techleadership

Why are some schools more successful at implementing new ideas, projects, or programs than others? While there are many factors responsible for successful schools, I've noticed that the critical ingredient for success is always leadership. By leadership, I mean the quality of someone who visibly champions and diffuses the innovation schoolwide or districtwide.

I've learned that the leader often is a teacher, a student, or someone else respected by others

At the districts and schools where I work, the meaningful and effective use of technology is usually the result of this leader's ability tocommunicate and share a common vision provide timely technical support provide relevant professional development comprehend and interpret standards assess programs.

Technology planning is a process. TechSoup has broken it down into seven phases.Establish leadership and support. Assess your resources. Define your needs. Explore solutions. Write the plan. Get funding. Implement the plan.

Your organization's technology vision (together with a brief section about the current state of technology in your organization) can take the form of an executive summary. How will technology further your organization's mission? What is your long-range vision for technology use? While this isn't necessarily an essential part of the plan, this section can give an overview of your technology goals as they relate to your organization's mission.

Taking your hardware and software inventory may be the most well-defined part of technology planning. As a result, you have more options for how to get it done. If someone on staff has even a minimal knowledge of hardware and software vocabulary, you may well be able to do it in-house. Is there someone who knows how to find out the processor speed of a computer?

This included parents who are a great untapped resource within our own communities.  We can no longer have children going home and being asked the question, “what did you learn today?”, and responding with, “nothing.”  By opening the doors to our classrooms through both physical and virtual environments, we have the opportunity to change the conversation at home.  Parents are able to be actively involved in the process of learning, leading to a higher opportunity for success of each child.  The more we can involve parents in this process at home, the more likely students will be successful in school, and beyond.  This community support is imperative.

Quiz: Find Your Leadership Style

The importance of this strategy is that both the teacher and the learner understand who the learner is and how they learn best. The learner and the teacher uses the UDL lens to personalize learning. So what does that look like? Here are two eighth grade students and their Personal Learner Profiles.

s an avid reader, likes to write descriptively, and enjoys drawing. is anxious when she speaks in front of others. forgets the sequence, moral and message of the sto