Winning in a small field is much less exciting than feeling like a loser among a bunch of superstars.

A helpful reminder about e-mail (and, perhaps, moodle posting) communication for leaders/administrators

I think I agree with you, Judy, or at least I appreciate your reflection of different strokes. My sense is that it differs depending on a whole lot of variables, including sender, reader, topic, and so much more. For example, when someone who doesn't know me is asking for something from me, I tend to respond better to an e-mail that begins with "Dear Dr. Creamer" and then is well written and somewhat formal (but not too long). On the other hand, if it's someone I know sending me something like a brief piece of information, simply including my name (at the beginning with, or without, a colon, or in the first line) is more than sufficient. And when it's the introduction to a forwarded message ("Saw this and thought you'd appreciate it") or a quick reminder ("Just to follow up on what I just told you in the hallway, our meeting will be Tuesday at 2"), I wouldn't need (or expect) my name to be there at all. Maybe what I most appreciate from this post, then, is the reminder to be thoughtful about not just what we say but how we say it, particularly in a space like e-mail that can so easily carry misunderstandings.

This is an interesting (and free) magazine that shares stories and ideas about church leadership.

This is an example of how to do part one of the Book Recommendation and Review assignment.  In this "description" space, I would be including my impressions of this book, including who I think might find it useful.  Remember that we're aiming for 25 word minimum and 100 word maximum.  This note is 55 words.

1) Make sure that you have signed into Diigo and joined our class group (this content is publicly viewable, so you could be seeing this even if you are not logged in).

2) Find a website that references your resource. Feel free to use Amazon.com, an online library catalog, or any other site that you'd like.

3) Bookmark the site, with Diigo.

4) Tag this bookmark with BookRec

5) In the description section, include your brief description of the book (25 word minimum, 100 word maximum). Feel free to write your description in a word processing program (to spell check, edit, etc) and then paste it here if you want. Please also include your name.

6) Remember to always select Share to a Group and then Save Bookmark.

I just wanted to demonstrate the bookmarking features of Diigo. You'll see that I tagged the page ("definitions"), highlighted a section that I found useful ("The following sections...", which comes right from the Wikipedia page), and have added my own note (what you're reading right now).