Sentiments On Common Sense

My living room is a cozy place for my wife and I to unwind, reflect and watch our 6 month old lab run around full blast and run into things.  In one glance I see parts of our lives unfold from living 7 years overseas.  A Saudi Door, Oriental carpets, Japanese wood carvings, Chinese antiques and photographs from around the world, including our home in Oregon.  Relaxed and looking forward to the upcoming vacation!

Dean Shareski writes in his blog recently the idea that we should understand the new literacy of twitter and demonstrates this with the photo and quotes from the New York Times. It made me think a little about the importance of a school leader to show presence in their school. This presence needs to be demonstrated in so many ways, and with so many people.

A physical presence is certainly the most important. The idea of “management by walking around” holds true today as much as it does when the term was coined many years ago.  Think of the quality interactions we get as teachers and administrators by enjoying those brief, meaningful interactions in the hallway, lunch room and at bus duty.

Emotional presence I believe is important in our work.  I am not saying you have to be “in love” with each child and adult you work with, but a genuine caring demonstrated in a variety of ways shows the people you lead that work is a little more than just an 8-5 activity to gain a paycheck.  When a leader loses the heart to take risks to  learn and grown, they have essentially removed their emotional presence from their school.

Your digital presence is a new presence that has been added to the list of expectancies for school leaders.  Perhaps in replacement for a presence shown through the old paperbased presence that school leaders used to show. I think about when I started as a teacher and my principals would not let us use bright blue paper. He used that color for his weekly memos and when we saw blue in the mailboxes we KNEW it was important.  Mike Smith, my former principal had it figured out.  He was showing his leadership presence each time he communicated with us.  This has now been transferred to the digital environment and while it is more complex, it is also much easier to show your presence.  Ultimately by taking the digital step– you as a leader show a demonstrative step toward using tech in an innovative and authentic way. 

Dean asks: 

Is this a new literacy? Do we need to understand this form or communication? Or is this just pure fluff?

My answer:  No way.  Perhaps we need to explore some examples.

Technorati Tags: digital leadership, digital presence

The week behind me was a tough one with a death of a member of our support team in our library, and some more bad news with budgetary implications and hard work ahead.  As I collapsed on the couch this evening, I decided I needed a fresh look on the blog and downloaded about a dozen templates before landing on this one you see in front of you.  “Tree” reminded me of the true purpose of this blog and that is one of reflection.  I hope you like it.

I got a tweet from jmedved early in the week. He had apparenty persuaded his principal to become a blogger.  I don’t know how I can thank him enough!  David Hamilton put together a wonderfully reflective debut post that is worth the read.  I am hopeful for all of us that he keeps the flow with his “Principally Yours” blog.  According to his blog, David is the Principal of the Upper School at The York School, an International Baccalaureate, K-12 school that offers all three IB programmes: PYP, MYP and Diploma.  The York School is situated in downtown Toronto, Canada.

In his first post he writes:

But lest we forget, reflection is hard work. Whether we are sorting out our emotions and discerning personal values and attitudes, or discovering the shaky underpinnings of contemporary truths, reflection takes work, and, I would suggest, it takes practice. As I prepared to write this blog, I was amazed at how difficult it is to keep focused on a single abstract topic for stretches of time over several days. At the same time, the longer I kept at it, the clearer my thinking became. And the more organized my thoughts became, the stronger was my vision.

I too often struggle with the reflection process. I am a self proclaimed pragmatist, with my eye on the prize and I am proud to say I get results.  Things get done under my leadership and I have a long list of accomplishments that at times have come with a few frustated or bewildered colleagues who I may have left in the dust.  I probably need to slow down a bit and lower my threshold for pain a bit – relax a bit – and collaboratively reflect more with my colleagues.  Perhaps my school is ready for that now, as we get closer to a little bit of stability.

Part of the efforts that I need to focus my work on in much broader terms is the development and communications of the vision.  Here is where Mr. Hamilton comes in again when he describes what all of us in school administration feel to one extent or another…

…I have to summon up a vision that is capable of making that mission come to life: for me, for my teachers, for my students, and for their parents, all of whom look to me to breathe life into those precious 15 words. I can’t do that on a diet of meetings and emails. I need to reflect. For in reflection, the barely audible stirrings of the heart come to the surface and infuse the mind with a sense of purpose, of order, and, yes, a clearer vision.

As a digital leader, we get so much more from those we work with when we demonstrate reflection in this public setting– our blogs– and we also gain a little sliver of our own mental health each time we sit and type.  Reflection is one of the single most powerful ways that we as leaders can develop our own models for self improvement, school improvement and community building and digital leadership.

To quote my new blogosphere colleague one more time:

For in the practice of reflection lies our hope for tomorrow. Reflection will give our children the ability to rise above fashions and fads, to resist evil masquerading as comfort, and find lasting meaning in their lives. Reflection will enable our children to have clear visions of what is good and what is right, regardless of the confusion of media sources that clutter their world.

Thank you David Hamilton!

Thank you to photographer Kevin Dooley.

Technorati Tags: Reflection, The York School

We all need to sit in the back seat every once in a while. 

As school leaders, we are often in the driver’s seat.  Foot on the gas pedal.  Hands on the wheel. In charge of the a/c and the stereo system.  iPod plugged in and we are pushing the vehicle of our organizations down the road in a manner that is meant to be positive, but sometimes lacks the insight of the backseat.

Such was my experience this week as I drove across the city that I so often describe in my blog Sentiments on Common Sense– my city, Shanghai.  We were on the way across the city in the early morning hours for a meeting at another school and the words came out of one of the technology integration specialists mouth. 

I quote:

“We are recognized as a school specialists teacher, but we are also a professional development specialist.  I am pretty sure the classroom teachers don’t go to the music teacher when they can’t quite get the tempo right to a song, or don’t know all the words to a song, but they sure will come to us when they can’t get their printer turned on, or can’t figure out how to do two columns in a word processor.”

I about sucked the air right out of the car when I inhaled so rapidly.

What seemed to be the message was that a) we provide so much more than our job description lists and b) we are not appreciated! 

I have written before, that the human capital is one of the most important parts of our schools, and that I believe that without ample recognition we would all stumble, but this revealing statement also revealed that while job descriptions make our lives as consistent at possible, it also points out that as dedicated professionals, our specialist technology teachers carry a load of responsibilities that make their lives busy, more complicated and often with a “to do” list that has no end.  We, as school administrators can certainly relate to this, but I want to remind us all that these folks are not paid to be administrators. They are simply leaders. Correction: They are leaders in a field that is still pioneering itself into regular classroom practice, and thus it requires a more evangelical methodology.

Technology leaders need some special coaching from their leadership, and this has to include a fair amout of empathy.  No, sympathy won’t cut it. It has to be empathy.  Administrators, that means you have to take on some roles of trainers and staff developers too.  Walk the walk or technology integration and use will be slow, stagnant or in negative growth.  Demonstrate your desire to see technology used in your school by using it yourself. Learn something, demonstrate it, and teach its use for the betterment of your programs in your school.

In short “Inspire a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology
and foster an environment and culture conducive to the realization of
that vision.” (from the ISTE NETS for administrators).

cross posted to www.sentimentsoncommonsense and www.leadertalk.org

A presentation by Julie Lindsey

Julies has provided a picture of a variety of mobile devices used in her school. She is providing a learning environment where cell phones, iPhones, Asus computers and other laptops.

Issues around the following:
- Standardization- Blended platform— three types of machines.  We should all look carefully.. very carefully at the infrastructure.  On-site support is important. Wikis are a widely used tool- focus on the learning– not on the tech.  Bringing information fluency and Digital Literacy.  Building a student and educator PLN (personal learning network) Good use of formative assessment examples here: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/assess/index.asp

- Convergance- What is the laptop for in a classroom?  Communicating, creating, collaborating.  Actual, real world activities. Approaching it from a Web 2.0 .  http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/ good resource.  But why should we rethink our practice?  We are getting “good result”.  We are looking for ways to construct knowledge.

Suggestions:

1- Every student should have a blog?
2. Every teacher shoudl have a blog?
3. Every administrator should have a blog?
4. Encourage sustained conversation through expectation?

Wikis— digital collaboration tool
Horizon Project Wiki
Digital portfolios with accompanying student-led conferencing

- Affordability-  Web 2.0 – “practically” free.

- Adaptability

- Acceptable Use- AUP’s for purpose- one for blogs, one for wikis

Resouces from the back channel:

Ewan: Essential reading on the role of the learning (b)log: http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/keystage3ictstrategy/Assessment/blackbox.pdf

Ewan: http://edubuzz.org/support – our effort at an AUP that covers it all, from two years ago. Not perfect, but not bad, either. It was co-written between lawyers, parents etc.. See my talk tomorrow for more

Julie is also selling some http://flatclassroomconference.com

Technorati Tags: 1:1, Learn2cn, Julie Lynsey,

Sitting in an unconference session here in Shanghai discussion about 1:1. 

A gentleman in the back of the room just went on a “rail” against 1:1 classroom.  He is stating that there is no real reason for 1:1 programs, there are no test score returns on 1:1 programs… etc, etc?

So.. we all ask- Why are we really doing 1:1?

Let’s start a list, and I will begin to formulate references for the major points.

1.  Transforming the learning environment
2.  Extends and expands the learning setting for students
3.  Brings to the fingertips the resources of the internet that would not be accessible in the “guided” learning setting
4.  Develops the skills of collaboration that will serve the student through the life
5.  Engages families more readily in the educational process using the same collaboration tools.

More later…..

Recently a contract worker was completing some work at our school, made an error and electrocuted himself. After a tremendous amount of intervention both from his co-workers and security personnel as well as medical specialists he lost his life. The accident happened outside of school hours in the dark of night but the day that followed was very sad. It was a sad, sad day for us, as we reflected on a loss of life, and what that meant for all of us.

The next day meant the day spent investigating, asking the same questions over and over again to different people for different reasons, but always looking for the truth… just in case we were not really getting it. It was all behind closed doors and we all know what that does; it begets rumors and whispers and wondering.

After the long and sad day, I rumbled home on my scooter and reveled in the joy of being in the arms of my family, putting the baby and the five year old to bed and finding myself sitting in my chair once again reflecting. What overcame me was just those whispers and rumors I know were about to explode and I wrote this (note— I have dropped the names for the use of this blog) :

I am at home this evening reflecting on a tough day that started very, very early. I wanted to pass along a great amount of thanks to our friend and colleague Mr. —— who was at the school at 2:00 AM (without my knowledge) to ensure our school was “good to go” in the early AM. To —— for his professional support and efforts. To—— for enduring a 4 hour translation session and supporting her team in a time of crisis and to our ———– who was heavily involved through this whole event from beginning to where we stand now. ——— has been, as always, a voice of calm in the rush of events and ——— was his usual professional self, providing contacts and efforts to us despite working through his last days.

In the elementary school, I want to thank ——,——,——,—-,–,,,and the teachers in the prek, k, and 1st grade wing. Proximity means a lot in times like this, and these professionals made the best of a very bad situation and continued to offer high quality education. Tomorrow could be tough for all of these people. Offer them as much support as you possibly can.

One can’t help but reflect on the fact that we all have been touched by the loss of a human being who was someone’s son and someone’s friend and colleague. We did not know this man, but know that through the loss of his life, we have all lost an opportunity for something special as well. Rest assured, as I do this evening that his family will be assisted and compensated by his employer and that none of the events of the past night were the result of anything we did as individuals or as a school. The accident is just that– an accident and the best we can do to honor this man’s life is to learn from the events of the night and make our school and our preparations for emergencies are stronger and more effective in the future.

I tried a familiar approach, but one that I think was more for me that for the readers. I need to thank those I rely on and in these times, I really need to do so in a public manner. They made a huge difference.

I also felt horrible about the loss of life around the school. Schools are a place of life and joy and learning. Death belongs nowhere near this space and yet when it did, I needed for myself, to focus on what could be learned, and thus I expressed it. I think some of my best learning comes when I have shown my heart.

Shanghai Rainy days have hit and it looks like a wet weekend ahead. For my dear blog post readers, that may mean you have to endure a couple of postings. I have a few in mind but… for today….

It is always nice to see one’s own thinking reaffirmed and restated. Jeff Utecht in his post “Parent Communications: From Print to Digital” does a nice job of summarizing my two prior posts.

Jeff notes images have a strong impact. I use Scribefire as my posting tool of choice and it allows me to click and drag images to the posting without the fuss and muss of downloading or linking. It is fast and it is easy! Almost too easy as one can copy and use just about any image on the web, which is a NO-NO! When you use images, please give credit and use images that have a creative commons license.

Jeff states in his post:

Parents like nothing more than to see their little loved ones hard at
work in the classroom. Know your schools policy for putting student
pictures on the web and work within it to make your posts more inviting
to your parents. We (and I’m talking elementary here) love putting
those clip arts into our newsletters..they make them seem….prettier. Do
the same with pictures from your classroom. If your district doesn’t
allow student pictures on the web, get creative and take pictures of
student work, or when talking about reading, just two little hands on a
book. You can still add imagines…you just need to be creative. You can
always use Flickr Creative Commons search to find that perfect picture (and they are already on the web!).

I have discovered thanks to my blog-wise wife Amanda DeCardy that Flickrstorm really makes things easy. You simply enter a search and designate the type of Creative Commons License you wish to use. The screen looks great too!

Jeff also goes into nice detail about keeping stats. From my perspective this does two things: 1) Motivates me to write and post more and 2)Shows my community (parents, teachers, students, fellow administrators) that I am not just talking to myself!

I also recommend Google Analytics as tool for stats tracking, but there are also many others that do the job. Visit a few blogs and notice their stats tracking widgets and use the one you like. It can be as exact as you care to make it.

As digital leaders, we must model these uses in line with our school policys, but that does not mean we cannot do so with pizzaz and style. Ultimately it is about modelling a communications style that will be a part of our children’s lives in ways that I suspect none of us can imagine.

Shanghai Image from: http://static.flickr.com/97/257012705_0ea7bac599.jpg