Disclaimer – this is another entry that deals with how personal experiences are affecting my administrator mind. I seem to be scattered lately, with many different ideas rocketing aroud. Read at your own risk.
Day 2 of our convention was better for me than the first. I attended two good sessions in the morning and the afternoon which left a better taste in my mouth than the first day. There were no real sparkling moments but the information and discussions were good and connecting with some of the resources people will be helpful. The best part was being able to drive and listen to a few different podcasts on my inano.
So I’m now into day 2 of holidays. Yesterday was a complete write off. I did manage to get some blog reading done but it seems that now matter how much I do, the aggregator is always full!! This can mean only one thing, I’m spreading myself too thin in regards to the blogs I read. It’s time to filter. Now, to compound this problem, I signed up for another online conference and the mail from the discussions has been insane. I thought the amount coming from the Connectivism conference was bad but this is just incredible. I usually try to keep up with the conversations in the forums but this is overwhelming. So, there I was, over 100 blogs to puruse and well over 200 emails. I decided right there and then, something had to be done. So, I pulled out the ironning board, opened up the itunes and began ironning.
You see, there are so many things that need attention that one must decide which are priorities and which are, well, luxuries. Having shirts to wear to work is more important than email from a conference. As I ironed away, I listened to a few different podcasts. This allowed me to hear some good ideas and information plus get a necessary job done. I was also able to think about some planning for my classes that are coming up, do some pondering about my upcoming presentation and figure out what we’ll have for supper. It was a productive time!
After I finished this job, I decided that there have been a few things that I have to do and I should really get my planning act together. As I mentioned in another post, if I don’t plan things out, I tend to do what I enjoy instead of what I should do. Out came my new find, SimpleDays planning. This handy little tool has helped me in a few different way. Because it has a todo, reminder, calendar, journal, web search, notes, contacts and calculator, I find that I use it quite often, just to keep myself together. It cost my $18.00 but is well worth it. But I digress. I prioritized my todo, set completion dates and times and started to get to work.
My lesson plans are coming along for my next units. Because I tend to modify all my classes each year, I find that having an electronic version has saved me time. I now use a wiki to organize my lessons and upload my handouts so that I can have access anywhere. I also use a website to host assignment sheets for my classes so that they have access if they have internet. I have added the use of blogs and wikis to my Social class and the use of podcasts to my CPT class. I just need to refine the outcomes a bit and then put together some rubrics.
Why am I here blogging? I haven’t been too faithful lately and I know that there are some people who visit regularly. Also, I seem to be torn between commenting on a bunch of the things going on at others blogs, finding convergence with my own teaching and reflecting on life both in and out of school. Sometimes, I get so caught up in all the different things I do that I don’t really take time to reflect. As I’ve had time to do that these past few days, I see that I am torn between wanting to be on the cutting edge of using the technology, seeing what is new and finding ways to use it and being the administrator that I want to be. As much as I want to do both, I know that I can’t be both. I watch with envy as some of the teachers in my reader do all kinds of amazing things and are really bringing the students and learning together. (I try to do this, don’t get me wrong!) I just know that my role is to support teachers to do this by leading them, sometimes by example, sometimes through mentorship, sometimes through collaboration and sometimes by quietly encouraging. During this period of unprecedented growth in social software, I could spend hours just experimenting with all the different links that I find, testing the different versions of social bookmars, online desktops, podcasting tools, etc but I realize that, for my teachers to become more able with these technologies, I need to bring one or two to them, help them to use it and then allow them time to use it, offering support and guidance when necessary.
I sometimes feel that, as a techno-kindageek, we have arrived at the land of plenty. Then I step back and see we are really entering a land of over-plenty where those not comfortable in this landscape will become paralyzed by the sheer number of choices available, much like I was by the amount of email and enteries when I started this last course. Like me, these people usually just choose to ignore the new ideas and go about their daily work, making sure that their list of todo’s is completed.
In order to help them, administrators must begin to select some basic skills that each person should know, offer time to learn these skills and expect that teachers begin to use the skills in their daily lives. I know that this may be hard for many, but it needs to happen. Besides, skills with social bookmarking, using different search engines, accessing online information, using online tools and reducing the amount of paper transfer are skills that teachers need to acquire as we move forward. We sometimes don’t want to push teachers too hard but schools need to move from where they are. Now, this doesn’t mean that we push the envelope too far but we need to begin demonstrating that there are tools that need to be used and explored. As for the skills, well I guess each of us will have an idea of what might work best with the people in the building and the tools available. For us, we are going to start with social bookmarking, some new search engines and an online RSS aggregator. From here, I’ll see what people want to do as I will have them do some “homework” after this like finding a few blogs to read, commenting on a few and just plain getting use to using the tools.
I will post about them later. I want to alert people to some of the pitfalls, like the email invasion I’m having, so that they don’t lose hope and give up. I know that many school divisions/districts/locals have IT specialists and curriculum consultants that help with technology integration. It’s a good thought but for things to be successful, there must be in-building support as far as I am concerned. I am that support.
Eventually, I’d like to have our staff using some of the tools with their students regularly. I’d also like the administration group to begin using the tools to share ideas. From here, we could branch into grade alike groups and various other forums that would support teacher learning without having to drive, drive, drive. I’m sometimes spending up to 4 hours driving to go to a 3 hour meeting. There must be a better way!! The loss of time, productivity and being away from school could be avoided with the use of a few of the new tools. I just might send out an email with GoToMeeting to someone.
Oh, I’m still very interested in starting a book club online – either a blog or a wiki. I’m thinking a blog that would have everyone interested as an administrator so that each person could “host” the forum – start the discussion. I have three other people plus myself interested. Anyone else? Also, we have a few suggestions for books: David Warlick’s 
, The Tipping Point, Learning by Doing and Dan Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” Any others?
