Increase Your Circle!
Please allow me to share with you a bit in my simple world. Growing up on a farm, we did not have every tool or implement needed. Opportunities would always pop up in which we would tap our neighbor and borrow such items. This was often followed with a quote , if you can’t use your neighbor, what good are they for (chuckle)?
The world has gotten much smaller and every person has a neighbor on their keyboard. The key is to connect and celebrate this relationship. With October being Connected Educator Month, I would like to celebrate a bit of this process of reaching out to others.
Being connected has become a daily need. Each morning, I find myself utlizing Twitter as a means to acquire news, sports, weather and the current conversation in education. Most delightful is the fact that I choose the provider of said information. I don’t have to listen to news that I do not wish to hear while I await the pertinent information to me.
Think of Collaboration more in the sense of partnering and supporting. Educational Leaders can quickly feel isolated on an island full of dilemas. This is never so in a connected world. You have resources and support at your finger tips!
Where do I start? What should I do? Please take a test drive on this Prezi. Dan Layton, my partner in crime and assistant prinicipal and I have been collaborating together on opportunities to increase our circle of sharing with other. This has led us to presenting at multiple conferences and schools. Dan and I collaborate using Prezi with multiple editors as well as Google Docs and Touchcast. Touchcast has proven to be wonderful tool to share with our school morning announcements. This Prezi below is one of our productions.
Please visit Dan’s blog for more presentations at: educationspork.blogspot.com. You can also follow him on twitter @Danlayton2.
We will be presenting as the upcoming CELL conference (University of Indianapolis) as well as the Indiana Association of School Principals and Assistant Principal Conference. While it feels good to be invited to speak at a conference or share in front of others, we aknowledge these are just tools that are out there for everyone to use. We have stolen ideas from other people to increase out own toolbox and make life more efficient. Please feel free to steal from us!
In closing, if you are an advanced tweeter, don’t stop learning! Check out this cool tool: http://rebelmouse.com
http://rebelmouse.com/chadsmithelearn/
www.rebelemouse.com/DanLayton2/
Keep on learning!
Chad