A Work-Life Balance: Leadership

Time for Instructional Innovation?

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:39:19 GMT

Plea for Time

I am amazed when I talk with teachers about the amount of instructional time that is consumed on non-instructional tasks—and not by their choice. It's crazy and getting worse. We as a nation are devoting too much time to benchmarking and not enough time to supporting relevant learning in the classroom. Our teachers spend blocks of time on hand outs, special events, and other times that are not critical to supporting the learning environment. Does this mean that we get rid of all pep rallies? Do away with award and recognition events? Stop benchmarks? Of course not. We need to celebrate the accomplishments of learners, inject culture, and create field learning experiences.

However, how many times do you interrupt class over the course of a school year? Moreover, what are you trying to accomplish from your learners? Are you trying to trying to cultivate critical thinkers ready to meet the challenges of the new world of work, or are you trying to get checkboxes checked for NCLB? As leaders, we have the responsibility to stand up for learning in the classroom. Stand up for teachers and support their instructional time. Preserve the time, embrace it. Find ways to enable productivity gains, break down organizational barriers, remove silos and fan the flames of innovation.

Project Success

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:22:51 GMT

Quantify Instructional Objectives and TIme: Overview

So do you know a teacher or three that has too much time on their hands? Likely, you do not. Most teachers are swamped by the number of tasks that they are expected to cover, the mandated activities, not to mention short class periods because of the odd pep rally or other ad hoc non-instructional glob of time that takes away from the instruction. Many of these are relevant and useful to help students, but what about all of the items that stay on the plate of teachers? How are school districts measuring the expected quantity of activities against the actual instructional time available?

Enter Microsoft Project 2007. Using the proven project management techniques, instructional directors can actually model to see if all of the instructional nuggets fit in the yearly instructional time available bucket. Those of us who have taught know that keeping a class on task and productive is critical. But keeping a class on task does not mean you will have all of the time necessary to cover the expected ground. The same can be said with all classroom management techniques. If you only have 55 minutes with students, you cannot schedule 90 minutes of activities and expect that quality instruction will happen. This is not the fault of the teacher, it is a lack of quality management. The tools for conducting this analysis can be used in a very powerful application called Microsoft Project. More to come on this important topic.

The Innovation Continues

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:49:05 GMT

Innovation Dispatch from J. Scott Thompson

Touching Surface Computing

Microsoft is a great bet for innovation. In fact, it is an uber bet for innovation. When I joined Microsoft, I was not quite sure what to expect. What I found were the smartest and hardest working innovators I had ever encountered, and I’ve been around the technology block.

Last week, Microsoft knocked another one out of the park with the announcement of Surface Computing. This totally cool form factor ups the game of human interaction with machines in a very intimate way. Using touch, you can reshape photos, videos and have multiple people interact with the device collaboratively.

Check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/surface/.

Shifts and Trends

Mon, 07 May 2007 19:12:21 GMT

Dispatches from the World of K-12 Education

Leadership Dispatch from Scott Thompson

World Education Trends

I've seen a powerful video that I recommend for your review and consideration. As educators, we are getting students ready for the future. But what are our priorities as a nation? How are we getting students ready to face challenges ahead? Where are we headed? Take a moment to watch http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html

Getting it Right

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:36:47 GMT

Education Leadership by Scott Thompson

Education Competencies

There is a very powerful resource available to all educators. It is the Education Competency Wheel. Organizational greatness starts with people. Check this out.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/competencies/howtouse.mspx

CIOs, Users & IT Pros will See the Vista Benefits

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:24:58 GMT

T-Minus and Counting

Vista is heading towards the finish line and I’m loving it. I’ve had it on my tablet for weeks now, and the experience is superior to any other OS I've encountered- and I've been around the block. What is so good about it? I really like the search investments found in Vista. I can find documents, programs, and system functions much faster. But as impressive are graphical improvements, which make the experience richer than anything in XP. I'm also loving the document preview that allows me to edit documents without opening them.

IT Pros are going to love the security, and the ability to encrypt the hard drive contents, which will prevent data from being stolen when a laptop goes MIA. In fact, IT Pros are going to realize significant cost savings in numerous areas. There is also the ability to improve self help, and the fact that the OS is self healing will cause IT departments to jump for joy. Mobility is made easier throughout the OS and the overall experience has a lot of WOW factor.

I’ve seen some critics in the news lately, and the gloom and doom stuff always seems to grab headlines. Unfortunately, negative gets attention. But if you are a visionary, I think you will likely see the benefits and how Vista will improve how your users work and further your vision of what technology can do for users.

CIOs: Improve Productivity in your District

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 15:36:35 GMT

CIO Quick Win

Reduce Costs and Improve Results in District

If you are a CIO who would like to add intranet content to your site so that users can use technology more effectively, I encourage you to look at the free intranet download. If you position this correctly, you could reduce help desk calls and improve satisfaction scores. The download and other ideas for use are at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cb3ff9be-bc97-476b-bf05-b639beacaf47&displaylang=en

By placing links to 2007 Office and Vista content, you can also use this material to help with your future migration plans. Best Practice Tip: Introduce change well in advance of the planned start to help with cultural change management.

Best Practices: CIO and Curriculum Leadership

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:39:05 GMT

Leveraging Collaborative Technology to Enable Curriculum Excellence

Within each district resides a wealth of work products and well founded best practices that are specific to the district and local community of learners. These products are the result of teachers, specialists, and district curriculum leaders, expending countless hours developing scope, sequence, and content. They are often hidden from view on a dusty file share or on individual PCs. As they are hidden away, when curriculum alignment needs surface, these products are often not considered in the process, among other aspects, such as holistic review, consideration, and adoption. So what happens when it is time to make adjustments?

When it is time to align the curriculum, or develop a new course, there is often a rush to shove a group of teachers in a room for a few days, slip a pizza under the door, and hope for the best. When I taught, I recall having to develop curriculum for a course that had been taught in the district, but nothing had been written down-- and no pizza either. I’ve even caught whispers that in some districts, the curriculum is written down, printed out, and placed in a binder on a shelf in a dusty, dark workroom (NB: heavy sarcasm as I've got the tee shirt). In today’s world of No Child Left Behind, that's scary. Other districts hire expensive outside curriculum consultants to develop new curriculum, and are then confounded when staff refuse to use it or buy in. Churn, churn, churn—time, as they say is money.

However, we have a solid, proven technology that offers strong solutions to educators in this and other areas. SharePoint is a powerful tool that we have continued to refine at Microsoft, and is now part of the 2007 Microsoft Office System. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server allows users to build, share, store and collaborate in new, meaningful ways. It is an Internet technology that allows districts to realize kicked-up intranet and Internet sites.

Best Practice #1: Gather Greatness

Using Microsoft SharePoint, assemble work products already developed from known master teachers and then have the instructional teams assist in categorizing the materials further. The participants can use the built in surveys to help in refining the materials and identify trends. Announcements and notifications alert the team to developments and progress. Use a built in wiki, so leadership can collect best practices and codify knowledge that is chiefly word of mouth today, so that it can be muscled tomorrow.

Using SharePoint to gather the greatness of what is already built leverages salary dollars expended to date and furthers the process of curriculum alignment as SharePoint can be enabled on a district-wide basis very quickly and used without costly training as it is highly intuitive. Beyond dollars, imagine the quality end product and buy in of the entire team. Many, many returns.

This is a technology that both the superintendent and CIO should well consider, as its very installation allows for a multitude of ROI. For today, let me say that it is a meaningful productivity tool that is a starting point for rich technology interaction, workflow, and as mentioned, collaboration. Since it is a web technology, web parts allow for the integration of scorecards, student information systems, not to mention Microsoft Office. For today, however, start with gathering the greatness and unleash the excellence that is in your district.

Change Management or The Gift of Mutability

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 15:00:34 GMT

The Gift of Mutability

I was in the media center, methodically pacing out the last few minutes before I went on to speak to a group of educators. By chance, I noticed a stack of newly arrived books on a yellow maple countertop. The books concerned the planets, and each book covered a specific planet. Curious, I shuffled through the stack and found it--the book on Pluto was there. Like a lighting flash, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” thundered in by brain.

Everything changes outside the urn. Teaching styles cycle through the years, methods are renamed and repackaged, innovations happen, and the nuggets we were taught to teach change. Yet we cling to the warm idea of permanence in this experience. I think this is why Pluto’s demotion in our solar system resonated so surprisingly deeply.

As teachers, we not only teach knowledge level facts, but also impart important life concepts. Among these concepts stands mutability and how we cope with change. Beyond time itself, innovation erodes notions of immutability. How we engage, teach, and embrace change, in part, decides our success. This is an important idea specific to the pursuit of educational excellence.

Not only are the canons, content, and memes nonlinear and mutable, but neither should our skills and instructional capabilities remain static. We are in a race to develop students who will be the next generation of innovators. Keep giving the gift of mutability to your students. In doing so, the giving is also truth and beauty.