Here is a listing of the links I saved to my Diigo account this week. Enjoy! You can also follow me on Diigo at www.diigo.com/profile/tcmsprincipal
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Sticking With Students: Responding Effectively to Incorrect Answers
Think about sticking with a student to help get the right answer
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14 Tips For Developing “Leadership Presence” » The Glass Hammer
Develop your leadership presence
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By John KeyserQuite frequently in my leadership consulting and coaching practice, I am asked about “leadership presence”, specifically how to increase our “executive presence” or “board room presence”. Coincidently, many of the men and women who bring this up are people whom I believe already do, in fact, have significant leadership presence.
This may not be surprising as we all have some degree of insecurity, that inner voice in our mind that often whispers negative
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”, specifically how to increase our “executive presence” or “board room pre
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Student motivation through engagement & intrinsic rewards | MiddleWeb
Some resources with ideas on student motivation
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– 50 Sites and Apps for Digital Storytelling
English teachers looking for ways to help your kids tell their story? Here are some resources for you
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Are you a true believer in technology integration? Here are some things you should not be doing
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1. Mandate the use of technologies or specific programs
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It does not match their needs.
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It does not do the things they want to do with technology.
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2. Use inadequate, faulty or overzealous web filtering systems that block sites teachers want to use.
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3. Provide inadequate or sloppy tech support systems
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Too often administrators like to brag about the number of iPads or laptops they’ve added, but they failed to hire the support needed to keep those things operating.
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4. Provide inadequate funding.
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5. Fail to provide adequate hardware and/or software.
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6. Purchase hardware or software after a sales pitch rather considering staff needs.
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7. Fail to be enthusiastic about technology use themselves.
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There are many a school leaders who communicate a total lack of enthusiasm or even disdain for technology by their reaction to it.
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8. Refuse to use technology yourself.
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You can’t be a 21st century leader by refusing to be a tech consumer yourself.
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9. Fail to provide training and additional resources needed for tech implementation.
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10. Use test scores as the only measure of successful technology implementation.
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Everything we do and do well cannot be connected to a “higher test score.”
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– Google Apps and Chromebooks Training Resources
Want to learn more about the Chromebooks and how to use them? Here are some excellent resources
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Here are some GREAT resources for math teachers
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Rewordify.com: Understand what you read
Very valuable and easy tool for English teachers
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Here are some great resources for virtual field trips you can take with your students
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– Top 100 Sites and Apps of 2013
A review of some gray apps and sites for teachers
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Takeaways from Math Methods: How Will You Teach Effectively? | Edutopia
Even if you are not a PST (Pre-Service Teacher) these are some good things to think about when planning lessons
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1. Helping Students Doesn’t Mean Showing Them How
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2. If You Don’t Ask Students to Think, They Won’t
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3. Plan with Each Student in Mind
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5 Ideas To Bring Parents Into The Learning Process | The Principal of Change
Involving parents is critical in student success
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Here are some ways that we can build strong connections with the parents in our school communities:
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1. Use what the kids use
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If we can connect using mediums (blogs, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) that our students use, not only are we building an understanding and instructional leadership within our schools, but we are familiarizing our parents with many of the tools that their children will be using.
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2. Have an open mind
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You may not have all parents excited about the changes that are happening in school, but they are out there. You have to find them which leads into the next point.
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3. Tap into parent leadership
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One thing that we have to realize is that parents are more likely to listen to other parents.
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What is imperative is that we connect with parents that have a voice with others and get their feedback on new initiatives.
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4. Focus on open communication
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5. Create learning opportunities
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3 Questions To Guide Your Vision | The Principal of Change
Some great ideas on enveloping your vision
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“What will be your fingerprint on this school after you leave?”
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What is the vision for the work that I am doing and how am I making that vision come true?
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We can easily say things like “I want students to be engaged”, but what does that really mean and look like.
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How am I building capacity and connecting others in this position?
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Great leaders create other great leaders.
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What will be my “fingerprint” after I leave?
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To show credibility, especially in the area of education, it is imperative that you lead by example, as well as work with students.
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Building Technology Fluency: Preparing Students to be Digital Learners | Edutopia
Here are some steps to help students become tech fluent
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how much time is devoted to the development of their technology fluency?
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a student with technology fluency navigates programs or apps quickly, completing tasks correctly and deliberately.
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technology fluency, a student not only navigates within a single environment, but also begins to “demonstrate an ability to make effective choices and use the tools to advance their understanding and communication”
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ultimate sign of technology fluency is the “ability to manipulate, transform and move information across various media and platforms”
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A non-fluent student may be proficient in a single program or app, but not automatically see the connections to other content areas or different contexts.
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3 Strategies for Building Technology Fluency
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1. Flip (10) Your Lessons
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2. Create Scaffolded Challenges
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These steps gave them enough scaffolding to get started and then teach themselves how to finish the project.
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students would collaborate among themselves to navigate the rest of the challenge. By not providing students with specific steps, they learned to read menu items, access help, search for tutorials and become effective problem solvers, taking critical steps towards fluency.
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3. Empower Student Leaders
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Project-Based Learning vs. Problem-Based Learning vs. X-BL | Edutopia
Interesting and informative article on what the differences are between problem and project based learning.
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They feature, to varying degrees, all of BIE’s 8 Essential Elements of PBL
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Other X-BLs are so named because they use a specific context for learning, such as a particular place or type of activity.
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- Presentation of an “ill-structured” (open-ended, “messy”) problem
- Problem definition or formulation (the problem statement)
- Generation of a “knowledge inventory” (a list of “what we know about the problem” and “what we need to know”)
- Generation of possible solutions
- Formulation of learning issues for self-directed and coached learning
- Sharing of findings and solutions
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5 Social Networks For Students To Get Academic Help – Edudemic
Some great resources for your students to help them academically
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5 Tips for Managing Mobile Devices in the Classroom | Catlin Tucker, Honors English Teacher
We need to stop treating these devices as nuisances and start USING them as tools. They are here to stay.
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4 senses of character-based leadership | SmartBlogs SmartBlogs
How does your leadership incorporate these traits?
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4 senses of character-based leadership
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Without accomplishment, there is no need for a leader. Leadership implies motion. Motion without direction is wasted.
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Sense of mission:
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Sense of urgency:
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If there is no urgency, if the thing can be done “whenever,” then there is little need for leadership.
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Sense of responsibility: Responsibility is the understanding not only that something must be done, but also that you must do it.
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Sense of service: If your mission serves only yourself or a small crowd, you have no chance of becoming a great leader.
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Winning When the Troops are Tired – Let’s Grow Leaders
Especially after the Holidays, some goo strategies to help you troops
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Be a leader that strengthen the mission AND the team. It’s wrong to live in a state of constant urgency, if that’s the scene, something’s wrong.
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1. Strategize Failure
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Be frank about what can be lost without sacrificing your mission. Candor strengthens resolve.
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2. Visualize the Win
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Encourage talents outside normal job descriptions that support the cause.
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3. Speak to behaviors, not metrics
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identify the 2-3 most important behaviors that will impact results.
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4. Provide a little leave
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Eliminate unnecessary meetings. Stepping back will leave room for creativity and more efficient approaches.
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5. Communicate through the ranks
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You may not even know they’re tired. Initiate the conversation.
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6. Manage your own stress
Stress rolls down hill. Get a grip.
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7. Encourage collaboration and sharing best practices
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7 Hats Principals Must Be Prepared to Wear | Connected Principals
What would you add to tho list?
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1. Coach
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Someone has to make the final call, and as the principal, that will often be you.
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Coaches also set the tone, cast the vision, or help motivate their teams to action.
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2. Manager
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School leadership is much more than management, but it is still an important part of it.
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3. Counselor
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But I have learned the importance of giving my attention to someone in need, providing them feedback, and helping them find solutions.
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4. On Duty
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5. Chief Communicator
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Here are a few ways I try to keep communication clear:
a. Be present and visible.
b. Follow up meetings with email summaries.
c. Email parents and teachers in group emails with school updates.
d. When someone is upset, call or see in person if possible.
e. Send photos and updates to your local media outlets.
f. Create a school newsletter so great events are published to a wider audience. -
6. Servant-Leader
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7. Team Player
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principal must remember he is not working alone. You are surrounded by teachers, students, or staff members who are talented, intelligent and creative.
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Some ways to increase student engagement through questioning skills
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Doing Less, Leading More – Ed Batista – Harvard Business Review
As educational leaders, we need to make sure we are LEADING
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Our first accomplishments as professionals are usually rooted in our skill as individual contributors. In most fields we add value in the early stages of our careers by getting things done.
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Instead simply doing more, sustaining our success as leaders requires us to redefine how we add value.
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Continuing to rely on our abilities as individual contributors greatly limits what we actually contribute and puts us at a disadvantage to peers who are better able to mobilize and motivate others. In other words we need to do less and lead more.
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How is your customer service?
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We are all selling the same Oreos. We all are offering our students a basic education, that will hopefully allow them to lead the lives that they desire.
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1) Welcome Everyone in a Friendly Manne
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feel like that the school is a place where they feel comfortable and want to return to again and again, not a place of anxiety and dread.
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2) Anticipate Need and Escort to Item
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if I see a parent in the hallway, I stop and ask them if I can help them. If they are looking for an office, or a teacher, I walk with them.
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3) Handle Special Requests Promptly
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With a great customer service, everything about the school becomes
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Are You a Leader or Manager? | Connected Principals
Which one are you, manager or leader?
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Doing things the way you’ve always done them is not going to vault you to a new status; it will maintain your current status. As a matter of fact, maintaining while others around you vault forward, relatively speaking, equates to falling behind.
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A Principal's Life 