The following video was Tweeted by Jessica Johnson (@PrincipalJ, http://principalj.blogspot.com/)the other night. It had quite an impact on me. It's two minutes...take a look.
"...and remember, we'll be watching"
Only a vendor could get away with making a video like this. Not ASCD, ISTE, AWSA...because this video has the potential to scare the living daylights out of some teachers. I agree with everything said in it. It's what I want for every kid, especially our two boys. But maybe this is a sign I'm not as tough as I think I am. If I were considering this for an all-staff meeting or a training session I'd sit down at night, have a beer and think REALLY hard about whether or not to show this. My first reaction was that this would have been perfect to kick-off iPad training in my former district. But it might have completely shut some folks down. A friend of mine told me her principal said to the staff that "you can't leave your classroom at the door anymore." She said jaws dropped. But it's the truth. How do leaders walk the tightrope between brutal honesty and moving people along productively?
I hope when I grow up I have the wisdom and fortitude to make the right choice.
Dropped my iPhone in the water yesterday. Yup, needed to check my email so badly that I had to take it out over water. I watched the life flicker out of it, then Googled what to do - so now it sits in a sealed bowl with rice. I have little hope. What was so important? Nothing...just the feeling that I can check it, so I should. Being that this information obsession is going to cost me, its time to take a breath and re-evaluate my usage.
I've done a bit of an about face since my last post on my next learning steps as I wrap things up at UWM in a couple of weeks. Last post I was thinking about my next program. Now I'm looking forward to the freedom of learning independently. The books we had for classes were great, but I know over these 20 months my personal reading has suffered...how could it not at six credits a semester? I've been kind of jealous of my wife's personal reading of late. I'm one 20 page paper away from that. The worm turned for me about a week ago when something switched in my head. I asked myself, why do I think I need to pay someone $2000 a class to learn? Before UWM I learned quite a lot from books and blogs. I bet I could again! I've been pretty faithful to my favorites - Blue Skunk and Dangerously Irrelevant , but I haven't done much online reading beyond that. With new initiatives coming for 2012-2013 I need to more deeply explore Edmodo communities and see what othe...
I'm glad a few years ago I introduced the book 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times to our administration. It was exciting to have an assistant superintendent interested in changing the conversation for learning in our school district. While I still certainly appreciate the content of this book, I am soooooooo sick of hearing about 21st Century Learning, 21st Century Skills, 21st Century ad nauseam . Isn't there a better way to phrase this for everyday conversation? Perhaps we need to stick with this so everyone hears consistent jargon, but I don't think people overall have the right idea of what it means. I would imagine if we polled our staff or parents they would say its technology or computer skills. That couldn't be further from the truth. If I say higher order thinking skills I think that's pretty clear (at least to me) of what that means. I worry 21st Century means the Jetsons or Star Trek to all too many people. I appreciate Tony Wag...
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