It’s not a great picture. At least artistically speaking. There are eight of our students and only Brandon even looked at the camera. The lighting, such as it is, is purely accidental. If you didn’t know the subject you would click past it and move on.
But we can’t. We [...]
Cross Posted at changinghighschools.blogspot.com
I have unfortunately had to have some surgery that has put me in the position of having too much time on my hands. With that comes plenty of time to think about 'stuff'. Having the personality that I do, while I can ponder my next vacation, [...]
I'm guessing that most of us are in the middle of some type of holiday break right now with several days off from school. Or without staff and students for those of us who still plan on going into work. If you are anything like me, the days have been filled [...]
As each year comes to a close, I look forward to the year end "Best Of" lists that crop up across my network. It gives me an opportunity to catch up on things I've missed since I can never actually keep up these days with the [...]
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! As we pause to celebrate with family and friends, this time of year naturally lends itself to the reflection necessary for a promising 2009. My post this month contains 5 professional resolutions for the new year. I encourage you to pick one and make it your own. In [...]
After about a decade of being an instructional technology advocate from central office/state dept/university levels, I'm a year-and-a-half into my new career twist: school-based leadership.
One thing I bring to the new job focus is the old job skillset. So, when it was time for our school to write our [...]
One of my proteges (oh, how I love to use that term when referring to those I mentor) is taking an administrative class with an assignment of MUST READ books for principals, future principals. Anyone have a list they think must be among those reads. I have already started a [...]
Nail it down. That is, if you want to still have it at the end of the day. The frenzy of the season and the state of the economy has trickled down to the youngest consumers. The season of “must have it” has yielded to “just take it.” Morals and [...]
"At work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?"
This is one of the 12 questions that the Gallup Organization uses to measure "strong workplaces". We've all experienced those times when we were successful and enjoying our work because we're focusing on using our [...]
I was having a discussion with a principal who was talking about the classroom walkthroughs that her district leadership was emphasizing. She asked my help with a concept and I in turn am asking Leadertalk bloggers and readers. Here's the question (I'll outline the context below the question)
What do you [...]Having worked in the same school for 18 years, first as a teacher and now as a principal, provides an interesting perspective on student achievement but I did not fully understand what I was seeing or should be learning until I read the article "College Readiness for All" by Damien Lopez in Speaking [...]
As leaders, do we invest enough thought in the end-user (the students) while serving our tribe (the teachers)? This is the question I have been grappling with for some time.
A large urban district I've been working with is undergoing a textbook adoption for [...]
I received the following email:
-----Original Message-----
From: Hoel Stephen [
[mailto:Hoel_Stephen@stvrain.k12.co.us]
]
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 7:17 PM
To: janborelli@gmail.com
Subject: Information
Greetings from Colorado!
Jan I wondered if you would give me your feeling on how your calendar impacts achievement at your school. I work in a building that has many of the same strengths [...]
This speech by Jimmy Valvano will make you laugh, make you think, and might even make you cry, which is exactly the advice that the late basketball coach gave to the audience at the 1993 ESPYs. It certainly encouraged me to remain enthusiastic and not allow the many little things [...]
Cross posted at Ed Tech Journeys
???I???m an honest person and have always
thought of myself as having integrity. I mean, relatively speaking. I
mean I???m not honest all the time and sometimes I veer from my values
and beliefs; but compared to some other people I know, I [...]
Lately I've been having a number of conversations with other educational leaders on the issue of efforts to improve classroom instruction. These conversations eventually lead to a discussion of how to identify deep, rigorous instruction as opposed to just looking for some sort of base-level compliance.
I am working on [...]
I am at a crossroads and I am conflicted. Two close friends of mine have started in PhD programs, and I am feeling the pressure to do the same. I know that my board of education has expectations of the district principals to pursue a PhD. My superintendent has dropped hints, too. So, why [...]
This quote comes from a passage in an article titled "Are We Fixing the Wrong Things"by Dr. Yong Zhao.
We have heard all the arguments before about what our over reliance on standardized testing is doing to American classrooms, but I felt Dr. Zhao nailed it pretty succinctly in this one.
Creativity [...]
I've been trying to figure out why we have so many school leaders participating in the MI-LIFE program and many on waiting lists for future cohorts. The program, as I've mentioned in previous blogs, is a year-long professional learning program and takes superintendents and principals out of their districts/schools for [...]
Wow. That???s fun. Great writing, everyone!
Voting is open through Saturday, December 20, 5pm Eastern (USA; GMT -5). Check out the rest of the voting categories as well!
[...]On November 29th, Reggie Engebritson wrote a great entry on this blog called Working in Collaboration. It raised the issue of special education students and regular education students related to assessment. This is a big issue for all districts. How do we handle grading without compromising the integrity of [...]
I've been having conversations with both general ed and special ed teachers from different districts in my special education cooperative. These conversations are part of the plan to help teachers think differently about students who receive special ed services. Instead of sending students out of the gen ed classroom to get help [...]
This past week I had the distinct pleasure of being part of a cadre of presenters in our local Manitoba Association of Computing Educators (ManACE) "Awakening Possibilities" event.
The event was set up following the theme "5 Minutes to Make A Difference" and each presenter was [...]
Recently, I challenged my staff to consider how they view the world and how that impacts their teaching. I told them I was surprised to find a picture of my house on google street view. If you asked me prior that disquieting moment if I thought someone would be [...]
Thanksgiving is one of those points in the school year that is a milepost. We can never discuss the things we are thankful for in our chosen vocation enough. While this may seem a bit clich??, I believe thankfulness is the gateway to happiness. A few things I am thankful [...]
I have already made plans to attend the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2009. I booked a hotel room at 11:01p on election night. Just as soon as Obama was declared the winner on CNN (note that Fox projected Obama before 11p, but I stuck with the conservative projections of CNN) I was online [...]
For the past year and a half, I've been working as an assistant superintendent, having taken that job after serving in the district as the high school principal. I've never stopped missing building level administration, not one day. Don't get me wrong, the assistant superintendent position is a great one, [...]
I have in past years written posts to my blog about recruiting teachers to international schools. I have even made a point of posting some of my interview questions to see 1) if potential candidates are reading up on our school and 2) to get the [...] On the very historic Election Day earlier this month, our teachers from grades one through six did mock presidential elections with their students. Depending on their grade, the students learned about a citizen’s right (as well as privilege) to vote, the right to choose for whom to vote, how an [...]
This post is a tad late, but as they say better late than never.
In my interview for the principal position I was asked to talk about my leadership style. To be honest I really didn't have an answer. I sort of knew that I wanted to lead by example, [...]
I often wonder what people think when they see this sign for the Coast restaurant. For those of us who are familiar with the United States we all know what Southwest cuisine is. We would expect burritos, fajitas, enchiladas, etc. The only problem with this [...]
Imagine if your house burned down. With only a short time to gather a few belongings and throw them into your car, what would you save?
Unfortunately, one of our edublogger colleagues, Barbara Barreda, is facing exactly this situation right now. Please read more at [...]
The world bursts at the seams with people ready to tell you you're not good enough. On occasion, some may be correct. But do not do their work for them. Seek any job; ask anyone out; pursue any goal.
- Keith Obermann
Back on October 29, Scott challenged bloggers on Dangerously Irrelevant to write an open letter to the new president. At the time, we didn't know who the new president was going to be-- even if we did pay attention to the polls. I was so inspired by President-Elect Obama's [...]
You are all heretics! Or, at least you could be according to Seth Godin, marketing extraordinaire and author of Tribes, his latest in a long line of best sellers.
Godin explains:
Today is the “Great Southern California Shake Out” which has been billed as the nations largest earthquake drill with over 5 million people participating. The scenario was a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurring at 10 am in the morning. If that were to occur the destruction and disruption of service would be extensive and so the [...]
[Cross-posted at Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?]
In what can only be described as The Best Reason So Far for pursuing my doctorate, our class last night met at the one and only New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. For those unfamiliar with the company, [...]
Cross posted at drjansblog.com
Somewhere along the line in my practice of school administration, I learned that morning announcements can have a significant impact on the climate of the school. It is my own little fireside chat with my entire school population. And, since I have always aspired to [...]
Cross posted at Ed Tech Journeys
Years ago I used to prepare for important meetings by taking a few moments to write down the key points I wanted to convey. I’d try to anticipate what people’s responses would be and prepare for those as well. In a sense, I was trying to do as [...]
In the 1972 movie "The Candidate," Robert Redford plays Bill McKay, a thirty-something Californian who couldn’t be further removed from politics. Despite being the son of former governor John J. McKay ( Played by Melvyn Douglas), Bill was never interested in politics and instead acts as [...]
Anticipation is defined as an emotion involving pleasure and sometimes anxiety in considering some expected or longed-for event. I'm sure that's what all candidates are experiencing today as they anticipate the results of the 2008 election. By the end of the day there will be many who [...]
Reading James Yap's "What If" post got me thinking again (this is almost always dangerous!) about the overwhelming burden that educators bear. Now don't get me wrong - I actually agree with James about the need for tech literacy, but I always get nervous when I see another need piled [...]
I was at NSBA this week. One of the last sessions that I went to was about NCLB and Tech Literacy. The speaker, Michael Cline from the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center, raised an interesting topic. It was his position that why don't we test tech literacy? As it [...]
“Success in the …educational use of these materials …clearly indicate that, when properly used by teachers in the light of good pedagogical procedures, they constitute an educational development potentially as significant as the invention of the printing press”
As someone who advocates for the infusion of technology across the curriculum, this made a great deal [...]
As I problem solve my way through year two of being an administrator, I continue to be impressed by this reoccurring event: when I have numbers to back up what I am saying, things seem to go smoother. I tend to get my point across better and the reason for [...]
