Tonight is the eve of our Trussville Educational Technology Conference. The conference is modeled after Alabama Best Practice Center's Octoberfest and the K12 Online Conference. All 289 faculty, staff, directors, and the superintendent will be at the middle school tomorrow for 4 hours of technology training. I am thrilled that Sheryl Nussbaum Beach is our keynote speaker. The teachers will spend one hour with Sheryl then travel to 3 other sessions of their choice. So many of our teachers are new to technology that we did not have sufficient presentors that knows Web 2.0 and are using it. So, we decided to utilize the resources of the K12 Online Conference. We are taking Jeff Utecht's LAN party and making it on a larger scale. All teachers will bring their wireless laptops to get as much hands on as possible. We have created public SharePoint sites for each session with a blogging component added. The moderators for each session will promote the use of the blog to continue the conversation from the conference well beyond Jan. 4. We are also having the moderators digitally record the discussion so that we can podcast the best thoughts, ideas, comments, and questions on the SharePoint pages. Another exciting event taking place tomorrow is the awarding of technology grants. We are awarding one $8,000; thre $5,000: and six $2,000 grants. We have made large checks and will break into their 9:10 session to award them their checks. I will post the pics on Flickr from the conference and place a link here. I can't wait!
As a part of my professional learning plan, I chose to spend time learning about strategies for becoming a better leader. I have been in my current position for a few years, but feel that I can always grow as a leader. It was a harder transition than I thought it would be moving from a support role of District Integration Specialist to a manager roles as the Technology Coordinator. Early this month, I began reading the book Creating Magic, 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney by Lee Cockerell . I have to admit that I first picked up this book last year, but was not focused enough to complete it. So, I got out my planner and mapped out a reading plan to read one chapter a night and take notes. I now wish I had scheduled to read a chapter every other night in order to take more time to reflect on the information. I may have missed a day or two, but am now back on track with the reading. I have been amazed at the simpli...
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