My Second Life

Shanghia Pre Conference Session on 9/7/08

So I made it through the first week of school and was feeling pretty warn out from all the action.  I was looking forward to just relaxing on Sunday with my wife and catching the NY Jets and Brett Faivre.  Then, as I went to Dawn’s computer, I couldn’t resist the urge to check my new twitter account.  LIke most of you reading this, I have that problem sometimes.  It was all over after that.  I had read David Warlick and Jeff Utech’s last post on twitter about a Second Life meeting this morning.  I immediately clicked these links and was teleported into my new life.  I had tried second life a few times and just couldn’t seem to get the hang of it.  Most of the time I had too much going on to focus on this.  I have to say, if it wasn’t for my twitter account I may not have made it there that morning.    For almost two hours I relaxed on a bean bag and listened to ohter chat about this upcoming conference.  At the same time, we (the audience) carried on a live conversation through text.   This experience for me will continue to drive my passion for the way we look at teaching and learing.  I felt surrounded that day by pure genious.  In my entire educational career I was never more engaged in listening, then I was at this time.  Some critics believe that these sort of spaces are not going to play a role in the education of our students.  Folks, the time is now.  We must reshape decision making, reshape policies and restructure our schools to provide an educational system that is relevent to the future needs of our children.  Our children are bored!  Get them engaged.  Teachers…are you on sites like Classroom 2.0 to get new ideas.  Are you contributing to this conversation or are you just living within the walls of your classroom.   Join groups that share a common interest.  I dont care if they are school related or not.  Get a grasp on the New Web.  Create your own learning and do it through a digital community.

Back to School

With each new school year I become more and more anxious and excited for a new set of learning opportunities.   When I say learning, I refer to my one on one interactions and digital interactions with my fellow administrators, teachers and of course our students.  On a much larger scale, I am have a renewed committment to extending my own global network.   

I guess I was never a good learner as a child, or for that matter until I nearly graduated college.  I can remember the day my brother (who was more tech savy than me) came to my rescue as I prepared to present my research to my science professors.  At that time, the Internet was weak, limited and unreliable.  Software applications like PowerPoint and Excel were barely being used in our school, and if I had a few $’s and an inside scoop, I would have made millions off a company called Google. 

This experience was a game changer for me.  It started to re-shape my future and certainly lead me to develop a new belief system for teaching and learning.  After many years, I am a bit upset that I was never able to experience this through my K-12 academic career, but thanks to my brother and many other educational leaders who have inspired me, I am grateful to dedicate my entire life to reaching both teachers and students. 

I recently met with my new teaching staff in my district and we talked about the future needs of our students.  We spoke about the year 2022 and the year 2042.  2022, represented the year that today’s Kindegartners would graduate.  2042, is the year that they would have to work until, in order to collect a full pension.  My game changing experience came at the most important time in my history (perhaps the most important of everyone’s). This was 1999 and the Internet was nothing like it is today.  I guess I never thanked him for this, but I definitely will.

So, what do I want to do this year?  First of all, I am going to be a new dad!  I can’t wait!  But with this added responsibility, I will be more focused then ever before.  As I approach my practice, my decisions are made for various reasons, but most of all, what would I want to see for my child?  Are our school meeting the needs of the 2022 graduate? Are we giving the teachers the tools to facilitiate these learning experiences?   Are teachers ready to do this?  Is the school system or community ready for this? There are so many more questions, to which I don’t have the answers.   I am very excited about tomorrow (1st day of school).  I can’t wait to work with my fellow administrators to develop new models for teaching and learning. 

This year, we are going to increase our critical mass of web 2.0 users and re-think the way we approach teaching and learning for today’s teacher and today’s student!

Tregeo Decision Making Process

Wow…What a day it has been!

Its been a while since my last post.  During this time, I have been transitioning to a new role in my district, getting ready to be a DADDY and staying true to my addiction to learning.  Today was a special day in my quest to learn.  Have you ever sat in a class and just wondered, why haven’t I known about this for my entire life.  This workshop is designed to train us in the decision making process.  The focus is on the process!  I have read many wonderful books on leadership, managment and organizational change, but this proves to be one of the greatest learning experiences I have had in a while.  As our new Superintendent stated, “you will probably use this your entire life”.  I definitely agree with his statement.

Dr. James Coles has certainly had his share of experiences.  Today we learned about the big picture of decision making and the benefits of a process.  The process we are dicussing involves the SA, DA and PPA.   
SA stands for Situation Appraisal
DA stands for Decision Analysis
PPA stands for Potential Problem Analysis

As the Math, Science and Technology director, my issues are span multiple areas and involve multiple groups of people.  I am anxious to start employing this process in my work.  I am also excited to do so with a the wonderful group of professionals I work with. 

While I have just began this quest, please take a second to share your experiences with the Tregeo Decision Making Process.  Have you applied this to your organanization?  If so, please do share. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Perhaps the next time you are here, I will be a happy daddy, who has less time to blog!

ASSET 2008

Happy St. Patty’s Day to all.  Today I am attending the 2008 ASSET technology conference with 800 other educators.  This is always a very exciting conference.  Its great to see all the educators from across Long Island, as well as getting a chance to see the latest and greatest from our technology vendors. I really enjoyed the keynote address given by Rushton Harvey.  This was the first time I participated in a keynote using a classroom response system.  Rushton was able to use this interactive technology to poll the audience on various topics.  I am going to use this space to share my experiences and notes from todays conference.  

• SmartBoard Exemplary Educator
• Google Educator  
• Gabcast
• Podcasts and Vodcasts and Cell Phones by Noel Forte
• Comic Strips in Edu

School Leadership

I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a new site I launched with Mike Keany, Director of Long Island School Leadership.  As Mike puts it, this site is a “town hall” for school leaders.  Please check out the new site and be a part of our learning community.  The goal of this site is to open up the conversation and enable professionals to share ideas, practices and experiences in a more direct manner.  In addition, I hope that this type of collaboration will open more people up to the power behind “social networking”, which I prefer to call “professional networking”.  

The URL is http://schoolleadership.ning.com  

Visit LI School Leadership

USTREAM – Broadcast, Connect, Share, Learn

I thought I would make it through the vacation not doing too much working and focusing on relaxation, exercise and the new book Bob, Karl and myself are working on.  Then I stumbled onto probably one of the coolest applications I have seen in a while.  I am going to start using this on my own and in my school with teachers, admin and athletics as well.  If you come across this blog entry and have been using this or something similar…please share your thoughts and streams.

What does it mean to be LITERATE?

I hope to reach out to a big audience with this one, because it sure is a relevant question these days.  From one generation to the next there are differences in opinons on what it means to be literate in the 21st century.  I for one have always found video and music to be a powerful means of delivering a message.  Maybe you have seen this or maybe you haven’t, but please watch this.  To my fellow bloggers, please share your ideas on what it means to be literate after watching that show.  Comments will be posted and I am setting up our very first podcast regarding this topic. 

School Leadership Blogs

Blogs (short for WebBlogs) have given anybody, anywhere the ability to publish, view, critisize and most importanty open up eyes.  The Long Island School Leadership Listserv (led by Michael Keany) will be implementing a blog for school leaders.   If you are not already a member are not receiving emails through the listserv, then do make sure you get on.  This listserv, just like the future blog is a great way for engaging staff and colleques in the sharing of ideas.