Missouri School Boards Association’s 2011 Pre-Conference was themed “Technology Trends in Education.” As a part of the day’s agenda one of Apple’s Distinguished Educators (ADE) Jennifer Magiera shared the innovate practices she is implementing in the Chicago Public School System. Jennifer is the iPad Project Leader/Trainer for CPS, the third largest school system in our ...
Is your school board’s work in the weeds or are you looking from a global perspective? It’s so easy to get off track. For boards of education, it is imperative that the board simply follow the system-wide strategic plan with that plan driving the monthly meetings of the board. So why do boards end up ...
Local school boards meet all around this country in governing our nation’s public schools. Who makes the agenda? In my home state of Georgia, the superintendent and board chair have the responsibility of creating the monthly agenda; each member of the board can additionally request that an item be placed on the agenda. What’s put ...
Is your head in the clouds? It should be. If you are a school administrator or a board member, you may have never heard or thought about “cloud” technology. I mentioned the word the other day in an e-mail and was surprised to hear back that it meant nothing to the recipients. I would respond ...
The Center for Digital Education held nine conferences this spring with a theme “Connecting the Dots” where participants not only heard from experts in the field of demographics but also engaged in roundtable discussion on relevant topics for public education. The conversations at the event in Georgia included professional development strategies for educators, technology planning ...
Planning for accreditation can be an incredibly busy time for any district. Our plates are all full, as the tired saying reminds us, but we needed to collaborate on this extremely important sign and seal of our district work. And as with all things in a school district, working with adults is an excellent opportunity ...
If you’re like me, you’ve attended your fair share of meetings (staff meetings, board meetings, cabinet meetings…you name it.) Most of these meetings have had an agenda but many agendas were just SKELETONS, or basic outlines of the topics that will be presented, discussed or acted upon. So as we’ve had access to technology tools, ...
Over the past two years, I have had the privilege and good fortune to be a part of what I believe to be one of the greatest movements in Georgia history to transform public education. In 2009, the Georgia School Boards Association and the Georgia School Superintendents Association embarked on a journey to bring together ...
NSBA’s FRN Leadership Conference recently closed with a general session featuring speaker Jamie Vollmer. His remarks “Welcome to the Great Conversation: The Role of Associations in Public Support for America’s Public Schools” were right on THE MARK! Jamie shared a story about blueberries…his career included being the president of an ice cream company. At the ...
Over the last two decades I’ve worked with school systems (both administrators and teachers) helping them to more effectively use technology. In most of these cases, this has been in the service of a technology company such as Apple, Promethean or eBOARDsolutions. According to this Edupotia article “Shaping Tech for the Classroom” by Mark Prensky ...
Successful school districts take accountability seriously and strive to cultivate a culture that values continuous improvement. School boards can model their commitment to these ideas by engaging in regular self-evaluation, in addition to completing timely evaluations of their superintendent. With the focus on technology and data collection it is easy to lose sight of the ...
Are you planning for your school system long-term? Strategic plans are a must in today’s education world. We have to decide what we believe, who we are, where we’re going, and how we’ll get there. Who do you bring to the table for this planning? ALL stakeholders. Board members, parents, teachers, principals, central office staff, ...
Riding the Bus Together: Nurturing Collaboration of Technology Services and Curriculum and Instruction More than ever, a school district’s technology services and teaching and learning leadership need to work and plan collaboratively to ensure the instructional goals of a school system are realized and measured. Technology leadership can serve a strategic role in advocating for ...
Education leaders want their districts and schools to be high performing. To do that, leaders recognize that they must create Performance Cultures. But what exactly is does this mean and what do leaders do to create a Performance Culture? Culture, simply defined, means “the way we do things around here.” At Georgia Leadership Institute for ...
A solution to transform public education Last week I had the privilege of being one of three speakers in the TEDx session at the NSBA Technology and Learning Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The first speaker, Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow addressed the importance of listening to students about how they want to learn in ...
With the demands and complexities of public school systems in the 21st century, it is hard to imagine how school districts can continue raising the bar without effective and comprehensive strategic planning. As I talk with people about strategic planning, I typically see people fall into one of two camps. Those who love it and ...