Top LYS Tweets from the Week of January 15, 2012

I was talking to a group of teachers about using bootleg technology in their classrooms. As a group they were open to idea but there was one universal factor that was holding them back. They were waiting for the district to buy the equipment. The consensus opinion was, “I can’t wait to integrate all this new stuff, but if I’m going to use technology at work, the district needs to provide it.”

As I told the group, I agree that it would be nice if the district gave them each an I-pad. But even if the district was willing, the most prudent thing they could do is say “No” and still buy their own.

If you are asking why (like they were), you are obviously new to the blog, so I will give you the short version of a long answer.

The power of bootleg technology is how portable it is, how powerful it is, and how it seamlessly integrates into all facets of your life. And there is the rub. On my I-phone and I-pad I have everything I am currently listening to and reading. I could also download everything I want to watch (I need to use my Netflix account or cancel it). Right now as I type this I am listening to an unedited version of a popular song (the singer seems to be somewhat angry and obviously desires some female companionship). I have a thriller that I am reading that includes murder, profanity, drug smuggling and again, the successful pursuit of female companionship by the protagonist. If I used my Netflix account, I know that some of the movies that I want to see are rated “R.” I take my I-pad and I-phone everywhere I go, but that is OK, because I own it.

But let’s say I work for a school and the school owns my I-Pad. I know I would not download the movies, that’s an obvious no-brainer. But my music would end up on the device, and honestly I never know which version of the song I’m buying (radio or uncut) so that is always a gamble. I would have what I’m reading on the device and honestly I don’t know if and when the action in a work of fiction will become mature. Still you might think this isn’t a big deal because you aren’t going to let your students use your device. But it’s not the students I’m worried about. It’s the crazy parent, community member or colleague. Because when the school owns the device, everything on it is public information. So you are minding your own business, working hard, teaching kids and the local nut case wants to prove how lazy, immoral and wasteful educators are and makes a public information request of what content is loaded on the district I-pads that teachers use. This information will be used out of context, but it doesn’t matter. Now you have to prove you aren’t sexist and profane with questionable morals. Or you can simply own the tools that make you more productive.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own 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 January 15, 2012, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. Tom Bean Middle School named National School to Watch. World Class School - World Class Practice!

2. Great Definition of Critical Writing: A Planned Prompt That Focuses and Connects Thinking.

3. More education increases IQ scores. Yet people still think that how we teach doesn't matter.

4. Unless you are better at scheduling emergencies than I am, the part-time nurse option seems like a huge gamble.

5. LYS Principal quote: "I would never compare monkeys to politicians. I like monkeys.

6. Marble Falls MS had another awesome training day on the Fundamental 5 with Sean Cain of the LYS Nation! Sean does an excellent job of modeling the Fundamental 5! (By @principalschu)

7. Article states, "NCLB's Promise Falls Short." Why is this a surprise when the majority of our field either ignored or fought it?

8. Every teacher who claims students don't respond to recognition & reinforcement can't be more wrong.

9. Prepping "Fundamental 5 for Parents" training. Here's to focused school/home partnerships!

10. I'm reading Sean's book now (The Fundamental 5) in advance of his visit to our region in February. Looking forward to implementing some ideas at our high school. (By @tlonganecker)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Upcoming 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of April 10, 2011

Technology is changing by the minute. The rule use to be that the brand new laptop computer you bought today was already six months obsolete. Now laptops are obsolete. Just this week, while I was a passenger in a vehicle driving 70 miles an hours on a freeway between cities, I used my USB cellular card in a notebook computer to participate in a Skype videoconference with a group in the Ukraine. It was as clear as if I was sitting at the table with the group. And it was free.

At this point, the ability to keep up with advancements in technology applications is too much for one busy educator. The solution is to empower everyone on your campus to looks for ways to leverage the power of technology. And by everyone, I mean students, teachers and administrators. The collective will identify and implement what works, faster than any one individual. Embrace bootleg technology now.

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 April 10^th 2011, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. At Abell Junior High - Ms Heronema’s ELA class is on fire. 5 for 5 on the Fundamental 5!

2. At Abell Junior High - Real world, real time relevance in an English class. Ms. Worster is CRAZY!!!

3. Dale Mitchell, the principal at Hutto Middle School entered the 75,000th observation into the PowerWalks system today!

4. Late to start, quick to finish instruction is the biggest self-inflicted wound to teacher effectiveness.

5. If the pace of change to your practice is best measured in calendar years, your status as an expert is suspect.

6. Great audience in Central Texas. They were floored by the one-year improvement in instruction that we are witnessing at MISD junior high schools.

7. The hidden benefit of the Foundation Trinity is that it exposes lazy actors at all levels in the system.

8. In business effective bullying can substitute for leadership for a long time. Less so, in school leadership.

9. Why are teacher certifications critical (NCLB highly qualified requirements), but exemptions and waivers for politically appointed education leaders are the norm?

10. Why do politicians target the poor, mentally ill, infirm and kids for budget cuts? Those groups don't vote or contribute to re-election campaigns.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Coming Soon! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" www.TheFundamentalFive.com

Attend the LYS presentations this summer at TASSP, TASB, and TEPSA.

Top LYS Tweets from the Last Week

Embrace bootleg technology. You will be hearing that from me a lot in the upcoming months. If fact, I was asked this past week (and accepted) to lead an additional session at the June TASSP conference addressing this very topic. LYS’ers we need to get in front of this. Bootleg technology will be a game changer.

So who activated a Twitter account last week? If you did, welcome aboard. If you didn’t, find a student and have them help you set yours up. To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of February 20^th, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. Thoughts while at Stanford: Prior generations sacrificed for the greater good. This generation takes and wants more. Where is the leadership?

2. Embracing bootleg technology means that schools need to rethink cell phone policy. Not that the policies were well thought out to begin with.

3. If mandatory union dues were re-directed to fund health and pension benefits, what would be the effect on the education budget deficits?

4. The fallacy of swapping teachers in a low performing school is that it ignores the issues of providing infrastructure support.

5. Still don’t understand the pure hate for NCLB. I for one take pride in all of my students performing above the expectations of other schools.

6. Improving school performance by changing the mix of kids is shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Bad instruction remains bad instruction.

7. I don’t want to say the school discipline policies show favoritism, but overall, students with connections and means face fewer consequences.

8. It’s not news that many early college high school grads go to college. That’s why they exist. Like reporting many Exxon station customers buy gas.

9. Hate the fact that many (majority?) of educators still believe that we need to fight NCLB. I believe being held accountable is good for all.

10. When Texas districts start cutting athletics, state senators and representatives will have a difficult time getting re-elected.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Reflections on Phoenix

Another NASSP Conference in the books. Attendance was a little lighter than I expected, but budgets are tight. Overall, I thought the presentations were of exceptional quality and of course, any time you get a group of school leaders together, the conversations were lively. Here are some of my reflections and observations, in no particular order.

1. Downtown Phoenix is clean and easy to get around.

2. The sunrises in Phoenix are breathtaking.

3. I’m disappointed with the on-going hatred for NCLB. It’s not perfect, but holding ourselves accountable for educating our students is good for our profession and good for our students. What I like to ask the opponents of NCLB is this, “Have you already pre-selected the children who you are going to leave behind?”

4. I think that one of the central messages of NASSP’s executive leadership is misguided. If you listen to Tirozzi, you would think that this is the absolute worst time to be a principal. I vehemently disagree. This is the best time ever to be a principal. The tools, practices and research that are available to us now are opening up undiscovered areas of teaching and learning on a daily basis. The fact that we now know when we aren’t effectively reaching our students actually speeds up our innovation curves. If that doesn’t excite you, quit griping and just retire.

5. Next time you are in Phoenix, make a special trip to Donavan’s Steaks and Chops. It is ranked in the top ten steak houses in the U.S. and the ranking is deserved.

6. The shortest conversation Don and I had with a principal was probably the most honest. She came looking for us because she had heard we had a great “program” for her students. She quickly pointed out and she and her teachers were all top notch and were doing a good job. It was her students that weren’t performing. We told her that we work under the philosophical premise that adult practice drives student performance. We then told her we don’t have a “program,” we coach adults in more effective practices. She looked at the two of us for a second and said, “I don’t want to work that hard.” Then she turned on her heels and left.

7. The LYS “Talk Like a Genius” cards are a huge hit.

8. My favorite conversation was with a teacher who was attending the conference for the first time. She said, “What I find most shocking is that all these principals actually go to the sessions. At the teacher conferences there are more people in the hallways than in the rooms.”

9. A quick shout out to our friends in Splendora ISD, Pflugerville ISD, and Cypress-Fairbanks ISD who found us at the conference. And a quick hello to all the new subscribers to the LYS Blog. Give it three weeks and it will all start to make sense.

Finally, if you didn’t attend the conference this year, start making plans for next year, now. The conference will be held in San Francisco next February and LYS will be on the front row.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Schaper Wisdom Commentary)

In response to "Schaper’s Wisdom," a reader writes:

“Having served six years in the charter school system working with students seriously at-risk of never achieving high school graduation with a diploma or G.E.D. because history has not been fair to them in and out of the classroom, I have come to look at NCLB with a certain relational resolve that says, "If No Child Left Behind is to be successful, we must Know the Child being Left Behind before they are left behind."

1. This forces us to be proactive earlier and with greater diligence to student learning needs, styles and goals.

2. Whenever we get the students, we must assess not only their content knowledge, but their skill knowledge for learning. Understanding their capacity to learn is one thing, empowering that capacity to its fullest is critical.

3. Lastly, if there isn't a serious effort to connect student-learner and instructional learner in a shared learning experience, success will be difficult. Connecting early builds opportunities for life-long learning success in and out of the classroom.”

SC Response
I can’t argue with the writer and the resolve he talks about is a great kick off discussion for the start of every school.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...