Critical Conversations #SAVMP

Critical Conversations #SAVMP

This week's #SAVMP assignment is actually a topic that I have BLOGged about in the past! {BIG GRIN} It was a pretty good feeling to dig into to my previous posts and locate a BLOG from a year ago. The first thing I noticed is that this review of a previous post allowed me to do some reflection.

First of all, I noticed that even a full year later, I am still engaged in these critical conversations. I have many times over the course of the last year engaged in uncomfortable conversations that pushed me to grow as a leader. I am still engaged in these conversations on a weekly basis, and that leads me to believe that they are a key element of the effective leader's responsibilities.

To reflect, I pondered how much I had grown in my abilities to have these conversations. I have determined that I have grown, and I realize that I am continuing to grow. Having had one of these conversations just last week with an employee who was considerably more mature than me, I noticed that I swallowed hard and had to steel my mind before I dove into the words that I am certain were difficult to hear. In retrospect, I would say that these talks have become, on the whole, easier to perform.

Click here: Uncomfortable Conversations-- to view my posting from a year ago. This is the first time EVER that I have been able to refer to one of my own posts to discuss my growth as a leader! Hooray for me. This is truly an epiphany as a BLOGger. The blog is a journal of my learning, and for however long it endures or I persevere, it will serve to remind me of how far I have come and how much more I have to learn!

AND....as always I learned something from #SAVMP during this process. Here is the post from Week 16's Assignment: Critical Conversations. At the original posting, @8amber8 posted a video which is quite clever (based on a Harry Potter theme) and had some awesome tips for how to provide effective "critical conversations."

Here is the video:

And here are the three steps the video recommends for providing these growth-minded talks.

1. Describe the gap between the performance and the expected behavior
2. Analyze the gap source as coming from a motivation problem or an ability problem
3. Make a follow-up plan for accountability

From my friend and mentor Paul McGuire, he posted his response for this assignment, and I felt his words were profound. He explained that the conversations we have with our teachers and staff should also be the conversations that are occurring with our teachers and our students. Feedback promotes growth, and I heartily agree that the teachers should be providing growth-minded talks for their students as well. here is Paul's post: Principal Musings.

As a member of #SAVMP, I have--in this one assignment-- reviewed, reflected, learned, connected, and shared. Thanks, #SAVMP!

Instructional Leadership -- Establishing Credibility #SAVMP

In my work as a leader, I am often sympathetic to how much responsibility our teachers are carrying. I try and always take things off their plates before adding another initiative or project if it is within my control. Many times, the new responsibilities we all take on are those required due to state or federal obligations. 

I also try and do my very best to learn everything I can about what I am asking our teachers and students to do. When possible I try to provide support or resources or training to assist in aiding smooth implementations.

One recent major implementation our full campus is undergoing is our Writing Action Plan. I happen to be a past district trainer for the Creating Writers (6 Traits) program for our district. I was able to be trained by Vicki Spandel and then was a co-trainer with a great teacher in our district, Beverly Dunaway. It is important for me to share this prior knowledge. To demonstrate Instructional Leadership, I want to not only show my knowledge and understanding of today’s classroom, but I also want to get deep into the work with my staff and students. To walk side-by-side with them as we all travel the long journey to increased writing achievement, I have set out creating writing mini-lessons for each month to match our school-wide Writing Trait of the Month.

I love sharing my enthusiasm for writing, and I also enjoy providing one more resource for our faculty to assist in our Writing Action Plan. The use of videos allows teachers to view the video on their own time and to "pause and play" as they like. They don't have to stay late for a meeting or attend a face-to-face training session. Video is so user-friendly. 

I have added these videos to my collection of videos on my YouTube Channel, and most recently, the teachers have joined in allowing me to film them and send out mini-lessons about many aspects of the school's teaching and learning goals. 

Here are two of the videos I have created thus far. They are so easy to make, and as a recent mentor of mine said, "If you help just one person.......you have been effective." 

I encourage others to not only engage in video mini-lessons but also in developing STREET CRED with your teachers and students by getting busy with the work of teaching and learning at every opportunity.

Setting Professional Goals #SAVMP #15

Goal Setting is my contentment. I love the day-to-day goal setting, the short-term goal setting, and the long-term goal setting. I revel in the sense of accomplishment that I achieve from crossing things off my lists. Being task-oriented always leads me to a sense of jubilation at the end of the day because ..... if I write something down, you can be assured I will get it done.

So what are my professional goals at this time?

The start of the school year yielded the genesis of two long-term goals from last year. The data showed that we had been missing the mark for our lowest and highest performing students. We added an inclusion program this year AND we added a TAG program for our Talented and Gifted students. So far so good. The programs seem to be setting down roots and flourishing. Certainly they have had their share of starts and stalls, but the students are growing and achieving--that is the ultimate goal. That is what makes every day fresh and exciting...to see our students thrive.

Since school began, I set out with several major goals for this year:

1. Move our faculty from data awareness to data interpretation for impact.
2. Develop a writing team and action plan to grow our students' abilities to write proficiently.
3. Work on rigor and engaging instruction within our core reading program.

Again, we seem to be making progress in all three areas. The writing and reading goals are moving along swiftly. We are using a core replacement program to increase our reading scores. Our writing team is a highly effective group of faculty who are sharing the leadership in spreading writing success across our campus. They are peer-rating papers, cross-calibrating scoring, and analyzing the data to attain greater proficiency for our students.

The data goal is the one that is most daunting. My greatest desire and vision for our school is to develop our school into a school where data drives instruction. We need to be watching for the exact moment where a student stops learning so that we can reteach the skill/concept and help them achieve mastery. This can be difficult to do if teachers are not paying clinically close attention to daily and weekly formative assessments as well as analytics provided by online learning progress monitoring data.

This data journey presents challenges as we must look beyond interim assessments and drill down to the data collected minute-by-minute and day-by-day. That data, the data of learning, is the data that should and needs to drive our instruction. We are building this capacity across our campus, and I love hearing the amazing stories of things our teachers learn about their students every single day.

I certainly have long-term goals as well, and the top three are:

1. Student Achievement (OF COURSE)
2. Faculty Family
3. Facility Improvements

Goals 1 and 3 are complementary. One focuses on what is going on inside the classrooms, and the other focuses on the classrooms and the buildings. A great mentor just shared with me this weekend, that at a school....."I should see your fingerprints all over it." Wow. That is a humbling thought. Progress is the goal in both areas.

The challenge lies in the second goal. I truly, truly want to develop a feeling of 'family' among our faculty. I know they are still learning to trust me and to accept the demands of our situation. It is an ever tenuous balance to raise expectations and to also keep morale high. I will leave no stone unturned to keep this harmony.

Goals for the goal setter--I love them. I find elation in the art of achieving, and I look forward to every morning to get started on my latest mission. GO is the first word in GO-a-l. Go for it!

What Is School For? #SAVMP

Week 14 – What is school for? #SAVMP

Week 14’s assignment for SAVMP was -- blog about some of the things that you do with your staff to help understand where they are at, and how to move them forward.

Seth Godin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams” Ted Talk is one that I hear people refer to quite frequently. I actually added it to my Favorites on my YouTube Channel, and it is #36 in my Favorites playlist. This week’s SAVMP posting suggested showing it to our faculty and having serious conversations about …What is school for?

Godin makes some provocative statements in his Talk. For example, he says things like: “…this factory we call school…textbooks make students hate school, and…..there is zero value in memorizing anything.”

The last part of the video is where Seth shares his 8 answers to the question, “What is school for?”

1. Homework during the day, lectures at night.
“Flipping the classroom” (Khan Academy) where students watch lectures at night and come to school to work out problems during the day with their teachers {coaches}.
2. Open book, open note all the time.
“There is zero value memorizing anything ever again. Anything that is worth memorizing is worth looking up.”
3. Access any course, anywhere, anytime in the world when you want to take it.
4. Precise focused education instead of mass batched stuff.
Seth really elaborates on this answer by adding:

• No more multiple choice exams: According to Seth Godin these were made because they are easier to score, and he explains how the Number Two pencil became such a prominent part of education.
• Measure experience, instead of test scores: “Experience is what we really care about.”
• Cooperation instead of isolation: Seth Godin remarks that when we finish school we go out in the world to collaborate with others so we should value collaboration and NOT isolation.

5. Teachers will transform into coach(es).
6. Lifelong learning with work happening earlier in life.
7. Death of the “famous college”. 
8. Teach students to create something interesting and ask if you need help.

He further elaborates about how our industrial model is broken by sharing some MYTHS:

1. Great performance in school leads to happiness and success. If that’s not true, we should stop telling ourselves it is.
2. Great parents have kids who produce great performance in school. If that’s not true we should stop telling ourselves it is.

Mr. Godin states…”We don’t teach students to connect the dots, but rather to collect dots and memorize facts." He also declares that passion and insight are reality, while grades are an illusion. He returns to the question “what is school for?” and if we don’t know, then we should have a conversation about it.

This provocative video reminded me of some videos I have shared with the faculty along the same lines:

For this #SAVMP BLOG assignment, I would also like to share an upcoming video I will be sharing with our faculty to help understand where they are at with student assessment and how we will move forward:

 Godby High School Tracking Student Data: Marzano The Art & Science of Teaching

Also, special thanks to the following BLOG for an awesome summary of Seth's Super 8 -- 

http://academiclifeinem.com/seth-godins-ted-talk-on-stop-stealing-dreams/

Viral Learning is Contagious!

Week 13 – Individual Learning and Mass Sharing #SAVMP

The week 13 SAVMP posted asked these questions of the BLOGers:

How do you share the work that you do during individual staff PD to ensure that great learning goes viral? I would love to see some other examples of how people are sharing.

I don’t know why, but I have ALWAYS been a sharing person (sharer).  Often times, it does not benefit me whatsoever, as folks will take my ideas and implement them, and then THEY get the credit. But, hey, wasn’t it Reagan who said, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

There are two ways I am “sharing” the professional development we have at Cherry Street Elementary. One way is my Twitter feed. During our two days of pre-service training this year, I ran a live feed during the two days of training and posted all the videos we used as well as images of our teachers as they provided the professional development for our campus. I know that the Principals in my PLN often share videos and training topics, and they give me brilliant ideas. I hope that my sharing does the same! Here are some examples from back in August.

And, even more fun, I have started sharing videos of EVERYTHING! I created a YouTube Channel about a year ago, and I have been having the most fun populating it with faculty videos and videos I have made for school-based professional development goals. Here are just a couple:

The sky is the limit when it comes to sharing. I don’t know who the approximately 4,000 people are who have viewed my BLOG, but I hope in some way that they have had at least one “take away” from the experience. This is connected learning at its best. Viral learning is contagious! LOL. 

Involving Parents with a New Vision for Schools #SAVMP

Week 12- Involving Parents with a New Vision for Schools #SAVMP

There are so many amazing new tools for schools to use to increase parent communication and involvement.

For instance, at our school we use our “old school” school website, but we also use the more exciting and versatile Face Book, Twitter, and Iris Alerts (which are Robo calls).  More recently, we have added a new app that our district provides called the MySchool app where we also push out information to our parents. Essentially, we want to reach our parents in every way possible because the more communicating that we do the better chance we have for increased parent involvement.

Since I became Principal last year, each of our teachers has created their own classroom website. I am so proud of every single one of them. In addition, we have a few teachers who have gone above and beyond. One gleaming example is our rock star teacher who – last year -- created her own classroom blog.  She entered many of her classroom lessons on the blog,  and she included the steps that she took with the students in the form of pictures and posted them so that the parents could understand how to work the homework assignments with their students. Many times, the kids would login and give input on the lessons and their work. It's really an exceptional way to communicate with our families. We have another grade level at our school that uses the Remind 101 app to send out text messages to their parents each week keeping them stay  informed of everything from assignments to events. Our teachers are adopting as many ways to inform their families as are available. Also, our teachers that use Class Dojo can have a parent logging in at any time of the day to see behavioral data on their students as they progress through the school day. This is exciting stuff!

Amber Teamann, @8Amber8, a mentor in the SAVMP group, reported in her recent post about some evidence pertaining to parent involvement. We basically knew this information be true:

A New Wave of Evidence, a report from Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (2002) found that regardless of family income or background, students with involved parents are more likely to:

*Earn higher grades and test scores, and enroll in higher-level programs
*Be promoted, pass their classes, and earn credits
*Have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school
*Graduate and go on to postsecondary education (Henderson & Mapp, 2002)

The information says, and I believe, it is critical that we communicate to parents. Even more importantly, we also have a duty to inform our parents just how different education is within each of our classrooms in the year 2013. For example, at Cherry Street Elementary and across our district, each core classroom is equipped with the 21st century classroom technology. This means that teachers have Smart boards, they have document cameras, and they have more. They have multiple methods for embedding baseline technology, but many teachers are using things like Google Docs and Google Drive or even email accounts with their students to make the learning relevant and engaging. There is a plethora of technology out there, and we need to share with our parents the different type of learning that is happening within the classroom walls for their students. This isn't your grandma’s classroom anymore. Just the sheer power of analytics yielded by technology has increased the ability of all teachers to hone and sharpen their instructional practices.

And, yes, a high poverty school may be a bit disadvantaged in getting the message out exclusively through the use of technology. The savvy teachers will combine traditional practices like the paper classroom newsletter that is sent home WITH the modern methods of leveraging social media.

In the same SAVMP post, Amber Teamann also quoted that she often hears nay-sayers respond:

“all of our parents don’t have computers”.

Amber’s response is:

In 2011, 75.6 percent of homes reported having a computer, with 71.7 percent accessed the internet. Statistics still vary across ethnicity, but the bottom line is that we are still making strides.  

Certainly, it has been my experience, we have seen our students who come from high poverty homes walking around with smart phones. Let’s not be naive and think that we're not reaching a majority of our parents with these outlets. We need to give it a concerted effort to reach our families in as many ways as possible.

Parent involvement efforts will not be in vain. If we try five different methods to reach them and one of them succeeds, then we are successful!

Balancing Administrative Reality with Being Connected #SAVMP

#SAVMP

Balancing Administrative Reality

with Being Connected

I recently finished watching the Google Hangout hosted by Amber Teaman a.k.a @8amber8 on “Balancing the Administrative Reality with Being Connected.” The hangout was extremely informative because I got to see all the different personalities that I often follow on Twitter, but I also got to think about their responses to several good questions.  I was happy that many of the responses were similar to my own responses. I shared the same answers that they did on several questions, and that helped me feel like I am being successful in my Personal Learning Network (PLN).

The first thing that was humorous to me was... YES, some people consider being connected as not necessarily working. Justin Tarte @justintarte shared a story about getting called into the superintendent's office for tweeting while at work, but he was ultimately able to explain to his superintendent and eventually win him over to understand that leveraging social media is a highly effective way to increase your instructional leadership capacity. I have always been very wary of tweeting or blogging during work hours, and so I try to reserve my PLN work for evening hours. With this practice,   I don't ever run aground, and I keep perceptions from ever being misguided. I am very careful in this respect.

Next I was able to find solace in Tom Whitford's a.k.a. @twhitford answers. His view is that it is okay to send out personal tweets included in your PLN tweets because we are all real people. I appreciated that response because I have often tried to keep my personal and professional voices separate. I have three different twitter accounts, and it was refreshing to realize it is okay to use my educational account to throw out some personal tweets every once in a while to all my peeps so they will know I am more than my leadership “self”.

Next I got a fantastic resource from Amber Teaman called #kinderchat. That, by the way, is really what all this connectedness is about.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't identify and learn something from my PLN and then I turn around and share that information with the people in my own PLN or even better... I share it with my faculty or our school or our community.

Just this past week, I used the resources I found in #kinderchat in my newsletter that goes out to the faculty which I send out every Monday. I focused on the #kinderchat information that analyzed increasing rigor in the early grades. I received new knowledge from digging deep into the resources provided on that Twitter feed.  It is a great resource that allowed me to develop a context or knowledge base for something I've never done. I have not taught kindergarten and so having the new #kinderchat tool gives me a certain level of knowledge that empowers me to be a better leader for my early grades teachers.

One of the best parts of the conversation centered on the question… how can leaders find the time and find the energy necessary to be connected? I appreciated their answers. First of all, each of them seem like they are very high-energy. I am definitely a high-energy person. I am drawn to other energetic folks.  They shared that being connected is motivating and inspiring to them and it is what they live for! I agree because I know I love to learn. I constantly pursue new learning and strive to process new information to aid me in growth and improvement.  That feeling of growth is, in itself, inspiring to me and gives me the energy to spend those extra few minutes every night being connected and being the connected learner engaging in  DIY (DO IT YOURSELF) and creating my own pathway for improvement.

The last question that spoke to me was about... the need to be connected and still be productive at work. Wow. That is a tough one. I marvel at some of the people that I follow in my PLN like George Couros or Justin Tarte or Amber Teaman. I am alarmed at the level of presence they have and how little presence I have in comparison. Sometimes it is discouraging, but I know that I have just started this journey, and I will be able to grow my connectivity as the years go by. Also, I know that I will NEVER be the “Rock star” that some of those folks are. I will just be me, and I will be amazing being me! So, I will put in my 100% during the work day, and then I will come home and give my other 10% to my PLN. Then I have to kick in my mom and wife 100%.  Until they approve human cloning, I will just be very busy and very happy giving it all I’ve got!

Here is the Hangout in case you want to watch the professionals:

Google Hangout - Balancing Administrative Reality with Being Connected

Time Management - The Perspective of an Efficiency Freak

#SAVMP Week 10 ~ Time Management

With the ever intensifying demands of the jobs of educators, I believe the need for strong time management skills is more important than ever. I happen to be a weird sort of individual that is intrigued and challenged by increasing efficiency and finding better ways to do things to improve my productivity. I actually consider it a hobby of mine. Yes, I know that sounds bizarre, but I am extremely organized so this hobby fills my need for speed. 

So, George asked us to share advice and tips on time management for school leaders in our #SAVMP post for this week. I respond gladly.  {BIG GRIN}.

Here is how I do it, and I am constantly looking for aggressive ways to intensify my productivity:

1. Email

     Email seems to be one of the most challenging tasks for most people I know. I have glanced over some of my peer's shoulders to see upwards of 2,000 or more emails hanging out in the inbox of folks. OH MY STARS! That would give me nausea. 

     I approach email with a customer service mind. I try to respond to all emails within a 24 hour window. A response, for me, involves action of some sort. I either reply, delegate, file or convert to an action item every single email in my inbox. Action items are the emails that require the most time because I have to develop a document or rely on information from someone else to ultimately file that email. BUT, I star them or keep them hanging out in my inbox until they are completed so that I never lose sight of completing that task. This is how I manage to always meet deadlines and never allow things to fall through the cracks.

     AND, as a rule of thumb, I only touch an email twice. I might view it on my phone or just scan it during a busy day, but the next time I read that email I take an action step. That way I am not plagued by ever-mounting numbers of emails. I set boundaries for myself, such as I never allow my inbox to get past one page {I have my settings at 25 messages per page}. That way I am not ever overwhelmed by my inbox. 

     Filing emails is also a brilliant way of keeping them organized. This requires creating the folders in your inbox to manage them, but I can almost 99% of the time retrieve a conversation or a message that has aided me in numerous scenarios over the course of my career. 

2. Document management and naming conventions

     Again, this is easily done by the development of folders in your document storage location. I see clerical staff or other folks around me who store all of their documents en masse in the My Documents folder. They then struggle to retrieve documents because they must sort through hundreds, yes even thousands of documents. I have tons of folders where documents are sorted accordingly, and I can retrieve a document in seconds. Additionally, I ALWAYS use appropriate naming conventions so I never have to guess which version of a document is the newest. Naming conventions can be as simple as the current date like I might name this BLOG as a Word Document: Time Management_10_22_2013. 

3. Synchronized accounts    

     Synchronizing accounts is critical when leveraging social media for the benefit of education communication. I have my YouTube Channel synced with my Twitter which is synced with my FaceBook which is synced with my BLOG which is then synced with our district's My School App. One post can be simultaneously posted in multiple locations. This is a huge time-saver.

4. Scheduling with Google Calendar and Google Invites

     I believe Google Calendar has become my Holy Grail for staying organized. With the ability to send Google Invites, you can avoid tedious emails to individuals, and it keeps active rosters of who is attending events.

     Further, I schedule reminders that are sent to me via SmartPhone push notifications and email notifications. As long as I have my phone on me, I will get a reminder that says, "Morning Announcements in 10 Minutes." So, if I am engaged in a very important conversation in the breeze way at school, I can finish up our final comments and make my way to my next appointment. I adore this tool!

     AND, I schedule things that might get overlooked in my busy schedule. My GC will have blocks of time committed to Classroom Walk-thru's. If those items are not scheduled, I will get so busy that they fall by the wayside. I can not afford for that to happen.

     Google Calendar has so many other awesome features. You can click on a time that is mentioned in an email by someone and it will automatically post that as an appointment in your GC. Also, if you put the specifics of a location in the appointment, you can click on the link on your SmartPhone and it will take you to the navigation app. on your phone and take you directly to an appointment that is at an unfamiliar location. And who can forget the ability to SHARE calendars with your co-workers? That tool saves me and my leadership team time because we can all see each other's calendar and we never have to have that communication about when or where someone is. We know with the GC. I REPEAT. I love this tool!

5. Give and Take

     Lastly, I must say that I honor and respect that not all folks are efficiency junkies like me. Because of that, I recognize that many people can not take in the amount of information or even produce as much as I can in short amounts of time. I am very sensitive to this in my faculty. Just recently, at a faculty meeting, I gave the faculty exit cards and asked them for their feedback about what I could "take off their plates." Their plates are very full, and I want to assist them in being productive also. The feedback we got was amazing, and I was able to provide several avenues for workload reduction. That was a very cool thing.

Time management is critical for strong leadership--without it, a leader can drown in the morass of multi-tasking. I am always jonesin' for the next app or tip that is going to lead me to increased productivity. If you have some tips, send them my way. 

Connected Educators Month

This past month I have been learning about Online Curation. I opened a Scoop It! Curation Account. I have also been involved in a collaborative curation project with several other connected leaders: John - A Superintendent from Ohio, Mark -- A  Chief Information Officer, and Lynn -- An Elementary Technology Integrator/Coach.

Each of us was tasked with attending several different events during the Connected Educators Month of festivities and to synthesize the greater community's discussion of our theme over the course of all four weeks. Our writing is supposed to give participants who were not able to attend an event an understanding of what took place. We were invited to be curators rather than commentators--reporters vs. editorial writers.

This was our first week, and my first curation EVER! It was delightful. Check out the first submission:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  

Connected Educators Month is full of ways to get “connected.” One special group of learners is the CONNECTED LEADERS group who most certainly are interested in the Connected Leaders theme and anything and everything about leadership in the connected communities out there.

KICK-OFF EVENT: OCTOBER 1, 2013

The opening panel, Connected Leadership, was hosted by:

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach – author of Connected Educator

Valerie Greenhill – Chief Learning Officer for EdLeader 21

Chris Lehmann – Founding Principal for the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia

Candice Dodson – Director of E-Learning with the Indiana DOE

Scott McLeod – Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Schools

Discussion centered around, “What does it mean to be a connected leader?,” How does connected leadership impact student learning?,”  and “As we become more connected, what challenges do we face in the future?” The panel got off to a great start and immediately tackled the topic of preparing our students for the future. This certainly is an underlying theme of why leaders should be connected.

The way we learn and live is moving beyond isolation. Our local Communities of Practice are becoming GLOBAL Communities of Practice. Reducing isolation is key, and this will change everything we do. For instance, educators will feel affirmed in their learning to take risks because they no longer feel isolated….instead they feel connected.

Topics ranged from issues such as openness, district systems that facilitate openness, transparency, accelerated learning, and the ever critical collaboration. Again and again, the panel members returned to the concept that there is power in learning that is socialized.

Other events throughout the week included:

CELEBRATE PRINCIPALS: OCTOBER 1, 2013

Also, on the 1^st, there began a celebration of connected Leadership. NAESP began their celebration of National Principals Month with their Hats Off to Principals Contest!

§  Step 1: Draw a picture, snap a photo, produce a video, write a song or poem, or create any other work of art that celebrates your principal. Make it cool, make it personal, but most of all, make it fun!

§  Step 2: Upload your tribute to NAESP’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/naesp

§  Step 3: Win great prizes! We’ll recognize a weekly winner. Prizes include: $50 Amazon® Gift Cards, Crayola® Dry Erase Prize Packs, and more!

TECH TIDBITS & FREE SOCIAL MEDIA APPS FOR THE HURRIED ADMINISTRATOR: 

OCTOBER 2, 2013

During this multi-vendor session, administrators were able to review several great educational apps. These apps ranged from organization and time savers for leaders to academic apps for teachers. Dr. Rob Furman, principal of South Park Elementary School new Pittsburgh, PA, shared 25 to 30 apps in all including several social apps. At the conclusion of the event, a small discussion on social media in education was also presented.

SUBMITTING A MANUSCRIPT FOR PUBLICATION: OCTOBER 3, 2013

During this webinar, Kappan Editor-in-Chief Joan Richardson walked leaders through the process of submitting a manuscript for publication. Her advice focused on Kappan but much of what she shared also applies to other professional education publications. She introduced participants to writers’ guidelines, editorial calendars, thematic issues, timelines for decisions and more, all in an effort to help educators navigate the submission process. This was a valuable session for connected leaders who are interested in print publishing as well as following the same sort of guidelines for BLOGing or publishing online.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CONNECTED EDUCATOR CHALLENGE: OCTOBER 3, 2013

Administrator’s days are extremely busy. One theme that comes up across all the topics for Connected Educators Month is the necessity of finding the time to be connected. During this contest kick-off, the event asks the question, “What does a day in the life a Connected Educator look like?” We invite you to show us! There are many possibilities for creating a Day in the Life of a Connected Educator project. It could be as simple as a blog post, a graphic organizer or something along the lines of a podcast or video. We have not created guidelines because we want to allow for creative choice. The only requirement is that your project needs to be accessible online. Share the link to your "project" anytime during October by Tweeting it to @INeLearn with the hashtag #CE13. We will feature Indiana Connected Educators all month long at http://www.doe.in.gov/elearning The purpose for sharing:

1.    Inspire unconnected educators and educational leaders to get connected.

2.    Expand your connections and collaborations.

3.    Motivate other connected educators to create their own project to share as part of the National Connected Educator Month.

LEVERAGING TRIBE AS A MEANS OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION: OCTOBER 5, 2013

This webinar hosted by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach was designed to prepare the next generation to rise to the demands of constant change. Sheryl defined how to meet these expectations enclosed in the silos of our classrooms and offices? Her solution is that we need each other. During this session, Sheryl collaboratively explored the art of collective intelligence building and selfless tribe leadership as a means to transpersonal and professional growth.

#SATCHAT: OCTOBER 5, 2013

#Satchat is an online Twitter discussion for current and emerging school leaders that takes place every Saturday morning at 7:30 AM EST/PST. This Saturday’s #SATCHAT will most definitely be focused on Connected Educators Month; however, tune in every week to learn from the other leaders who are up with a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning to discuss the issues of the day.

REACHING PEAK LEARNING VIA CREATIVE TASKS AND REFLECTIVE WRITING:
OCTOBER 6, 2013

This Moodle MOOC 2 Webinar hosted by Dr. Ludmila Smirnova shared her experience of teaching undergrad and grad courses in a teacher-training program and how she made a change in teacher candidates's attitudes and skills from resisting technology and critical thinking to embracing technology and striving for excellence. Any administrator that works with teachers could benefit from using such strategies to move learners from technology resistance mindsets to technology participation, connection, and collaboration.

Week one was busy with options for connected leaders to continue with connected learning. Connections are transforming learning, and we are no longer dependent on local spaces. Join us each week this month as we continue to add to our personal learning networks and our communities of practice.

#SAVMP Week 9 ~ No Need for a Nudge, I Am All In!

First of all, it has been an honor connecting with #SAVMP. I truly feel like I have a personal mentor even though this is really a collective group and not just me responding to all of the group's assignments. 

1. I have followed the lead of our Instructional Leader, George Couros, by responding to all of his BLOG prompts even though sometimes there is a lag time in my posts due to the overwhelming nature of being a new principal (Rookie Year 2).

2. I have learned from various posts whether it be the BLOG, the Twitter Feeds, Google Hangouts, or YouTube. I feel like one of the "cool kids", and it is awesome to learn from so many examples and thought provoking questions.

3. My faculty and students are benefiting from the learning that has been generated. For example, I have focused my Monday Memo (called the Cheetah Chat) on not only quotes but also topics from the various BLOGs and responses to those entries. 

I have also learned from my mentor, Paul McGuire. Paul is a mentor in Canada who runs a small school and has lots of cool technology he dabbles in and has inspired me. He has also provided me with some wise feedback as he has been at this a lot longer than I have.

1. I have set the personal goal of learning a video memorandum software to use with faculty such as Touchcast or other after watching him.

2. I have learned from his posts and from his various BLOGS and Twitter Feeds and his Daily E-Zine. 

I have learned from the process. This process has inspired me to increased my connectivity and to pursue further risk-taking behaviors to increase my capacity as an educational leader.

1. The BLOGGING assignments have provided a clarity of focus in my BLOG, and it has increased my awareness of how many people are actually influenced by such an instrument. Additionally, I have now committed myself to weekly entries, and I hope to carry on the HABIT once I am done with #SAVMP.

2. I have challenged other educational leaders in my arena to increase connectivity, and they have accepted the challenge. My local face-to-face mentor has recently adopted the Twitter habit, and others are coming online to establish their own PLN's.

3. I have increased my own presence on Twitter in both the area of LEARNING and in LEADING. Just this month, I have added two more tools to my technology toolbox. I have used Remind 101 to create a faculty account to send out reminder text messages and positive notes to the faculty. I have also created a Scoop It! account and have begun curating for the Connected Educator month's events.

#SAVMP has made a difference for me as a learner and a leader!

Week 8 -- Meaningful Professional Development #SAVMP

This week's assignment asks the question...What are some of the ways to create meaningful staff professional development?

To begin with, I believe that meaningful professional development leads to better learning in the classroom. The professional development on our campus has gone through a metamorphosis-- by design, and the change is remarkable.

When I first arrived on campus as the new instructional leader for our school, there were immediate pressing needs. One was the need for infrastructure and systems to fill the void. Unfortunately, that meant that our monthly faculty meetings were committed to rolling out these initiatives and to training faculty and staff on the necessary requirements needed to comply with district initiatives. The second critical need was for our faculty to get to know their new leader and to "roll out" my style and credibility for them. So...over the course of a year I set out to meet those two goals.

Well...leap forward in time to a full year later. My style is one of teacher leadership and distributed leadership among the staff. Our very first faculty meeting of the year, I was committed to making that shift to the teacher-led faculty meeting where WE ALL own the growth made by the school experts--the teachers! A year's worth of work had resulted in a great professional development experience vs. the old style "meeting."

Our first faculty meeting was a success! If I was to use the measure--would I enjoy sitting in one of my faculty meetings? The answer, after this first meeting, was a resounding yes! I began the meeting with a new tradition I had started. The idea had been shared with me by my wise friend. At pre-service training, I brought in a large stuffed Cheetah that I had bought at Toys R Us--the Cheetah is Cherry Street's mascot. At each meeting thereafter, whoever received the Cheetah would have to "pass the torch" to the next Cheetah Champion AND they would have to personalize the Cheetah in some way. I gave the "torch" to one of our teacher leaders who is known for going above and beyond especially with her ability to network with families. I also personalized the Cheetah by adding a BluRay box to his collar. I am a huge science fiction geek, and I added the box for the movie Oblivion.

At this first faculty meeting, it was the teacher leader's opportunity to "pass the torch" and recognize a Champion on our campus. She put on her glasses to read an index card that she had written with notes because she said, "I wanted to make sure I got this right." She then set out to describe a teacher who knows the name of every student in the school, a teacher who takes weekend time to have his family help him clean up the campus, and a teacher who makes a difference with our students. As she shared this information and ultimately the teacher's name, I got chill bumps and a few tears welled up in my eyes. There are so many champions at our school, and now the teachers are stepping up to recognize the champion in each other. The room broke into applause, and as our COACH received the Cheetah that was now covered in chocolate wrappers (the teacher leader's new personal touch), I could swear I saw a tear in his eyes too. That was waaaayyy cool!

Relying on that same teacher leadership model, we moved on to the next part of the meeting which was for one of our campus experts in Kagan to model for the group and then have the group work through some activities as well. Our teacher leader worked with the group to have us create a Kagan team cheer and to spend time in a Kagan team-building activity which allowed us to get to know each other a little better. Some of our cheers were very goofy, but the whole experience was wonderful. In just a few short minutes, we had invested a little time in getting to know each member of our group and hear their story. And, we got to do a little risk-taking by moving outside of our comfort zones and creating something silly and goofy that unified our groups. The room was filled with laughter. Ultimately, the goal is for the groups to take these demonstrated activities and begin to implement them successfully in their classrooms.

Next, we watched ANOTHER teacher leader demonstrate the behavior management program called Classroom Dojo. This program is so accessible that parents can log on during the school day in real time to see how their students are behaving during the school day. Additionally, teachers can use the App for the program to carry hand-held devices with them such as their SmartPhone or their iPad or tablet, and they can track behavior data from any location on campus. One of our kindergarten teachers provided a testimonial about how successful the program had been in her kindergarten classroom. Her feedback was definitely a strong selling point for many folks.

We covered several more items, and the new precedent has been set for our faculty meetings.

And here is where the impact on instruction can be felt from all this DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP. 

1. Climate and morale are encouraged and positively promoted when the teachers praise each other.
2. Positive climate is increased ACROSS CAMPUS when the faculty and the students participate in team-building and class-building activities. Discipline referrals typically decrease when Kagan structures are implemented at a school.
3. The effective best practices of one teacher are shared with other faculty members, and WE ALL GET STRONGER.

In my weekly Classroom Walk-Thrus, I have seen the Kagan Structures being used, and I have seen the Class Dojo spread like wild-fire. This type of faculty meeting is less about meeting and more about professional development to impact instruction. AND....I am so glad we are in Year Two. I just can't wait to get to Year Three--the sky is the limit!