WOW!! I am not sure what else to say about my recent experience at the EDJEWCON conference. First is foremost are thank you to the amazing organizers Jon_Mitzmacher langwitches edtechworkshop I...
Blog Archives
IT IS NOT SOMETHING NEW
Picture Courtesy of :reading.pppst.com One of my pet peeves is when people think that Differentiation Instruction and 21st Century Skills are something new and that now teachers need to do something different. I think if would ask most teachers if it is important that they meet the needs of their students or that their...
Creating a Culture of Collaboration
picture: thevarguy.com Last night I had the opportunity to participate in two great chats. #jedchat which I co- moderated with @dovemerson and @RabbiWex and #educoach which is moderated by some real twitter rock stars and personal friends @KathyPerret, @Shiraleibowitz @PrincipalJ ( all of these Five educational leaders deserve a early #FF). Trust me when I tell you that afterwards...
Is the Job of a Teacher 24/7
Picture from: nysut.org I haven’t blogged for a while and have been thinking about what to blog about. I am jealous of all of those in my PLN that blog daily and sometimes more than once a day. After thinking about this for a while I decided to put my thoughts down on “paper”....
Just Be Honest – Be Yourself
picture: zazzy.com In almost everything you read today about leadership you read about the importance of Transparency. To be honest the concepts scares some people. How can a be completely open and honest? Another common idea/question is How can I be open if that happens I will lose control. I would argue that actually...
We Often Forget To Say Thank You
Picture: bundleofblossoms.blogspot.com Here is an excerpt from a post I wrote for my Principals Post Blog: This is an excerpt of an email I sent ot my faculty before Rosh Hashanah ( The Jewish New Year) I just wanted to take a moment and say Thank You! Thank you for your support Thank you...
Technology Does Not Equal 21st Century Learning
Picture: leftyparent.com As our school embarks on a mission to become more of a 21st Century school combined with the fact that we are now a Google Apps school I have gotten a number of questions about technology and our dependency on it. One answer I gave is that I am sure there were...
Looking Back to Look Forward
Picture from cartoonstock.com This year we are focusing on 21st Century Learning. For many myself included while this is exciting it can also be scary. What does it mean is it something new? Do I need to change the way I have taught for x years. To be honest some of the answers are...
The Importance of Asking Questions
Below are quotes from an article written by Lord Rabbi Johnathan Sacks Chief Rabbi of the British Common Wealth about the importance of questions and how asking questions is really something that builds faith. http://chiefrabbi.org/UploadedFiles/Articals/mattot5771.pdf Isidore Rabi, winner of a Nobel Prize for physics, was once asked why he became a scientist. He replied:...
Reflection vs Retrospection
picture: noupe.com As we come to the end of a school year many of the tweets and blog posts that I have seen talk about reflections and looking at our past accomplishments and looking forward as well. To be honest when I hear the word reflection the image that comes to my mind is...
What Do We Focus On
Justin Tarte (@justintarte) tweeted the following: RT @edteck: Observing a Classroom? Watch the Students, Not the Teacher -http://bit.ly/de5OHN This reminded me of a story that I often tell my teachers. I heard the story many years ago at a Principals conference. A teacher wanted to submit a video of one his lesson to an...
Plant A Seed and Watch it Grow
Picture: atlantictorque.com Last week someone tweeted the following “Plant a seed and watch it grow”. The tweet had a link. The tweet got my interest as an elementary school principal and teacher. I assumed it was a catchy title about children so I clicked on the link. To my utter amazement it was actually...
Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Professional Development
There has been a lot of discussion on Twitter about this concept. I would like to thank @justintarte for taking the lead on this discussion. Here are some of my quick thoughts: 1. We need to change the culture- Too often teacher evaluations have been seen by teachers as being a very top down process....
School Culture
picture: grifith.edu.au “While organizations can pronounce a change in policy or procedure, they cannot proclaim a change in attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors…The concept of changing culture may seem simple enough, but changing culture is not like changing the decor” Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker This is a quote taken from the book The Leader...
Back to Basics
“Factual knowledge alone is thus no longer the great differentiator between those who succeed and those who do not. Instead the individuals who are emerging as the new “winners” – the new thrivers-of the twenty-first century are those who possess above average creativity, strong analytical skills, a knack for foresight, and surprise surprise good...
Taking the First Step Towards a 21st Century School
If you pick up almost any educational journal today or read educational blogs you will inevitably come across the term 21st Century Skills or 21st Century curriculum. Yes these terms have been around for a while, but what is true is that in today’s society perhaps even more so than 10 years ago things...
What Really Matters
picture: sodahead.com Certain events over the last few days have caused me to pause for a second and think about what really matters. The first event was the shooting in Arizona over the weekend and the second a funeral I attended on Tuesday for a 17 year old boy. I know for me personally...
Reflections
During this time of year many people reflect on the past and look towards future goals. I thought I would reflect a bit on the past and look towards the future as well. For me personally 2010 was a year filled with a lot of new and exciting things: • I starting using Twitter...
A Recipe for Success; Let’s Try to Improve rather than Change
Over the last few days there has been a lot of chatter on Twitter about success and failure. While I myself blogged about how failure leads to success, as @amandacdykes put it “sometimes we need to experience success once in a while”. Perhaps some of us experience failure because we want to change the...
Empowering Words
picture from E4educators.org The other day @amadacdykes blogged about “Empowering” and asked what is your empowering word. This got me thinking. What would I answer? Well my first step was to get a definition for the word empowering. I found two: 1. Give authority to someone 2. To give somebody a greater sense of confidence...
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