where does leardership come from

I think as a group the team looks to me as a leader. S needs to feel that she is a leader too. But that's her ego coming out. I think I was like that when I was younger.I hope they do see me as a collaborative leader. not a directional leader. ...... spring board to new post

and here we are in the new post.

Leadership in people comes from very different places. Some people, it is a competitive edge. It's a drive to be the best. They gather lessers as currency and conquer equals. betters are targets to shoot at.

Some people are servant leaders where they are there for a purpose. to gather others to that good work. They raise up others and leverage equals. betters are examples to learn from.

Some people are natural leaders. They do what's right and in doing that draw others. Lessers learn and equals benefit from pieces they can contribute to the good work. betters are where they are going.

what type of leader are you?

high school and about next year

I imaged myself moving to the high school perhaps even heading it up. But that's not going to happen. Carol is already mentioning Linda about the high school. I should have know you are not going to head up a program when you are as new and as under educated as I am. People that head up things at oakland schools are older and dr's.

I am not really interested in teaching in the high school. It would be a new system to learn. I would be high school English which is a lot of papers to grade. I would go to the high school to be principal. but not a teacher.

Based on the conversations Carols is having she sees me working summer school - which I want too. There are hints she sees me doing the same job next year. But Dee is the math teacher. I would rather she teach Algebra. My first choice would be to be a principal of middle or elementary or k-8. I am interested to know if she will ask me to do parent meetings. That will be one sign.

I think as a group the team looks to me as a leader. Samantha needs to feel that she is a leader too. But that's her ego coming out. I hope they do see me as a collaborative leader. not a directional leader. ...... spring board to new post

some things never change

There are some constants in the functions of education that will never change
parent wants something
teacher make decision it's not in the best interest of the child
teacher double checks with admin
admin agrees
teacher has that hard conversation with parent
parent goes to admin
admin agrees with parent

Then the teacher is in a pickle. Pick you ending
did you admin throw you under the bus?
How is your relatship with the parent? Student? admin?
How does the teacher save face?
How the teacher maintain professional creditably?
What about trusting the admin?
How does the admin handle the communication of that decision to the teacher?
How does the admin create a place where the teacher can handle that reversal with trust?

Teachers can feel betrayed. They can transfer those feelings to students and parents. To grading. It can impact their commitment and confidence.

One of the real challenges of leadership is handling those critical conversation between an admin and teachers so the pitfalls that are all around this do not happen.

I wonder if the admin could leave it with the parent that I will talk over with the teacher and the teacher will let you know --- if they are giving the parent want they want. That would require the admin to not give into that emotional plea of the parents and the human response to want to say yes.

paperless problems

So I am trying to paperless at grad school this term. I figured out the whole what to do with handouts. I take a pictures and I can make them into PDF. My plan is everything paperless and in G Drive in a folder and use my iPad not laptop I have trust issues with the cloud but I am trying to get over them.

Taking notes in class - the delemia is Blogger verses Google Docs in G drive. There's no spell checker in G drive. And it's another place if I put in in Blogger. But Blogger could better organize the information. Not really sure where I fall on this but I need to make a commitment doing both is too messy.

PPT were a challenge. My current status is open them in keynotes and make notes on the slides themselves. Then put in up into the G drive. G drive does tag into many of the apps. Not in keynotes but I can get in there with some hops.

Another challenge was when DR. Martin said "take out a picture of paper and draw....." Panicky. There's no paper no pencils tool. But then I remember skitch - downloaded it and had my tool

Another problem was internet access. G drive was acting weird Thursday night. I kept giving off line messages. I thought it was the university's wifi but I had the same problems at home so I used notes instead and copied up to G drive when I could.

So far I am sticking with the paper plan. I think it helps that my professors this term are light in handouts.

the daily grid

My thoughts on coming back after Christmas break

So we are back the daily grid of being a virtual teacher. The worst part is specific to our program because it's the grading. It's so stupid that I spend time grading PDF that are multiple choice and matching. Scantron would be better then this. My own kids in the brick and motor school do moodle- Hey we have moodle!!

Wow I just had the idea of us porting those tests into moodle. We could do it. cut and paste! I think I could get the whole middle school done in a summer.Core, GCS, and Science it would work for. Math you may still need to should your work.

There are some issues that I would like the team to discuss. how to we make them go somewhere else to take a test? We could not stop. Would they use offline? Skipping tests? resetting tests for retry?


Lauren Childs said at our last pd "You are who you are waiting for"

Reflecting on the year

Hi VLAC Teachers!

We would very much like to include your positive experience(s) with VLAC in our upcoming media student recruitment launch. If you would be willing to send me a very short “testimonial” paragraph with your personal thoughts on the past school year (e.g.: teaching, curriculum, students), we would very much like to include your voice in the 2013-14 program promotion. Prospective VLAC parents will be very interested in what you have to say!

Jean (our social media "guy")

Jean

I am not sure if this is what you want. I can revise if it does not fit what you need.

Wow what an amazing school year this has been! Reflecting back on the first half of the year, I so happy to be part of this program. For parents, this program gives you the support from both other homeschooling parents and certified Michigan teachers. You no longer have to spend time and money figuring out what to teach and when to teach it. You can get right to teaching your child.  For students, this program gives you a strong education with a flexible schedule. 

I feel more connected to my students and parents in this program than traditional schooling. We are a team to develop the learner. This program offers a laser tight focus on developing the individual learners to master the curriculum.

Thanks so much,

Julie Alspach

Virtual Learning Academy Consortium

248 310-6885

are you smarter then your smart phone

we used to teach our students a knowledge base to remember so they could go out and be better equipped to learn in the world.
now we have smart phone, tv and cars so you how you get smarter then a smart phone?
You move up the ladder. OUr students need to learn to apply, analyze and evaluate

because we do not know the data set they we will need. Don't know the questions they wil face but they need to have the problem solving skills to conquer it.