I am amazed and a little ashamed that my last blog post was the end of September 2011, some four months ago!! Sure I have all the usual excuses….too busy, the holidays, I forgot…but really, I think the reason is that I have not made a “sustainable shift” in the way I do business. And I think that is the case with many in leadership positions in our schools, the very folks we are counting on to be the change agents we need for success in 21st century teaching and learning. It is well known that many of our educational leaders are nearing the end of their careers and that these “baby-boomers” are retiring in droves. (well, at least that is still true in our profession, even though so many other boomers are working years longer). So I would guess that younger teachers and administrators, more tech-oriented, will be better at some of the tech-savvy things that are just not organically a part of us!!
So I started to think of ways I could make a “sustainable shift” and maybe help some other “oldie, but goodies” out there to make it as well. Here are some ideas to get us started. I guess this is a belated list of New Year’s resolutions!
- Subscribe to an RSS feed. There is way too much reading from journals, blogs, newspapers, research, etc. to keep up with so you need this Web 2.0 tool to help keep up! If you don’t know how to go about it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU for a tutorial!
- Get a Twitter account and start finding folks of like mind. I actually have a great Twitter feed I have built which is entirely educational related. I learn so much there….when I go to it!! Again, go here for help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0xbjIE8cPM
- For school administrators, send a daily email to your staff with whatever highlights you want to share. The key is to do it every day!!
- Use Google docs for sharing curriculum and instruction ideas, lesson plans, school improvement plans, etc. Google Docs is a great tool and some of your teachers probably already use it. Ask them!
I will be thinking of other ways we can make the shift into the 21st century a sustainable one for those of us who have not been born into it! Stay tuned, and please, share any ideas you may have with me!
