My colleague Patrick Larkin, Principal of Burlington, MA High School is recognizing Poem In Your Pocket Day and he tweeted this wonderful poem from his blog:

New Post: My #PocketPoem for Poem In Your Pocket Day http://t.co/7lrhD2Ii #bhschat

As a musician and very part-time songwriter, I respect those who write poetry, especially song lyrics that transcend cliches and cause the reader to reflect on the larger issues of life.

Let’s take a minute and write a short poem to someone we care about.

However, the impact of the Internet and social media in particular is beginning to change schools from the bottom up. The pervasiveness of information is changing the role of the teacher from expert to facilitator. No longer is the classroom teacher the primary source of facts, figures, statistics, and knowledge. Students can easily access that information online and being digital natives they often navigate swifter than their teacher. What we are seeing now are growing pains. The institution needs to adapt to meet the needs of students’ learning style and the resulting expectations from the job market for graduates to be tech savvy collaborators, ready to problem solve and find creative solutions to problems.

This infographic is making the rounds:

Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers
And here is the text:

Did You Know That – In 60 SECONDS

• Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries
• 6,600+ pictures are uploaded on Flickr
• 600 videos are uploaded on YouTube videos, amounting to 25+ hours of content
• 695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments are published on Social Networking site Facebook
• 70 New domains are registered
• 168,000,000+ emails are sent
• 320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets are generated on Social Networking site Twitter
• iPhone applications are downloaded more than13,000 times
• 20,000 new posts are published on Micro-blogging platform tumbler
• Popular web browser FireFox is downloaded more than 1700 times
• Popular blogging platform WordPress is downloaded more than 50 times
• WordPress Plugins aredownloaded more than 125 times
• 100 accounts are created on professional networking site LinkedIn
• 40 new Questions are asked on YahooAnswers.com
• 100+ questions are asked on Answers.com
• 1 new article is published on Associated Content, the world’s largest source of community-created content
• 1 new definition is added on UrbanDictionary.com
• 1,200+ new ads are created on Craigslist
• 370,000+ minutes of voice calls done by Skype users
• 13,000+ hours of music streaming is done by personalized Internet radio provider Pandora
• 1,600+ reads are made on Scribd, the largest social reading publishing company

Are we ready to take on this challenge?

I’m blogging from the Annual ASCD Conference in Philadelphia. As with all national conferences, the pace is so swift that it will take until next weekend to sort out all of my thoughts…my thoughts into actions…and the actions into a plan. But I had to share one story from my time here in Philly from a good friend and colleague, Rebecca Gagnon. Becca is the Assistant Principal at Hopkinton (NH) High School and while she never intended to guest blog, she graciously agreed to allow me to share this incredible story from Philly.

Believe it or not, when I was young I was EXTREMELY shy and rarely spoke in school. Since my dad was in the Army I moved very often. Halfway through second grade I moved from Indiana to Rhode Island and attended my third school since Kindergarten. It was a Catholic school and everyone was very kind but I was still overly quiet. The principal of this school was a nun who was always very gentle and had a wonderful smile; I would search out reasons to see her. I worked hard and wanted to do well to please her. At the end of fifth grade I moved again and left Rhode Island.

So this week  at the ASCD Conference I decided to attend a session on high school grading. I walked in on the side of the room and picked a quiet row slightly towards the back. I looked down the row and at the other end was a nun. As I looked at her profile I smiled; something about her just jotled a memory of my catholic school principal.

As the speaker began, he encouraged us to introduce ourselves to the people around us and share information based on a question he asked us. The nun and I were the only ones in the row so we each scooted in a few seats to be near each other and share stories. This nun was a soft-spoken, (slightly) elderly lady with an accent who said she was from Orlando. She introduced herself as Sister Dorothy. I just looked at her and said, “Wow, I once knew a Sister Dorothy.” She commented on how unusual that was as her name was not all that common. I agreed and we went on to talk about the things we were supposed to talk about. The whole time I kept looking at her and listened intently to her thinking…this can’t be…

For the next hour and a half I had a great time listening and comparing the struggles she has at her large school in Orlando with my small school in NH. At the end, she leaned over and commented on how nice it was to meet me. I looked at her and asked, “Sister Dorothy, were  you ever a principal in Rhode Island?” She went completely still and stared at me and said, “Oh my goodness, yes.”

I foolishly broke into tears and told her she was my principal. I re-introduced myself with my maiden name, told her who my brother was and who I had for teachers. She reached out and grabbed my hand and said yes, she remembered…so many students through the years but she remembered.

I then told her, “Sister Dorothy, you have to know – you are the reason I’m in education today. It’s because of you I wanted to work for children.” Her turn for tears. We hugged and walked out of the room and down the hall together holding hands the whole time. I shared with her the major highlights of the past twenty five years of my life since leaving her school. She has been in Orlando for the past sixteen.

We got to the end of the hall, hugged again and went our separate ways. I’ve thought a lot since about what more I could have said at the time but I think we were both pretty overwhelmed.

How unreal can life be???!!! I still have tears just writing this!

You can’t even begin to know on how many different levels I needed her at that moment in my life. I am blown away.

Becca can be reached at rgagnon@hopkintonschools.org. She is also a Board member of NHASCD.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are slated to be in place in nearly the entire United States by 2014-15 and my colleagues across the country express varying opinions on whether this is a good thing or not.

Hopkinton NH teachers collaborating around the Reading Curriculum and the CCSS.

A recent report of the Brookings Institution claims that the Common Core will not have a significant affect on academic achievement. Yet, researchers at the Educational Policy Improvement Center are taking a more positive sentiment stating that the CCSS compare well to the most highly regarded state and international standards.

A bit discouraging was a piece written in Education Week by Joanne Yatvin, former President of NCTE and a previous member of the National Reading Panel. She feels strongly that the CCSS in Reading are simply too challenging.

Either way, the train appears to be racing down the track rather quickly. In my role with ASCD and the NH State Affiliate, I argued on behalf of Common Core recently with legislators in Washington.  Earlier this month I hosted a webinar with Plymouth State University students on Common Core. I presented similar material with my own students at New England College, and my faculty and I spent a good part of a staff meeting this month dedicated to CCSS.

Teachers and administrators in my district took a full PD day in the fall to examine the CCSS and it was clear that there is strong rigor in the standards as we compared the new documents to our current curriculum. We asked the following questions and digitally highlighted the CCSS in the following way:

• What Common Core standards are already represented in our current curriculum practice (what matches up with what you already do)? highlight in yellow
• What Common Core Standards are represented in our current curriculum practice, but the Common Core standard is of a higher rigor? highlight in blue
• What Common Core Standards are new, unfamiliar, or not currently addressed in our instructional practice? highlight in pink

A recent survey by ASCD of its Smartbrief readers yielded the following data:

“Where is your school or district in the implementation process for the common core standards?”

• 34.62 percent said “We are providing professional development around the Common Core State Standards.”

• 30.77 percent said “We have aligned the Common Core State Standards with some of our previous standards.”

• 19.23 percent said “Unsure.”

• 8.28 percent said “We are identifying curricular tools to aid instruction of the new standards.”

• 7.10 percent said “My state is not adopting the Common Core State Standards.”

I am hopeful that the CCSS will force us all to examine our curriculums in the light of  pedagogical research and what we know works for children. The conversation must continue. Please comment on this post and we’ll continue the chat.

I have seen hashtags #ccss and #commoncore both being used on Twitter as a catalyst for conversation. 

Also check out a couple of resources I have:

• My SlideShare presentation used at Plymouth State University recently.
• My Diigo Common Core page (being added to regularly)

It’s a bit rare that a mainstream “pop” story captures my attention but  Saturday I took a break from my chores to watch a bit of the Whitney Houston funeral. (At nearly four hours, if I watched the whole funeral, I would have gotten very few chores done.) My wife and I caught Kevin Costner’s eulogy of Whitney, one of the most touching and insightful I have seen. Costner related personal stories of their relationship during the filming of The Bodyguard and joked about how much the two had in common despite what one might think. The most perceptive part was when he said:

“To you, Bobbi Kristina (Whitney’s daughter) and to all those young girls who are dreaming that dream, thinking that maybe they aren’t good enough, I think Whitney would tell you, guard your bodies. And guard the precious miracle of your own life. Then sing your hearts out.”

Don’t underestimate the power that every one of you have to guide and care for our little guys and girls. They are forming their own perceptions of themselves early on and we are the adults they face every day, looking for positive interaction and a guiding hand. It’s a heavy but exciting responsibility.

 

Courtesy of si.com

I have to admit it. I am still reeling from the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss. But there is a sports story rising up very quickly from the same city that spawned the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, fortunately distracting me from that fateful game. If you haven’t heard, Jeremy Lin is a 23 year basketball phenom for the New York Knicks who recently rose to prominence after living a brief NBA life in obscurity. Lin is unusual stock for the NBA as he is one of the league’s very few Chinese-Americans players and a rare NBA-playing graduate of an Ivy League School. This 6 foot 3 Harvard grad has been sleeping on his brother’s couch in the Big Apple but his digs are bound to be improving soon as he has now set a record for the most points scored by an NBA player in his first five starts.

What I find encouraging is how many lessons can be gleaned from the rise of Mr. Lin:

1. Persistence often pays off.

While there are no guarantees that hard work will always result in great success, a lack of effort ensures a lack of success. There are numerous examples in history of great stars who succeeded after failure…Lincoln’s ascension to the Presidency after so many losses, Einstein’s many debacles before his theory of relativity, even the enigmatic Richard Nixon who lost the California gubernatorial race before being elected to two terms as President.

We may never know how the world could have changed if particular men and women remained steadfast to their dreams and fought through failure. Lin could have easily given up after being cut by two NBA teams.

2. Know your strengths and be ready for the opportunity to implement them.

Success often occurs when there is a good match between our personal skills and our opportunities. In my field, educators have to find the right community match in order to find success. Jeremy Lin fell into a perfect situation with the Knicks. He was needed because of numerous injuries and he was ready to step right in. Good fortune is often a match between opportunity and preparation.

3. Be flexible

While setting goals and vision is imperative for success, successful people must be ready to take on different roles if necessary. Lin began his unbelievable entry with the Knicks as a scorer, shooting three pointers, making jump shots, and driving to the basket. As players come back from injuries and the rest of the NBA learns about Lin a bit, he is having to retreat to more of a traditional point guard, distributing the ball to others. His stats will shift from points to assists but in the long run, this will help his basketball team to win. I don’t think statistics are important to him whatsoever.

4. Be humble.

Lin is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, he is the darling of social media, television, and radio, and he is about to move from his brother’s apartment to earning the NBA league minimum of around $700,000 a year. It’s important that one’s personal values remain constant no matter the consequences swirling through our lives, positive or negative. Jeremy knows who he is and understands that fame and fortune is potentially fleeting.

Years ago basketball great Charles Barkley proclaimed that he should never be a role model and that mothers and fathers should take on that role. Obviously that would be ideal, but with the power of the media, I am happy when our celebrities espouse positive values. We could use more role models like Jeremy Lin.

Courtesy of utsa.edu

I was a young child in the 1960s but I still remember the stress that year brought to my family.  In the tragic year of 1968,  I was seven years old, and while Laugh-In was the rage on TV with my friends when it debuted in January, the Vietnam War was heating up and the Civil Rights movement was ripe throughout the country. President Lyndon Johnson announced to great surprise that he would not seek re-election and it was also the year we lost two leaders, Presidential candidate, Sen. Bobby Kennedy and of course, Martin Luther King. I think we forget how tumultuous a year that was for our nation.

On Monday, we celebrate the life of MLK in the midst of a community and a state that has little ethnic diversity.  Yet, one of the greatest gifts a holiday can give us is a chance to reflect and take stock in the universal values we share. At Harold Martin School, it is a core belief among the adults and children that each individual has unique and significant value. It is important that every adult at HMS model respect so that our students can see that example and carry it forward. MLK was consistent in his message of equality at a time when that value was a faint concept in the minds of many. While the group that suffered the most during that time were African-Americans, if MLK was alive today (he would have been 83 years old this Sunday) I know he would have continued and likely broadened his message. He was only 39 when he died.

If you would like to commemorate the life of Martin Luther King and the values he stood for, I’ve posted information on three events happening Monday in the local area.

If you cannot attend an MLK Day event, take a few moments Monday to discuss the virtues of respect and equality with your kiddos.

new apps these days, has a social media element to it as well. I began using it to record the “Harold Martin Minute” last year and due to time constraints (I suppose) I stopped using it. In reality, the process is very quick.

It works like this:

1. Download the Audioboo app to your iPhone, iPad, or Android device (or use your browser).

2. Record your “boo” recording up to 5 minutes in length.

3. Easily upload to the Audioboo website from your device. When you log into your account (which you need to set up of course) it should be waiting there for you. From there you can embed the Audioboo (with player) on to your blog or website. You can also upload the “boo” directly to Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.

There are many uses on the school scene for Audioboo:

• Record a brief reminder of events and important info for your parents and community and embed it right on your web site.
• Use as a podcasting tool. With your smartphone, you can easily interview teachers and students while capturing classroom gems. The audio format is simpler than video and often less intimidating for the interviewee.
• Teachers can record student presentations and have them up on the web (or share them via social media) almost immediately after completion.
• Teachers can use the Audiobook website to post their own audio newsletters to replace or enhance their regular weekly classroom newsletter. Better yet, students can record part of the newsletter too.
• Teachers can post brief notes regarding classroom content for their students.

The social element of Audioboo allows one to collect Audioboo “friends” and follow others in the same vein as podcasts.

Please reply here or Tweet if you find this info useful or if you have other tools with similar attributes. Start recording!

Photo courtesy of backpocketcoo.com

The difficulty in keeping one’s life in balance is related in large part to the type of life we lead in America. Industriousness is rewarded in our society and at times busyness can become an addiction. Yet, balance is not reached by simply paring down our activity, it’s selecting those activities that sustain our spirit and organizing our time so that life’s pursuits make sense in light of our personal goals and philosophy of life. While everyone has a point of pure exhaustion, what we really need are diversions – opportunities to exercise a different part of the brain and be creative. I am influenced by Daniel Pink’s thoughts in his book Drive. The author’s primary message is that we are happier as human beings when we have significant opportunities to be creative and autonomous.

Like most of you, I am both fortunate and cursed to have so many interests. While my job as an educator carves out a powerful slice of my day and week, music allows me to exercise a different part of my brain.  I lead a contemporary music group of about 20 men and women at a large church in Manchester, NH which is both exhilarating and challenging while forcing me to keep up my musical chops. In addition, my father the engineer instilled within me a love for technology so playing with the latest gadget or experimenting with social media challenges me to be inventive.

Focusing on health is crucial for balance too. As the economy has worsened and true retirement seems but a dream, I have made a commitment to exercise and lose weight so I can earn a salary as long as I need to. Stopping by the local gym and enrolling in the online Weight Watchers program has increased my energy and well-being quicker than any other method.

Ultimately, commitment to family is the greatest factor in achieving balance for me.

As the kids have grown (Ben is 24, Abby is 21, and Jake is 16) it has also been easier to involve my kids in what I do. My daughter Abby, when she is home from college, sings with my church group. I share Fantasy Football with Ben and Jake as well as a love of technology. It’s also easier than ever to go on dates with my wife given the age of the kids. The five of us have shared two summer vacations every year as are all dedicated to forgo our jobs and other commitments for a week in July and one in August. Truly, how you achieve balance shifts as the family changes.

As the new year begins, striving for life’s balance is a challenging but worthy goal. Sit down with the people you love and assess together how balanced your life and your family’s life is at the beginning of 2012. You will find more balance and meaning in life when you truly examine the activities that are taking up your time. May you have an incredible 2012.

Random posts like this are easy to write. I’m not sure my high school English teacher would approve of the bullet format but…

• The iPad is becoming an enormous tool for me. Tonight, I’ll lead the band at my church using the iPad as my only tool for reading music. In fact, many members of the band have taken my lead and are using digital music instead of paper. After downloading music in PDF form from a specific music site, I throw it on Dropbox which can be easily inputted into one or more iPad apps. I’m currently using GigBook to house nearly 800 songs. With this app you can create set lists and simply swipe from page to page, song to song. One caveat though: have a back-up. I was using another music app, OnSong last week and the app failed on me. Fortunately, I had much of the music on GigBook and the rest I read off Dropbox on my iPhone. Tough on the eyes though.
• I’m also not sure how I worked as a Principal without the iPad this school year. I complete my walk-throughs, take notes in meetings, and make appointments on the fly. It’s a great device for hallway work…that’s where a large percentage of work happens in my job and using Evernote, I have every document I need, right on my iPad.
• Siri has not been the game changer I have expected. It frequently disappoints me when I’m trying to impress a friend or colleague. I’m thinking that Siri likes quiet; background noise seems to interfere. I’m sure that updates to its “beta” status will help.
• I’m not a big game guy, but I’m really enjoying Words with Friends on the iPhone. Not sure how they manage to avoid copyright infringement with Scrabble though. I’m currently in games with two of my kids, my wife, and one of my teachers. No worries…I’ll will not become obsessed a la Alec Baldwin.

Nice to relax for a couple days.