TechRadar released their list of the best Chromebooks of 2015. This list is from the perspective of an individual consumer. Expectations of Chromebooks change when thinking about using them in the educational environment. I have adjusted TechRadar’s top 5 by to be viewed through the educational lens: #1 - Dell Chromebook 11 CPU: 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Celeron Bay Trail-M N2840 | Graphics: Intel HD for Intel Celeron processors | RAM: 4GB RAM (DDR3L, 1,600Mhz) | Screen: 11.6-inch HD, 1366 x 768 touchscreen |Storage: 16GB SSD | Optical drive: none |Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0; 802.11ac (B/G/N), dual-band Wi-Fi | Camera: 720p webcam | Weight: 2.91 pounds Dimensions: 12.6 x 8.4 x 0.76 inches Current Price: $215 The Dell Chromebook 11 was specifically built with the educational market in mind and it shows. The price point, rugged design, and hardware specs make this the go to laptop for education in 2015. Some reviews have knocked this Chromebook for have a small keyboard, but this is less of a drawback when thinking about elementary and middle school age children. Be aware that not all models are touchscreen. 3 Way Tie between: This second tier all have a mix of positives and negatives. They are definitely worth your consideration as they mix good price points with differing features, but in each case they slip behind the Dell. Acer Chromebook 15 C910 CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i5-5200 dual-core processor | Graphics: Intel HD 5500 Graphics with shared memory | RAM: 4 GB, DDR3L SDRAM | Screen: 15.6-inch full HD (1,920 x 1,080) | Storage: 32GB SSD | Optical drive: none | Connectivity:802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi | Camera: 720p HD webcam |Weight: 4.85 poundsDimensions: 1.0 x 15.1 x 10.1 inches (H x W x D) Current Price: $305 Asus Chromebook Flip CPU: 1.8GHz Rockchip 3288-C (quad-core, 1MB cache) | Graphics: ARM Mali T624 | RAM: 2GB LPDDR3 SDRAM | Screen: 10.1-inch, WXGA (1,280 x 800) IPS multi-touch display | Storage: 16GB eMMC | Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 | Camera: 720p HD webcam | Weight: 1.96 pounds |Dimensions: 10.6 x 7.2 x 0.60 inches (W x D x H) Current Price: $239   Lenovo N20p Chromebook CPU: 1.83 GHZ Intel Celeron Processor N2930 | Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics | RAM: 2GB PC3-10600 DDR3L 1333 MHz | Screen: 11.6″ HD (1366 x 768) dsplay with 10-point multitouch | Storage: 16GB eMMC storage | Optical drive: none | Connectivity: Bluetooth® 4.0, 802.11 a/c WiFi | Camera: 720p webcam | Weight: 2.86 lbs Dimensions: 11.6″ x 8.34″ x 0.70″ Current Price: $275   #5 - Google Chromebook Pixel 2015 CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i5-5200U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.7GHz with turbo boost) | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500 | RAM: 8GB DDR3 | Screen: 12.85-inch 2,560 x 1,700 IPS touchscreen display | Storage: 32GB SSD | Optical drive:none | Connectivity: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260; Bluetooth 4.0 LE |Camera: 720p HD wide angle camera with blue glass | Weight: 3.3 poundsDimensions: 11.7 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches (W x D x H) Current Price: $1144 At a current price of $1144 this is the most expensive option on the list. While this is best laptop from a pure power perspective, when looking to scale to a classroom set or district 1:1 this is not a realistic laptop for most districts. We have said this before, but remember if you are looking to rollout Chromebooks in your district you should always get the "white glove" service. This service means you provide the vendor your network information and your Chromebooks are ready to deploy the moment they arrive at your district. Are you using any of these Chromebooks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. If you are interested in TechRadar’s review grab it here. The post 5 Best Chromebooks of 2015 for Education appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

The NCCE Board of Directors will have three positions opening in 2015. Each position is a three-year term that will continue to help NCCE grow within the vision of being the leader for innovative professional learning. NCCE is looking for leaders to represent our 4000+ members and continue to focus on the organization’s mission to lead, engage and assist educational communities to reach higher levels of student and educator success through the use of 21st Century technology. Positions available include: ESD Representative K-12 District Technology Representative At Large Representative You can get a job description for these positions in the NCCE Bylaws. The current Board of Directors is asking our members for nominations for one or all of the available positions. To nominate someone, please fill out this brief survey about your nominee. To nominate someone, please fill out this short form. Please share this information for others.  We seek all voices to represent members on our Board of Directors! All nominations must be submitted no later than November 30, 2015. The post Wanted: Nominees for the NCCE Board of Directors! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

Amazon Web Service Educate Program offers institutions, educators, and students free access to collaboration tools, content, training, and cloud based hosting: With the dramatically increasing demand for cloud employees, AWS Educate provides an academic gateway for the next generation of IT and cloud professionals. AWS Educate is Amazon’s global initiative to provide students and educators with the resources needed to greatly accelerate cloud-related learning endeavors and to help power the entrepreneurs, workforce, and researchers of tomorrow. AWS Educate: Program Benefits Access cloud content, training, collaboration tools, and AWS technology at no cost by joining AWS Educate today. Educators Students AWS Credits (annually renewable) $200/educator - at member institutions $75/educator - at non-member institutions $100/student - at member institutions $35/student - at non-member institutions AWS Training Free access to labs Free AWS Technical Essentials eLearning course 50% off instructor-led training provided by AWS in the United States, Brazil or Japan 50% off AWS certification exams Free access to labs Curated Content Free access to AWS content for classes Free access to content contributed by leading educators Free access to AWS content for homework, labs, or self-study Collaboration Tools Educator Collaboration Portal access Virtual and in-person events Contribute and rate content Private and public discussion forums Provide feedback on AWS Educate Student Portal access Virtual and in-person event to gather information, share best practices, and network Provide feedback on AWS Educate   The post AWS Educate Program appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

FEATURED STORY Uncover the Origins of the Mayflower Compact Discover why most of the Mayflower’s male passengers signed a historic agreement. In September 1620, religious dissenters, called "Separatists" by their detractors, were joined aboard the Mayflower by other English colonists recruited by the project’s financial backers. Many of these newcomers did not share the Separtists’ religious zeal. The ship set sail for America at a time of year when Atlantic storms were perilous. The Mayflower made landfall 66 days later. With tensions threatening to divide the passengers, a social compact was drafted and signed before going ashore. All who signed would submit to the government created, officers elected, and laws drafted.  View Resource RECOMMENDED RESOURCES All About the Holidays: Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a day for us to remember what we’re thankful for. Help your class uncover the history behind the holiday with this short video. It’s a great way to kick off a lesson on Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, early American history, and more! View Resource Crash Course: Chemistry Chemistry can tell us how three tiny particles- the proton, neutron, and electron- come together in trillions of combinations to form everything. Check out the entire Crash Course chemistry collection and discover a fun new way to teach chemistry through the pioneering efforts of brothers John and Hank Green. View Collection No Nonsense Grammar Explore a range of commonly taught grammar principles for early elementary and middle-schoolers with these fun videos and activities. From the difference between dependent and independent clauses to the correct usage of semicolons, let these resources guide you through the interactives (and perils!) of everyday grammar. View Collection NEWS Time is Running Out! Enter the Get Your Tech On Sweepstakes Today! Get Your Tech On with PBS LearningMedia! Explore resources and upcoming PD webinars designed to help you find new ways to use technology in the classroom. Don’t forget to enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win cool, tech-themed prizes! Enter Now Teacher Tools Tip: Using the Quiz Maker Create a simple assessment for your class in a snap! The Quiz Maker tool allows you to create a simple quiz using multiple choice, fill in the blank, and short answer questions. Learn More The post Thanksgiving History with PBS LearningMedia appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

We are thrilled to announce that this year’s NCCE conference in Seattle will feature the Digital Bug and Tech-Savvy Teacher NCCE Summit featuring Google for Education! Now months in the planning, the NCCE Summit will include speakers popular trainers from around the West that specialize on using Google’s amazing suite of tools to up the game of tech-savvy teachers and students alike.  Details appear below.  Keep an eye on the Tech-Savvy Teacher blog for interviews with organizers and speakers.  See you in Seattle in February! The post Coming to NCCE in February: the NCCE Google Summit! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

One of the biggest member events of the year starts Monday, December 7th! You must register to win. To show NCCE’s appreciation of educators throughout the Northwest they will be giving away one prize every day for 10 days. Winners will be randomly drawn and announced on social media. This year’s giveaways include: AVer Document Cameras AVer Charging Lockers Casio Projector Califone Bluetooth Speakers ASUS Chromebook Hitachi Projectors SWIVL Lecture Capture Robot Click on the graphic below to register to win! The post 10 Days of Giving is Back! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

Articulate announced their Guru Contest 2015 last month, and the closing date is getting near.  Elearning Laboratory in conjunction with Perfect Performance Training have built an entry for this years competition.  I thought it would be fun to set up a countdown for the last 9 days of the competition. Once the countdown hits zero we will post out entry for everyone to see.  To anyone who wants to enter, go for it and good luck!   The post Articulate Guru Contest 2015 appeared first on The Elearning Laboratory.

I was really excited and honoured to find out that the Elearning Laboratory won gold in the Articulate Guru 2015 contest.  Although I hoped I had a chance of winning a prize, the more examples I saw posted online the more my hopes started to fade, and felt gold was out of reach. The file for this course has already been shared online so you can see how the course functions.  In this post I want to take the opportunity to show how the course was designed, the process that it went through and the sweat, blood and tears that turned my hair grey (well greyer). Introduction If you want a breakdown of how it was built technically, this is not that article and I make no apologies for that. The Idea… I wanted to build a game but also wanted to ensure that there were strong instructional design principles behind the design (I will go into this later) This was not the first course that was planned to be entered for the Guru 2015, I originally planned to build a course on sun awareness for kids (and have planned to do this for the last two Guru awards) for reasons I won’t go into this was shelved and I needed to come up with an idea.  I train regularly in the martial arts of the ninja and have an interest in the history of the ninja, that coupled with a course that I built last year for a client gave me the basis of an idea and Enter the Ninja was born. The main aim of my design was not to use traditional navigation and to nudge the user in the right direction. The Master of this modern Dojo … the Design For most of my courses I will do all of the design work, however I knew at the beginning of this I would need an illustrator to help me out.  To get the images I needed  I wrote a rough storyboard in Storyline and added images I got from the internet, almost as a mood board, to give Laura an idea of what I was after, Laura is brilliant at interpreting what I needed and never had to send one image back for correction. I would also like to say that some of my descriptions of assets I needed and how the needed to be provided were overly complicated and Laura helped (particularly in the Release the Water challenge) to reduce my workload and produce a streamlined design. Simplified Design much better than my plan! (Is that an easter egg) The course The deadline for entries was fast approaching, the plan was to create a course with 4 Mini-games and a final test. After completing the storyboard it was obvious that I did not have time to create 5 interactions (Fact! In the storyboard I only had 3 ideas for the mini-game and these made it into the final design).  The Five interactions were whittled down to three, Escape the Room (this already existed from a previous challenge and just needed rebranding) , Shuriken and Release the Water.  Now with a cut down design it was time to start building. Introduction Screen Instructional Design Although this is definitely a game, there are instructional design elements that I would urge my clients to use in their courses, the main body of the game are the mini games, and I would see this as the assessment in a course, it is my belief that you can pass the assessment in most courses you should not need to view the instructional element, in this game if you fail any of the assessments you are passed to a screen where the master shows a video of the game being completed.  This way the learning is reinforced and you are then offered the opportunity to take the assessment again. Instructional Video The Build The initial build took about two days and the base course as you see it now existed in a playable form at this point, I am not saying it was without bugs but it was functional enough to send out to a few people for feedback and testing.  I used a group of trusted developers, colleagues and friends to test my version 1 and got lots of positive feedback but also lots of corrections/criticisms/ideas sent back and for those I am eternally grateful and owe each and everyone of you a pint (at least). Submit After V1 I tweaked and fixed elements of the game, at this point I should probably describe my development process, I generally use the rapid development process and continually refine and redefine my design as the review process continues.  For this course the same thing happened. Graphics got replaced timing got sorted out, fonts got changed and colours were tweaked. Eventually one week before the course was due to be submitted the course it was completed and I could focus again on my clients work. How wrong was I… A couple of things happened to change this and also helped make the course better because of it.  They both happened  because of my children.  I had been working long shifts to be able to complete this and my other work,  I found was building this course late into the evenings whilst my children were around,  one day Thomas my eldest asked if he could play the final version, of course I said "yes". I watched him whilst he played the game intrigued to see how intuitive it was. Immediately I noticed that he was clicking on things that I didn’t expect him to (which is where the plan for the easter eggs came from) I learnt a lot from watching him play and refined a lot of the experiences from this real world test. As soon as Thomas wanted to play so did Holly my youngest again I said yes and this changed the game for the better, two things happened, Holly was disappointed that the Ninja was male, and she also struggled with Shuriken challenge (as the control was keyboard and mouse driven).  Two fixes immediately came to mind one was to add in branching based on age (to make some challenges easier) and also to change the Ninja based on their Sex. In this game if you are under seven the shuriken game is a click and pop game instead of a keyboard based interaction. Your Profile The Easter Eggs I was acutely aware that the course was now only three games long, after watching Thomas I added in 3 easter eggs (one in each game).  I will not ruin the experience for you, but to make it easier I added in an easter egg icon so you know where they are, to view the easter egg itself you must do something more than click on the egg though.  The easter eggs themselves were demos and examples I had previously built, some needed so additional work to match the aspect ratio, otherwise they are unchanged. Very last minute (just before submitting) I added in a final easter egg (Paint the Fence) this is hidden but can be found with perseverence. Submitted With only three days left the game was fully tested and fully built, there were a number of refinements added to again maintain interest, such as a badge system tied to the final certificate. More progress bars and a running ninja, The course was submitted before the deadline and the result is now history. Overall As in every project the final outcome was not the one I originally storyboarded, I always say that all good developments come from a collaborative approach, in this case my reviewers and children made this more than I hoped for and as such, I am indebted to everyone who helped review it and give feedback. I love the Guru competition it is probably the only competition where you are judged on how you use the tool rather than the content (although I am sure that helps) I have now submitted three entries (Unplaced, Bronze, Gold) and I am already planning for the next one perhaps it will be the sun awareness course. Congratulation to everyone who entered! Want us to develop your next course? get in touch. Share this entryShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google+Share on PinterestShare on LinkedinShare by Mail The post Going for Gold! appeared first on The Elearning Laboratory.

I have mentioned that I am impressed with my school this year. I enjoy being in a place where most teachers respect and have concern for others. This year we filled out a rubric to see if kids qualify for Foreign Language in 8th grade. My big problem with the rubric is that it tends to put all the good kids in Foreign Language and all the bad kids in Reading. That is not a good combination. I raised a question about it, and although those who I asked seemed to say, "Well, we know more about the situation than you, so stop making waves" they were supportive after I persisted in expressing my concerns. It led to some quick changes to the rubric, and they were able to change things to be better. I suggested we have an application for the students to fill out that would help them decide if Foreign Languages were right for them. This is what it looks like. I am glad that these teachers and counselors are willing to work together to come up with something that is hopefully better.

Right now it just looks like an alien.

Last year, May 2010, I walked during lunch at work and rode my bike after work, some days. I also weighed about 250 pounds. In 2010, I rode 700 miles on my bike and I was pretty proud of myself. I rode 300 miles in 2009. So far this year, I have ridden over 400 miles; close to halfway to my goal of 1000 miles this year. I am down to 215 pounds now, and I feel great. This has been a good year. See the full gallery on Posterous

I think I am a pretty smart guy, but when it comes to things dealing with medicine, I realize that I am way out of my league. I try to be aware of what is going on, often struggle mightily understanding what doctors are talking about. So, there are two parts to this asking the right questions. 1. Ask the right questions as a patient. For me, I need to ask questions about the things the doctors are saying. So, while I sit here with my daughter in the Emergency room trying to figure out what is wrong with her, I am asking a lot about what they are saying so I can better understand what is going on and so that I can relay that back to my wife who is with the other kids at home. It is the first time I have tried so hard to understand what is going on. Usually, I just trust what the doctors say, but today, I am trying to really understand it. 2. Asking the right questions when you are trying to help someone. There is a stark contrast between the resident and the head ER doctor. The resident was asking questions about this situation (bloody stool) while the head doctor was asking about other aspects of my daughter's health. It was fascinating to see how connecting a couple more dots. As of right now, we still don't know anything. But, I could tell the doctor was trying to puzzle it out. The resident asked a couple questions that led to a specific diagnosis and settled on that. The head doctor didn't agree with that diagnosis because there was something missing. That led her to ask questions about other areas of my daughter's health. It didn't lead to a diagnosis, but it almost ruled out another. The real question is, what are the right questions? That, I don't know the answer to, but here is one idea of how this applies to education. If I ask one of my teachers how I can help her, she will never tell me what she needs. If, however, I recognize a need (by being thorough in my questions to her) and then offer specific help on that area, she will be much more likely to accept it. Have a Good Life.

In the most recent episode of the Entreleadership Podcast, Christy Wright interviews Steven M.R. Covey about trust. Trust is an unseen force that is contagious. It can spread like wildfire. So can it's foil, distrust. Everything that you do as a leader builds trust or builds distrust. I've learned some important things about trust that were reinforced by listening to that podcast episode. Here are my seven tips for building trust. Positive Intentions. As we learned in TP11 with Melinda Miller, it is very powerful to assume positive intentions. I've written about story lines before. We all have them, and when we assume the best in people we are able to have less stress, more productivity, and more happiness. Start with Trust, Restrict as Trust is Lost. It is better to start with trust with people. When it comes to educators, we entrust them to be with students alone, all day long. If we just start there, that is a huge amount of trust. Some other forms of "accountability" that are popular right now are really demeaning when you compare how much trust we give them on a day-to-day basis. If you start to realize that you can't trust someone, then you can start reigning them in. Release as Trust is Gained. If you do have a reason to distrust an employee, and they start to prove that you can trust them, celebrate that with them and give them a little autonomy back. That will help them understand that there is salvation, and they don't have to live fearing that they will never be successful. Tell People where They Stand. One thing that is super scary is not knowing what your boss thinks of you. You shouldn't find opportunities to tear people down, but if you are concerned about people not having your trust, tell them. Tell them how they can earn it back, then let them earn it back. But don't distrust them and never tell them. This is a hard conversation, but every single time I have given negative feedback people with the intent to help, people have responded positively. When it is clear from how I communicate to them that they are never going to gain my trust again, they respond poorly. Pretty simple, yet very hard to do well. If you hold a grudge after someone has done what you required to have them earn back your trust, it is going to be so hard to overcome that so that they trust you again!Be Willing to Let Go of What Doesn't Matter, for the sake of trust. When you delegate something, be sure to set clear expectations, but trust that the person is going to do their best and allow them some creativity to do what they want. You'll have much more success and they'll buy into it a lot more. For example, I asked a teacher to create a Teacher of the Year PowerPoint background for a movie I was going to create, and told her my idea, but let her do her thing. It came out way better than I thought it would, she got some great recognition, and I was able to let her shine. I didn't want a black background, but the color of the background didn't matter at all. What mattered was that she was able to create something amazing, and I was able to let her. There is no place for ego in leadership. Start with Why. Just because this is the last tip doesn't mean it is the least important. In fact, according to Simon Sinek, it is the single most important thing you can do. You inspire trust when you tell people why we are doing things. When the why is lost, people have no vision. To bring this full circle, Dave Ramsey (Entreleadership) often quotes Proverbs 29:18:"Where there is no vision the people perish."I hope these tips help you become a better leader and build trust with your faculty.Have a Good Life.

Bob Sonju is the Director of K-12 Learning in Washington School District in Southern Utah. In this first part of the interview, we discuss the following: A little about Bob’s history and what he learned to help him become prepared for being a transformative principal. Bob focuses on making sure all students are doing their best, not just particular subgroups. What prepared Bob to be a principal: being a coach and a special education teacher. What barriers prevent a school from being ready for change. Three fundamentals that are needed to change: Why do we exist Describing a perfect school What are we going to do to make sure we get there! Conversations about structural change take time and informal and formal conversations with teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders. All the voices have to be in the room! Establishment of norms are critical for the success of our school, and while we want to hear everyone’s concerns, we will move forward with the will of the group. The norms for Bob’s schools. The need for "critical friends". How he deals with the fact of hearing that he is doing something wrong. One of the best interview questions: "Anticipate a mistake you are going to make, and how you will resolve that!" Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey Sponsor: Sanebox New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Mr. Gregory Leavitt is the principal of Draper Park Middle School in Draper, UT. Draper Park has experienced some great success recently as a top-scoring school in the state in Math, ELA, and Science. He was the 2013 Canyons District Administrator of the Year Award Winner. In this episode we talk about the following: Cross Curricular Teaming and PLCs. Agenda consists of activities, common vocabulary, student problem solving, and team activities and celebrations Vocabulary is a powerful way to connect content areas. How he reviews all 9 PLC teams’ notes. Consistency as key to long-term success. How they use a Friday late start collaboration time. Subject Area Teaming and PLCs Large focus on data Common Formative Assessments Bringing everybody up, instead of comparing for comparison sake. Easy to take big end-of-year test when you are assessing for mastery to the standards all throughout the year. No need for a big push at the end. Nothing fancy, just some Google Docs that are shared between the team. Standards-Based Grading 100% of grades are based on assessments, what the kids can actually demonstrate as mastery. Rick Wormeli - "Fair Isn’t Always Equal" Objective Tracker, student-reported grades, and success. How you can be a transformative principal: Pick one thing that you can sustain for the next 5-7 years and stick with it. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Today I am interviewing Assistant Principal, Entreprenuer, Father, and Hot Mess, Brendan Hufford (Twitter)! Thea Bowman Leadership Academy - only successful school in Gary, Indiana. OKkimonos.com and Entrepreneurs and Coffee Podcast are a couple side gigs that Brendan has going on. * Gary, Indiana is a struggling city, but full of amazing people. * Showing trust to students * Leading with trust - people want to give back trust when you give it to them. * It’s not as easy to build relationships as an admin than it is to build relationships as a teacher. * If you care about the students, they’ll do what you need them to do. * When you get frustrated, your care is the first to go away. * Kids aren’t afraid of things happening in the school that make them unsafe, they are likely afraid of things happening on the way to or from school that make them feel unsafe. * Resting vs. sleeping. * Getting up at 3 am helps him be his best. * Need to teach entrepreneurism to help US compete globally. * The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield * College vs. Entrepreneurism. * College Bubble is going to Burst - College is a great chance to mature, party, and have fun. If you want to go to college for an actual education, you are overpaying. * Entrepreneurism is not for everybody. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Bob Dillon Twitter Web Site is the Director of Technology and Innovation for Afton School District. He has been a middle school principal for 15 years in three different places and currently helps many other principals improve their practices. Join the PrincipalPLN Voxer group 1st order change - simple, fixit types of problems, typically exciting that help people feel good about things, but don’t really move the needle in improving a school. 2nd order change - moving from management to leadership. Changes that will last after you are gone. People start to feel like they are part of a special organization. Sometimes it is messy, people don’t know how things will play out. Doug Timm Principal in Delaware. Need to focus on what matters in the long term. 1st order change - painting over water stain on a house you just bought. 2nd order change - taking off the drywall and cleaning (or replacing) studs and insulation. Playing the short and the long game. Higher-level conversations Difficulty of dealing with minor problems. If you are working hard daily, people will be more likely to give you a break. Build up key communicators in the building. Trust your teachers to say things in a way that you know will be beneficial. People need to hear the same in multiple ways. How to help teachers be comfortable taking risks. Need to scaffold to the higher level of risk-taking. Part 2 Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Mike Kelly - Principal Ire Middle School. East Penn School District. Mike on Twitter: @principalmkelly Mike’s Blog The importance of blogging and reflection, sharing learning. Personal growth mindset post. The end of marking periods. Starting removal of marking periods in 6th grade! Arbitrary dates to complete learning on certain topics. Extended learning program greatly reduces academic failures. Many additional clubs and activities are offered. "Required" extended learning program. Perception of ELP. Time and support are the variables and learning is the constant. How to prepare for big changes in schools. Parent concerns about end of marking periods. Start with small parent groups. How to gain teacher support for the end of marking periods. The case against 0 The power of 0 Retesting and redo How to be a transformative principal? Surround yourself with transformative people. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

This week Geri Parscale came to visit us in Kodiak and teach us about PLCs. The teachers walked away energized and excited. On Twitter she is @ParscaleG. In this episode she talks about PLCs and culture. PLCs are a way of life, not a program, and that is what I have always enjoyed about the PLC approach. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

This week Geri Parscale came to visit us in Kodiak and teach us about PLCs. The teachers walked away energized and excited. On Twitter she is @ParscaleG. In this episode she talks about PLCs and culture. PLCs are a way of life, not a program, and that is what I have always enjoyed about the PLC approach. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Henry Turner - Principal of Bedford High School outside Boston. Site visits is where the interview teams comes to the school to meet with the teams that work with the principal. Tips to prepare. Choose a diverse group of people. Avoid some pitfalls: lack of preparation, only asking rockstars. How to prepare people for the visit: Announce early to community. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Henry Turner is a fantastic principal doing some great things at Bedford High School outside Boston. He blogs at Leadingtolearn. Implementing iPad initiative. Focus on creating iPad content. Fundraising Upstander anti-bullying program. Facing History in Ourselves. Asking curious questions. Kids create public service announcements with their iPads. Achievement gap strategies. Data teams Putting kids in levels, but not tracking them. Conversations and district support. The Calculus Project. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Piper is the principal of Draper Elementary in Draper, UT. She has been a long-time friend and mentor to me, personally, and has helped me learn so much over the last few years. Dual immersion schools - what is the process, and what challenges are unique to you? 200 dual immersion schools in the state, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French What barriers are there to having native speakers come teach in America? A/B schedule at elementary level. Teachers come from mainland China and local areas. Immersion teacher and non-immersion teachers and culture issues. Personalizing issues with culture. Specials to integrate the two cultures. Dragon Training Seeking input to learn what was important to the students, faculty, and parents. Blanket monkey. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Piper is the principal of Draper Elementary in Draper, UT. She has been a long-time friend and mentor to me, personally, and has helped me learn so much over the last few years. ELA in English and Math in target language Teachers more intentional in working together on content between languages. MobyMax to supplement schoolwork. Reflex Math to focus on computation skills. What she’s doing is working because Draper Elementary ranked 22 in the state in math. How you ensure good instruction is taking place when you don’t speak the target language? Anyone should be able to understand topic in the classroom when they are in the target language. Good instruction on Steroids. 9 tenets of instruction from State of Utah Listen. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.  New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal