A Principal's Reflections
MAY 11, 2011
'I came across this video that compares and contrasts pedagogical techniques, learning environments, student/teacher characteristics, and expectations associated with education during the past two centuries. What are your thoughts on the various points made in this video? How can we better meet the needs of learners and educators in the 21st Century?
The Web20Classroom
MAY 26, 2011
'At ASCD2011 I sat down with the good folks over at Follett and talked about a wide variety of topics surrounding technology, leadership and more. Here is the first part of the interview on Building A PLN. What do you think? What are some other important aspects of PLN building or just network building in general. What works for you?
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EdTechSandyK
MAY 14, 2011
'Official Photo of Texas Governor Rick Perry from governor.state.tx.us/about/ Yesterday, I listened to a radio interview Texas Governor Rick Perry did with KRLD 1080 AM radio in Dallas via Scott Braddock''s website. Today, I am writing to say he is wrong about the extent of educator layoffs in Texas and that he is also wrong about the staffing ratio of teachers to administrators in the school districts in our state.
The 21st Century Principal
MAY 23, 2011
'“It’s time to lift the cell phone bans, open the wireless for student personal devices, and stop filtering social technologies.” That seems to be the idea in a position statement released by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP in this statement includes recommendations to school leaders on what to do with mobile and social technologies.
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SpeechTechie
MAY 8, 2011
'This past Saturday I attended Edcamp Boston, an "unconference" set in the wonderful Microsoft NERD center overlooking the Charles River in Cambridge. Edcamps take place all over the country and the model involves participants creating their own agenda across the day, with session leaders acting as facilitators rather than traditional "presenters." Another way to say this is that teachers themselves create their sessions based on what they want to learn for the day!
The Learning Revolution Has Begun
MAY 21, 2011
'Join me Wednesday, May 25th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Sir Ken Robinson about the extensively revised and updated version of his best-selling classic, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. We''ll talk about why it is essential to promote creativity, what happens in schools to make us think we are not creative, and what schools and organizations can do to develop creativity and innovation in a deliberate and systematic way.
EdTech Update brings together the best content for education technology professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
The Web20Classroom
MAY 5, 2011
'Last week I talked a little bit about Common Craft and the In Plain English video series. (If you missed it, check it out here.) So it seems I am hung up on videos because I have another great site that has tons of great videos to help you learn new concepts, present information in ways that might not be quite conventional and some that are just plain awesome.
EdTechSandyK
MAY 7, 2011
'Update March 2013 - It appears the Google Search Stories Creation Tool has gone offline and is no longer being supported as of January 2013. Bummer! More information here. You know how you open up your Internet browser intending to accomplish something, then you click on a link that takes you on a slight rabbit trail and before you know it you are headed in a completely different direction?
The 21st Century Principal
MAY 11, 2011
'According to Ken Blanchard, what keeps people from becoming servant leaders is ego. Our ego gets in the way two ways, he says. The first way is false pride. “When you start thinking more of yourself than you should, that’s when you start pushing and shoving for credit and thinking leadership is about you rather than those who are led.” It is impossible to serve others in the leadership role when all you’re concerned about is whether you’ll get the credit.
SpeechTechie
MAY 11, 2011
'Diana Richardson, a graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions here in Boston, emailed me with this great site. I encouraged her to write about it as a guest post and she agreed to do so (thanks, Diana!). Diana brings the important perspective of working with adult clients that I don''t often write about here, because I don''t currently work with this population.
Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape
The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.
The Learning Revolution Has Begun
MAY 30, 2011
'Join me Tuesday, May 31st, for a live and interactive Future of Education webinar with James Bosco, Principle Investigator at the Consortium for School Networking ( CoSN ). For the past 3 years CoSN has been involved in a project which is called " Participatory Learning in Schools: Leadership and Policy." This project is funded by the John D. and Catherine T.
A Principal's Reflections
MAY 18, 2011
'The following is a guest post by Disha Dass and Jessica Milne, two New Milford High School students. They approached me with an idea and as a school we let them run with it. Nothing like this had ever been organized at NMHS. The end result of their unwavering commitment to make their peers aware of of an issue had a profound impact on the entire school community.
The Web20Classroom
MAY 19, 2011
'I love my job, but sometimes it can be frustrating trying to meet the needs of all the teachers and staff members in my district. I constantly look for ways to give teachers instruction that they can do on their own or in groups, together. These are not meant to replace the face-to-face training that I do or the other resources I create. They are merely there to provide that additional information some teachers/staff need.
EdTechSandyK
MAY 26, 2011
'Photo by Flikr User redjar Used Under a Creative Commons License Today is the last day of school in my district. Usually, this day does not cause me too much pause or reflection because for the last four years since I''ve worked from the district technology department, it has signaled a transition from "school year busy" to "summer staff development and projects busy.
This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.
The 21st Century Principal
MAY 27, 2011
'This week, the North Carolina Senate released its version of the state biannual budget, and Senate Leader Phil Berger seemed to take it as a "bragging point" that they had actually decided spend more on education than the NC House. He especially pointed out their effort to reduce class sizes for grades 1-3, but apparently, that measure seems to be a ruse to deflect attention to what the real damage to education his budget will do.
SpeechTechie
MAY 24, 2011
'This week, I thought I should acknowledge the S in my title (should I have called this blog LanguageTechie?) and feature a few products that make good use of technology in articulation interventions! 2 Gals Speech Products'' software program (compatible with Mac and PC) Adventure Pack takes the drill-and-play approach to a new level that is sure to engage your students while they practice sounds.
The Daring Librarian
MAY 15, 2011
'Sweet Tweets About Good Reads Here''s an idea for a fun tech-social-media infused creative writing lesson and one I''ll be sure to mention when I''m guest hosting the Twitter #EngChat event May 23rd at 7pm EST. The topic will be The Power of the Product and I''ll be hosting with amazing MHMS co-worker Elizabeth Singleton ( @emsingleton ). This conversation will consist of viable, creative, meaningful, and daring products that demonstrate information mastery, go beyond the regular research repor
A Principal's Reflections
MAY 25, 2011
'Cross-posted at the Huffington Post. Last week my school was fortunate to have the NJ School Boards Association (NJSBA) visit to produce a live event called Learn@Lunch: Technology as an Engagement Tool. You can view the archive of the event here. A little over two years ago something like this would have never happened at New Milford High School. Yes, I was the Principal at that time, but my perspective and philosophy as to what constituted a 21st Century learning environment was vastly differ
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The Web20Classroom
MAY 17, 2011
'Project Based Learning-Prezi tags: pbl prezi favorite Project Based Learning | BIE tags: pbl favorite Neotake: Your ebook search engine tags: ebooks favorite Developing a ''Tech Bill of Rights'' tags: digitalcitizenship favorite Teach With Your iPad tags: ipad favorite How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Professional Development? tags: PD Leadership favorite professionaldevelopment The Evolution of Classroom Technology - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com tags: technology education edtech fa
EdTechSandyK
MAY 30, 2011
'"Flags In" at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day 2008 Photo by Flikr User The U.S. Army Used Under a Creative Commons License Today is Memorial Day in the United States. Traditionally, it is a day when we take time to remember the men and women who have died in military service to our country. From 1776 through today, as citizens of the USA, you bravely answered your country''s call to serve.
The 21st Century Principal
MAY 19, 2011
'According to the 2011 K-12 Horizon Report released this past week “cloud computing” and “mobiles” are the technologies likely to be adopted in the next 12 months by mainstream education. Our district began using both of these technologies during the past year. Last summer our district migrated to Google Apps for our staff. After providing training using Gmail and Google Docs for our staff last August, the staff at my two schools are more likely to share and collaborate using a Google document,
SpeechTechie
MAY 2, 2011
'May is Better Speech and Hearing Month here in the USA, and MayMonth in Canada ! It''s a good time to visit classrooms and conduct a lesson on hearing conservation (and if you have a graduate student, a great time for them to rack up a few of those elusive Aural Rehab hours). An infographic is an interesting way to present information, combining pictures, icons and text (and often display information according to text structures such as categorical lists, sequences and cause-effect relationship
Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions
There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.
The Learning Revolution Has Begun
MAY 9, 2011
'Join me Tuesday, May 10th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com panel discussion on passion-based education with Angela Maiers , Amy Sandvold , Lisa Nielsen , and George Couros. This is the same set of panelists (wahoo!) who discussed this topic with me at the closing session of the AZTEA virtual conference ten days ago, and you can watch the Elluminate recording of that session here.
A Principal's Reflections
MAY 15, 2011
'Over the past 2 years I have worked collaboratively with my staff to cultivate a culture of learning that engages students, is meaningful/relevant, promotes critical thought/problem-solving, and is flexible in that risk-taking is encouraged in order to promote innovative practices. It has been a gradual transition and we are beginning to see shifts in instructional practices, staff members wanted to integrate technology, and students advocating more for the type of learning culture they prefer.
The Web20Classroom
MAY 12, 2011
'I have been a big advocate of RSS. I have written about it , even included it as part of my Essential Tools for Teachers and my Administrators Toolkit. Being able to track blogs and websites as they change is a real plus for someone who constantly wants to be connected. And up until a few weeks ago I used it religiously. I would get up in the morning and check Twitter and my Reader.
EdTechSandyK
MAY 22, 2011
'I have been learning a great deal about the political process since the start of the 2011 Texas legislative session by participating frequently in legislative matters pertaining to public education. As the Texas budget crisis and its implications for our public schools drew my attention to politics in a way it had never been drawn before, I called, wrote letters , and emailed Senators and Representatives with my opinions.
Speaker: Amanda Davis, Chief Experience Officer and Liam O'Malley, VP of Association Solutions
The "new normal" is now a little less new, a little more normal. Does that mean your current LMS strategy is in need of a refresh? Is your organization or association leaning into the always-evolving eLearning environment to ensure you have the tools and content to remain relevant through all this change? There are many complex decision-making processes within your learning & development strategy and LMS lifecycle management, including: Selection.
The 21st Century Principal
MAY 21, 2011
'The other day, someone asked me to explain to him why I thought it was so important for administrators specifically, and educators generally to become Twitter users. He had a Twitter account, but still did not see much use for it. He knew I used it regularly, so I really think he was looking for an argument. He really wanted to make sure I knew of his belief that "Twitter is a waste of time.
SpeechTechie
MAY 4, 2011
'Another role that SLPs can take on during Better Hearing and Speech Month / May Month is in educating students on the importance of safety precautions when on a bike or on the road in order to prevent head injury. Here are a few resources that can help: BMW Education has a site that has been around quite awhile, and it has some great lessons and interactive drag-and-drop/click activities that reinforce concepts around safety.
Connecting 2 the World
MAY 26, 2011
As promised, here is the first draft of my study findings. I'd appreciate feedback. The traditional model of collaborative knowledge is based on the type of knowledge (moving from tangible to intangible, explicit to tacit) and the place of collaboration (moving from the individual to the group to the organization). The assumption is that knowledge within an organization is housed and can be captured for use.
A Principal's Reflections
MAY 4, 2011
'"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself" - John Dewey There are many views on the role of schools and teaching in general. Education is everything. How we teach, assess learning, and engage students is crucial to their success once they leave our buildings. Will our students apply what they have learned? Are we teaching meaningful lessons that reflect societal challenges?
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