Curriculum Course Reflection:

This week, I was asked to respond to the following questions. I decided to create the video screencast below to share my thoughts.

As a school administrator and instructional leader, what instructional technology would you expect to see in the written, taught, and tested curriculum of a school or school district striving to meet the needs of 21st century learners?

What instructional technology would you promote to differentiate instruction for all learners?

Here is the presentation to navigate if you wish. It also includes references.

I recorded the video with Screencastomatic, which has many nice features. Unfortunately, the Prezi effects did not hold during capture, and that was disappointing. I like the fact that Screencastomatic includes up to 15 minutes of recording per session, and can be edited on the fly. You can also embed your Webcam while talking, which personalizes things very nicely.

Team Story 3: Edina Leadership Workshop

On Tuesday, August 10, I attended the Edina Action, Administration and Lead Team meeting.
Dr. Ric Dressen, our superintendent started by discussing today's realities:

• Mission, Vision and Core values have not changed.
• 85% of our work is mandated
• Policies and Work agreements
• Resources are limited!
• Evolving societal shift-moving into the management of info world, diversity, global
• Work Drive: Autonomy, mastery and purpose
• Power of Team
• Evolutionary Biology-how kids manage time and information
• Need for Celebration

The title of the session was "To 2010-2011 and Beyond!"

Toy Story 3

Fostering Collective Creativity

Find joy while mission-focused

Develop Team-protocols

Trust is a foundation

Use cross-disciplinary

Focus on Big 3 goals

1. Enhance the Students’ Personalized Learning Experiences

2. Improve the Coherence of Grades E-12 Programs and Services

3. Enhance the Support for and Effectiveness of the District Team

We then participated in a 0-100% Learning Activity around the following quotes:

Leadership is every one's business-Kouzes and Poster

Quinn's quote from Deep Change

Trust=(Credibility + Reliability +Intimacy)/self-interest Maister-Trusted Advisor

The 0-100% activity

5 minutes of individual reflection

15 minutes of sharing

5 minutes summary thought

Chris Holden, principal at C Elementary: If you want to be an authentic leader, you have to start with leadership through service. Our group came up with the following insight: Leadership through service has the potential to foster trust, clarify expectations and produce shared outcomes.

After listening to other group's ideas, we then began looking over the district's Leadership Plan for 2010-2011 including the "Big 3 Goals":

1. Enhancing the Student's Personalized Learning Experiences

• Enhancing Equity Efforts
• Implementation of Instructional Intervention
• Pilot Online, Hybrid and College Partnerships
• Study Summer Academy

2. Improve the Coherence of Grades E-12 Programs and Services
3. Enhance the Support for and Effectiveness of the District Team

Coherence rather than alignment: Logical Interconnections and Consistency

Hargreaves defines coherence as bringing diverse people together to work skillfully for common cause.. and has them moving in the same direction. The four catalysts are sustainable leadership, integrated networks, responsibility and accountability, differentiation and diversity.

The Power of Team

Great Community-We are a first ring suburb that is growing in enrollment. Not many are.

Great Families-Parent involvement is a plus here.

Great Staff

Great Youth

Leadership's Collective Creativity

District leadership shall seek to..

• Live by core values and norms
• value Team members
• utilize problem solving tools
• embrace Courageous Conversations
• Implement Policies
• advance Leadership Training
• find JOY in our work-finding the joy in reaching the mission

Norms

Respect Schedules

Communicate Openly and Honestly

Reveal Your Interests and Work to Common Good

Decisions shared publicly and conversations held confidentially

In the stuffing inside of us, why did we go into education...

We then looked at what district leadership does well. Our group identified:

• Identifies strengths and weaknesses
• Focus on the big picture
• strong mission and vision-living the mission and vision
• Forges partnerships with the community
• Knowledgeable and professional staff
• Service to others
• Hires quality staff

Areas where district leadership needs to grow included:

• More focus
• better boundaries
• Focus on what is good for ALL kids
• Learning is our primary service and function
• Team-more sharing and collaboration
• We need to learn with and from one another

Our group felt district leadership should consider...

• Adopt a classroom
• Ask Questions-find out what we don't know
• Hire more diverse staff
• Celebrating success in a more authentic way, daily basis
• Encourage our personal purpose and passion for what we do
• expanding our perspective and promote them

Overall, the session was a great way for me to see our district leadership in action, and it gave me insight into plans for the coming year.

Photo credit

It Begins!!

Yesterday, I started Effective Leadership, the first course in the JHU-ISTE program.

After ISTE, I spent 10 days essentially, "off the grid", at least for me, and now I'm working to get back into the flow.

This morning, I created an introduction for the class and posted it to the discussions. I used PhotoPeach, a fairly nice tool. Initially, I struggled with how to create the captions, but once I got back into edit, it was fairly straight forward.

Michael Walker Introduction on PhotoPeach

I started reading Gardner on Leadership yesterday, and have continued looking at some of the content today. I like the ideas he is presenting, and find my philosophy/experience to match pretty closely. As I think about myself as a leader, I see my ability to grasp the "big picture" and vision, as a good sign. Where I need help, and why I am in this program are to gain political skill, to better communicate my ideas and as Gardner put's it, "bind constituencies."

I found it interesting that Gardner's words, written in 1990 refer to how historians will look at certain leaders. I wonder what he would have said about the last 3 presidents!

Initial Reflection

In my 26 years as an educator, I have worked as a mathematics and programing instructor, computer applications instructor, building technology coordinator and integrator, and now secondary technology integration specialist. I would like to develop additional skills and experiences in leadership, organization and administration so that I may be more effective in my current role and prepared for other opportunities that may arise. I feel that this program combining the educational quality of Johns Hopkins and best practice of ISTE will be the best possible fit for this to occur.

Technology and Curriculum are both best served, when they are intricately connected with one another, like they are on the Twins hat I'm wearing at right. Technology should not be used for technology's sake, but to enhance instruction and student learning. I believe that students should learn by actively engaging with the material, whether imparted by the teacher, the textbook, or the online resource in the palm of their hand. Teachers don't have to "give up intellectual authority in the room," but they should acknowledge that tools like "WolframAlpha" contain more facts and figures than they do! Teachers can be co-learners, assisting students with making connections to their learning and other learners! My current role is as a technology integration specialist. I consider myself a "network sherpa" assisting staff by carrying the tools and techniques to enhance their instruction and student learning.

My current position has allowed me to help advance the use of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance learning and instruction in a variety of ways. Our district uses the Community of Practice model for district-wide professional development which has allowed me to advance my leadership skills. In my first year, I lead a group of middle and high school teachers in the use of various Web 2.0 technologies, including blogs, wikis, Google Applications, podcasting and Voicethread. This year and last, I helped to lead an effort in my district to explore 1:1 laptop learning. Last year, 20 teachers explored the possibility of teaching in a 1:1 environment, researching, conducting site visits and planning for a possible pilot. This year, those same teachers are implementing the pilot with a group of 155 students at the 8th grade level. This school year I have also been involved with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson's Powerful Learning Practice. Serving as a Fellow, responsible for assisting two teams of teachers, I have gained valuable insight into the shifts in learning made possible by leveraging new technologies to enhance learning.

One of the key indicators of successful technology integration is the involvement and support of administrators. Through their modeling of proper pedagogy, assessment of effective instruction, and budgetary support, they play a vital role. It is my hope that my involvement in the Johns Hopkins/ISTE program will help me grow as an educator to meet the needs of the students and families I serve.

Movie Introduction

For my video introduction to the rest of the cohort, I decided to try Jaycut.

I had tried to use it in the past, but had some difficulty uploading files. This time, it seemed to work pretty well. It may be a good option as opposed to Movie Maker.

Welcome!

and

I will be using this blog for assignments and reflections while completing the Johns Hopkins/ISTE Certificate in Administration and Supervision program. I'm looking forward to the year of learning and growth and gaining perspective of the administrative side of education. I hope that this year will make me a better "teacher-leader" and a better educator.