A new beginning

I know, I know…every year I look at my blog and say this is the year that I will take it head on. History repeats itself again, but with a twist. I was just appointed to a new position as Associate Principal for Operations. I am excited about this opportunity but this is a far cry from my experiences in the teaching and learning side of education. I was trained as a classroom instructor. I taught for a number of years and then became the Instructional Leader, dealing with the oversight of curriculum, budget, staffing, etc. Now I am responsible for oversight on the master schedule, counselors, deans, and the rest of the PPS department. Additionally, I oversee maintenance, security, kitchen staff, and my favorite…other duties as assigned.

This new position has come in the middle of the year to assist another campus in my district who had an administrator leave to pursue an opportunity of a principal-ship. I was flattered and grateful for this opportunity that the new campus and the district administration felt that I am ready for, and I am…this will be a big learning curve and I am ready to learn.

In the following weeks (not months) our district will face a new bell schedule (due to a decrease is class periods because of a necessary $10 Million budget cut due to a charter school), Illinois Senate Bill 7 and its implications on staffing and retention of staff, losses in funding, changing enrollments, new course offerings, completely rebuilding the master schedule (due to the reasons above) and much more. I will have to handle all of this in addition to meeting a new staff, balancing my way of doing things with the ever dreaded “this is the way we get things done here”, evaluating PPS, operating the building, being the sounding board for my principal, supporting all staff, handling crisis management (1^st day back to school), and of course…other duties as assigned.

In those immortal words…Let’s get ready to rumble! With all of the challenges come opportunities, so it is going to be a GREAT year!

Top Tools for Learning in 2011

Colette Cassinelli has been compiling a list of the Top 100 Tools for learning for the past 5 years. It is now time to contribute again. Please use the link above or the web address: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/2011.html to add your thoughts and recommendations to the list. Below are my contributions. Do you agree with my top picks?

Top 10: (These are in no particular order)
Diigo - the ability to access and catalog valued web-based resources and file from anywhere with a connection is invaluable. Plus, the groups allow for targeted sharing and researching.
Plurk - I know that everyone loves Twitter, but Plurk is just as powerful, if not more, because you can follow a true thread of thought. More people should look into Plurk as a microblog.
Google+ - You want emerging...this is exploding. I firmly believe that G+ will make Facebook into the new MySpace (passe and over the hill). Plus, if G+ is included in Google Apps for educators, schools can run their own social network that is monitored for safety and provide some read education and experience in NETS regarding social networking.
Animoto - Such a great tool to introduce digital storytelling and one of the best ways to reinforce the concept of pre-writing!
VoiceThread - Collaborate on presentations, gather input, let students voices be heard!
Wikispaces - Easy to use, infinite in possibilities. The discussions tab provides an opportunity for sharing that thought development and the History tab can take care of any "accidental" deletions
Skype - Connect, collaborate...all for free! Great classroom resource to connect your students with the rest of the world!
Dropbox - File sharing and data backup that is easy as pie. Plus, the more people you get involved, the more storage you get for free.
Wordsift - Very similar to Wordle, but what I like is the linkage to visual images and a thesaurus for better vocabulary development. It emulates what our reading specialists are talking about.

iPad - Come on...iTunes University, Facetime, Digital reader/annotator, the list goes on and on...hopefully, when BYOD becomes SOP, iPad will have only gotten better.

Continue to share and contribute because we will learn together and change education to what it can be.

C&I 579 Reflection 3

Typically, when preparing for a PD session, I have a PPT plan in mind. I create the PPT with links and questions embedded. With this task, it was a lot more involved than originally thought. This session was developed by brainstorming an outline of what to present and how to educate and entertain. I developed a wiki with a multitude of resources and difference methods of presenting information. I made some presentations with Google Docs and had to solve me lack of animation problems. Additionally, I learned a new application, Jing, to do some screen casts.


My intent of the project was to introduce my participants to some of the ways that learning and the capacity of teachers can be increased. I think that my project meets the intent. What I have learned throughout this class and though my other classes in examining professional development is that true change takes a long time and even a four hour session can only introduce material.

While I was trying to demonstrate multiple techniques, I would probably try to be a little more uniform in presentation styles. Additionally, if I were presenting this information in person, for a live audience, I would be able to utilize some of the features of PowerPoint that are unavailable in Google Docs. Additionally, a lot of the presentation is emphasized by the enthusiasm and experience of the presenter. Just as in the classroom for students, there is the art of teaching that is just as important as the science (Marzano, 2003). I am satisfied with the information that my participants would be exposed to and begin to integrate into their instruction. Even with the voice over screen cast, there is the human element missing in this session.

C&I 579 Blogpost 4




Direct Link: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-04-09/

  I love Dilbert Cartoons and my daily calendar always has an eerie coincidental alignment of topics to what is going on in my life. The above cartoon is no exception. I saw this cartoon after reading a blog post that hits "closer to home", as the author of the blog is my professor for C&I 579, Dr. Cheri Toledo. As she has endeavored to create a Tuesday Tool blog post, one of the items posted was the "How Millennial Are You" quiz.

I was surprised with my results on the quiz. Below is the comment that I made on her blog:

I got a 31 this time. I have found that it is because my parents were married for most of my life, I have no tattoos or piercings, and I did not receive a text message in the past 24 hours. When I took the quiz the first time I had received a text message (we don’t have a txt plan with my Blackberry) and I scored a 71. The quiz employs interesting metrics to determine the generation to which you belong. I think that this quiz might make an interesting introduction to a PD session.

If you would like to take the quiz, here is the link: http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/intro.php

C&I 579 Reflection 2

Up to this point in the class, I have been reinvigorated to increasing my PLN and seeking out new people with whom to collaborate. The Author C/C project got me reading some specifics on education with technology and the presentations by my classmates have gotten me intrigued to continue reading. I have continued to explore online resources and the shared links that people have submitted via Diigo have been helpful.

One of the things that I will not forget tomorrow is from the collaboration that I have had with my PLN and classmates. This communication has lead me to develop Google Forms that not only grade themselves, but also email the results to the taker with suggestions on how to do better the next time. I have shared this with my teachers and they are very excited to begin exploring and using this capability. I have further inquired to my PLN how to modify the java script to make the results a little more user friendly from the teacher side. If you are interested in seeing this form in action, here is the link. Don’t worry about the answers to the questions; just make sure that you have a correct email address so you can get your results.

With what I have learned in class, I will continue to share with my teachers and challenge them to examine their practices in their classroom. I want my teachers to continually find new ways to do new things while still exploring the content as prescribed by the district/state/Common Core State Standards. I hope that my teachers get as excited as I do when I learn about the new and changing resources that are available.

C&I 579 Blog Post 3

As I was reading through my Twitter feed, I found the article called "21 Things That Will Be Obsolete by 2020". The article was written by Tina Barseghian in the KQED Mind/Shift blog. After working through our project on creating a technology enriched learning environment, the list was quite intriguing.

My comment:  I read your article after finding it on Twitter. There are some major, heavily anchored concepts and paradigms of schools that will have to be broken before these changes can take place. Won't it be wonderful when it happens? We should all try to imagine a time when students can have access to their "pocket computers" (smart phones) and perform research anytime they want. With that increase in access of information, imagine how the teaching would have to change! A movement away from facts and figures to creating and collaborating! Live the dream.

Update to C&I 579 Blog Post 2

In a blog post based on an article about the death of blogging, I had a conversation continuer...

I received a comment by the author of the blog that I read:

Tim Holt said...

Thank you for keeping the conversation going. And thank you for visiting my blog out here in little ol El Paso

Based on the article and blog post, one of the challenges to blogging is the limited capacity for conversation. The use of comments can help continue concepts and connections of ideas. When commenting on a blog, make sure that you include a post to your blog website to begin gaining connections to authors. It is REALLY neat to have your blog referenced by someone that you do not personally know! See one of my references: (http://dangross.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/coming-home-and-inspiring-success/)

C&I 579 Blog 2

The blog that I read for this post was, strangely enough, about the death of blogging. Are U reading a Dinosaur? by Tim Holt in El Paso, TX and it was based on an article from the NY Times.

My comment that I posted was:


The article is an interesting point that as we "evolve" in our electronic communication, we now have students who view email as too slow of a method of communication. Twitter, which I value, and Facebook, which I use for personal communication, offer instant communication and collaboration opportunities. The blog, as a "slower" version of communication, may be on the same pathway as print media. We are looking at being able to edit and collaborate and develop ideas in a hyper-paced life style and while comments on blogs are interesting to read, they are not interactive like Twitter or wikis.

It is strange to know that we have a generation of students who have been so hyper-connected that blogging and email is viewed as too slow of a method of communication. Students today txt message and tweet to get instant feedback. Non-dynamic text does not stimulate students as books did for older generations. As educators, we will need to find ways to bring in more methods of quick feedback to maintain engagement.

C&I 579 Reflection 1

So far in the class, I have not had a change in attitude. I have been a large proponent of building professional learning networks as a new method of learning and discovery. When I started in teaching, I had made some websites and was familiar with instant messaging and online chat. Fortunately, I attended an administrator academy that reinvigorated my interest and drive in technology integration. Many of the early topics discussed in this class were topics with which I was familiar. I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with other educators, learning with them and exploring topics in more detail.


I selected C&I 579 for the specific reason of finding more of the academic research base that supports the integration of technology into instruction as a method of improving student achievement. The largest concept that has been thought-altering has been the exposure to TPACK. Being in the EAF doctoral program, I want to explore how the leadership of the school can develop this. I was excited when I began reading about this as a potential theoretical framework to my research. As I develop my dissertation topic more fully, I would like to discover how TPACK can serve as a model for leaders to follow.

As I continue in the course, I will continue my reading into the academic basis for technology integration, including 21st century learning and the NETS standards, as it relates to student achievement and the leadership needed to support those efforts.

C&I 579 Blogpost 1

I am currently taking an instructional technology course as a part of my doctoral work at Illinois State University. While I have blogged before (sporadically), one of my current assignments is to review blogs of other educational technologists, comment, and reflect.

The blog I read was by Richard Byrne and discussed http://backchan.nl/.

The section of the blog that grabbed my interest was this: Backchan.nl is an open-source backchannel tool developed at the MIT Media Lab. Using Backchan.nl you can create an online forum through which users can exchange messages in response to a presentation they're watching. There are a lot of free services that do the same thing, but there are a couple of things that make Backchan.nl different. Backchan.nl allows you to select a start and end time for your backchannel. As the administrator of a Backchan.nl account you can create and manage multiple backchannels and schedule them to go live at different times. Backchan.nl also includes voting tools that participants can use to vote messages up or down.


My comment on the blog was: Thank you for this resource. In the past I have used Chatzy when I have done workshops or presentations. The polling option is a nice way that educators can gauge the level of understanding by students or the audience. Have you run into any major firewall problems? The chance to have the audience or students interact as a part of presentation really hits the 4 C's of 21st century learning.


While I have used other back channel utilities before, Backchan.nl presents some wonderful opportunities to educators as well as presenters. The benefits include polling options and more user controlled timing with start and stop times. When I have presented a backchat to a workshop group before, they were hesitant and questioning the attention span of themselves and their students. Once they realized that they could discuss unique aspects of my presentation, ask questions, follow related tangents, etc., they found that they were actual participants in my presentation and were actively learning, collaborating, and communicating without missing my message. It presents a powerful avenue for students to express opinions and find their voice within your class.

Change is challenging

The world's first tech support or, for community relations, bringing people into your transformation idea... (from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRBIVRwvUeE)



When I saw this video, I began to think, how do we get people to make changes? The old addage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" seems to be a working model for a lot of people with whom we may come in contact. For those of us who have been in the teaching profession for a while, we can remember a time when attendance and grades were always done by hand. (Possibly only the geeky math or computer teacher would do something using a spreadsheet...). Where you in the profession when the transition was made to electronic attendance and gradebooks? How much resistance was there? How many times did you hear the question, why do I have the change the way I am doing this? Or even better, I am retiring in 2 years, I am not going to change...


As I look at increasing community engagement, changing the public image of a district, or even incorporating technology into the classroom on a daily basis, there are some of the questions that I will have to address. It is funny that there are people out there that deny that evolution occurs and these are the same people who don't want to change with the times. Take a lesson from biology, species that fail to adapt to changing environments go extinct!

Getting back into the game...

My last blog post was on January 22nd of this year. At that point, I was trying to really get going with posting to the blog on a regular basis. Unfortunately, tragedy struck on Jan. 29 when my father passed away. After that happened, I just had some other things to deal with. While I miss Dad everyday, I have come to terms with the loss and think of him fondly.

One of the classes that I am taking for my Doctorate of Education is a seminar in Community Relations. Oddly enough, one of our weekly assignments is to post to the class blog on a topic of interest. This has got my blogging "juices" flowing again and I will be back in the swing of things.

If you read the blog, thank you to all 6 of you! Please pass it on and share. If you don't read the blog...this really doesn't apply to you then.

US Supreme Court kills Democracy

Everyone should mark this day on their calendars and make reference to this day in the upcoming years in their history classes and on the news with a moment of silence. In a Court decision reported on January 22, 2010, century old campaign finance reform laws were over-turned. Quoted from the Chicago Tribune: “The basics of the Supreme Court's landmark decision on campaign finance:

OVERTURNED

—A 63-year-old law, and two of its own decisions, that barred corporations and unions from spending money directly from their treasuries on ads that advocate electing or defeating candidates for president or Congress but are produced independently and not coordinated with the candidate's campaign.

—The prohibition in the McCain-Feingold Act that since 2002 had barred issue-oriented ads paid for by corporations or unions 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election.

LEFT IN PLACE

—The century-old ban on donations by corporations from their treasuries directly to candidates.

—The ability of corporations, unions or individuals to set up political action committees that can contribute directly to candidates but can only accept voluntary contributions from employees, members and others and cannot use money directly from corporate or union treasuries.

—The McCain-Feingold provision that anyone spending money on political ads must disclose the names of contributors.”
(http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-campaign-finance-glance,0,7496875.story, accessed Jan. 22, 2010).

So what does this mean? Extrapolating the effects of this decision our a few years, we will no longer have red and blue states. We will now have red and blue corporations; stores will have political ads running for the candidate that their parent corporation supports. We will see political candidates wear suits that are no longer maid by Armani, but by the same company that manufactures that coveralls worn by NASCAR drivers. Just picture it, in the next presidential election it may not be a democratic candidate versus a republican, but a candidate sponsored by Target versus the candidate sponsored by Walmart. Can you picture the big emblems and patches on their new suits? What will this mean for news corporations? Why they have endorsed a candidate in the past, they certainly never placed a PSA that slung mud at the other candidate. Now, they can have the opportunity.

The new proper "Running Attire"
(http://www.sportscardforum.com/photoplog/images/21935/medium/1_Jimmy-Johnson-Lowes-Racing.jpg)

Even with McCain-Feingold (2002) still in place, the idea of stating who the ad is by at its end to “identify the bias” is like having something stricken from the record during a jury trial. Once the idea is out there and people have heard it, it becomes a little difficult to remove it from their memory. Having ads created by any corporation will not only put forth their interests into the political area, but will also serve as a source of more ad time.

It seems that the Cold War was about just this. Communist countries, while not big on the idea of letting all of the people have a say and being represented, did not want the people to be overrun by corporations and greed. Look at what just happened!

I see mock elections occurring for the next few cycles and then welcome to the plutocracy!

Now, while congressmen and other political figures have received endorsements before, there is a new wrinkle that gets added in…in Illinois, we elect judges. Now, the impartiality of the courts comes into question! “Your Honor, while I was speeding, please know that I spend over $30,000 a year at Target, which is a big supporter of yours, for various personal and corporate purchases. Do you really want to lose my vote?” How doe we get an anti-tobacco lawsuit now when big tobacco will be a major contributor to election campaigns? Which brand of cigarettes did the President quit? Did he just lose potentially a major contributor to his re-election fund?

With the influence of corporations now able to directly affect the outcomes of elections, democracy has just been killed. An individual no longer has a true voice in the country. Our representatives will now be jockeying for corporate sponsorships instead of talking the issues (which they barely do now). How can someone without the backing of a major corporation get equal exposure? How can the candidates represent our interests when they owe their seat to a big corporation? January 22, 2010 marks the death of our representative government, of the people, by the people, and for the people, and capitalism has clearly taken over.

On a positive note, clairvoyance has been proven to truly exist. Want to see the future? Look here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/ (Rent it, it is a good one, and eerily prophetic now)

A challenge to you!

Today, I am at the Tech Forum conference. I really enjoy the instructional technology conferences because I am exposed to multiple experts, get to meet people face-to-face from my Professional Learning Network, gather new online Web 2.0 tools, although with what Clarence Fisher stated in his keynote address, we need to improve our pedagogy and curriculum and not focus on the individual tools, and just generally get invigorated about what can be done.

In one of the sessions, Beyond the Web 2.0 Hype, multiple questions were brought: Are there new literacies that connective technologies create? Or, do these tools afford the attainment of literacy in a different way? David Warlick: People want schools to be better, but not different. Do you believe this true? How does web 2.0 make schools better? Should ask what does it mean to be well educated in the 21st century? Are we teaching kids to communicate in the new methods?

These questions were challenging. Some of the answers were difficult to hear in terms of what we are doing compared to what could be done.

How can we bring the outside world into our classroom? It is with this question that I write this blog post...a challenge of mine own to the 4 people that read this.

For the people that read this, you are probably up to date (or more so than I am) on the newer things out there to increase student engagement in the classroom. I know that you share things. Here is the trick, how many people that you share things with will share with other people?

If you share and the idea doesn't go anywhere, it is like asking a question when teaching and getting the answer. Sure, it is nice, but it is better when you hear that your student went home and described how to answer the question to their parents of someone else in the class. That is when your knowledge has been passed and, in some way, provided you with a legacy. Your passion and knowledge have been passed to someone you have never met!

The challenge to you with your Internet knowledge. How many people have you reached outside of your direct contact? When you share your knowledge with someone, ask them with who are they going to share it? Let your knowledge become viral. Keep the SOCIAL in social networking and bookmarking!

Save Men's Glee

I know that it has been a while since I posted to the blog. To be honest fatherhood, doctorate program and my job were keeping me pretty busy.

I have recently learned of a disturbing situation with an organization at the University of Illinois that is near to my heart, the Varsity Men's Glee Club. For anyone that knows me personally, they know that music has been a big part of my academic career and personal life. Recently, there have been changes to the audition policies of the School of Music that have "demoted" the VMGC to a third tier choir.

Please check out http://www.savemensglee.com to get the full details. If you are in central Illinois, please attend the concert at Foellinger Great Hall in the Krannert Center for Performing Arts on the U of I campus on April 25 at 7:30 pm. If you happen to be a VMGC alum, please get your voice heard through a letter, phone call or other communique. If you, the alum, can make it to the concert, think about attending the meeting at 3 pm with Dr. Coleman and Dr. Kramer to discuss the current state of the VMGC. You can also hear Jim Turpin discuss this matter on 1400 AM.

Below of the letter that I wrote. Please help in any way that you can.

Greetings,

My name is Robert Abrams and I am an alumnus of the class of 1998 of the University of Illinois. Currently, I am the Instructional Leader of Science at Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois and pursuing a Doctorate of Education. My students often ask me questions about where I attended college and what I did when I was there. If they are in my office when these questions are posed, I proudly point to my U of I flag hanging on my office wall.

Some of my best memories from my time at the University of Illinois came from being a proud member of the oldest organizations in the history of the University, the Varsity Men's Glee Club. Being a member and executive board member of the VMGC provided me with the opportunity to make some amazing friends from across the campus, proudly represent the University as an ambassador when performing around the state of Illinois and across the Midwest, gain valued leadership skills, and make some inspiring music that I still sing today.

As a new father, I was looking forward to my son attending the U of I and sharing in my experiences as a part of the VMGC. I imagine the experience of sitting in Foellinger and eagerly awaiting the chance to go up on stage and perform the Big Ten Medley and Illinois Loyalty and perform with old friends, a great director, Dr. Barrington Coleman, and my son. I am disheartened about some of the recent changes in the School of Music’s policies and the lowering of the VMGC to the third tier of performance opportunities availed to the general populous of the University.

VMGC is more than just a School of Music course. It is an institution open to university-wide participation by students of every college and department at Illinois with 123 years of grand tradition. VMGC, although a proud unit of the School Music committed to the highest performance standards, also has important constituencies among the Alumni Association and a rich tradition of service to the University at large. Music majors, while being required to get broad experience in all different kinds of choral ensembles, should not be prevented or discouraged from remaining in VMGC in addition to any other coursework, if they wish to do so. Non-music majors, as I was, should be exempt from the arbitrary assignment policy and should be allowed to try out specifically for Glee Club, if they wish. They should not be subject to being reassigned to a different choir because they are “too good for Glee Club.” The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign should not set out to have a “first-tier” mixed voice ensemble and a “third-tier” male chorus in its School of Music, any more than the university should aspire to have a “first-class” football team and a “third-rate” track team.

Tradition and Honor are two values that I learned to fully comprehend while I was at the U of I. I learned about these values as a member of 123 year old organization. There was a history of excellence that I knew I had to live up to. Especially as a non-music major, I was honored to don the tuxedo tails and represent the University wherever we performed. The Glee Club should be restored to its position and reputation as one of the leading collegiate male choruses in the United States. The Glee Club director should be able to hold campus-wide auditions, to augment the ranks of VMGC with talented non-music majors, in addition to taking any music majors assigned to VMGC by the mandatory panel auditions of the School of Music.

It is an insult to the honor, talent, and history of the VMGC, beginning as the Apollo Club in 1886, to allow this policy to demote this grand and historical organization. Allow the wonderful history that Mr. William Olson built and Dr. Barrington Coleman supports to continue to teach and inspire through quality music and performance without mandatorily siphoning off the talent to other University groups. Allow the Brothers in Song to flourish. Please let me know how I can help in this matter.

Respectfully,

Robert Abrams
Class of 1998
VMGC member 1994-1998
VMGC Secretary 1996-1997

Biggest Loser's Club

We have some great people at my school. They have taken it upon themselves to motivate others to work out and be healthier. They have created the Biggest Loser's club at Rich East. Here is the deal...

$10 entry fee. Everybody weighs in with the school nurse (who is the only one who will know people's weight for those of us who are shy) every Thursday. Today was the official weigh in.

If you lose weight for the week, you pay nothing else.
If you maintain your weight, you pay 50 cents.
If you gain weight, you have to pay $1 per pound.

As the saying goes, I am in for a penny and in for a pound (or at least losing pounds)

My wife approved (yes, that is what I said and meant) for me to get a Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit. I have been on and working towards my goals that I have set.

Is it a problem that the Wii Fit sighs and says "Oh!" when I step on the balance board?

This club is going to be supportive and even though there can only be 2 winners (60% goes to 1st place and 40% goes to 2nd), even if people lose...they will win.

Here begins the journey.

Not really a snow day

To quote someone that I know from high school..."Today isn't really a snow day for you. It is more like a don't freeze your butt off day".

As the air temperature climbed to a balmy -14 degrees Fahrenheit I had one thought echo in my head... MAN THAT IS COLD!

What were you thinking it was going to be? Something profound? At that temperature the synapses in my brain don't all work. It was more of a survival mode out there.

Since it is not really a snow day, do I really have to get things done around the house? I was able to use my new Blu-Ray player which is cool, but I could not watch anything else since Dish Network sucks and somehow has sent us 3 defective receivers. They will be able to get someone out to us on Saturday. (We called about this problem on Sunday) How's that for customer service?

But I digress...since it is a limbo sort of day, I cannot get myself to really do anything productive. Is that bad?

That is it. You have inspired me. I will make sure that laundry gets done to help out the wife. I will pick up around the house. It won't be spotless, but things will get done.

Thank you for your help. (Of course, all of this is to help me avoid the paper that I have to write, but that is a different issue.)

Enjoy the "Don't freeze your butt off day"!

Happy New Year!

Here we are in 2009. I know that many posts in the past have dealt with the concept of change. I can easily say that 2008 was the year of change! New principal, new baby, working on a new degree, new responsibilities...the list goes on.

Let me tell you, the idea that there is a little person for whom I am completely responsible has affected me deeply. I read books. I talked with friends who are parents. I have been in education for over 10 years. I have been some one's child for almost 33 years. Nothing could have possibly prepared me for everything that has happened. I know it is cliche, but I guess I finally get it.

I guess that is all anyone can ask of someone else, to just get it.

In education, working with students, the number of times I have spoken to students about responsibility and accountability for ones actions is somewhere on the magnitude of 10^8 (and that is just counting from the first 5 years). When I was in the classroom, I used to joke that part of a type 75 certification program involved a frontal lobotomy that removed the "Get it" part of the brain. There were times when I wondered where could these decisions be coming from? What was the hypothesis? Where was the data that pointed to the conclusion that was arrived at?

So, when I became an administrator, I wanted to avoid those jokes being told of me. I was going to be different, an agent of change. I would always remember what it was like to be a classroom teacher and make sure that every decision was going to take the teacher's point of view and empower them in the classrooms.

Do I fall into the lobotomy category sometimes? Of course I do. As I continue in this path of administration I have noticed that I make mistakes, but I learn from them.

Case in point, we are providing an opportunity for every student and faculty member to watch the inauguration address on January 20th. What does this entail? We need to modify the bell schedule to account for the "assembly", we need to prepare our kitchen staff for the adjustment in their work day, we need to arrange for the video feed and locations in our building to house our populations to view the address, along with other logistical details. My responsibility...alter the bell schedule and class times.

This should be easy. (Ever said that to yourself and then kicked yourself?)

The first option presented to me was to have half of our students eat, then everyone watches the address, and then the other half eats. That just became a space nightmare for the lunch rooms and for the people who teach during one of those lunches. I altered the idea to have the bell schedule more closely follow our early dismissal schedule.

I liked this idea. It is something familiar, less changes needed, etc. But, I would have to remove a class from the day to account for the time in the assembly. I picked 8th hour. It is last, why shouldn't it be cut?

Here is where I got smart. I asked some teachers who walked by my office what they thought. They offered their opinion, understood why a class had to be removed and generally liked the idea. Some objections included that 8th hour usually gets cut, shortened class periods for the other classes make for some difficulties, etc. I told them that would take their suggestions into account when I presented the idea to the rest of our building administrative team.

I presented the questions that were brought to me. (I had even gotten thank yous from the teachers for including them). Our administrative team thought the idea was great. The schedule minimized disruptions and I even found a way to have all of the classes meet.

Long story short, in a told that some of our building admin were at, an edict was passed down that the other 2 buildings had created a schedule and the district admin could see no reason why our school should do anything different. (Putting aside the differences in our student populations, our cafeteria size, SES issues in our building...)

The idea that had gathered input from various stakeholders was now defunct and we were going along with the rest because we were told to.

My hope is continued...I hope that someday, people will get it.

When will we learn?!

As the fall weather slowly creeps up on us, we begin to notice slight changes in our student population. Yesterday, all of our students came to school in their pajamas. Today, we had clowns, kids with their clothes inside-out, cross dressers. Tomorrow, if I were to make a prediction, I would bet that a majority of our students will be wearing sports jerseys of some sort. Odd behavior isn't it?

That's right, loyal readers (all 3 of you), it is Homecoming Spirit Week. That crazy time of year when the student council begs us to let the student body do crazy dress up days. Each year we say that it will be fine. Usually, it is OK. We are still in the honeymoon period of the beginning of school and think the best of our students.

When will we learn???

I must say that 90-95% of our students do exactly what they are asked to do. While some of that 90-95% will push boundaries, when the guidelines are clearly set they will follow requests of the staff, faculty and administration. But it is that blasted 10% that think, hey, it is homecoming week...I can do whatever the @#$%^#&* I want!

Do modern day students even know that Homecoming is not for them!? They are already at home.

This week should about inviting alumni back (former students COMING HOME, hence the name) and showing current students how successful they have become with hard work, perseverance, and some times learning the hard way. As a school, we should be showing off our best and brightest, our hardest workers, students who were on the edge of failure and fought long and hard for many years to make a decent, respectable, honest living. Homecoming week should be a beacon for our students showing them that it is possible to achieve their dream. Any alumni reading this, please contact me to get this going. This idea of homecoming should be inspirational!



I am not sure how that gets interpreted to our starting football players wearing ballerina tutus.

Sleep is for Wussies!

For some, or most (how many of YOU are out there reading this?), you may not be aware that on September 9th, my wife gave birth to our first child! We are ecstatic about his arrival. He is perfect and the cutest baby around. So, I will introduce you to Logan.

Logan is getting better at eating and is a decent sleeper. In general, he does not cry or scream. The only times he does is when he is hungry and when we lay him down to change his diaper. As soon as we pick him up, he is quiet and smiley.

When I was in college, I would pull all-nighters all of the time. Working on 2-3 hours sleep was no big deal; happened probably 1-2 times a week. I would be able to study all night, go take an exam, score well on it and then go out to celebrate that night. That is when I came up with the theory that Sleep is for Wussies!

To quote Barenaked Ladies, "Who needs sleep?". While I have not been up since the second world war, the amount of sleep that I have received in the past 15 days has been comparable to those wonderful college days. Logan is up and feeding about every 2 hours. My wife is amazing and really supports my theory. I have done some considerable research on this topic and had some favorable data to support my hypothesis.

I have recently gone back to work to add another challenge and variable to the experiment. I must say that the first day back was very odd. It was as if I had never worked before. I sat at my desk, stared at my computer, had multiple conversations about the delivery, showed pictures of Logan to anyone who I could walk faster than; but all in all, I could not really focus on projects that needed to be completed, or even think about what my responsibilities are.

But still, I had data to support my theory. I have been successful before on minimal amounts of sleep. I can handle it! I will persevere. I must! After all, have you seen how cute my child is?!

A good scientist and educator is one who is reflective. They must examine the current data and observations, and continue to evaluate the current situations. With that in mind, I have reached a conclusion based on my 15 years of research!

I am a wuss.