Monday, September 24, 2007

The Star Spangled Banner


A was out walking his dog and came upon a friend. His friend said "Hey, nice dog!"

The dog owner replied, "I taught him how to sing the Star Spangled Banner."

The friend says "Really? That's incredible. Ok Fido, sing!"

The dog just stared at him.

The friend tried again. "Fido, sing!"

Again, the dog just stared.

The friend, now disapointed said "I thought you said you taught the dog to sing the Star Spangled Banner?"

The owner replied, "I said I taught him. I didn't say he learned it."





Any connection to curriculums and CCCS here?

Friday, September 21, 2007

How do you subscribe to blogs so I can read them using an "aggregator" instead of clicking each one individually?


An aggregator is a place you can manage all your blogs with ease. It updates whenever any blog you subscribe to has a new post. It downloads the new content into "My Feeds" so that, at your convenience, you can read all your new posts, if you keep a constant internet connection. The updates are downloaded as linkable headlines. It saves a lot of time, in that you don't spend all your time visiting each blog's net address individually.

The service relies on an RSS feed, which is an XML file delivered directly to Google Reader or Bloglines. You really don't have to know any of this, but if you're interested, you can learn more about RSS by googling "rss wiki" or "bloglines."

If you don't really want to know about all the technical junk, but do want to speed up your blog reading, I've condensed the experience for you.

Step 1: Set up a Google Account if you haven’t already at www.google.com

Step 2: Create your “iGoogle” at http://www.google.com/ig On iGoogle, you can customize your personal Google Homepage. You can add things like news, weather, and a Google Reader Page by clicking “Add stuff” in the upper right corner once you signed in with your Google account.

Step 3: In the “Add Stuff Window” type “Google Reader”

Step 4: Click the “add it now” button.

Step 5: Go back to your iGoogle page. (www.google.com/ig)

Step 6: Click on your new Google Reader tab.

Step 7: On the left hand column, there is an “add subscription” link. Click it and type in the blog or podcast you wish to subscribe to. (For example, if you wanted to subscribe to this blog, you’d type http://stratsforcurriculumchange.blogspot.com

Step 8: Add blogs or podcasts that interest you and they will appear in Google Reader as they update on your iGoogle!

(Note: Other aggregators (sites that use RSS feeds to collect blogs include www.bloglines.com. Bloglines.com is a place you can manage all your blogs with ease.)

Step 1:

Register at www.bloglines.com

-You'll create a user name and password. The software you download will put the bloglines reader in your taskbar, and a red dot on it will signify new posts.

Step 2:

Pick your blogs

(See below)


Step 3:

Read your blogs

-This part is easy too. The service will notify you when your blogs have new posts. Upon opening the software, you can view all your feeds' newest posts. In fact, you can choose to clip the posts if they are really good or even post them to your bloglines blog.

In addition, you can use Google Reader or Bloglines to capture podcasts so you can download them to my mp3 player and listen to them wherever you go (car, gym, park, walking around the house, etc.). There is some really neat free audio out there. You can find anything from sermons, to free Spanish classes, to comedy shows, and political commentary.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Quote for Leaders



The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you
~ Max DePree, in The Art of Leadership

I think this sums up for me what a forward-thinking change-agent school administrator should be. A few years ago, I had an Assistant Superintendent who had the words "TTWWADI" on her bulletin board with a line through it. I asked her what it meant and she told me it meant "That's the way we've always done it." She felt that if schools and their leaders continue to do what is comfortable and they've always done, the results will always be the same. That may be fine if you like your results, but I know very few schools where that is the case. The leader instead should define the way they will do it in the future, based on the needs of the students, teachers, community, and the future.

The second is an often-overlooked piece. I sometimes find that thank you's from leaders are either blanketed- given to everyone without personalization (i.e. "thank you all for coming") or not given at all. As education is about socialization and relationships, remembering to say thank you to individuals (and mean it!) is important.

What do you think qualities of a
forward-thinking change-agent school administrator should be?


Photo credit: http:..www.posters.net




Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Chalk, Textbook, Mobile Phone?


Many of the people in class seemed to appreciate Marc Prensky's concepts of ways to engage (and perhaps challenge) kids and shake the concept of school. Where people ran into trouble was the practical side of things. That is the luxury of being a theorist; you can theorize and let the administrators worry about how to actually implement it.

In my opinion however, to be an effective administrator, you need to be an effective manager, educational leader, and change agent. Being a manager is easiest part (not in task, but in knowing what needs to be done). Being an educational leader is easier in task, but hardest to find the time to do so.) Being a change agent is the most difficult, because it requires you to see what isn't there in order to see what needs to be there, even if you don't know what "it" is?

Here is an example. Most schools, as per state law, ban cell phones for students. (New York City had a big deal about this last year.) A manager understands that for distractions, safety reasons, gangs, drugs, etc that this is a good idea. The educational leader may know that phones have some good uses, like texting 466453 to do a cell phone google search but doesn't have the time or backing to figure out a way to balance effective use of the phone with the safety and distraction concerns. The change agent needs to think beyond what is. Like reading another Prensky article, Mobile Phone Imagination.

In your experiences, have you seen many managers? Educational Leaders? Change Agents? Why is that?

What do you think of the cell phone idea?

How do you like the blogs so far?