Adventures in Administration

This week's (well, technically now that it is Tuesday, LAST week's prompt) for the #EdublogsClub challenge was to write about a free tool that you enjoy using. It has taken me all week to find time to really reflect on this because my absolute favorite, can't live without and can't work without (yes, they are two separate things--you'll see) tool is the Google Suite. I know several people have shared some of the obvious tools contained in the GSuite so I am going to put forth a few of the lesser known, under-appreciated tools found within the Google domain.  May I present for reflection Google Draw, Google Hangout, Google Calendar (and the cool Calendly site) and Google Keep. Up first, Google Draw . I love the flexibility of Draw for creating colorful flow charts, having students design word maps, collaborate on infographics, create Venn Diagrams, or just present information in a more playful, optically inviting way. If you haven't tried Google Draw, I encour...

I don't know if I would technically say that I am "behind" in the  +TeachThought  #ReflectiveTeacher Blogging Challenge or not.  It is Sunday night and I haven't posted since Thursday.  So in this blog I am going to actually answer three prompts together.  As an administrator, the topics don't always strictly apply.  But I think they can all be adapted.  So this is my adaptaion... Day 12: "How do you envision your teaching changing over the next five years." Day 13: "Name the top edtech tools that you use on a consistent basis in the classroom , and rank them in terms of their perceived (by you) effectiveness." Day 14: "What is feedback for learning and how well do you give it to students." My Changing Role http://goo.gl/ZmeOP3 In thinking first about how my role as an administrator and how education will change over the next five years, I keep coming back to the ever-changing role of technology both in and out of the cla...

Well, here we are with Day 2 of the reflective teacher blogging challenge.  Our topic for today is ed tech.  One of my favorite topics!  This year we have some huge changes with respect to the use of technology on our campus and I am super excited about all of them.  So, in no particular order: 1. we are a BYO-Laptop school this year 2. we are fully using GAFE, including several teachers who are utilizing G+ communities for their classrooms, students who GHO to class because they can't navigate the stairs on crutches (we are an old building so so not have elevators) or because they are home sick 3. every department has ah inventory of iPads to use with their lessons 4. we have a brand new Innovation Lab The newly renovated Innovation Lab!   For me, the Innovation Lab is the biggest learning curve as we are all exploring together.  Later this semester, the entire faculty will be trained in Design Thinking thanks to a number of conversations that I...