Social Media

Social media tools and platforms gives us a chance to have conversations with anyone around the world. Facebook, myspace, twitter, google buzz, and various others have made significant changes on how we communicate. If you think these are a fad please consider the following:

If facebook were a country it would now #3 in the world behind only China and India.

Over half the world's population is under 30 years old.

96% of Millennials have joined a social network.

Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.

1 out of 8 couples in the US met via social media.

80% of companies us social media for recruitment.

Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Istael, Switzerlan, Ireland, Norway, and Panama combined-4.8 million each.

50% of mobile internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook.

78% of Wikipedia content is in languages other than English.

Still think its a fad and going to go away? I rather doubt it.

The Importance of Trust

Trust is everything.

Nothing can be done without it.

It can take years to build, but one moment to lose it.

Here are only some of the essentials that I believe in building trust:

1. Extend trust-If you want people to trust you, you must show that you trust them first.

2. Be open and honest-There are many times where tough conversations are needed to be had with the group or individuals. Trust that the people you work with can take the bad news and deal with it, and would much rather KNOW than wonder.

3. Admit mistakes-If you screw up, say it. Do not try to hide it. Not only will you build trust amongst those you work with, you will also build an environment that promotes risk taking.

4. Listen-Hear what people are saying, consider it, and act upon it. Even if you do not agree, when people see that you are legitimately listening to their thoughts, you will build upon your relationships with them. There is a difference between not listening and not agreeing. You do not have to always agree, but it is important that you always consider.

There are many other ways that you can build trust but these are just some that I work on. These qualities relate to any relationship. If you want things to get done effectively, trust is everything.

Apple Show

This past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I was fortunate enough to attend the Apple Leadership Summit in Dallas, Texas. I am thankful to my Board of Education for allowing me to attend. The conference was very good and got some good ideas and different perspectives on using technology in education. It is marvelous what some individuals as well as school districts are doing about bringing 21st Century skills to the classroom.

We were each assigned tables, which was probably good since that does force you to meet other people, and the first person I saw was the Superintendent from Labette County in Altamont. It was refreshing to see a familiar face but it did me good not to be paired with Chuck since I did gain knowledge from different areas of the country. At my table were educators from Iowa, North Carolina, California, and Texas. At least Kansas isn't the only state with funding woes, everyone had the story as money is tight, so we choose not to discuss it. I ate one night with an Apple employee from Brisban, Australia, and that was an interesting conversation.

I think it really helps us grow as professionals when we venture out and take advantage of opportunities presented to us. To visit with educators from across our nation, and across the ocean, can benefit all we come in contact with. I am a strong believer in staff development and technology and this conference fit both areas.

Relationship Strength Key for Kids

What do schools need to teach their students? We are on the cusp of a great global educational change and the question we need to ask is not what do students need to learn, but what do we need to teach them?

Most everything students need to learn either can or will be able to be learned online. If you doubt this consider the advertising done on television for online institutions of higher learning, or take into account that the largest college, in regard to student population, is Phoenix University. Instead of students conforming to a traditional model of education they appeal to the sector that wishes to have convenience and a customized education.

We connect with others through a web of relationships with our family and friends as well as our business ones where we work in person as well as with people online we never meet.

Relationship strengths are the application of character virtues such as trustworthiness, forgiveness, loyalty, consideration, thankfulness, flexibility, and dependability. I agree with Charles Barkley that the best role models for a student is their parents, however, we can display these qualities on a daily basis and hopefully students will try to imitate these behaviors.

We rarely teach students skills to promote long-term success in their relationships. We tend to believe that experience will be the best teacher. Children should know how to choose friends, act on teams, listen, give and take, forgive and accept. Children socialize on the playground, cafeteria, and ball games and we hope they figure it out on their own. We throw kids in social situations and hope for the best, experience has shown us that most workplace failures are the result of relationship breakdowns rather than inability to master the tasks of the job.

Put On More Steam

At this time of year we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel which means school will quickly be over. With state assessments winding down and after a full year of academics the students have a tendency to hit the slack button and teachers as well feel the need for a mental break. Put as I have stated before we are in the learning business and that goes for the teachers also, so here are some points to keep the students motivated.

1. Be enthusiastic and positive about what you are doing.

2. Allow students to have some fun and discover things on their own.

3. Use visual aids, movies, demonstrations, and projects.

4. Take a field trip and make it real.

5. Let them how great it feels to succeed.

6. Give people praise for a job well done.

7. Care about each other, both students and teachers, talk to each other.

8. Reward people with different things, however, start slowing down on rewards and replace with praise.

9. Create tasks and work that students can have success with, make sure they have the resources to succeed.

10. Make sure the subject matter has personal meaning and value for the students.

11. Make sure students feel valued and special for their contributions.

I Don't Understand

I realize the legislature is in charge of my state and the educational funding but the longer they are in session the scarier it gets for all state agencies. For instance some of my concerns or I should say lack of understanding about what is occurring in Topeka:

Why does the House put a person in charge of the Education Committee that home schools their children-thats a commitment to public education.

Why would you even propose a plan to cut the state to 40 districts with at least 10,000 students per district? What other state does this?

Why would tell people the recession is what caused our financial collapse when the legislative post audit showed in 2005 (prior to recession) that we would face this deficit in 2009 because of tax rollbacks and spending levels.

Why would you pass a law where schools could not sue for adequate funding, not fund the supreme court decision to the level you were bound to do, but let one of your members be involved with suing the state as a part of his law firm.

When you run for reelection and tell the voters you did not raise taxes, will you admit that you forced the schools to raise property taxes because you took away 25% of the state aid for the local option budget? I rather doubt it.

I don't understand why we would send any of you back.

Big Schools are Better?

With all the talk of school consolidation in Topeka, I decided to do some research on quality of education as opposed to cost. I first got the KSHSAA list of school classifications then went to the KSDE website to get information on what schools did not make AYP last year. Private schools are not included in these statistics.

34 Districts in our state did not make AYP in 2009

There are 15 districts in 6A 7 did not make AYP or 47%

There are 20 districts in 5A 4 did not make AYP or 20%

There are 59 districts in 4A 12 did not make AYP or 21%

So 88% of the 34 districts come from our largest classifications

There were 172 individual schools that did not make AYP 146 of those came from districts of 1600 students or more which is 85%.

If quality of education matters to our legislative leaders maybe we should make schools smaller instead of larger.

I have sent this information to our legislative representatives.