My first ed chat...

I'm excited to share ed chat with you. Yesterday, Castleberry ISD leadership participated in our first ed chat. The Twitter chat can be followed on Mondays at 3:30 CST using #cisdedchat. We discussed the following, my answers to each question are below the question:

Q1: Share with us your favorite quote about leadership.
A1: "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader". John Quincy Adams

Q2:What is the ONE technology tool/resource that you have discovered that you want used in your classrooms and why?
A2: I'd like students to use various web 2.0 tools in context with learning. The students are comfortable if done regularly.

Q3: How will you get staff to engaged in building their PLN to facilitate blended learning in the classroom?
A3: Share our PLN's with them. They will do what we do, not what we tell them to do.

Q4: What skills do digital-age leaders need to possess or acquire?
A4: Visionary Leadership.. look beyond what we are doing in schools right now.

Q5: Share the link to your blog with the group.
A5: digitalhighschool.blogspot.com 

Q6: please share your thoughts about the chat
A6: Thoughts: I liked the discussion. We covered a lot of info in a short amount of time.

Again, please plan on joining in on our chat next Monday at 3:30 pm CST.

College Road Trip

I have two sons entering their senior year of high school this Fall, so we've spent the past week touring colleges. The trip took me across five states in eight days. If you've ever toured a campus you know that having walking shoes on is a must; we probably walked over 15 miles total. My wife and sons were sore and we were all glad the trip was over. I'm not sure we found the college for them, but we did omit many that aren't the right fit.

What surprised me the most was the lack of technology I saw at these prestigious universities. I fully expected to gain many new insights, see cutting edge technology, bring back these ideas to my campus; however, besides computer labs with wireless printing anywhere on campus, nothing I saw was more advanced than what we have at Castleberry ISD. In fact, the technology we are using in the high school classrooms is in many ways more advanced than that of the classrooms at the college level. I am sure the labs at the college level utilize more technology, but the regular classrooms mirror our classrooms before we infused technology many years ago.