Archive for July, 2008
So, the cool thing at NECC was the Professional Development key rings developed by Kevin Honeycutt and his team. I have to say .. I am so excited. Upon returning to work after NECC, I shared the rings with our department and we have decided to create them for our teachers! We are starting the teachers off with a base set of “keys” with all of our online district resources. I love them!
Technorati Tags: professional_development kevin_honeycutt keyrings
July 29th, 2008
Well, I was looking through my technorati account and I noticed. I have been tagged! IN MARCH! First off, Wendy, I am SO sorry I didn’t see this until now.
Ok, here we go…
My passion is learning, creating, and living technology. I have had different teaching experiences from classrooms without a computer to classrooms with every child having a computer. When technology is around our students and used properly its almost like creating a symphony. Its beautiful! Everything the learning, development, community building (within the class) and end product expectations are surpassed when students see your passion for the content with technology. They embrace it.
Directions: Find or create an image that captures what you are most passionate for kids to learn about.
- Post a picture from a source like Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn…and give your picture a short title.
- Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
- Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.
Here are the lucky people I’m tagging:
Julia
Steve
Jeff
Dean
Technicolor
Image Credits: Emily’s Mind. Question of Passion. http://flickr.com/photos/emilysmind/428373544/in/set-72157600300396628/
July 29th, 2008
Last week I was fortunate to attend the Richland One Leadership Institute. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very interested in hearing our new superintendent, Dr. Percy Mack, speak. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by him. I think he has the personality for Richland One. He was very personable. I was also happy to hear his goals for our district. A few of the things he talked about were:
1. Data-Driven decision making (which really is a natural for all district’s or should be)
2. Customer Service – I like this goal/focus. We need to treat all stakeholders in our district the same. It doesn’t matter who has money or who doesn’t. Everyone should be treated as you would want to be treated. This may sound simple but it’s one of the “golden rules” and at times we forget, we as educators are providing a service.
3. Relationship Building – Internally we as a district need to build relationship between departments. My district is so spread out and district offices are in different locations. Sometimes we may not know the department/people in the department.
While talking about the goals he discussed the characteristics of being a leader… and we need to be leaders daily in every aspect of our job. We need to lead with a positive attitude and be the change. It may sound a little like sound bites from a leadership marketing company but I have to say it is good to hear. I want to work for someone who knows what a good leader is and hopefully he will live up to the expectation he has set.
During the second day of the leadership institute, I was able to sit in on an afternoon session with David Cottrell. He is a 
great motivational speaker who helps you look at what you can do to be a better leader as well as how you can grow more leaders. After sitting in his session, I plan on picking up a copy of his book Monday Morning Leadership. My favorite quote of his is, “You can never not lead.” That statement hit me hard. What ever you are projecting as a leader will trickle down to everyone. Whether you are projecting a positive attitude, passion for what you do OR you are unhappy and disgusted with your job… people feel it and will start projecting what you project. Recently, I have been feeling a little disgusted about small things at work and you know the exact things he was saying was happening. Negativity was creeping up on me and those around me. This got me thinking… I don’t want to be negative. I want to be someone that anyone I work with can 1. work with me and 2. call on me to be “that leader” who does her best.
So over the weekend, I thought a lot about my own goals and objectives for the 2008-2009 school year.
1. I want to be a part of the team. I don’t want to be the team. I have a tendency to take control of my projects and do most of the work myself because I know I can/will do a good job. I need to learn to loosen the reigns even if that means things don’t turn out the way I think they should. EVERYONE deserves a chance and the experience.
2. Figure out innovative ways I can meet the needs of my schools. I really don’t think I did a good job with that second semester last year. I need to look at each school as if I were looking at each student when I was in the classroom. What do they need to succeed?
3. I need to MAKE the time to continue to grow and develop professionally. Even though my department is very good about allowing me to go to professional development. I need to make sure I am keeping up with journals, blogs, etc. in my field. Scheduling time on my calendar to do so is the only way I can make it happen.
4. I need to remember… not everyone is skilled at the same level. I need to be patient … and do what I do best… teach AND learn.
Technorati Tags: leadership professional_development Dr._Percy_Mack RichlandOne goals david_cottrell
July 29th, 2008
I have to say after wrapping up NECC… I am a little disappointed. I have been to NECC many times before like I have mentioned in previous posts but I don’t know.. it just left me a little hollow. I don’t know why… I guess I was just expecting to take away a big ‘WOW’ or ‘Aha’ moment and it didn’t happen. The biggest disappointment for me was most of the sessions I wanted to attend were full and the NECC guards closed the door. I know in our technology age I can find the session online and I have but it was the point that I wanted to be in the room to hear it first hand.
My first session at NECC was the celebration of the new NETS for teachers. Um, I spent an hour of my life listening to people pat themselves on the back or listen to people who are supposed to be using the new standards but just said they haven’t done anything yet but they will be good. The standards themselves were only mentioned in about 3-5 minutes of the session. After the session I looked them over on the ISTE site. I have to say I like the new standards (check them out here). They are in direct line with the student NETS that were released last year. It also moves the teacher from skills based to “transformative teaching.” The aspect of no longer using technology for the sake of using technology.
My final impression of NECC was the keynote at the closing session. I have to say as far as closing session keynotes, I wasn’t excited. I felt that Idit Harel Caperton was spending too much time looking at the past. A woman on the shuttle after the keynote said, “You know I know what happened in the past. I want to know what we should be looking forward to.” Although Dr. Caperton talked about her wishes for the future I think she should have focused more on them. I didn’t like her reading to me either. Her site Globaloria is a great resource but as a keynote to get me excited as I left NECC she fell short.
Of course there were bright moments in the conference too. The brightest moment for me was talking with Chris Lehmann and then attending his session School 2.0: Combining Progressive Pedagogy and 21st Century Tools. What was wonderful about talking with him was 1. I don’t think Chris has ever met a stranger and 2. It is inspiring to see an administrator so passionate about the success of his students and faculty. He is willing to get in the trenches with the teachers for student success. The Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia seems to fully encompass Understanding by Design. I have always been a big fan of Understanding by Design and it great to hear how the entire school lives and breathes it. Thank you Chris for making my conference.
The Blogger’s Cafe was always full. It was an interesting place. Some people willing to talk and share others looking at you like you were an alien from another planet even though they chat with you on twitter. One of the best conversations I had in the Blogger’s Cafe was with an old friend, Jeff Giddens. He recently returned from the Google Teacher Academy and was very excited about the Google-mecca visit and his learning. It was great to catch up with him. Thank you to those who I did meet/see again and talk with (too many to list).
Coolest thing that happened at NECC?
So this really has nothing to do with a session, the exhibit hall, blogger’s cafe, or anything in the conference. I was leaving the convention center on Monday. The bus was full and people were standing. When the bus thinned a little a woman sat next to me and started talking to me. As we talked I thought, hmm… she looks familiar. So I asked her were she was from. Turns out after a few leading questions… she and I went to high school together! Its been at least 21 years since I have seen her! It was really cool to make that connection… I just want to give a shout out to Laurie Vitale. It was great to see you again after ALL of these years.
So what am I taking from NECC?
The human connection is SO very important in our ever growing technology world. It may bring us closer in many ways but we must not forget the human side of all of this and take every opportunity to share.
Technorati Tags: NECC08 jeff giddens chris lehmann science leadership academy google teacher academy understanding by design
July 8th, 2008
Since my return from NECC, I have been giving some thought to changing my online ID. My present online ID for every network I belong to is techforschool. During NECC, it was amazing how many people I talked to who didn’t know me as MaryAnn or even know my first name was MaryAnn. It was weird and I may be thinking stupid thoughts but … I am thinking it would be nice to be able to say, “Hi, I’m MaryAnn” and not “Hi, I am techforschool online”. I have had this ID for years… you know before it was cool to be online with networks. But I wonder with the vast social networking available and leaving my own digital footprint if I need to change to a form of my name.
Here are some options: maryann_s, sansonetti, msansonetti
What do you think?
July 8th, 2008
Since my return from NECC, I have been giving some thought to changing my online ID. My present online ID for every network I belong to is techforschool. During NECC, it was amazing how many people I talked to who didn’t know me as MaryAnn or even know my first name was MaryAnn. It was weird and I may be thinking stupid thoughts but … I am thinking it would be nice to be able to say, “Hi, I’m MaryAnn” and not “Hi, I am techforschool online”. I have had this ID for years… you know before it was cool to be online with networks. But I wonder with the vast social networking available and leaving my own digital footprint if I need to change to a form of my name.
Here are some options: maryann_s, sansonetti, msansonetti
What do you think?
July 8th, 2008
