Gadgets on My iGoogle Page

For the MEMSPA members who attended Thursday's workshop and for the CLAS members who attended today's workshop, here is a post from some months ago regarding iGoogle. When you are getting started with any endeavor, it often helps to see another example. This post gives links to each of the gadgets I have on my iGoogle page.

Click here to see that post.

By the way, there are some great Halloween themes to choose from. On your iGoogle page, click "Change them" and enter "Halloween" in the search window.

Thanks to MEMSPA Participants

Thanks to everyone who attended the Get Organized! workshop sponsored by Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association. If you signed to receive the monthly e-mails, you should have already received your first one. If you did not sign up, you still can do so. Simply click here.

The spreadsheets that we demonstrated during the workshop are now on the Free Resources page of the my website. I will devote an upcoming post to the DIBELS spreadsheet and what it is designed to do.

As we talked about the using smartphones as a "signature tool," we discussed the possible mixed message that could be sent when the principal is seen using a smartphone while students are banned from using theirs. I don't know that I have all of the answers. I do think it is a topic worthy of a great deal of discussion. While probably none of us has the total answer, together we can fashion experience which keep learning in the center and put educational leaders on the cutting edge rather than bringing up the rear.

Vicki Davis is a technology educator in Camilla, Georgia and the author of the blog "Cool Cat Teacher." In August, she discussed how smartphones are used in her classroom. Her strategies and her thoughts are well worth the read. That post can be found here. Several posts on this blog follow-up on that subject. The dates of those posts run from August 20-26.

Looking Forward to Returning to Michigan

Thanks to Bob Howe and his staff for inviting me back to Michigan. We will be doing a full-day workshop for the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association on October 8. The morning will be devoted to the major concepts in the Get Organized! Time Management for School Leaders book. In the afternoon, we will take a look at how spreadsheets make the life of a busy principal much easier.

Here is the promotion flyer that MEMPSA is sending to its membership.

Welcome MEMSPA Participants

If you are visiting here as a result of yesterday's workshop, welcome! I hope you will check back often.

One of the afternoon topics was iGoogle, and I gave you a quick overview of the "gadgets" I have on my iGoogle page. Earlier in the summer, I devoted a post to those gadgets. With a click on each one, you will be taken to the page where you can select it to appear on your iGoogle page.

Click here to see the gadgets I have on my iGoogle page.

MEMSPA 2009 Summer Leadership Institute

Thanks to Bob Howe for inviting me to present at the Michigan Elementary & Middle School Principals Association Summer Leadership Institute! I was met at the airport by Rachel Turner, a delightful first-year elementary principal. Talking with her reminds me of the challenges of leadership at the school level, especially the challenges of beginning leadership.

Time management is a challenge for any school leader, and that is the reason for my invitation. We will be conducting a full-day workshop. I have refined some points in the workshop and will going into more detail about the use of the BlackBerry as a time management tool. This should be fun experience for all of us, and I hope that it provides principals with some tools that will increase their productivity and decrease stress for years to come.

Folks must have known I was coming, because at check-in, I was given just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. In my room was a tin of cookies and a nice note from Bob.

The hospitality is great, as evidenced by this gathering.

The accommodations are first-class, the Double Tree in Bay City.