Imagine and Teach

On September 30, 2008, I began my adventure.  That day was the opening session of our Powerful Learning Practice (PLP) cohort.  At the opening session, Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum Beach had us all sign up for this thing that I had not heard of….Twitter!

And so it began.  I started to learn what a personal learning network (PLN) was.  There was a lot of googling of twitter terms going on in my life.  And before I knew it, I was building a PLN.  And what an incredible resource that has been.

So what have I learned?  Well, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but here goes.

1. I am humbled by my PLN.
2. From my PLN, I have learned so much.  My delicious account is full of links I have seen on twitter.
3. Tweet and retweet often
4. Thank your followers
5. Be selective when choosing who to follow.  I pretty much keep it to teachers. Admins, and ed tech people
6. Don’t follow celebrities
7. I often check twitter before I check email
8. The amount of followers doesn’t matter.  This is not a popularity contest.  It is about quality conversation and learning.
9. There are many Phillies fans in my PLN
10. It is incredible to connect and learn with great people around the world.
11. Time zones
12. It is good to go “off the grid” every so often.  The tweets will continue and I don’t need to read them all. Balance.
13. There are some tremendous blogs attached to members of my PLN.  I read as much as I can. My Google Reader is loaded!
14. Go to Educon.
15. My PLN on twitter has brought me some of the best professional development I have ever had.
16. It is great to see and read innovative thinkers, even and especially when there are differences of opinions.
17. I can’t wait to see what’s next with my PLN.
18. I can tweet from my iPhone!
19. On occasion, I actually find that I have something of value to say. So for those of you starting out on Twitter, keep going and believe that you have something to add to the conversation. Because you do.

As I said, this is not a complete list.  I wanted to post this on September 30, but as blogging goes, that didn’t happen. So, if you are reading this, first, thanks!  And then, if you are not on Twitter, get there.  And build your PLN.

Thanks to my first 8 followers: @erikgerm, @lawdog0140, @lrphils, @antiprogress, @ncara. @shareski. @glassbead and @snbeach. You guys are still following me!  Thanks and thanks to these 8 and all of my PLN for teaching me, learning with me, and sharing.  Here’s to another year!

BY the way, my twitter ID is @horizons93

The days are busy for high school administrators. We have our daily management duties, teacher evaluations, classroom walk throughs, parent meetings, and much more.  Sure the days are busy.  But should we be so busy that we can’t teach a class?

Disclaimer:

Admittedly, I come to this discussion as an Assistant Principal who has taught a class for each of the 15 years that I have been in this job.  I also concede that there indeed may be circumstances where it is just not possible.  So what I want to talk about is what I perceive to be the benefits of an administrator teaching.  I welcome your opinion.

Each day, a teaching administrator who teaches one class has the opportunity to be what they are at heart, a teacher.  Having the class to look forward to every day keeps an administrator in a room with students.  In a room where learning needs to occur. In a room where reality meets theory.

I teach one class of vocal music.  I need to be there at the same time each day. I have students who count on me to be their teacher. I am out of the office.  I am not on the phone.  I am not checking email. I am teaching. I love it.

As administrators, we want our teachers to embrace best practices.  We want them to bravely embrace the web 2.0 world.  We want them to run their classes as learning places, not teaching places.  We want them to teach and model ethical, moral, appropriate and productive use of social networks.  The best way to do that is to lead with example and teach.

So why should administrators teach?  Because we can. Because we will want to continue to learn, which is good for our students and our teachers. Because it will make us better admins. It keeps our membership in the community of classroom teachers current.  Students will see us in a different light.  They see us as administrators, but if we teach, they will also consider us their teacher. Because the truth is, we are in our hearts, teachers.

It has been a while since I have posted.  The preparations for the New Year, final summer relaxation, the start of school and the belief that I didn’t have much to add to the conversation has kept me away.

Well, I am not sure how much I will add to the conversation, but I am promising here to post more regularly.  My goal now is once a week.

One of the brightest spots in my day is my one class. As an admin, I only teach one.  It is a vocal music class and I love it.  It keeps me in the classroom, which I think benefits any admin.  But that is going to be another post.  This year, my class room, known as the green room (as you can see) received a smart board. An excellent addition.

When we learn a new song, typically, I would print a ton of lyric sheets for the kids.  After all, they need the lyrics.  But now I have a projector and smart board.  So today I was ready.

When the students arrived, I had the lyrics to a new song on the board.  Put them in two columns so they would all be there. I said “Hey guys, is that readable?” and they said an enthusiastic “Yes!”

So I moved my keyboard slightly to one side so that I wouldn’t block their view while I was playing and we started to learn the song. And one of them said “the green room just got greener.” And so it has.  A paperless vocal class. It’s a start.

That’s right, it talks to me! Of course, by now, the word is likely out on the new iPhone 3gs and its accessibility functions. But it is a whole new world for me and many others.

I had heard about voice over coming with the new iPhone. Being someone who loves being connected, and a school admin who wants to see the newest tools, I have always been interested in a “smart” phone. But being a visually impaired person, there was little possibility of using one effectively.

But through conversations with friends, seeing online demos, listening to podcasts such as the mac-cessibility and MacCast, I figured the time might be now.

Conveniently, my wife and I were due for an upgrade on 7/11. So we went to the Apple store, and came hone with 2 iPhones! Then the fun began. Once I was shown how to access the accessibility functions, I was on my way.

Through the innovative way that this phone works, I can access all of the functions and most of the apps available to fully sighted users. I can type on it, read my mail, surf the web, use my beloved twitter, and so much more. I am learning how to do something new with this thing every day. Thank you Apple for building accessibility into your products!

So, I know this doesn’t tie in perfectly with a blog site called Imagine and Teach, but it is summer. And this is a transforming experience for me as I now have all the phone provides available in a usable way. But having this phone also reinforces my belief that cell phone bans should be a thing of the past. They can be used instructionally, and appropriate, moral, ethical, and productive use of smart phones can become part of what students learn, particularly at the secondary level. I know there are challenges when we permit students to have phones with them, but they have them any way, don’t they?

Teachers and admins, what is your school’s policy? What challenges do you think will be faced by schools if those with bans change their policy? Do you have any recommendations on successful instructional use, particularly at the secondary level?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and enjoy summer!