This is a cross post from my blog. As one of the technology leaders at my school, I have had to immerse myself in technology. This post describes some of the tools that I use on a day to day basis. But first, here is a little background. I was reflecting recently about the...
Educators are adept at avoiding chain reactions. Especially those of us who work with middle school students. We are leery of situations that might careen out of control and we have become experts at subverting proverbial avalanches. “You want to leave the classroom and get a drink? Sorry…if I let you go, everyone will...
There was a single note on the teacher’s desk. Turning the envelope, she slid her curious finger under the seal, anxious to read what awaited her. Just the crackle and hiss of that seal being broken blocked out the ambient sounds of anything else around. Wrestling the note from the casing, she realized she...
Admittedly, patience is something that does not always come easy to me. I have written and spoken more times than I would like to admit about my lack of understanding for colleagues who fail to embrace tools that allow us to connect, collaborate, and learn regardless of time and place. As is the case...
Thanks to the efforts of Jeff Pulver and Chris Lehmann, the first-ever #140edu Conference will take place in New York City on August 2 and 3. There is a fantastic slate of speakers lined up including: Connected Principal’s own Eric Sheninger, #edchat founders Shell Terrell, Tom Whitby, and Steve Anderson, and many other amazing...
As we continue to move forward with technology integration in our schools, or any iniative for that matter, it is imperative that we consider the message that our actions send to others. For me, I am constantly worried about the message that is trickling down to our students. We need to be wary of...
This is part of a series of posts following up on the great questions that were asked in the backchannel #cpchatq during our panel “What Does It Mean To Be A Tech-Savvy Principal” at ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia last week. Question 3 in our series following up on the great questions that were submitted...
The Conected Principals Panel at ISTE - via http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonybaldasaro/ Reflecting on our great panel discussion at ISTE 2011, I am overwhelmed by the number of great questions that were asked on #cpchatq during the panel. Because of the phenomenal list of questions, we have decided to do a series of posts highlighting these questions. Our first...
Today I had the wonderful opportunity to Skype with Dwight Carter’s administrative team, and I must admit that they definitely didn’t disappoint! I have been following Dwight’s blog and twitter feed for about a year now, and I very much so appreciate him taking the time to organize his administrative team to speak with me. If...
I wasn’t there. In fact, I was almost literally half-way around the world. It happened at the ISTE conference in Philadelphia, and I’m in Dalian, China. The session was called: What Does it Mean to Be a Tech-Savvy Principal? I followed along on the #cpchat and on a tool called TodaysMeet, but I commented...
I wrote my final blog post for the 2010-2011 school year today. I finished my first full year as an Assistant Principal, Can’t even begin to tell ya how glad I am that this first year is over. Not that I didn’t enjoy every minute of it, because I really did, I just am...
One of the frustrating things about being a “Connected Principal” is the fact that there are still many of our colleagues who are hesitant to use some of the mobile learning and social media tools that are available to improve communication, collaboration and learning in there schools. The good news on this front...
It was exciting today to offer a group of colleagues a technology tool for exploration, experimentation and most importantly experiential learning for professional growth and a focused purpose. In my observation, adults can be just like the kids! Hand them a piece of technology and watch them play, ask questions and begin to...
I recently had the opportunity to speak with a small group of our county’s elementary school administrators about social media use in education. I gave an abbreviated version of my Networked Administrator presentation, and while I did my best to showcase authentic examples of how social media use has benefited my school, students and...
A slightly altered version of this post entitled “Learning Like Never Before” is cross-posted at the Huffington Post. Let me start off by saying that I work at an incredible school. When I came to New Milford High School in 2004 there were many amazing programs in place. One was the Holocaust Study Tour. ...
At a conference recently, I was approached and asked for advice about resources for using skype in the classroom to connect with schools in other countries. I started to answer the question with a specific suggestion (the Cool Cat Teacher’s Flat Classroom) when I stopped myself and took another tack in my advice-giving. Instead,...
My Open Educator Manifesto ‘We’ educate future citizens of the world Teaching is my professional practice I Share by default I am Open, Transparent, Collaborative, and Social My students own their own: (Learning) • learning process • learning environment • learning products • learning assessment My students belong to...
For about 2 months now I’ve been ‘out of the loop’. First I was on vacation, then I returned to a newly aggressive filtering of the internet in China. Unrest and uprisings in the Middle East have propagated fear of social networks and a People’s uprising here. I won’t go into detail about my...
Social media is something that has become so prevalent in our culture that I have seen everything from large companies to churches having their own Facebook accounts. When I first was presented with the idea that using Twitter, Facebook, or blogging as something in education I was wary of its application. As I have...
“The question isn’t whether you will be transparent, authentic, and real, but rather, how much you will let go and be open in the face of new technologies.” Charlene Li, Open Leadership Currently, I have the tremendous opportunity to work with school and district based administrators in Alberta on a cohort entitled, “The Networked...
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