computer, then back it up on a regular basis. Other people set their computer hard drive and external hard drive to sync anytime a change is made. However one chooses to use it, it's a lifesaver.

As far as setup goes - as an administrator you could set your school business up by year, then create folders for each desired category (my favorite). Others may choose to set theirs up by category, then by year. Whatever your choice - once you try it, you too will be a believer. It's efficiency and effectiveness, all from something that fits into the palm of your hand!

The Principal as a Magician

2010-07-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

One of the ever-challenging aspects of any administrator is to truly appear as though they are omnipresent. This is no easy feat by any means of the imagination! However, it's not entirely impossible (in my opinion).

Once upon a time, I would pride myself on being in each classroom every day. These were good times. One of the most rewarding parts of this job is to experience the educational process in action. That's only one of many reasons that it is so important for us to be everywhere all of the time (as much as humanly possible). Here are a few others:

Our staff will feel more supported, appreciated and cared for.

Students come to know us better, and discipline infractions tend to decrease in number and severity.

We are able to be much more aware of support that teachers are in need of.

There are more opportunities for us to highlight all of the good things going on, even in the most modest of teachers' classes.
We have a good first-hand grasp of all that is going on throughout your campus. (ESSENTIAL)
If someone asks to see how another teacher has incorporated something, such as Wallwisher, into their class - we know exactly who to put them in touch with.
We can offer "good quality" Learning Walks, on our campus, that will benefit other educators.

By golly, the list really does go on and on! We all know that it's one of the most important parts of our job, and we enjoy it to boot! So, what gives? What stands in the way of our giving the appearance that we are omnipresent? I'd venture to say that it's all important things, such as:

ARD/IEP Meetings
504 Meetings
Committee Meetings
Student Meetings
Parent Meetings
Teacher Meetings
Campus Meetings
District Meetings
Fire Drills
Campus Emergencies
Illnesses
Family Emergencies
Various Duties
Discipline
Report Preparation
Budgeting

Now, I realize that this doesn't even begin to even scratch the surface. All are important things. They also just so happen to be things that keep us away from where we most need and want to be.

Here's where the magic comes in: SocialOomph, Twitter and a great Google Calendar schedule!

Schedule all of your non-negotiables (i.e. required district training and such) into the Google calendar with SMS reminders set, where desired.
Block out a certain, yet different, amount of time (in the Google calendar) devoted to classroom adventures. This should be done for each day that we are on campus. Everything else will then be scheduled around these.
Set up a Twitter account to post updates for parents (ex. PTA newsletters, forms being sent home, Open House reminders, early release reminders, and such).
Create a free SocialOomph account to "preschedule" tweets all at one time, to be released throughout the year. If something changes in the future, no problem. We can simply go back and edit or delete the tweet.

This will help out in our continuous pursuit to seem as though we are everywhere all of the time. It's a challenge; but, what a rewarding one!

A Tale of Technology (Shopping, That is)

2010-07-28T21:19:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Ah, technology...they're just not giving it away these days.

Here recently, I've had the good fortune of shopping for a new computer. My personal preference is a nice-sized little notebook. This is what I like to work off of for my "heavy use" tasks. When I really get to moving along, my mind jumps from one idea to the next, almost in unison. Therefore, having a nice sized screen (17-18") enables me to multi-task in a side-by-side fashion. A big screen, along with continued portability are two (of many) things that I look for in this type of a purchase.

On a side note - they've recently come out with, what I fondly refer to as, "the teacher feature" (AKA the LED backlit keyboard). I say this in jest, incenuating that educators can often be caught in the wee hours of the night, just plugging away at the keyboard with thoughts and ideas they are wanting to develop. The backlit keyboard can come in pretty handy, especially for someone who's strengths are not necessarily found within their keyboarding skills.

Most people are aware if they are elegible for a particular discount through their employer. Sometimes these discounts can be quite significant. Once I decided exactly what I was looking for, it was time for hard core shopping. My preference is to do so from the comfort of my own home. Therefore, my shopping trip was entirely online.

One of the companies that I looked into, did provide a discount to employees of the district that I work for. Another company offered discounts to educators, but only if you worked at an actual university. The third company I checked into offered no educator discounts. My gut instinct urged me to just give them a call. The worst things that they could do is to confirm that they indeed offer no such a discount.

The second company gave me their K-12 discount - 15% overall plus $400 in freebies. The third company gave me a 15% educator discount. Both made me a aware that it's not something that they advertise; but, will definitely extend to educators when asked about it.

The moral to this little tale? If you're in the market for a new computer, don't assume that the price advertised is for you to pay. For all of your dedication, there are companies that want to give you a discount. They're just waiting for you to pick up the phone and call.

Perception is Everything

2010-07-27T19:50:00.001-05:00

Are we unintentionally sending out the wrong message to parents, volunteers, community members...any guest to our campus?

Okay...maybe, just maybe, these are some extremes. It's a balance - keep the campus safe always, while inviting to our guests.

Our campus recently had the good fortune of having a FREE campus building image survey. Now, that's not the official name. Hopefully, it still helps to illustrate a point (in conjunction with the Google Images above). The purpose of this survey was to test how visitors will perceive that they are received on the campus. Do they fell welcome and invited? Or, do they feel as though "the school" would prefer for them to stay away?

Since we've already received the results from our survey, we are fortunate enough to have this opportunity to adjust our signage in order to better communicate how important our guests truly are to the campus as a whole.

You too can replicate this in a very similar way. Simply walk your campus with new eyes; not as an administrator, but as a guest. How "might" someone (perhaps you) feel based upon the written words posted throughout?

Here's a common example of a 2' x 1' red sign that one might see posted on a school door:

"DO NOT ENTER! YOU MUST CHECK IN THROUGH THE FRONT OFFICE!"

Here's how one might convey the exact same message, in "people friendly" verbage (on a less dramatic shade of sign - perhaps aqua):

"Welcome! We can't wait to meet you! Simply follow the arrows to enter the building through our front office door."

It's simple. It's inexpensive. The best part about it is...it's oh so easy to fix!

Parent Contacts/Parents as Partners

2010-07-26T22:40:00.001-05:00

Two particular parent contacts genuinely stand out in my mind. The first was from my son's kindergarten teacher, after his first day of kindergarten. She called the home of each child, just to let the family know what a great first day of school their child had. From that moment on, she could have asked for the moon. I'd have done everything in my power to get it for her. Why? She cared about kids, and she showed it. He had the BEST kindergarten year that any child could ask for. He adored her. The second contact was this past year. His fifth grade math teacher sent the sweetest letter home with him on the last day. I have no doubt that she sent a letter home with each of her students. This was THE sweetest letter you could imagine. To be quite honest, it still chokes me up to think about it. She was great throughout the entire year - also , making a contact after that very first day. She too could have asked for the moon, and I'd have tried like crazy to bring it to her. Why? You guessed it. She cared, and she showed it. My son also adored her.

With the 2010-2011 school year about to get under way, we have a rare opportunity to make that impression that very well may last a lifetime. Last year, we had a contest. The first person in each department, to have contacted all of the families from their fourth period class, got a little something special. There was one tiny catch to it. In order for the winner in each department to claim thieir little something special, the entire department had to complete their contacts. The call was no more extensive than this: "Good evening - this is Susan Carpenter, RT's advisory teacher. I wanted to call you today, to introduce myself. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know both you and RT throughout the year. If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to let me know." It's quick; it's simple; and it means so very much.

What better time than the beginning of the year, to make that first supportive contact in order to foster positive relationships with students and thier families?

The Reform Symposium 2010 (7/30-31) - How to Register:

2010-07-25T16:32:00.002-05:00

Penultimate...Oh Yes!

2010-07-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

While perusing through a fresh new leadership blog - "Educational Leadership (what they didn't tell you in grad school)" - I learned about this nifty little application that had flown out of my radar.

Do any of these sound familiar?

People refer to you as the queen/king of Post-it Notes.
When you're organizing at the end of a day, week...month you start by gathering up all of your notes into one folder, only to effectively divide and conquer in an evening.
You keep a set of notepads handy at all times, for copious note-taking.
You keep multiple subject notes on any given pad - ripping, reviewing and filing once the notepad has been exhausted.
When you're looking for something, yet you can't quite put your finger on it, you go straight to your e-mail and do a search for the topic.

There's an app for that! It's called Penultimate. For $2.99 you can download it from iTunes onto your iPad. I gave it a test run with an open mind. I've picked it apart in every way that you can think of. She's a beauty!

Anytime you need to take a few notes - parent calls, administrative meetings, department meetings, student ideas, teacher brainstorming sessions, keynote speakers, books, trends, to dos, reflections, etc. - you are good to go. You can make a "notebook" for whatever subjects desired - then e-mail a page (or, even an entire notebook) to yourself for reference, sharing and/or printing.

I can't wait to really put this one to work for me!

Challenging Change

2010-07-23T23:58:00.001-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

A couple of days ago I read a great “tell it like it is” post from from Eric Sheninger - “Top 10 Roadblocks to Change” is the title. I couldn’t possibly agree more with all that he has so eloquently stated. He sure hit the nail on the head (all ten of them, that is).

Since reading his post, the wheels in my head started turning...thinking about all of the comments I’ve heard in favor of not supporting educational change throughout the years. Here are but a few:

Why change? This is the way I’ve always done things.
I don’t have time to learn another thing.
When I was their age, I learned this way. I turned out okay. They can too.
This way works just fine for me.
I have a consistent record of success - no need to change.
Why should I have to change what I’m doing for them?

These statements certainly speak for themselves. People believe them, and feel very strongly about the above sentiments. Ironically, these comments all operate under the assumption that things pretty much have stayed the same, and will stay the same; that they will remain consistent over time. The focus is not on student needs.

Ako Kambon, with the Visionary Leaders Institute, does a great job of bringing home all that has changed over the last few decades - specifically the priority of influences on our students. They have changed significantly. Home and church are no longer at the top the top of the list, as they once were. Here are some specific examples of things that I have seen change over the past few decades:

First mobile phone - a bag phone, the size of a small ice chest / Mounted car phone > Handhelds > Flip phones > Smartphones > iPhone > Droid (Kids do have them!)
Typewriter > computer - with mainframe that could fill up a room > desktop computer (with the 5 1/4” handy little floppy drive) > laptops with 3 1/2” floppy disk drives > Netbooks with USB ports > iPads
Dial a friend in the neighborhood > Skype a friend across the world
Go the the library and look up something on microfiche > Google it

Times sure are a changing. Society has undoubtedly transformed from what it once was. Recently I heard that the top ten jobs of today, weren’t even in existence in 2004. (Unfortunately, I can’t remember the source. When I do, I’ll be sure to reference them.) As educators, we too must transform the way that we function in the learning communities for which we serve; in order to provide each child with a first class 21st Century Education. It’s much more than important. It’s essential.

And what a great time we will have throughout this journey!

Googlicious!

2010-07-22T22:55:00.000-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

As we get closer to the start of the upcoming school year, I am increasingly more and more excited about what is yet to come. After reflecting upon the 2009-2010 school year, one very important goal of mine is to improve upon communication. In that, I refer most specifically to timeliness, efficiency, effectiveness and accessibility of day-to-day information...enter Google Calender. Before delving into the shear beauty of this diamond, let me share “the old way” of conducting/sharing certain day-to-day business.

“The old way” looked like this: I created a calendar in Word, at the end of a year, in planning for the upcoming year. As things came along, I’d update my Word document. This document had EVERYTHING in it (ex. 6th grade teacher’s due date; schedule X program no later than this date...). It had WAY more information that anyone else needed or desired - truly information overload. You want the information to be valuable, meaningful, concise, clear and thorough. Therefore, each week I would update the master calendar of events. Then I would duplicate it, and remove all the things that weren’t pertinent to the overall staff. Next, I would then e-mail a copy out to all. At almost the same time, I would upload a copy to post directly onto our campus BlackBoard page. Mind you, this is just the dates (ex. 9/10 = Open House, 11/19 = Mix-it Up Day, 12/1 = 7B Basketball vs. TBD @ Home). On top of all of that, I would then type the highlights of the week in my weekly message. It may not sound like a lot; but, surely (I thought) there must be an easier way. I heard that one of our other campuses within the district was trying their hand at the Google Calendar. They even had it posted on the teacher page of Blackboard. Teachers could view the events by month, week, day, agenda, and so forth. It was love at first sight for me. I asked our AMAZING Technology Integration Specialist to find out more, in order to see if this would be a viable option for our campus. And it was. For those that have never used this, you cannot begin to understand how user-friendly this is to get setup. We introduced it, ever so slightly at the end of last year. This brings us to “the new (transformed) way” of doing things.

The “new (transformed) way” looks like this: I have created one master calendar with EVERYTHING pertaining to the campus this year. My dear sweet secretary and the two APs have view access to this. “Everything” includes more than you might think. Here’s an example of information that will all be there, prior to the teachers’ return - if it’s an early release day, the actual bell schedule will be attached. As a part of our character emphasis, we are utilizing Project Wisdom. Each week, during Advisory, there will be suggested activities attached to that day on the Google Calendar (in fact, they are already there for the entire 2010-2011 school year). Also during Advisory, we’ll be video streaming through a campus-wide book study. That video, and/or the YouTube link, will be attached to the day of the week needed (directly on the Google Calendar).

I’ve created four versions of this calendar: The one referred to thus far, and three more - Staff, Students & Parents, and Assessment (requested by DHs). All that you do is (essentially) copy events and attachments from the main calendar to each other calendar that you’d like to see them on. Each calendar is pushed out to its appropriate audience, and always up-to-date - without having to go through the multiple steps as I did in the past. Talk about a time-saver! Your staff will love it. They can plan ahead, with no surprises. This is true for your parents and students as well. Although this is just the tip of the iceberg for Google Calendar, you can already see what an amazing tool this is for a 21st Century Administrator to pull out of the box and use.

As an aside - Check into Google Voice if you haven’t already. It’s FREE, and as of about June 22, available to anyone and everyone. There’s some great possibilities for this little beauty.

Twitter - Lessons Learned...While Still Learning

2010-07-21T23:38:00.001-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

If your Tweet Plan is to grow a PLN (Professional/Personal Learning Network ), here are some thoughts - split up between Great Practices and Not So Great Practices.

Great Practices:

Always thank someone that RTs (ReTweets) you. This is when someone passes along your post (tweet), while giving you credit.
Keep Twitter lists - I've created a list of administrators that I follow on Twitter. I can click on this list to quickly and easily find out things such as what books they're reading, conferences they're attending (or, presenting at); thus learning more than I ever would have, had I not made those contacts. A perfect example is Alan November's recent conference. I remember attending one of his presentations back around 1999. I had no idea what all he had to share in 2010.(Felt like I'd had my head buried in the sand.) I ended up with access to some wonderful resources, simply by knowing that it was attended by someone with similar interests as myself.
Keep certain Twitter searches saved - I had the pleasure of participating in a Web 2.0 Tools chat today. The agreed upon hashtag was #web20chat. With that saved as a search, I can easily click on the hashtag to pull up the entire chat and pull out the resources that I learned about today; or, to find people that I might have a follow-up question for.
Tweetdeck - Download to your computer in order to manage (keep up with) multiple items at once. Some examples included ReTweets, @Mentions, and more.
UberTwitter - Download this application for your mobile phone. It gives you more access/options to your Twitter account than does the actual Twitter mobile download.
SocialOomph - This is a great way to preschedule Tweets.
FourSquare - Check it out @ http://foursquare.com/. The more people that use it, the more powerful it will be. You can link it easily to your Twitter account. I only wish it had been available the time we evacuated for Hurricane Rita. Talk about a powerful resource!

Not So Great Practices:

Auto-following those that follow you - there are a few reasons to avoid this. The best example I can think of is illustrated most clearly by referring to a business Twitter Account - a school, for instance; more specifically, a school that doesn't prescreen it's followers. Therefore, I'll digress from Twitter for PLN purposes for just a moment.

As a school you want all the parents to follow your updates, in order for them to have the inside scoop on up-to-the-minute information coming out. Come one, come all! Some schools might be inclined to follow back those that are verifiable parents. The moment that you choose not to follow one person, you run the risk of unintentionally offending someone. This is not something that I would ever want to do. I will go on a limb to say that it would not bode well for a school to be following @theb*!$h fromh*!l.

People look at who you follow to determine if they will follow you. Now, back to using Twitter for PLN purposes. If you're looking to learn more about technology in education, you would probably not choose to follow someone that follows 90% cereal makers. Cereal's great! It's just a far cry from your intended focus. Therefore, you'll probably want to pass on following this person in order to streamline the focus of tweets you'll receive.

Generally speaking, people aren't looking to find out where you're having breakfast and what you're eating. That being said, there's one HUGE exception - Foursquare. This is a fairly new phenomenon, in which people post things such as "I'm in the lobby at Chateau LeBlanc." There will be a growing apparent use for this in the near future.
Using the default Twitter profile picture - people tend to see these as being suspicious. Put about anything in it's place. Just make sure to change it as soon as you're able to - only takes a minute.
Avoiding Twitter because it doesn't make sense to you - you're missing out on amazing opportunities for efficient and effective professional learning through global collaboration. Just go for it!

What's next for me???
I plan to check more into TweetML for sharing groups of people/districts/schools that I follow on Twitter.

* Hashtag - a commonly agreed upon string of characters, preceded by the # sign. Each person tweeting to that end agrees to insert that hashtag into the end of their tweets of that nature.

Check Out This 21st Century Educator (~17 mins.)

2010-07-21T09:27:00.001-05:00

Maiden Voyage of #web20chat on Twitter - 5pm CST on 7/21

2010-07-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Please join in tomorrow for the first scheduled #web20chat. This Twitter chat will begin at 5pm CST. It's totally devoted to Web 2.0 Tools!

One of the Most Popular Videos on Educator's PLN

2010-07-20T07:04:00.001-05:00

This is one of the most popular videos, as shared by Tom Whitby, on EDU PLN :

Find more videos like this on The Educator's PLN

Googlethusiast

2010-07-19T17:14:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

"Someone who is filled with enthusiasm over the endless possibilities that Google (Tools/Apps) is able to serve as a catalyst for communication, collaboration, and learning in the 21st Century."

Alan Novemeber on 21st Century Schools, Skills & Global Collaboration

2010-07-19T06:00:00.002-05:00

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

Blogging Principals

2010-07-18T14:13:00.000-05:00

Are you a blogging principal? If not, click here to find out why and how you might want to take a risk and go for it!

PLNs Revealed

2010-07-18T08:25:00.000-05:00

Take a peak at this nice little explanation of PLNs:

Requiring RSS Readers...How About That?

2010-07-17T18:09:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Check out this thought-provoking post from Dangerously Irrelevant. It's a part II of II. There's a link available near the bottom of the read, to refer to the part I. Our new e-mail system at work comes with the RSS feature already built-in. I suspect that few may be aware of it, and even fewer aware of the wealth of learning that can come from this. What a great free gift just waiting to be revealed!

Getting Started with Technology Integration in Your Classroom | Edutopia

2010-07-17T10:19:00.000-05:00

Getting Started with Technology Integration in Your Classroom | Edutopia

10 Tips for Managing Information Overload | November Learning

2010-07-16T23:47:00.000-05:00

Some great tips are found here.

LiveBinders

2010-07-15T21:18:00.001-05:00

Check out this LiveBinder. Not only does it demonstrate effective use of this tool, for organizing and evaluating, it's packed to the gills with all kinds of goodies!

Facebook & Teachers

2010-07-14T22:04:00.001-05:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This may not exactly be quite what you're expecting. You'll definitely want to give it a read. It's a NYT article that's been getting quite a lot of attention today.

Nook Study - Free Study Tool from Barnes & Noble

2010-07-13T18:11:00.000-05:00

Nook Study - Free Study Tool from Barnes & Noble

Cloud Computing / Google Apps

2010-07-12T13:12:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Take a peak here to see how "Cloud Computing" will almost certainly change the way we, as educators, do business (in the not-so-far-away future). This is something you'll hear more and more about in the coming months. What a great opportunity to take a quick look at this innovation!

Reading in a Whole New Way

2010-07-12T10:58:00.000-05:00

Reading in a Whole New Way

10 ways to use Foursquare in educational marketing

2010-07-11T22:08:00.000-05:00

10 ways to use Foursquare in educational marketing

Living on the Future Edge

2010-07-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

You aren't going to want to miss this one!

Will the iPad and Similar Technology Revolutionize Learning? | Edutopia

2010-07-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

Will the iPad and Similar Technology Revolutionize Learning? | Edutopia

30 Ways to Use Foursquare In Education

2010-07-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

30 Ways to Use Foursquare In Education

Blackboard's Big Buy - Inside Higher Ed

2010-07-08T22:33:00.000-05:00

Blackboard's Big Buy - Inside Higher Ed

2010-07-08T18:59:00.000-05:00

Here's a wonderfully poignant quote from Dr. Schlechty's "Leading for Learning" book:

"Educators must learn to take into account and exploit for positive ends the social networking available on the Internet. Educators must not allow fear of the harm that can be done by these developments to divert attention from their efforts to invent ways to exploit the good."

- Dr. Phillip C. Schlechty

Invitation

2010-07-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

Click HERE to join ISTE's SIGOL on Facebook. Exciting things are just on the horizon!

"SIGOL is the Special Interest Group for Online Learning of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and has been one of the longest serving special interest groups within ISTE. Today, ISTE hosts a variety of SIGs focused on using distance technology. With this growth, SIGOL members are defining their focus on online learning. Come join us on our quest to broaden the awareness of the power of online learning and its impact on education."

Free Technology for Teachers: Google for Teachers II - Free 33 Page Guide

2010-07-06T14:18:00.000-05:00

Free Technology for Teachers: Google for Teachers II - Free 33 Page Guide

Improving Campus Climate

2010-07-05T12:19:00.001-05:00

Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture by Jon Gordon, is such a wonderful read for improving campus climate (actually, any climate). At the conclusion of this book, you'll have the opportunity to download this great free resource for your own use. Click here for a sneak peak.

Bullying Anyone?

2010-07-04T17:55:00.002-05:00

I would be walking around with blinders on, if I thought for a moment that bullying was a non-issue on the middle school campus. This certainly isn't something that contributes in any way to helping young adolescents feel safe and secure. That being the case, I'm always looking around for great ideas to help face this issue head-on; in order to impart lasting positive change upon the organization.

In April, I ran across this amazing article (click here to give it a quick read). To be fair, the fact that students were incorporating cell phones into education, to give feedback in school, was admittedly my initial draw to this article. Not only do students love them and use them, they all have them too. You may be doubtful, but just do a spot-check. You'd be hard-pressed to find a tween/teen without one.

As I read through this article, I became increasingly intrigued with the book they were reading. "The Revealers" by Doug Wilhelm, was the name of the book. I just knew that I had to read it. Wow - what a great book! It's apparently one of those "best kept secrets" out there. The author will even come out to visit your school. There are a number things that can be done with this. The book has been used by several campuses, throughout the years, to bring a heightened awareness and understanding of the topic of bullying. Kids can absolutely relate to it. Different campuses have chosen to use this book in a variety of ways. We are fortunate enough to have an "Advisory" period, on the campus for which I serve. Each week we'll have different staff members taking a turn at reading a chapter of the book, then streaming the A/V footage into the classrooms. At the end of each chapter (i.e. end of the class period) there will always be a unique debrief/processing/application type of activity, to help students have a voice. They will also come away with a better understanding of what they are expected to do (their specific role) in squelching out bullying, and have a clear picture as to what that looks like in practice. This book will take us through the week just prior to Spring Break - addressing/having good conversations about bullying, with mentor teachers on a regular basis. We have something exciting that we'll be implementing just after the campus-wide book read. This spring-board will be an amazing segway into that. I am very excited about all of the good that will come from this.

Let me make one tiny little disclaimer. (I sure hope Mr. Wilhelm can forgive me.) There are some spots in this book that you will want to paraphrase for your audience. These are things that for certain the students both hear and say to one another. However...

I can't wait to share this story with the students! I'll start out by reading the first chapter, and we have volunteers to pick it up from there - coaches, paraprofessionals, tech. specialist, teachers. Several people have already volunteered to be guest readers. Every student will hear from someone that they can connect with. Mark my words...it's going to be great!

Easy Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

2010-07-03T16:45:00.002-05:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Easy Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

View more presentations from pingable.

iPad - My Thoughts (from a wonderful 6/24/10 training)

2010-07-02T22:29:00.005-05:00

Click here to check them all out.

I do apologize for the inconvenience, with the locked document. As of 7/3 11:35 a.m. (CST), the link is fully accessible. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any trouble viewing, or any questions at all. Thanks!

gl.am

2010-07-01T22:58:00.001-05:00

If you haven't heard of, or seen gl.am - it's time! Each week, during the school year, I send out a special website for our staff. I've utilized "gl.am" as a warehouse for storing/holding all accumulated websites. Click here to see mine. Feel free to duplicate it, use it, refer to it - for anything that might help you out. It is such a neat find!

Welcome the 21st Century Administrator Blog

2010-06-30T22:41:00.001-05:00

Things you find posted here will help in assisting you to better meet the needs of our 21st century learners.

21st Century Administrator

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Rainy Day Fund or BUST in Texas!!!!!!

SIGs During Advisory

Happy New Year!

1. Android 2.2 Platform (Highlights)

New User Features

Home

Improved performance

Media framework

Bluetooth

2.6.32 kernel upgrade

New Developer Services

Android Cloud to Device Messaging

Android Application Error Reports

New Developer APIs

Apps on external storage

Media framework

Camera and Camcorder

Graphics

Data backup

Device policy manager

UI framework

Two Great Conference Opportunities

What a great post on PLNs by Eric Sheninger!

Check out Larry Fliegelman's Simple Plan to Increase Parental Involvement

Inform, Invite, Perform (and Feed): A Plan to Increase Parental Involvement

140 New Things Being Tried In Classrooms This Fall by Richard Byrne

Recommend a Keynote for the Global Education Conference

Related articles by Zemanta

K12 Online Conference 2010 (see info. from Wesley Fryer)

Announcing Keynote Speakers for #k12online10

Related articles by Zemanta

Great Post from Ignacio IV Lopez, Ed.D.

Negative Teachers: What can Positive do for you?

Check out this Great Article from the Innovative Educator

6 Ways to Use Cell Phones to Strengthen the Home-School Connection

Authentic Engagement Activity for Teachers

District Network Down? No problem.

Staff Developement

Slide Rocket

Check Out This Great Article from Texas ASCD

Back-to-School – Are you prepared?

First Day Back for Teachers

Great Article from Ian Jukes

Are iPads, Smartphones, and the Mobile Web Rewiring the Way We Think?

Thoughts Near & Dear

First Education Administrator Chat

Timely Article from Rebecca Peterson

Find Hidden Opportunity in 3Rs: Reflect, Rethink, Reinvigorate

Brand New Website Launched for Administrators

PLNs Spelled Out

Interactive Mirror

Leading the 1st Education Administration Chat - Please Join In!

NOOKstudy

My Guest Blog Post from WEB 2.0 LEARNING

Stop Dipping Your Toes and Jump Into Web 2.0

Faxing Minus the Machine

This ia ONLY a sample of how you can use VOKI:

Taming the E-mail Monster

21st Century Skills - Habitudes

Have Terabyte...Will Travel

The Principal as a Magician

A Tale of Technology (Shopping, That is)

Perception is Everything

Parent Contacts/Parents as Partners

The Reform Symposium 2010 (7/30-31) - How to Register:

Penultimate...Oh Yes!

Challenging Change

Googlicious!

Twitter - Lessons Learned...While Still Learning

Check Out This 21st Century Educator (~17 mins.)

Maiden Voyage of #web20chat on Twitter - 5pm CST on 7/21

One of the Most Popular Videos on Educator's PLN

Googlethusiast

Alan Novemeber on 21st Century Schools, Skills & Global Collaboration

Blogging Principals

PLNs Revealed

Requiring RSS Readers...How About That?

Getting Started with Technology Integration in Your Classroom | Edutopia