50 BEST BLOGS FOR EDU LEADERS

Thanks to the folks at OnlineUniversities.com for naming me to their 50 best blogs for Edu Leaders. This is a tremendous honor as I am on the list with many of the people that I learn with each day. View the full list at: http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2011/04/50-best-blogs-for-edu-leaders/

Hiring the Best

These are the people that I want to hire. I want personality. I want shtick. I want vision. If you aren't finding a passion for these traits in your school, come find us @mrhmiddleschool, let's find a way to work together.




Photo originally from Joe Bowyer, for the love of learning blog

College Prep??

Over the past year, we have spent time bringing the concept of college to the eyes and hearts of our middle school students. This is a shift for our district as we provide additional students with the academic capacity necessary to be successful in college. As we move forward, it will be great to point to our 1:1 environment as one of the best leverage point for preparing our kids for college, especially, as this inforgraphic represents, colleges begin to ask all students to be technology literate from even before they set a foot on campus.

How to Minimize College Debt?

I worry with college on the horizon for my kids at school, and my kids at home, how do I minimize the impact on my future savings, ability to retire, and my chance to live my adventures in retirement. This infographic describes how college debt is a tough vortex to get caught in.

Great Message for Schools of the Future

OK, I have to admit that I have all kinds of issues with for-profit schools that mount debt on kids with no real set of skills that can in short order neutralize the cost of the learning, but this is a great piece from Kaplan University. Enjoy.

Moving to Excellent

Over the course of the year, we have talked about providing the time and space to allow students to create and perform at an excellent level. This philosophy was built on the ideas of Ron Berger, and his book Ethic of Excellence. This video provides a great example of what we can learn from the precision of the fine arts, and how we should be striving for this type of excellence in all classes. Passion-driven education only works when students are able to be proud of their excellent work that stems from pursuing their passion. We all need to see the fruits of our labor.

Five for Friday- Links and Resources

While listening to a podcast on the way to Florida, I stumbled on this phrase that really pushed my thinking about taking risks for kids when we know that we can't totally invest in all 150 kids as deeply as we would like.

"Do for one which you wish you could do for everyone."

Seems like a great place to turn for increasing the blended learning model in our classrooms.

Academic Earth is extensive video library that lets students (and adults) take video courses from the worlds top scholars all in one place…for free! The mission of Academic Earth is to give everyone access to a world class education. Subjects covered by Academic Earth include art, architecture, astronomy, biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, education, electrical engineering, engineering, entrepreneurship, environmental studies, history, international relations, law, literature, mathematics, media studies, medicine and health care, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religious studies, test prep, and writing.

Need to learn some technology, looking for new ways to integrate. How about this great site?

http://teachertrainingvideos.com/

Incredible TED talk about the digital world that our kids live in, and how it needs to impact education now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8djV8slDN0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Another great educational TED talk entitled teaching Jetson Children in Flintstone Schools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvqy0CAMdCM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

This site is in beta stage, but it is a search engine for how-to education videos. It seems like a tremendous resource for our blended learning environment.
http://www.sophia.org/