Last week I attended the “Meaningful Faculty Evaluation” workshop given by ISM in Philadelphia. For those of you who are not familiar with MFE, it is a process of engaging faculty through conversations and personal growth that is intended to strip away the focus and obsession with weaknesses and focus on what teachers are good at. Now I know that many of my administrator colleagues are thinking “Wait a minute, what about those teachers that need to improve on X, Y or Z?” It’s all there, trust me. And if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, you should. [click to continue…]
This is the first Monday morning in months that I feel I have had the opportunity to sit down, check my voicemail, clear my desk of junk mail and find a little time to reflect on they year that has just passed. The life cycle of a school is similar to the ebbs and flows of the ocean, at times they seem calm and steady and at others, the feeling is fast, sporadic and unpredictable. And no matter how hard you try, you think you set out at the start of each school year with a sense of where and how that year will unfold. What projects you have in store, what work needs to be accomplished and how you hope to get it all done. The reality is, it never happens the way you think it will. [click to continue…]
Yes, I know. It appears as if I have simply forgot that I have a blog. The truth is, I haven’t forgotten about it, I have just not had the time to devote to writing regularly and as a result, my last entry dates back to the cold and dark days of February.
Much has happened in the 5 months that have followed my last post. I have been busy presenting at a variety of conferences and venues. I have been writing regularly at edSocialMedia.com where I serve as the editor-in-chief. Here are some excerpts from those posts;
A few weeks ago, Peter Baron, Steve Ritchie and I traveled down to Seguin, Texas outside of San Antonio to spend the day with a fantastic group of social media innovators from several area universities.
I say, don’t be! This morning I came across an interesting article by Denise Zimmerman over at iMedia Connection called “4 signs you’re a social media failure” and in it she describes how this year.
It seems like no matter how hard I try, serving as an administrator at independent school with 655 students and 150 employees during the months of April and May reminds of riding The Comet roller coaster at The Great Escape in Lake George, New York. I mean, seriously, how many of us really have the time to devote to maintaining a social media presence, let alone cultivate and foster the many meaningful networks and relationships we belong too?
Many other life changes have made it difficult to devote the time I would like to writing on a regular and consistent basis but now that summer is here, things are a little different. I am spending some time really thinking about how I envision using this platform as a means of sharing ideas and helping foster conversation. I am sure like many of you out there, blogging is something that you enjoy doing, but unless you are able to devote the time it just gets piled on to your to do list.
So I am looking forward to the summer as an opportunity to really examine how I hope to use this resource and if I continue doing so. With things like Twitter and Facebook dominating a bulk of my time, it may be that the blog will have gone the way of the traditional web page.
So it’s been a while folks! I admit it. I have been swamped with the end of the trimester, presentations you name it! So accept my apologies for being away for a few weeks. It often seems like biggest hurdle is it getting to the point where the days start to get longer and it isn’t dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. In any event, I am sitting here in Montclair, NJ at the Montclair Kimberly Academy participating at the edSocialMedia BootCamp. Great group of educators from a variety of schools. I will be sure to update this post as a final reflection but for the time being, here is a copy of my keynote presentation that I delivered around 9:30 this morning.
I was invited to speak with administrators from the Asheville School this week by my good friend and colleague, Peter Baron from Admissions Quest. The conversation lasted about 30 minutes and we discussed a variety of topics including; using social media in the classroom, understanding how to leverage the potential of social media technology in your communication strategy and changes in school culture.
Can we harness the power of social media to provide students with a vehicle for exploring and creating original content? WA Mash (Worcester Academy Mashup) is an online magazine where the power of social media is captured to provide creative writing students with a platform for exploring ideas and fostering and contributing to the larger global conversation. By exploring the possibilities offered by the use of social media tools, we explore how one teacher is defining the New Humanities at the secondary school level. Built off the work of Richard E. Miller at Rutgers University, students blog in a timely fashion about a wide variety of cultural, political and economic issues. Most importantly, it is about creating original content and redefining the role of student and teacher. They compliment their work with audio, video, photos and micro-blogging by integrating social media tools like YouTube and Vimeo, Twitter and Flickr. Think Slate or Salon for high school. The conversation will explore the nature and role of the New Humanities in education. How do we define it? What does it look it? What role does it play? And how do we move forward with implementation?
This is my first time attending EduCon and I must admit that it has on the whole, delivered in every way. As I sit here in a Starbucks trying to catch my breath and enjoying a Vanilla Rooibus Tea latte I am thinking about the depth and breadth of conversations I have been able to have over the last two days. From our arrival on Friday afternoon, our tour of the Science Leadership Academy, the panel discussion at The Franklin Institute, the Saturday sessions, my presentation, the networking gathering and Sunday morning panel, the experience has been superb. [click to continue…]
We recently held a professional development day where a portion of the morning program was devoted to the topic of differentiated instruction. Our very talented and capable Center for Learning Director worked with her equally talented and capable staff to design an hour long presentation intended to serve as a follow up to their presentation at our pre-sessional meetings in late August. Differentiated instruction is not a new concept to those of us in education, and its underlying premise is that rather than expecting students to fit their learning to the curriculum, curriculum and instruction are flexible so that they can better meet the individual needs of individual students. Teachers who are practitioners of DI believe that their teaching is shaped by the students they have in their classes. [click to continue…]
Last spring I worked on a weekly series called “Monday Morning Meditation” where I would try to connect some thoughts, ideas and perspectives about leadership to the teachings of Zen. It is my hope that by devoting some time to the complex and very human interactions associated with leadership, we can find new ways to approach our work as leaders and help us on our journey towards reshaping our schools.
On Balance
Gaoan Said:
“What students should keep in mind are balance and truthfulness; even though thwarted in a hundred ways they will remain serene and untroubled. But if they have any inclination or bias, and spend the days and nights in petty striving with gain as their aim, I fear their enormous bodies will not fit between the heaven and earth.”
I am sure that many of us in leadership positions have found ourselves looking for that perfect balance. In our professional and personal lives, in our ability to deal with the stresses of work and home. It never seems to be fully possible to find that perfect balance because those of us who work in schools are keenly aware that the nature ebb and flow of the school year comes with moments of rest and reflection while at other times, the pace feels frenetic and out of control. What I find interesting in this passage is the notion that balance and truthfulness are linked together. Our inability to find balance often comes from our unwillingness to be truthful with ourselves. Why do we prioritize certain things over others? What drives us to make the decisions we make? What frames our way of thinking about our work and our relationships with our colleagues and direct reports? Remaining free of bias, keeping an open mind and perspective are often challenges for those of us in leadership positions. We can quickly become thwarted by a variety of factors that can get in the way, for example making decisions based on seeking personal gain.
Finding that perfect balance in life may seem a lofty aspiration but if we take the time to recognize that our approach to our work, our colleagues and our personal lives can serve as the vehicle towards finding more balance in our life, the challenge may not seem as difficult as it once did.
One of the first things I remember learning in my graduate work in education was that no matter what I did or how well I planned, there would simply never be enough time for me to get everything done. It just wasn’t possible, there were too many demands, too much work, not enough time. In the 14 years since, not much has changed. Regardless of the school you work for, or whether you are a teacher or administrator, the same mantra pervades most discussions that there is just not enough time to get everything done. The demands on students have not decreased, if anything, they and/or their parents inflict additional stress to be in every club, to compete at the highest athletic levels, to take 5 AP courses. It feels like not only has life gotten more complicated, but we try to pack 27 hours worth of “stuff” into a 24 hour day. [click to continue…]
