Multi-faceted Refractions

Each fall, Beliot College releases its Mindset List. This list provides reminders, culturally, to what the incoming freshmen class have experienced in their lives. It is a wonderful reminder of how things have continued to change. You can access the full list at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2015/, but here are the handful of my favorites from their list of 75 items:

The Mindset List for the Class of 2015

Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe and the Commodore 64 have always been dead.

1. Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
2. The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
3. Their school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter.
4. Amazon has never been just a river in South America.
5. The Communist Party has never been the official political party in Russia.
6. Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!
7. They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.
8. Altar girls have never been a big deal.
9. Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.
10. The New York Times and the Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers.

Copyright© 2011 Beloit College
Mindset List is a registered trademark

Last Friday, we received our certificate of occupancy for our newly transformed high school. Faculty are beginning to arrive on campus to unpack their belongings into the new space.

I am very excited about working in this space this upcoming year. The space, designed by Trung Le of OWPP is centered around collaboration and increasing the potential for intellectual collisions throughout the year.

I am looking forward to sharing our experiences in the new space along with sharing of images of the interior spaces.

Today marked the end of an era at the North Shore Country Day School. After 12 years of faithful service, our help desk manager, Lori Brennan spent her last day at North Shore.

A help desk manager is the first person that a user in crisis first contacts, whether it is a kindergartener trying to print their first masterpiece or seasoned faculty member whose hard drive crashed during the middle of writing report cards. To the user in crisis, their problem is always the most important issue that needs to be dealt with right away.

One of Lori’s strengths that we will miss is her ability to respond to these users with a calm, measured response. Lori not only troubleshoots the issues and is able to resolve it, but she does so in such a way that she not only reassures each individual, but empowers them to have the confidence to begin to resolve the problem in the future by themselves.

Lori is a help desk manager who “gets” schools. She understands that the most important activity in a school is teaching and learning.  Lori knows how important it is for her to make sure that the technologies that we now depend on to help do that teaching and learning works when we need it, that any downtime means lost opportunities for instruction. She also knows that that successful implementation of technology begins with establishing personal relationships that go beyond the technologies themselves.

Our loss is the Mandell Schools gain. I want to wish Lori the best of luck in the future, both professionally and personally. And I know that this is not good-bye, but rather the start of a new chapter.

See you on the network, Lori. You will remain to be a valued member of my personal learning network. It has been my pleasure to work along-side of you.

Two weeks from tomorrow, our 2011-12 academic year will begin once again. In addition to classes and partnering with students and faculty, this will mean a series of meetings. Don’t get me wrong, it is essential to get groups of folks together so that progress can be made towards shared goals and initiative, but for me, there are times that these gatherings take time away from other tasks which require my time, energy, and attention.

This past week, two different suggestions as to how to rethink these gatherings were published that resonate with me. The first is the new book from Seth Godin’s Domino Project, Read This Before Your Next Meeting. This volume is available for free on Amazon until August 9th. In this volume. Al Pittampali outlines what the new modern meeting should look like, one which agendas are shared ahead of time, a decision has been made, and the purpose of the meeting is to build an action plan for the decision. There is a complimentary gathering which is needed, the brainstorming session. But the gathering as an information sharing session is out the window. These gatherings are active and require that everyone come prepared and no one wastes anyone’s precious time.

The second was shared by Ryan Bretag, the Instructional Technology Coordinator for Glenbrook North High School. Ryan is one of the most brilliant thinkers I know. In one of his recent blog posts on his blog, Metonia, NO SIT – Rethinking Faculty Meetings, Ryan outlines his goals and outlines for the way he wants to run faculty meetings. Again, the focus is not on announcement sharing, but building community, developing creativity, sharing best practices, and involving students.

To me, these are the types of meetings that would energize and excite me. Ones which action are the purpose. In both cases, agendas and necessary resources are shared ahead, to provide time for thought and reflection before the gathering. Announcements are shared in the form of memos, rather than spoken. Both cultivate a culture of being on time and ready to participate, not to sit and get.

I am hopeful that I will be able to adopt these ideas into practice this upcoming year. The result, hopefully, will be that instead of groans and eye rolling when a meeting is announced, that attendees will be excited and anxious to attend. I look forward to sharing the results with you throughout the year.

Yesterday, I returned home from a family vacation. 2000 miles, just the four of us. As I return home and begin to plug back into work and the network, I am realizing the benefits of a virtually technology-free time away from the daily grind.

Unplugging allowed my thoughts to wander. After the first two days of withdrawal,  I became less anxious. I didn’t have to compelled to check email. Upon my return, I went through the essential work email, deleting and archiving away. I simply selected the 100+ emails in my personal email and archived them. If there is something important, it will find its way back to me.

I sent only one tweet. Created one Facebook post.

I am feeling refreshed after enjoying the beauty driving the country roads in the Catskill Mountains. I am ready to tackle the challenges of the upcoming school year, the focus of a future post.

The next three weeks will be challenging. Distributing new Tablet PCs to our Middle and Upper School faculties. Orienting them to the shift from Windows XP to Windows 7. Getting Upper School faculty ready for their new learning studios and their new capabilities. Completing our new electronic professional learning community. Finishing building the new reservation system for our new teaching spaces. Welcoming and orienting new faculty to the capabilities of the our teaching environment.

I think that everyone should walk away from technology for a 4-7 days periodically. Get back and find the joy. The members of your PLN will be there to welcome you back.