I am writing from Seattle today as I attend the National Association of Elementary School Principals Conference. As an Arizona principal, I am very happy that it hasn't rained yet. As I come towards the end of my 4th year as an elementary school principal, I can say that much of my development as a school leader has come through attending national conferences. The networking, learning, and experiences gained through attending a conference with 3,000 other principals is amazing.
Yesterday, I felt the joy of teaching in a poignant way. Dr. Jan and I taught a session on blogging. Not knowing if anyone would show up, we were pleasantly surprised that every one of the 24 computers was filled with a principal who had never blogged before. To top it off, 10 others sat in the back to watch and listen. It was an exhilarating feeling as these 24 principals created a blog by the time we were done. It was great to have the support of Glenn Malone as he shared some of his experiences and walked around the room with us helping those who had questions. I left the computer room yesterday imbued with a new sense of teaching other school leaders about Web 2.0. Yesterday, I was reminded why I got into education to begin with: I wanted to teach. And I still do.
Ok, so no rain, but you found some good coffee, right?
Posted by: Rick | March 31, 2007 at 05:05 PM
I have to tell you that the experiences with Steve and Glenn were just outstanding. We went out to lunch today and began to talk about our growth with blogging. Glenn mentioned something about an online training event which I will look into. If you are not wiki-ing and flickering then you need to look into it. Glen totally mentored Steve and me.
P.S. What is it about Seattle and coffee? Don't dare give directions by way of Starbuck's because they are on every street. Seattle is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I hope Glenn will post on why email is obsolete... it was exhilarating to meet with him and our other bloggers at The Cheesecake Factory. There's so much to process that I don't even know where to start. But, we all agreed that Leadertalk.org is a very important part to our professsional development.
Posted by: Jan Borelli | March 31, 2007 at 10:53 PM
Great coffee and good times with fellow bloggers and fellow principals! Next year it will be in Nashville so join us!
Posted by: Steve Poling | April 01, 2007 at 01:23 AM
It was great to meet Steve Poling, Jan Borelli, Arturo Gonzalez, and Jocelyn McCabe at NAESP's first ever and "hippest" EduBloggerCon meet-up.
I encourage others that write and read blogs to use the EduBloggerCon format to connect face-to-face with your blogging colleagues at your next conference. I also encourage you to use the HitchHikr tool that David Warlick created to follow the web postings at your next conference.
For more info on the web 2.0 tools that Jan mentioned in her comment, here's a link to the resources I'm using and experimenting with as an elementary principal.
http://www.flickr.com/people/gemalone/
Here's the link that Jan referred to as the best online conference that I've ever attended. It's free, virtual and always available. The K12 Online Conference:
http://k12onlineconference.org/
Finally, here's another look at what Steve Ruble at MicroPersuasion.Com says about email,
"It had to happen sooner or later, but teens largely see email as old school. According to the Associated Press, it's a "a good way to reach an elder – a parent, teacher or a boss – or to receive an attached file." Email is largely being replaced by instant messaging, blogs and social networking sites. I must be getting older because my email load is growing, not shrinking. I gotta start spending more time with teens."
For that whole story check out this link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/tech/20060718-1146-snaile-mail.html
Posted by: Glenn E. Malone | April 01, 2007 at 12:55 PM