Top LYS Tweets from the Week of March 13, 2011

Consider jogging. When I was in high school I used to jog in the same tennis shoes I wore for every day messing around. I wore a pair of workout shorts that they issued to the football players and a T-shirt was optional. In college, I added a Sony Walkman. After college, the T-Shirt became mandatory, but not much else changed for years, except swapping the Walkman for ever smaller I-Pods. But in the past 2 years a lot has changed. Now I wear lightweight, breathable shoes that perfectly match my feet and gait. My socks are ultra low cut, lightweight and blister resistant. My running shorts are made of ultra-light, chafe resistant fabric. My T-shirt is vented, blocks UV rays and wicks moisture. And my I-phone plays my music; maps my route; tracks my distance, time, pace, elevation change, calories burned, running history; and talks to me. Remember, this is just jogging. Imagine what new technologies can do in our classrooms and schools. Consider this your weekly reminder to embrace bootleg technology, before the world jogs past us.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter. If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us. To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of March 13^th, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. Morning run thought: My morale is higher after the run than before or during.

2. Life turns on random adversity and opportunity. The best constantly prepare for both. Everyone else alternates between being surprised and coasting.

3. The goal is not more classroom time. The goal is more time on task. The first does not guarantee the second. The second requires leadership, a system, and monitoring.

4. LYS Easy Instructional Improvement Tip: Implement a March thru May Movie Moratorium

5. The problem with the class size argument is that bad instruction is bad instruction. Class size impacts an effective teacher much more than an ineffective one.

6. The problem with the “pretty school facility is a waste of taxpayer money” argument. Ugly and pretty cost about the same to build.

7. I would counter argue that pretty schools are better for property values than ugly schools (just my opinion).

8. If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I think I would rather be friendless.

9. The difference between rapidly improving schools and everyone else. Everyone else talks about what should be done and what won't work. Improvers just do.

10. Texas will modify the school fiscal rating system so as not to penalize schools for Governor's mistake. Bond rating agencies not to be so generous.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

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