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The Reflective Principal: A Taxonomy of Reflection (Part IV) Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! Principals (and instructional leaders) are often so caught up in the meeting the demands of the day, that they rarely have the luxury to muse on how things went. Self-assessment is clouded by the need to meet competing demands from multiple stakeholders. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection" - modeled on Bloom's approach. It's posted in four installments: 1. A Taxonomy of Reflection 2. The Reflective Student 3. The Reflective Teacher 4. The Reflective Principal It's very much a work in progress, and I invite your comments and suggestions. I'm especially interested in whether you think the parallel construction to Bloom holds up through each of the three examples - student, teacher, and principal. I think we have something to learn from each perspective. 4. The Reflective Principal Each level of reflection is structured to parallel Bloom's taxonomy. (See installment 1 for more on the model) Assume that a principal (or instructional leader) looked back on an initiative (or program, decision, project, etc) they have just implemented. What sample questions might they ask themselves as they move from lower to higher order reflection? (Note: I'm not suggesting that all questions are asked after every initiative - feel free to pick a few that work for you.) Bloom's Remembering : What did I do? Principal Reflection: What role did I play in implementing this program? What role did others play? What steps did I take? Is the program now operational and being implemented? Was it completed on time? Are assessment measures in place? Bloom's Understanding: What was

OK so if really kills I just will never trust them again. I've depended on it for years. My friend tried the new Inbox and posted on Facebook the other day about her dislike for it. I've got someone helping me with my email and I just don't want them to force me to move. We have workflow and when you mess with it we respond. After they killed Google Reader that was the straw that moved me from Blogger (Google's service) to Wordpress. I want my email left alone, dudes. We love it. Of course if we want it, we might have to pay for it. You get what you pay for. At this point, if it will get Google to stop messing with their services, I would.

Whistleblower lawsuit from an IT director.

Some push back in IT is happening such as this case with an IT director who said he was fired for "blowing the whistle" on innappropriate IT behavior such as problems with the grade reporting software and a computer with confidential student information that was breached without reporting it to the state. These sorts of things have both sides. The point that I would take here is to listen to IT directors when they have concerns: just because you don't understand the problem doesn't mean there is a problem, and that ethics must be applied when things are dealt with in IT.

This is a very honest, open discussion between educators about why diigo or delicious -- I think the fact we can have this conversation within diigo at all says a lot for the usefulness of the tool. Diigo is an emerging tool for social bookmarking and collective intelligence.

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by blocking and banning many of the tools and Web sites that form the cornerstone of teenagers' experiences, educators deny themselves access to the conversations that students are having about how to use these tools intelligently, ethically, and well. And given the overwhelming flow of information that students can access using such tools, it is essential that educators become part of those conversations.

by blocking and banning many of the tools and Web sites that form the cornerstone of teenagers' experiences, educators deny themselves access to the conversations that students are having about how to use these tools intelligently, ethically, and well. And given the overwhelming flow of information that students can access using such tools, it is essential that educators become part of those conversations.

I agree with Audrey Watters -- we need a way to QUESTION TED talks. Good ideas worth spreading are worth interrogating and discussing. There is NO platform for that and a growing issue, I think that TED MUST address if it is going to live long and prosper. Good educators, good leaders always question and are curious. We try things out and we wonder. We want solutions but solutions packaged in a cute 15 minute presentation aren't ever really as simple as they seem. There is a different between a sound byte and a bit of something I can REALLY use.  I agree with Audrey - READ her post. My worry is that we're spreading ideas that haven't, perhaps, been tested and gone through full examination. IF we didn't learn anything from the Mortensen "3 cups of tea" fiasco then education deserves to be mislead again. We should examine and have transparency with the speeches and be able to continue the conversation. "But I have questions. I have questions about this history of schooling as Mitra (and others) tell it, about colonialism and neo-colonialism. I have questions about the funding of the initial "Hole in the Wall" project (it came from NIIT, an India-based "enterprise learning solution" company that offers 2- and 4-year IT diplomas). I have questions about these commercial interests in "child-driven education" (As Ellen Seitler asks, "can the customer base be expanded to reach people without a computer, without literacy, and without any formal teaching whatsoever?"). I have questions about the research from the "Hole in the Wall" project - the research, not the 15 minute TED spiel about it. I have questions about girls' lack of participation in the kiosks. I have questions about project's usage of retired British schoolteachers - "grannies" - to interact with Indian children via Skype. I have questions about community support. I have questions about what happens when we dismantle public institutions like schools - questions about

Nice article at edweek about the informational texts versus great works of literature debate and what Common Core will do to lit. The one important, practical issue that all parties to this discussion MUST recognize - the classroom time is FINITE. Teachers would love to cover EVERYTHING but it just isn't practical. So, if one thing is emphasized over another, it may push something out. Unintended consequences are happening as people "align" their curriculum to common core standards. As all of the pundits and advocates argue this, it would be telling to sit down with an actual aligned curriculum to SEE what happens where the standards meet the lesson plans and what is actually pushed out - until then - it is all, rhetoric. Give us practical application, we're teachers, after all. From the edweek article: "Until recently, the closest we'd come to a major speech on the nonfiction-versus-fiction question was a piece in the Huffington Post by the English/language arts standards' co-authors, David Coleman and Sue Pimentel, insisting that literature "is not being left by the wayside." The message to rally the troops must have gone out, however. Because since the Coleman/Pimentel piece appeared, the common core's defenders have stepped up to counterbalance the literature-pushout crowd. The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's Kathleen Porter-Magee, for instance, posted a piece arguing that it's a misinterpretation of the standards to say that teachers will have to teach less literature. In a recent email blast, the Foundation for Excellence in Education-led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of the common core's biggest backers-declaimed the "misinformation flying around" about what will happen to literature under the common standards. "Contrary to reports," it said, "classic literature will not be lost with the implementation of the new standards." A glance at the standards' own suggested text lists, it noted, "reveals that the common core recognizes the importance of b

IF you tweet or share a to a lot of apps, this app, Drafts will connect to just about anything. Type it, then decide where to send it, or you can save your most inspirational items to tweet, Facebook, or wherever later. It links with evernote, twitter, facebook, app.net, email, messages, calendars, dropbox, evernote, bufferapp, toodledoo and more (as well as ifttt.com integration.) I'm still learning about all the ways to use this handy tool. The only thing I wish it did is that I could add to it from the web and then see it on my ipad.

I totally agree, students should learn programming and be exposed to it. I love Kevin Jarrett's STEM lab and what he's doing. Read this and discuss. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to code or if your teachers are afraid they are going to have to learn. Make it a priority. If you want to add volleyball, you find someone to coach it. If you want to add programming, find someone to teach it, it is that simple. I think this model of "everyone integrates" is great b/c everyone SHOULD integrate but to think or fantasize that technology integration is the same as teaching Computer Science is to think that a kind who can skate is ready to drive a car - not even in the same ballpark.

Miguel Guhlin is doing what many of us are doing after the last straw - Google pulling GoogleReader. He's documenting how he's going to pull his dependence upon Google. For me, my biggest decision caused by Google is that I'll be moving to Wordpress over the summer. I do think Google Sites is next although I've received several heated emails that this isn't accurate - if you look at the market share of google sites, it is far less than that of Google reader. Yes, it is something educators depend upon but you get what you pay for. I think Google would be better served to have a freemium model -- if advertising doesn't pay for it, we'll let you keep the service if you pay. I don't know how I"d move from gmail. I just don't but if I had to, I guess I could. I don't think gmail is going anywhere, but I do have my personal email boxes going into that inbox. I agree wikispaces is far superior to Google sites. It started quite a few years a go with Google Lively and it has just continued every year. Thank you Miguel for your transparency. I hope Google is listening, many of us are still HOT about Google reader going away.As great as Feedly is, it doesn't have Diigo or ifttt.com integration yet which is a problem.

In the UK, a very large selective authority admits that grammar school pupils favors wealthier children. The test has now caused schools to be warned against using the test because affluence plays a role in the results. Additionally, they imply that because of the influence of affluence that ethnicity is also a factor. Because coaching can have such an impact, and those with more money pay for coaching, it has been discredited. However, one could take this and apply it to the SAT in the US. I'm an SAT coach at my school and those who go through the process and take it seriously, do improve their scores much more. It is hard to remove affluence from influence but I think it is good to get this out on the table and let people know about it.

Evernote and Moleskin announce the new smartnotebook which is very cool. While you can already snap pictures of notes to Evernote - this notebook has small dots that adjust the page to make it square and remove distortion. It includes stickers that will tag the pages for you and add emphasis and included in the price of the notebook ($30) is a free subscription to Evernote premium for 3 months. I love evernote and while their tech support leaves a lot to be desired (it took me 6 months to figure out how to fix an installation glitch which was answered by another user on their forum after Evernote kept telling me just to use Revo uninstaller) -- it can't be beat for usefulness - that is why it is one of the few apps I am willing to pay for. I'll definitely be asking for this notebook for Christmas to try it out. Hope the price comes down a tad, though.

Here is Sue Basko's site about Liz. One point I want to make here is that it could be that Liz's article did in fact inspire cyberstalking against Sue. It does not, however, mean Liz is a cyberstalker. One person hating Liz also does not mean it is true. There are people who have defended me in situations against those who are unkind but I had nothing to do with it. There is a lot more here than a simple to understand interaction. Also, perhaps, it would have been easier for Sue to say that she was wrong when she got out of field and made inflammatory comments hurting those with autism (saying they were claiming it just to get money --- in a way that was insensitive, in my opinion) In all of this, as you look at the interaction there is the surface story but also the fact that with social media and thousands of bystanders watching our interactions that such convoluted scenarios will emerge.

National PTA (the parents organization for public school parents in the US) has launched a webcast to communicate with parents. Not sure where the podcast is, but it is probably linked here. It looks like a video. (It would be great to also rip the audio off and link as a podcast too, I think parents would find it useful.) One thing this does do is legitimize the webcast for parents. You can say "Look parents, PTA is webcasting, it must not be evil." For the use of this tool, I applaud PTA. I haven't listened to the webcast yet. Hope they turn it into to a podcast as my screentime is limited, but listen to things as I wash dishes and cook dinner (a nightly happening.)

National PTA has begun a webcast for parents.

I love this article which talks about the most common problems when people call customer service. I believe that as I teach my students I should help them become technically fluent to minimize these problems and maximize their potential in this increasingly technical world. The most common problems are: * Users don't know the terminology to describe the problem they have or to know what to look for. * Users haven't studied the problem long enough. * Users don't recognize details or signs which might aid in understanding the problem. * Users might not have easy access to the documentation, may not be qualified to understand it (because of language barriers or technical level), or they may simply not have the time or energy to use it. * Users might be unaware of the status of their computer/account/browser and/or they might be limited in their ability to obtain this information. * Users might have received incorrect or misleading information from someone else, or they might have made incorrect assumptions about the product. * Users may be familiar with one kind of product and lack the appropriate mental model for knowing how the product is supposed to work. * Users might have previous problems in the past and found it easier just to call technical support than to risk aggravating the problem when trying to fix it.

Information on how to help users become more proficient at being helped.

Interesting discussion going on about the pros and cons of a strict school environment

This article is dealing with a school and a social environment that has deteriorated past the ability to self-regulate through a series of stated guidelines. Both your school and ours are able to maintain their levels of operation through similar sets of guidelines, but in viewing the situation in the article I can completely understand how that school would need to take those steps to regain control over what had become an unmanageable situation. Looking at examples from the article of students who receive detention for failing to carry their ID after being reminded of it the previous day is not an unusual policy in most public schools. Denial of the "pleasant" aspects of school life for students who struggle academically or behaviorally is also nothing new. In this case they have made it a core part of the students life. Think about it this way: how many of these students who learn through these hard lessons of personal responsibility are going to be come parents who pass along to their children the values of personal responsibility? Some of the parents at CCS have a saying..."It's good to be in the bubble." There is a safe, easily maintained environment at the school, reinforced by clear guidelines and rules with defined penalties for failure to comply. To those who would think this too strict or limiting I would refer you to the number of students returning to our school after venturing into the "real world" and realizing "the bubble" is a better place for them. This is very similar to what I saw at SLA when I visited. Your students are committed to attending the school. They have a personal investment in their futures and the future of the school, something many mandatory schools lack. It's that personal investment that makes respect mean something to them and carry the weight it should in balancing their actions and behaviors with the greater good. For those of us "in the bubble" it can be disturbing to observe the tactics necessary to restore, or in some

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"This week our music teacher added to The Black Book. Now every teacher has occasionally used their own experiences to contextualize learning for students, but our music teacher has been working on ways to incorporate his own music contacts into his lessons without it making it too anecdotal. For artistic subjects especially, it may seem that students don't always take it seriously when they are told how difficult it is to get into particular career fields. As part of the music students' preparations for various units and exams, students need to think about and learn what it means to be a 'real musician' and what they would do in given situations."