Productivity Update

I have always been interested in improving my productivity;  I blogged about organization skills and tools nine times over the years.

Earlier this school year, I decided to join a Facebook group called Principal Productivity, Becoming a Productive Principal. I have been working on this for my entire principal career. Considering that there are more than 1,200 member of the group, I guess this is a widespread issue. Anyway, to get into the group, I had to write a productivity challenge statement. Here is what i wrote:

"Getting into classrooms and doing the other stuff later while still seeing my children everyday."

Over the past few years, I have gotten increasingly better at getting into classroom (more on that in another blog post). I get most fo the "other stuff" done at some point, and I see my children and spend quality time with them throughout the week. Now, I am not perfect at any of this, and some weeks are far better than others. Over time, I think that I have a decent record due to a bunch of strategies and tools/

To stay organized and be productive, I use a variety of methods.

• I keep my email inbox empty with liberal use of the snooze feature and with forwarding to a to-do program or Evernote. 
• I keep an Evernote doc going with next week’s staff email memo so that I can edit it quickly and get it out on Thursday nights.
• I keep a digital to-do list using Toodledo. The free version does everything I want, and they update frequently. I especially love being able to email items, schedule a future start date, and sync between devices.
• I also keep a physical to-do folder where I put a sticky on each paper identifying what actions I will need to take with that paper.
• My secretary/admin assistant passes papers that need my attention in “The Folder.” Most staff have learned that the folder is the best way to get a quick response from me. I look at the folder several times throughout the day and either act of stuff immediately (if it will be quick) or save it for later when the students are gone.
• I track longterm goals and projects in Evernote because I have been using it for years (there are frequently articles talking about other note apps and why they are better).
• My google calendars know more about me than anyone in the world - my wife included possibly. I share calendars with my secretary and my wife. This way, my two bosses can always know where I am supposed to be and add appointments for me.

Keeping all this going does take a little bit of time to maintain, and it has been worth it. This year has been one of the smoothest of my career with more documented classroom visits then ever before. I recently made another change so that I am spending longer periods of time in a classroom. I walk in with my to-do folder and my laptop (MacBook Air), then I sit somewhere in the room and work on whatever is pressing (or sometimes I get some old thing done). I stop my work frequently to listen to the classroom chatter and to ask students what they are learning.

All this is to say that time spent planning and organizing helps me to be more productive which helps me spend more time with the things that really matter.

The incredible growing todo list

So, I have this staff member at my school in a new position who still has a lot to learn about todo lists. I was checking in with her during the in-service before school, asking if she needed anything. She pulled this little piece of a sticky note out and showed me. I was amazed that she only had two things to remember to do, but I remembered that she was new and the students hadn't arrived yet. Then it hit me, here was a staff member using **scraps of sticky notes** to keep track of tasks. Aargh!

How could this be? This would have to be the least efficient task management system in the history of todo lists!

Once my heart rate returned to normal, I took a deep breath. Here I was, the digital principal, mister productivity himself staring at a one-inch square piece of sticky note of a todo list. I calmly suggested that my colleague think about a more efficient system. Did she want me to help her come up something? She told me that she would take care of it, that she was still figuring things out. Ok. I moved on to talk of the coming year.

A few days later, once school was in session, I was in the hall talking with the staff member. I asked how she was doing? Could I help her at all? She pulled out her hand from her pocket and showed me an index card with her new todo list. Well, her list had grown from two items to about fourteen. That seemed reasonable for the second week of school.

Hold on a minute, this was just that same as the sticky note only enlarged. Holy moly! Again, I nearly fainted. I asked if she was keeping up with everything. Sheepishly, she said something about having a little trouble remembering everything she had to do. Really! Again, I offered help getting organized. She said yes this time.

I wish that could tell you about how this staff member has become a digital pioneer and a productivity trailblazer using Evernote and an Apple Watch or Google glass and a chip embedded in her brain.

It turns out that this staff member wasn't interested in any high tech task management. She settled on a good old fashioned notebook and pen system. Now, whereever she goes, so goes the notebook. What she writes down, she remembers to take care of. Nearly four months later, it still works. And that, after all, is what matters most in a todo list.


What do you use for managing your tasks? Digital or analog list maker? What works for you?

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Tech Help #edchat #vted

When I last wrote, I mentioned the lessons I learned way back in 1997 (i.e. Always have a Plan B). This time, I write about another lesson from SummerCore: when you need help, ask someone younger. The idea is that kids are "digital natives" or something like that. Really, it may just be that kids aren't afraid to try things, but more on that in a future post. The advice is sound whatever the rationale behind it. Our students can be quite adept at helping us through our work with technology.

There is a great example of this at my school. I have one teacher who appoints a student to be "Tech Help" for the class. When the SmartBoard stops working correctly or some other problem, the teacher (who is tech competent) just calls for Tech Help, please. The student then comes up and attempts a solution. Most of the time the student is totally able to solve the problem. Surely the teacher has done some prior training; what matters is that works.

In fact, "Tech Help" is a great way to show that this teacher has mastered a piece of the ISTE Standards for Students (NETS-S).

6. Technology operations and concepts Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.   

a. Understand and use technology systems 

b. Select and use applications effectively and productively 

c. Troubleshoot systems and applications 

d. Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

The teacher could try to solve the problems herself and move on with the lesson (and sometimes she does), but, instead, she lets the students show what they can do.

So, whether she asks for "Tech Help" because the youngsters know more than she or because she wants to give them opportunities does not really matter. What matters is that the teacher is asking the only people younger than her that really matter, the students.

What's Your Plan B? #vted #edchat

While watching an observation training video, I noticed the teacher accidentally turned off the projector and then did not get it going again for a while. The technology failed (sort of), and the teacher kept on teaching with little disruption to the lesson.

While this shows a fairly strong set of classroom/lesson management skills, it also shows that the tech was not particularly important. As I watched the rest of the lesson, I hoped to see something more than failed Substitution (learn more about Substitution and SAMR).

Setting my critique of the level of technology integration aside, I was reminded of my first edtech lesson from the week-long SummerCore in 1997: always have a plan B. In other words, be prepared in case the technology fails. At the time (and still, unfortunately) tech failed pretty often.

In other other words, if the lesson is only about the tech, it might not be a great lesson.

As for having a plan B, in the fall after that summer course, I was trying an Interactive Slide Lecture (from History Alive). I'd planned to show a slide (not a powerpoint slide, a real slide) and then switch to a graphic organizer on the overhead to model note-taking. In the course of the first 10 minutes, I blew the bulb in the slide projector and then in the overhead. Forget plan B, I needed plan C.

Have you ever needed a plan B during a tech filled lesson? Let's hear about it.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Leadership Day 2014 #leadershipday14

Technology use at my school can best be described as nascent. However, it was a very prolonged labor to get this far. My mostly veteran staff has been reluctant to embrace much in the way of Modification or Redefinition in their use of tech. When I arrived a few years ago, there was little more than some word processing going on. The staff had been scared by a recently-retired tech guy so that they barely touched the five year old laptops they had. The interim principal before I arrived had begun to modernize with a new laptop cart, document cameras in most rooms, and a Smartboard in one room. Slowly, over the these last last three years, the new tech guy and I have added laptops, iPads, and (soon) some chromebooks. We believe that different students at different ages with different tasks need different tools.

With some small exceptions, most of the technology use at my school is very basic substitution with a bit of augmentation thrown in of or good measure. Tech activities like math games on iPads or spelling sentences on google drive offer little new (other than exposure to technology) over their analogue counterparts. We are hoping to get teachers to move their practice by changing small pieces of their tech integration. For example, last year, one teacher started having students type spelling sentences into google drive. Once her students got the hang of it (and we ironed out some tech wrinkles), the tech guy and I pushed the teacher to allow the students to comment on each other's sentences back and forth before students submitted to the teacher. This modified the spelling sentence activity because the students in that class had never shared their sentences with classmates before.

I would love technology use in my school to redefine learning for every student. To get there, we are growing one unit, one level of SAMR, at a time. Just like our children gradually grow and mature, so to is our technology integration.

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Near-Total Brain Replacement, Evernote. The Digital Principal, Part 3

In November, I gave a presentation (resources to be found here) to a packed room row at Vermont Fest,

<snip>

(For the rest of the introduction and a summary of the first two parts of the presentation, please read part ONE and part TWO.)

So, here is part THREE of my three part summary.

Evernote has eaten my brain. That must be why they chose an elephant for a mascot - elephants love brains. Wait, no. Elephants never forget; that's why they chose the long-nosed pachyderm.

Anyway, Evernote has become my brain, not eaten my brain. I've written about Evernote twice before: "Evernote is Becoming My Brain" and "Evernote for Notes Everywhere." As you can see, this brain replacement has been a long time coming (and a longer time needed, I am told).

It all started back when I started teaching. It must have been the 3000 significant decisions a day or something because my memory starters to go. Then, I had children and became an administrator - kaboom - my memory was shot (at least I think that is when it all started).

Anyway, most of my readers will understand that there is far too much for most of to remember without help. Over the years, I have tried pads of paper, three-ring binders, spiral notebooks, composition books, Palm's notes, Mac stickie notes, and finally Evernote.

To make a long story short, I now use Evernote for nearly everything. I keep a notebook for each staff member, each class, many students, each major area of my job (curriculum, data, assessment, facilities, special education, PBIS, and technology just to name a few). All told, I have about 83 school-related notebooks. Within each notebook there are from one to 79 notes. I have a lot to keep track of.

The thing that I like best about Evernote is the fact that my notes are synchronized among every device I use. Evernote works on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, the web, Linux, and probably more. Evernote does not yet work on my toaster - if only Steve Jobs were still around.

One last feature of Evernote that is so useful: integration. Notability, I mentioned it in the last blog post, can send notes right to Evernote. Google Drive can as well. I really cool new tool for Evernote is the Powerbot extension for Chrome. Powerbot connects Evernote to gmail and gcal. I love the meeting minutes template that Powerbot creates in Evernote for each appointment in my calendar. I am still figuring out how to really use Powerbot, but I am very impressed so far.

So, with a device in my hands at all times, Evernote has become my brain. Thank goodness that I have finally have a brain that never forgets.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Technology Gardening #leadershipday12 #summerblog12

Leadership Day from Scott McLeod holds a special place in my blogging heart. It was Leadership Day 2009 when I posted to this, or any, blog for the first time. I was working on becoming a connected leader. I had opened a twitter account, @fliegs, a few month earlier, and I was reading education blogs (my blog bundle). Starting my own blog was the next step.

Over the next few years I blogged about the goings on at school, my opinion an all sorts of education topics, and summaries of education books. I wrote for Leadership Day 2010, but missed it last year.

So, here I am in August 2012 and the question is: What should a principal do to increase the amount of technology integration in school?

A principal needs to nurture the integration of technology. Nurturing means to provide the right environment for technology integration to grow. Teachers need to feel comfortable taking risks, the students need access to decent (or, dare I say, the best) equipment, the network needs to be robust, and the internet needs to be fast and stable. In other words, we need to prepare the soil.

Once things start to grow, we need to tend to them carefully. Of course tomatoes need different care than potatoes; lettuce is handled very differently than peas; squash and onions need totally different amounts of fertilizer (says my wife). Now, if I were far more ambitious (and did not have a board meeting earlier tonight), I would take this analogy way too far by describing what kind of adult learner compares to each of the aforementioned vegetables. Instead, I will point out that some teachers need only play around with technology to learn it well. Others want some direct instruction then off they go. Still others need step-by-step handholding until they are comfortable. Principals need to differentiate the professional training just like a gardener differentiates the care of the plants.

It is at this point that my garden analogy totally falls apart. Principals need to choose the right moment to shift from nurturing to expecting. While the peas on the faculty have already been integrating tech, often for years, the beets finished some PD and got started. On the other hand carrots take a long time to germinate and then grow (not sure how carrots play into this, told you the analogy fell apart). Anyway, two-thirds or more of the teachers are integrating technology. One way to get some of the remaining third growing, I mean using tech, is for the principal to set the expectation. Sometimes we have to quit nurturing and start expecting. Try telling a row of corn that you expect it to grow without fertilizer this year - this analogy is busted.

Another technique that principals often use to encourage technology integration is to model its use. I and many other principals integrate technology into our practice daily. We demonstrate classroom integration ideas into faculty meetings. I have been trying to convince my wife that the best way to get peaches to grow in Vermont is for her to show the peach trees how to grow here. I'm not yet sure that modeling is going to work in this case (in addition, I'm not yet sure that my wife has ever listened to a single word of my gardening advice).

In all good gardens, harvesting the fruits of our labors is the best part. Watching the cucumbers working on a dynamic lesson using all sorts of innovative technology designed by their teachers is as good as serving a salad of only locally grown students. Or something like that.



P.S. No vegetables were harmed in the writing of this blog.

P.P.S. Future blog post: how to avoid getting blight

Posted with Blogsy

Related articles

• Connected Educator Month Day 15 - Leadership Day 2012 #ce12 #leadershipday12
• Calling all bloggers! - Leadership Day 2012
• Time Investment #LeadershipDay12
• Questions To Ask For #LeadershipDay12
• #LeadershipDay12 - @Evernote For The Busy Administrator

The Tools I Use #Summerblog12

#7 in the Summer 2012 Blogging Challenge, #Summerblog12

Every once in a while, I read a post from my PLN about what tools they use to do their work. Recently, Dan Callahan did just that.

So, my work consists of principaling, blogging, and reading. For almost everything, I use my iPad 3. I think it might be the best computer I have ever owned. I primarily use the following software: Blogsy, Echofon for twitter, Reeder for rss feeds, Kindle for reading, Toodledoo for todos, Evernote for note taking and storage, and Notability for handwriting notes and marking up PDFs. I tie everything together mostly with Dropbox. In fact, one of the main ways that I have been able to rely on my iPad is that most of my primary software tools connect with either the cloud or a desktop version. With a few small exceptions, all my stuff is available on any platform.

Speaking of platform, I do use a three other tools besides the iPad. At home, I have a 2009, 15" MacBookPro. Still works great because I loaded it with extra ram when I bought it. Since I started using an iPad, I rarely pick up the MBP; in one fell swoop it became way too heavy.

At school, instead of having the district buy me a new laptop when I started, I decided to go big with a 27" iMac. This has been one of the best tech decisions I've made. The giant screen makes working with data a breeze. It's like having two monitors, but way cooler looking. The full computer is still necessary for intensive work, more complex spreadsheets, and a few websites here and there.

To round out my tool collection, I carry an iPhone 3G that works great on wifi. I only get cell coverage in certain places here in rural Vermont, but I still find the iPhone useful.

That's it for tools. I'll write more about how I use the iPad as a principal and how I plan to use it as a classroom teacher in a future blog post.

Posted with Blogsy

Some People Will Do Anything for an iPad #summerblog12

I had a great experience earlier this school year. You see, Carol*, a veteran teacher who not too long ago swore off technology but had recently joined the district Tech Committee, agreed to go to a state edtech conference, in early November, with a more tech savvy colleague who had an iPad.

They had a great experience and returned to school jazzed about the possibilities. The day after the conference, November 7, Carol told me how cool some of the iPad apps were. I talked with her for a few minutes and added her to my mental list for iPads in the far future.


Little did I know that Carol had a plan, and I didn't stand a chance.

On November 8, Carol came to see me first thing in the morning. You see, she wanted to forgive me for being slow about getting her an iPad. For some reason, I apologized.

A couple of days later, Crol saw me in the morning and told me that she Dreams About Performance Indicators. What was she talking about? When she wrote it out for me, she underlined the first letters as I have done here and told me to look at it backwards. I-P-A-D. Oh, I see.



On the morning of November 14th, Carol left me this note...

I think that she may have enlisted the help of the parents! Maybe I'll move her a little higher on that mental list for iPads in the future.

Two days later, I experienced the biggest regret of this fantastic first year at Wolcott Elementary School. Carol came to see mere morning. I was ready for anything, I thought. I told that she was on the list to get an iPad when I bought some. Instead of saying thank you and going back to class, Carol broke into a cheer -- like a high school cheerleader, yes that kind of cheer -- all about how great it would be to have an iPad. I didn't record it or even get her to write down the words for me; I will regret that omission forever.

The next day Carol came to me with a story about how having B+ blood really meant that she should have an iPad. Not sure what that meant, but I got the point.

On November 18, Carol appealed to my emotions by telling me that buying her an iPad would be a humanitarian effort because it help to stimulate the economy. By this point, I'd made up my mind that I would have to order an iPad soon.

The final straw that broke my back came on November 22. Carol brought me a dollar bill with this letter attached. It is not a bribe. If you can't read the note, she tells me to buy a lottery ticket and use the winnings to buy her and iPad. Fortunately, she trusted me to use the remaining winnings for the good of the school.

To make it easy for me and to sweeten the deal, Carol also handed me an ad from a tech store with the little gem seen below.

 

 

 

 

 

I was left with more questions than answers at this point. What is a guy supposed to do? How can one lowly principal resist the intense efforts of a very determined teacher? How fast could I get an iPad on Carol's desk? Would she prefer black or white?

So, you can probably guess what happened next. I called the tech guy and asked him to order an iPad for Carol. To my great surprise, he told me he had an extra one in his office. I would merely have to replace it when I ordered more in the future. I drove over to central office and picked up the iPad for Carol. on the Friday of Thanksgiving week, I came into the empty school and left the brand new iPad on Carol's desk.

To say she was happy would be the understatement of the year. I went to a meeting Monday morning so I missed her skipping down the hall singing.

 

Later that week, Kim* said to me, "If I do a cheer for you, do I get an iPad?" Uh-oh.

 

 

N.b. Before the teachers left for the summer, Kim and all the rest, got iPads to use in preparation for a wider deployment this fall.

 

 

*Carol and Kim are the same pseudonyms I used in this post.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Digital Learning Day (#14inFeb #3)

On February 1, my school and hundreds of others around the country celebrated Digital Learning Day, a nationwide celebration of…you guessed it…digital learning.

Here at Wolcott Elementary School, most of the teachers have only integrated technology to a small degree so far. Well that has begun to change with a new principal and a new technology integrationist. For a little background let me tell you about the equipment in the building. For about ten years, there have been three desktops in each classroom - all are still deployed; only a few work. There is also a cart of ancient Acer laptops - not one battery is any good; several of these laptops dont work at all. There is an old server with an even older backup server. Just last spring, the new machines were purchased with grant money. Every teacher has a laptop now. There is a new cart with twelve additional new laptops. Seven (of eight) classrooms now have installed projectors and an Elmo document camera. One classroom has a Smartboard (this was teacher choice). We just upgraded the wireless network. Our district made the leap to google apps just before the December break.

Anyway, I asked every teacher to do something new with technology on DLD. We'd previously set integrating technology into existing units as one of our goals, so this seemed the perfect push. I shared the DLD website and resources with the staff and offered support.

To a small degree of accountability, I told the teachers that they would be sharing a few words about their digital learning at that day's afterschool faculty meeting.

Here is the list of projects that they shared (with names and some details altered for anonymity):

Alice

• Math games from Investigations
• Pairs worked on the program
• Kids were able to extend due to overestimating
• Continuing to work this Friday.
• Signed up for regular computer use

Betty

• Use iPad every day
• Found YouTube video for mean, median, mode

Carol

• Mobile computer lab in class for whole group
• Started word processing
• Turned desks around so screens faced front
• 30 minutes to type spelling sentences, then hand write what is left.
• Students tend to write short sentences, taught to write longer sentences.
• Four kids will become peer coaches for the four students who were out for intervention
• Signed up for mobile lab every week

Doris

• Prezi presentations by the kids about Africa w/ Ethel
• Also glogster to create posters about a novel

Ethel

• Weekly reader article with videos from the digital edition
• Then Prezi with Doris.

Freida

• skits to video, story boards first
• PowerPoints on Egypt

Georgina

• New: from the DLD toolkit, jognog.com video game format, disappointing

Helen

• Signed up for the mobile lab for the first time this year
• Students to interactive biology websites
• SmartBoard lesson taught by older students

Irene

• No tech today
• Next will hook up to Elmo to have kids do stuff
• Took video of sliding
• Will present at Monday Morning Meeting

Julie

• Using iPad with math groups counting and identifying coins

Kim

• Laptops brought into class

Absolutely fantastic! While some of these efforts may seem minor, this was a sign of great growth for many of the teachers. I was especially excited about the two teachers who had, during the day, signed up to have the mobile lab every week.

I was totally impressed by the huge effort that the technology integrationist put into helping certain teachers in the days leading up to DLD.

Well, DLD was fun and invigorating (technologically speaking). Now the real challenge will be maintaining momentum. Here we go!

Related articles

• Digital Learning Day: The aftermath (dangerouslyirrelevant.org)
• Seven Digital Learning Tips for Students (edutopia.org)

7 Top Things Teachers Want from Their Principal

At the first staff meeting in August, I asked the staff at my new school to write a notecard answer to the following question:

"What do you need from your principal?"

The answers ranged from very practical to very theoretical. When put all together, these needs represent a healthy school culture eager to get to know the new guy.

As my own nearly-mid-year review of these ideas, I decided to categorize the answers and self-assess as I go (more about that in a future post). Just like all categorization efforts, this one is highly subjective and open to much interpretation. In any case, I came up with seven main categories:

• Practical support
• Technology
• Special Edcuation
• Teacher Support
• Feedback/Availability
• Communication
• Miscellaneous Leadership Qualities

I've included, under each category, the specific needs from the notecards. Some caveats: I split some cards as they included several different needs, I've left out several with identifying information, there were some notecards that had a variation of "I don't know."

So, here it is, the evidence that led me to create this top seven list.

Reeding Lessons CC

Practical Support

• Help to find a pullout space for individual/small group instruction.
• I need help ordering equipment. I need help getting permission for special events. 
• Please help to get custodian to build the shelves that were promised & order teaching carts if not done already.
• Larger budget.
• Recess duties are shared equally among all paras.
• Prep time with team teacher.

Technology

• I need professional development opportunities to grow my understanding/use of technology. 
• I have no computer. How would I integrate technology without technology? Only one day a week, I don't want to run around the building to find what I need: A computer & projector would save paper (photocopies).
• I would like to have admin access to download some programs that I want to implement this year. Ex. Voicetalk, iTunes, animoto etc. I can get you a list of these sites if you wish. 
• I'd love the use of 4 laptops each morning.
• laptop, probably a bunch of techy stuff
• I want patience with technology, I'm working on it all the time. 

Special Education

• Strong LEA rep
• I need support in getting teachers more invested in the special Ed process. Follow through on IEP timeliness on progress reports, setting parent meetings

Teacher Support

• Support for my masters work and a consistent sub on the days I miss. 
• I need continued support in my room for academic and behavioral (both at the same time :). 
• Larry needs to be the point man on the administrative team and advocate for us.
• Support for behavioral needs in my classroom.

Feedback/Availability

• I would like visits (could be informal) and feedback - constructive criticism.
• I love to see walkthroughs during class time to just connect as to what I'm teaching the children! (certainly not weekly, when you can)
• Need feedback on my teaching.
• I need your availability to answer my questions
• I need you to be available for small questions that can be seemingly unimportant on the larger scale, but can cause me from being able to move forward in my job.

Communication

• In the past I have worked closely with the principal as social, emotional ok behavioral issues arise with our kids. It would be great to have a discussion on how you would like our collaboration to work.
• Bridging a gap in regards to part-time communication. 
• Open, clear communication - like the "Monday Memo."
• Straight talk
• You may hear me, but are you listening (not you personally, just anyone I talk to!)
• I will do my best to check my email and I need face to face communication.

Miscellaneous Leadership Qualities

• Flexibility, but stability
• Leadership that is fair for all, keep your sense of humor and always remember the reason we are here - kids!
• Humor, flexibility, patience
• Open to suggestions
• Ideas, time, direction
• Respect, support
• Be a leader.

 Sums it all up

• I need from my principal: support, teaching job next year :) strong communication, respect and honesty

Teachers and staff: What would you add to this list? What do you want from your principal.

Principals: What's missing here? What have staff and teachers asked from you that I have not listed?

Please add your ideas to the comments.



cross posted to Connected Principals

Sharing With Teachers is Fun

One of my favorite facets of being a principal is sharing ideas and resources. Today, day three of my new principalship, I had the perfect opportunity to share.

It all began many months ago when I signed on to help organize EdCamp Boston (and as fate would have it, I wore my EdCamp Boston shirt today). One of the sponsors, TenMarks, gave each participant a redemption code for one student to use the summer program.

Well, I am not giving direct services to anyone this summer, so I figured that I would share my code with someone on the staff at my new school. It turns out that Wolcott Elementary School has a long established and successful Summer Learning Camp that includes some math tutoring. So, I spoke with the school's Title I Math Teacher, who is working with the summer program. She hadn't heard of TenMarks, but was eager to give it a try. I also spoke with her about Khan Academy and ABCya.com. We had a great conversation. I could see the light going on in her face; she looked excited to explore.

A few hours later, I received an email from the teacher. She had gone home and explored all three sites and already identified a few students for whom these sites could be perfect.

I am proud to think that I accomplished something today: I shared.


cross posted to Connected Principals

image credit: furiousgeorge81 cc 

Related articles

• Sponsor Spotlight - ABCya.com (freetech4teachers.com)
• Khan Academy: Paperless Summer Packets (kristenswanson.org)
• Combating the Summer Slide (connectedprincipals.com)
• Khan video - plus a great teacher (joannejacobs.com)

Great Questions for Library/Tech Integration (#tlchat)

Image via WikipediaA few days ago, it became clear that I would be searching for a combination Library Media and Technology Integration Specialist for my new school. We use SchoolSpring.com for all applications, and I considered adding a short essay question to the application. But what to ask?


PLN to the rescue. I sent out the following tweet:

If you could ask a Lib Media/Tech Integration candidate 1 Q, what would it be?

Right away, Dan Callahan (dancallahan), my former limo service client, retweeted my request. In short order, I started receiving great questions.

Without further ado, here is the list of questions (in the order received):

1. What is the difference between a librarian and a library media specialist?
2. What's your definition of tech integration?
3. What activities do envision to support critical thinking skills? How will you enable student presentations, curation, info eval.?
4. Tell us how you plan to support free choice reading and book discovery in all formats?
5. How do you plan to involve students in the working of the library? In collection development? How will you model wondering?
6. What are some online tools you like or plan to try? Do you know of good sources for copyright-friendly images, music?
7. How will you promote booktalks, discussions? What kind of personal learning do you seek, outside of system offerings?
8. What is the purpose of a library; how would you implement & advance this purpose?
9. Explain how the ever changing landscape of info has changed the role of research, and where does lib fit in.
10. What is your strategy in getting reluctant faculty to collaborate with you?
11. What's the one thing people get wrong about you?
12. Explain roles/relationship of library-media and tech-integrator so they are cooperating roles instead of opposing roles.
13. How would you define transliteracy, creative commons, & the mixup mashup culture?

I'd like to thank the following folks for their suggestions.
gwynethjones 

ldelia 

cathyjo 

dmcordell 

mtechman 

j_allen

PrincipalJ 


BTW, if you are interested and qualified, I might be able to arrange for you to be paid in Ben & Jerry's ice cream instead of money.

Related articles

• Is a Digital Library in Your School's Future? (ofprincipalconcern-educationworld.blogspot.com)
• The future of the library (sethgodin.typepad.com)

Innovation Instruction not Technology (#idesmar)

A few weeks ago, George Couros wrote a good article called "Innovation Instruction."

This is not about the tool, it is about learning.  The tool is just the medium we are using at the time.  I am doing my best to use the term “innovative instruction” (thanks Alec) when talking about what works best for our students.  This could mean using a pencil, a computer, a brush, your hands, whatever, but focuses on innovative ways for students to learn.

Let’s just ensure that there is a balance of tools we are using, and just focus on what best meets the needs of our students.

Are we there yet?

Like most good bloggers, he finishes with a thought provoking question. Are we there yet? From what I have seen in most classrooms, no we are not. Of course every teacher I know is somewhere on the path. There are those who are innovating with exciting technology and others who are innovating without new tools.


So many in my PLN and the edutwitterverse seem convinced that the only path forward is through technology. Me, I'm not as certain.


I like George's shift in focus to "innovative instruction." Starting today, I will make the same shift.


Are we there yet? 


Not sure, but we're on the way.

Related articles

• Progress (georgecouros.ca)