Digital PD for Admin - There are only 24 hours in the day. Use them well.

Here are three tools that you can use to keep up to date with what is happening.  We cannot wait for that magazine to show up in your mailbox to keep current and learn the new educational trends.  It isn't enough to attend a conference once a year and expect to get all the professional learning in two short days.

We expect our students to be lifelong learners.  Are you?  Why do some of us just give up and say we are too busy?  We would never accept that excuse from our students.

Will you opt out or opt in?

Twitter

By far the best resource I have ever found.  Is there a lot of junk on twitter? You bet.  Here is the tip, just don't follow the junk and forget what you already know about twitter.

Twitter in Plain English

Videos
Signing up for twitter
Find and follow

Here are a few things I learned in the last day on twitter.  It took maybe 4 minutes to find these resources.

Virtually dissect a frog on your android tablet - I think this app could apply at about any grade.  So many learning opportunities within a click of a button.  I know a few teachers K-12 would could use this.

Critical Thinking - infographics I know a number of teachers who are interested in learning more about infographics.  This was a great post and I looked like a great guy when I shared this with a few teachers.

Blogs about technology integration - Teacher always need great examples of what solid technology integration looks like.  There are a handful of blogs and I don't have time to read them all.  I just send this link out to a few people who I know will benefit from the information.

5 Ways to make class discussions more exciting - I have been working with a few teachers who are interested in breaking out of a rut the classroom seems to get into from time to time.  A very easy read that sparks some new ideas and conversations between teachers.

IBM reveals its top 5 innovations predictions for the next five years - Who doesn't want to read this?

Who I follow.
Here is a tiny list of people that I currently follow on twitter.

• Eric Sheninger - principal
• Scott McLeod - Director of Innovation (Such a cool title!)
• Doug Peterson - teacher, share a ton of great stuff early in the morning
• Joyce Valenza - librarian

The Follow Trick
How do I know who to follow?  Pick someone from this list.  See who they tweet and follow.  Find someone interesting.  Follow them.  Repeat that process.

Google+
Have a gmail account?  Then you have a Google+ account already.  The idea here is finding a tight knit community that is centered around an idea or interest that appeals to you.

Videos

• What is Google+?
• Google+ Overview
• Signing up for Google+ - Getting Started

Here are a few communities that I belong to.

• Instructional Technology Integrators & Coaches - Many good ideas and things to think about.
• Google Apps for Education - Are you using Google Apps in your school?  This is a place I have asked questions that I could not solve and received an answer within minutes!
• Team Tech Guy - A community built around one of the best podcasts ever.  It isn't about education but all things technology.

Zite
This reminds me of magazines I used to read about ten years ago.  The idea was to have one thing I could pick up and get all the information between the covers.  Zite is only accessible on your mobile devices.  This makes it so easy to pick and read during my long lunches.

FAQ - check these tips out about using Zite.

IMAGE
How did I learn about these three tools?  I logged in and just started clicking on stuff.  When I got stuck I checked YouTube for answers.  I asked a student or someone else.  I did all the things we expect our students to do.  To keep learning is part of our professional responsibility.  Think of where education will be in five years.  It is safe to assume there will be so many parts that will be completely different.  How do I know that?  Look back five years ago.

Lucky 13 - Developing Units of Study (The Principal as Curriculum Leader)

Big Idea
Is it really worth our time developing comprehensive units of study?
A fun self assessment.  Please work quietly for 5 minutes on this.

Why did we do this?
Thoughts about the activity?
Is Colin attempting to drive me crazy or is there really a point to this?

Curriculum 21 Chapter 8

Link to the presentation here.

MSIP 5 Presentation

MSIP 5 Presentation from the Missouri Charter School Conference

How to Give a Great School Tour Presentation from the Missouri Charter School Conference

Why - 11&12

Walmart - a lesson in getting lost along the way
Sam Walton - hard work = winning (but not in the creepy Charlie Sheen way)

Why are you spinning in circles? Many have tried exactly what you are attempting to do.  Study what they are doing, emulate what they do well.

Sam actually believed in what Apple used to.  The leadership fully believed  in the employee.  The employee would look after the customer and the customer would ultimately take care of the leadership.

Does profit (test scores) ultimately undo this golden triangle of trust and support?
Is the loss of vision/why slowly erode the love of teaching?
Do the teachers really feel successful at the end of the day or year?

Achievement - comes when you pursue and attain WHAT you want
Success - comes from when you are clear in your pursuit of WHY you want it

Do you still make the sacrifices so that the bigger cause you are dedicated to can be brought to life?  Walmart suffered a split from their WHY and was driven by only one thing.

At a startup everyone tends to be crammed into one area.  All the shared vision is there and working towards the same goal.  The huger and WHY is still there.  Look into your lunch room/teacher lounge.  Is passion still there?  How do you get it back?

Is your drive because of just one person?  Does the whole organization understand and can it run without that ONE person?

AOL changed direction.  Apple changed direction. Ford changed direction.  It might not always be rational or practical to make the shift but it can be the right thing to do for the whole organization.

The sad quote - What gets measured gets done.

Do we just need a visionary?

M. Dell, S. Jobs, and the Starbucks guy

Who is our educational guru?  Who is that inspirational leader out there to help us live the WHY.

The Starbucks Comeback
1.  Get back to what made you great in the first place.
2.  Ideas matter, but people matter more.
3.  Even as you get back to basics, keep innovating.

The Principal as Curriculum Leader- Chapter 7

Here is the link to the Power Point Presentation on Chapter 7!

Curriculum 21 - Chapter 4: New School Versions

Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World   by Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Chapter 4 New School Versions: Reinventing and Reuniting School Program Structure

We shape our buildings: thereafter, they shape us. -Sir Winston Churchill

·         Imagine a 100 years from now, thinking back on your time in school.

·         Possibility of new kinds of form

·         New versions of software=platforms

·         New versions of schools = versioning

1.  Form should always follow function

2.  The whole is the sum of the parts

Curricular Destiny:  Schedules, Grouping Patterns, and the Use of Space

·         Schedule (long term and short term)

·         Grouping Patterns of Learners (institutional and instructional)

·         Grouping Patterns of professionals (multiple affiliations)

·         Space (both physical and virtual)

To move our school structures into more open, fluid, and correspondingly inventive forms, we need new form, not reform.

Essential Questions

·         What type of both long-term and short-term schedules will best support our specific learners?

·         What various ways of grouping our learners will assist them in their learning experiences?

·         How should faculty be configured to best serve students and to assist one another?

·         In what ways can both physical and virtual space be created and used to support our work?

Schedules

·         Graduation

·         Time:  Let function lead form

·         Heroic Schools

http://metcenter.org/

Rhode Island Met Center 

Thinking and Planning Outside the Scheduling Box: Virtual Space

American students videoconferencing in their tech center  -Advanced French class in

Paris Advanced English language class in their tech center

VLM – Virtual Learning Magnet- connects cyber space with physical space

·         Link our finest cultural and scientific institutions directly to the student in a focused experience using internet-based tools.

CCSSO Council of Chief State School Officers 

http://vimeo.com/47025452

Grouping of Students

·         Institutional - gender, age, developmental spans, function, proficiency based

·         Instructional – skill grouping (constant), skill grouping (immediate needs), cooperative, competitive, individualized

·         Independent – clubs, online courses, internships, work experiences, travel abroad, community service and projects

Grouping of Professionals – The need for multiple affiliation

Consider:

·         Vertical teams

·         Vertical strategic teams

·         Cross disciplinary teams

·         Internship supervisors

·         Task force study groups

·         Data analysis teams

·         State education network teams

·         National network team

·         Global peer coaching team

·         Global network team

Social Learning Frameworks

Leveraging social production, social networks, new modalities for discovery, media grids, and an organic learning process

New Versions of Physical and Physical Space

DesignShare

www.designshare.com

1.        Whom the building is to serve

2.       What the building’s function will be

Form should follow function.  The whole is the sum of the parts.

Could your Curriculum 21 review team generate a version of school that had both flexibility and regulation in long-term and daily schedules, supported multiple professional affiliations, offered a wide range of student groupings, and used physical and virtual space in direct response to the actual students you have been charged to educate?