Happy 10th Birthday, Blog!

 

“For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in systems that people had that helped them get their ‘stuff’ done—or what kept them from getting their stuff done.” That sentence began the first blog post I ever wrote. It appeared exactly 10 years ago today. A decade and nearly 1,400 posts later, my blog still serves as the major way I communicate to whoever may be interested in reading what I write.

This post celebrates the 10th birthday of this blog. It also serves as the final post which will appear here.

In a 2009 interview including Seth Godin and Tom Peters, two of the giants in the business world, Peters states, “No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life. It has changed my perspective. It has changed my intellectual outlook. It has changed my emotional outlook.” I could not agree more.

 

Ten years ago, we didn't have Twitter or Instagram. Facebook was a mere six months old. What we had were blogs. A decade later, blogs still influence readers and provide flexibility for writers better than any other social media.

Practically every business has a website. Most are static. They provide the permanent information about the company. When changes must be made, a call to the webmaster is in order. For the business with ever-changing, ever-emerging news to share, a blog is the perfect vehicle to communicate with its customers.

If you can write an email and attach a picture, you have the skills needed to write a blog post and include a photo. When news happens at the business today, it can go on the blog today. The reverse-chronological order of the posts puts the most recent piece at the top. Everything else which has ever appeared on the blog is available for easy access. Readers can “subscribe” to your blog, so that every time you post something new, it goes to their email.

Blogs are also a great way to communicate within the organization. When an idea occurs to the boss that he needs to communicate to the staff, firing off a quick memo or email is one solution. The upside is that it gets the idea off of the bosses mind and transfers the responsibility to the staff.

The downside is that the ability to communicate through these means is only as good as the ability of staff members to organize these random bits of information. In all too many offices, inboxes house hundreds of email messages, and stacks of papers a foot or more in height decorate desktops. Stress levels are high and productivity is low.

Most of those memos and emails contain extraneous information. Often the real “meat” consists of only a couple of sentences. In order to fill the page, we begin with some type of introduction, setting the stage for the message to come. Likewise, we feel compelled to include some type of “conclusion,” so we thank the staff for their cooperation or provides some other type of rhetorical closing.

Is there a better way? Absolutely. Jot down those random thoughts so they are not forgotten. Save them. Once per week, organize the whole batch into a single blog post.

The blog can have multiple authors. Posts are easy to edit. There is nothing to print, nothing to copy, and nothing that can get lost.

I wrote an article in Principal magazine, arguing in favor of using blogs in a school setting. Today, more and more school principals use the blog as a sensible way to communicate with the faculty. That article can be accessed here. Want to give blogging a try? Here is a link to an excellent get-started guide.

Top 10 Reasons to Blog: 

• Blogs are free. Multiple sites allow you to create and host your blog at no cost.
• Blogs are easy. Creating a blog post is no more complicated than composing an email message.
• Blogs are quick. One click of the mouse makes the message available to the world without photocopying, collating, or mailbox stuffing.
• Blogs save trees (and money). Because blogs are paperless, you save reams of paper.
• Blogs are forever saved. Every post is retained in reverse chronological order.
• Blogs are 21st Century. They have become a standards part of communication in our culture.
• Blogs unite businesses and their customers. When communication becomes easy, the volume of communication increases.
• Blogs reach anyone, anytime, anywhere. Any computer with Internet access can access a blog.
• Blogs celebrate excellence in business. They provide the perfect venue to allow the business to frame its story.

As stated towards the beginning, this post will be the last to appear on this blog. To say starting this blog was a good thing would be an understatement. Yet, good things are often replaced by better things. 

I created a new website in April 2014. The website and the blog are now under one roof at FrankBuck.org. All of the posts you have enjoyed here have been copied there. Every week, new content appears. I hope that you will visit often and use the material to help you better manage your time and organize your life.

Check Out the New Website

I now have a totally re-designed website, and invite you to take a look. The URL is the same as before: http://FrankBuck.org. Everything else is new, including a new hosting service. While I still have content to add, I wanted to make the site live, because I do think it is a significant improvement and one readers will enjoy.

Why the Change?
While I have been blogging for almost 10 years, my first experience with designing a website came in 2009. After purchasing a domain name (FrankBuck.org), I had one of those "now what?" moments. My hosting service did point me towards a set of free templates. I chose one and, through trial and error, was able to enter content and upload images and files.

Much has changed since 2009. From the standpoint of the reader, many more people today are reading their content from a mobile device. That's why a year ago, I changed the template for my monthly newsletter. Instead of continuing with the two-column design, I replaced it with a single-column design. (You can subscribe to that newsletter here.) The display on mobile devices is much better, and readers no longer scroll from side-to-side in order read content.

This blog's appearance on mobile devices is good, thanks to the folks at Google. I didn't understand exactly how it happens. All I know is when I read my blog from phone or tablet, all content aligns vertically. My website, on the other hand, appeared as a miniature version of what displayed on the computer monitor. Viewing content meant pinching and scrolling from side-to-side.

Secondly, the level of technical support available was far from satisfactory. Talking to a real person was impossible. I started to see some weird formatting, and could get no help.

Here is What I Did
First, I changed hosting services. I have been a reader of Michael Hyatt's blog for some time and had heard his recommendations for BlueHost. In particular, he talked about the high quality of customer service. I contacted BlueHost and created an account at a cost of $3.95 per month.

Since creating my account, I have utilized their tech support frequently. You get a live person, and the hold time for getting to a live person is surprisingly short. My experience has been that you get someone who is knowledgeable, friendly, and doesn't mind spending time with you.

Secondly, I needed a "theme" or template. Here again, tech support is important. BlueHost is not going to be familiar with the details of a particular theme.

My Theme Choice: Creativo
I purchased a theme called "Creativo." Ordering information is here. You can also view a demonstration of the theme. The $49 I paid for the theme has turned out to be a bargain due to its design, quality of the documentation, and the email tech support. A series of videos walks you through installing the theme, installing "demo data" (and believe me, you want to install the demo data), creating a home page, how to work with the "sliders" you see at the top of my homepage, and how to create blog posts.

My approach was to start with the demo data and modify it, following the video each step of the way. As I became more confident and understood the concepts, I began to get more creative.

Creativo is a "responsive theme." That term is important. It means that the site adjusts to the device on which it is viewed. When I view the site on my phone, the content aligns vertically and fits within the width of the screen.

Tech Support
I had my share of questions and ran into my share of problems along the way. Every single time I emailed RockyThemes tech support, I received an email response in less than a day (usually within less than hour). Sometimes, the response was to simply tell me where to go in a menu to find the controls I needed. Sometimes the answer was in the form of some html code and instructions on exactly where to paste it.

I could not have done what I did on the new website without the tech support from Stef, who is the person who responded to each of my emails. There is an old saying that you get what you pay for. I am glad I went with a paid theme, both in terms of the features this theme offers and the outstanding tech support.

Pulling the Switch
I spent several weeks slowly building the site, waiting until I had large blocks of time to devote to the site. During this time, my old site remained functional. When the new site was ready, another phone call to BlueHost provided me with the information I needed to move my website and email. One day, FrankBuck.org took people to the old site. The next day, that same URL took people to the new site.

Sometimes we don't think about everything ahead of time. Yes, if people went to FrankBuck.org, they wound up at the new site. But, if they had a link to one of the interior pages of the website, they wound up at a dead end. Since my old site was no no more, I had no way to go back to it and record the URL for each interior page. It was time to go "back in time"!

Did you know the Internet has a "Wayback Machine"? Go to http://archive.org/web and enter a URL. Select a date from the calendar which appears. You will see the site as it appeared at that point in time.

I selected my own URL and chose a date a couple of months in the past. I was able to navigate the site as if it was still live, and copied the URL from each page.

The next task was to figure out some way to have people directed to my new site if they entered a URL for one of those interior pages from the old site. A call to BlueHost tech support produced even better results than I had hoped. Rather than tell me what to do, tech support did it for me, taking each URL in turn and creating a redirect that would take readers to the appropriate page on the new site. (Now you see why I like this company so much.)

Future of This Blog
Eventually, the website and blog will be "one." All of the posts from this blog will be migrated to the website, and http://FrankBuck.org/blog will become the new address for the blog. At the bottom of the homepage, previews of the last four blog posts will always be displayed. Even now, you can see that element. At this point, only a handful of content exists. I expect the migration to take place sometime in June.

If you subscribe to this blog and get its contents in your email, I am investigating options which would not require you to do anything. When the migration happens, your content will still flow to your email, only from a different source. That's the plan, anyway. Let's keep out fingers crossed.

I do plan to keep the Blogger blog intact indefinitely. Many people have linked to it and to its various posts. At the appropriate time, information in the sidebar will be added letting visitors know where they will go to find new content.

Everything Under One Roof
Having a "responsive" website is the biggest motivation for making the move. Quality of technical support is a second reason.

The third and final reason for the move is to bring everything under one roof. Once this blog has been migrated, everything will be located at http://FrankBuck.org. I hope that when people visit to read blog posts, they will stay and read about workshop offerings and other resources. Those who come to read about workshops will hopefully explore blog posts while they are on the site.

Making the move is one that has taken time, and that time commitment is far from over. It has been a challenge. I must admit, it has also been fun.

It's your turn. If you have a website or blog, what advice would you offer others who are starting their own?

Which Blogs Should You Be Reading? My Starter List

How do you stay on top of trending information in your field? For me, it's blogs. I have identified about 100 blogs which provide me in the information I need or want. Visiting 100 blogs would be time-consuming, so I have relied on one RSS reader or another to take all of the new content from the blogs I like and put it in one place.

I use Feedly to gather into one place new material from the 100+ blogs to which I subscribe. I can flip through articles which are of no interest. The next time I check Feedly, those articles no longer appear. I can read an article, and Feedly automatically marks it as "read." When I return to Feedly, that article no longer appears.

One situation remains. I read an article and decide I want to read it, or do something else with it, later. On each Feedly post, a small ribbon icon appears. Scrolling over that icon reveals a message, "Save for later." Clicking that ribbon turns it green and marks it as saved.

At any time, I can open Feedly and click on "Saved for Later" in the left-hand column. All of the articles I have marked are now before me. As long as the ribbon is green, the article will be available in the "Saved for Later" section. When I am done with the article, I click the green ribbon to "unsave."

Mobile App
On my Android phone, I downloaded the Feedly app from Google Play. An app for iPhone is also available. You will want to visit the "Preferences" menu on the mobile app. I accessed it by touching an icon in the upper-left corner of the screen. On the "Advanced Settings" in the Preferences menu, I checked "Auto Mark as Read," so that when I read or scroll past an article, unless I mark it as "saved," it's gone the next time I access Feedly.

You may want to adjust the "Article Font Size." Also, experiment with the "Default View" to see what appearance you like best.
 
Our mobile devices allow us to function from anywhere. In most cases, however, we work best at our desktop computers. It's hard for a single, small screen to keep pace with my large dual-monitor setup. It's hard for two thumbs on a piece of glass to do what the fingers of two hands can do on a keyboard. 

Using Feedly on my phone is proving to be an even better experience than viewing it on my computer. For this reason, reading Feedly becomes something I can do from anywhere. Because I can read just one article or the entire feed during any given session, it becomes a perfect option for filling spare minutes. I can read it while in line at the grocery store or waiting for an appointment.

Passing good content on to others through social networking is important. I am able to that so as easy from my phone as I can on my desktop computer. Icons allow for instant sharing on Facebook or Twitter. Another icon allows me to share an article through other options.

For example, I use Hootsuite on my desktop to organize social media content. I also have a Hootsuite app on my phone. While reading an article in Feedly, I can choose to share an article through Hootsuite. Hootsuite lets me decide whether the article goes to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, or any combination thereof. In addition, I am able to schedule a day and time when the item will be shared.

One of the features sure to become a favorite is Feedly's appearance You see beautiful images together with the title and snippet of each article. You skim articles by simply sliding through them with a thumb. Sliding upwards advances to the next article or page. Sliding downwards allows you to move backwards. Tapping on a article opens it.

My favorite Feedly feeds
So what are the blogs I have in Feedly? I don't think you want the list of over 100. Below are 17 of my favorites with a link to each one.

• Barbara Blackburn writes about "rigor" in education.
• Engadget keeps me informed about the latest in technology.
• Fast Company reports on what's hot in the world of business.
• Lifehacker provides hints on how to do most anything quicker and easier.
• PC World helps me get the most out of my computer
• Tech Crunch keeps me abreast of what's new in technology.
• Copyblogger provides a wealth of information about blogging.
• Connected Principals provides a variety of perspectives from practicing principals.
• Dotto Tech provides short videos on hot to use popular technology services. His explanations are great.
• Eduflections contains the thoughts of a tech-savvy teacher and author.
• Eduleadership is a great source for principals, especially those who are interested in technology.
• Free Technology for Teachers provides superb guidance on a wealth of free sites for educators. This site is probably my favorite on the list.
• Gmail Blog is a must for users of Gmail.
• Jason Womack writes about leadership, time management, and making "your best better."
• Michael Hyatt is a social media giant.
• Raymond L. Young is a great example of an elementary school blog.
• Seth's Blog provides interesting perspectives on "selling," and does it in a few words. 

I read Feedly from my phone. When I have a minute here or there, I'm not checking email or Facebook; I'm reading Feedly. I never read every article. At any one time, five titles and the first couple of sentences from those five posts appear on the screen at a time. With one flick, an entire screen can be dismissed. Tapping on the title opens an article. Touching and holding on the article saves it to read later.

As I read Feedly in those spare minutes, I flip through pages where none of the five articles interest me. Of those article which do look interesting, I read the "quick reads," which are then automatically marked as "read" and will not appear the next time I access Feedly. For those articles which will take a little more time, perhaps because they include video, I mark those to read later.

From home, I access Feedly on my desktop computer and review the "read later" articles. When I am finished with an article, I "unsave" it. That way, the section of saved articles is zeroed-out periodically, and the current articles on my phone reach "empty" every few days.

For me, the careful choice of blogs and a methodology for reading them during those spare moments keeps me on top of my game.

How do you stay on top of your game? What is your strategy for your managing your own learning? Leave me a comment and let me know.

If you liked this post and think others would as well, how about clicking one of the social media links below and sharing it.

What's at the Center of Your Social Media Life?

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. The list continues. We have so many options for getting our message out to others. I have often remarked that the blog should be the centerpiece of your social media life. It's the place in cyberspace you own. It's the place where you can communicate your message in as many or as few characters as you like. It's a place where you can add a picture or a dozen pictures, a video or a dozen videos. It's a place which offers the flexibility you don't find anywhere else.

Conventional wisdom says that your blog should have a single focus. To stray from that focus would confuse your readers. A blog about organization and time management should contain posts only about organization and time management. 

My last post strayed from that conventional wisdom. In doing so, I think it points out one of the strengths of the blog and why it is the centerpiece of the social media experience.

While this blog has organization and time management as its focus, for nine years, it has also served as a vehicle to communicate what is important in my life to anyone who cares to read about it. Those who know me and Davonia well, they know that our dogs are precious to us. Of the five Shelties who have been with us, four have been rescues. 

When this life ends for one of our pets, this blog has honored that faithful pet. If you read the tribute to Lucy in the last post and followed the links to read about Bonnie and Skipper, I think you will understand why I view the blog as the social media centerpiece. 

Sure, I can tell friends about these events on Facebook or Twitter. I can pin pictures of our pets on Pinterest or upload them to Instagram. Each of those platforms, however, pales in comparison to the depth of a blog post.

Sometimes a story needs more than 140 characters. Sometimes a story needs to fill the screen, and the next screen, and to be augmented with pictures at just the right places. Nothing does the job better than a blog.

Why the Principal Should Be a Blogger

This article is an "oldie but a goodie." It's one I wrote for  Principal magazine back in 2010. The article encourages principals to use blogs as a means of communication.

Because blogs have been around for a while, they don't generate the same buzz as some of the newer social media platforms. Make no mistake, the blog is at the center of one's social media life. It's the place on the Internet you own. It's the place where you can express yourself in as many or as few characters as you like.

Click here to read the article.

Memories Fail. Blogs Remember.

Where memory fails, the written word reminds. We write thoughts on our blogs to communicate what is important today. Later, those posts serve as a reliable record of that which is now history.

I was thrilled to receive an e-mail from a teacher with whom I had worked in my former school system. I retired, and her family relocated to another area. In the e-mail, she told me just being named "Teacher of the Year" in her new school system and asked me for a letter of support as her application moved to the next level.

I wanted to be specific enough about her accomplishments, yet careful to be accurate. A hazy memory about events from several years ago made it impossible to accomplish both objectives.

Then, a thought occurred. During my time in that school system, our school started blogging. When I left from the principalship for a position at the central office, we used blogs as our major method of communication with staff and the community. Every school had also started blogging.

I searched through old blog posts from her school and found details about a wonderful science night she had planned. The post gave me the details to give the letter the power this master teacher deserved. I also found a post on the blog the district maintained during my time at the central office. This post chronicled her being named "Teacher of the Year" for our system, confirming the year I had thought she received that award.

We blog for many reasons. Not one of the least of these is to capture the best of the present, so that when memories fade, the reminders are there.

The master thinker knows that ideas are elusive and often quickly forgotten, so he traps them with notebook and pencil. He heeds the Chinese proverb: “The strongest mind is weaker than the palest ink.”

—Wilferd A. Peterson in Adventures in the Art of Living

Keeping Your Blog Going, and Going, and Going

This blog began on August 30, 2004. The primary reason for starting the it was to serve as a follow-up for people who attend my workshops. Nine years and over 1,200 posts later, that primary focus remains unchanged. At the same time, I realize there are many who visit who has never met me, yet are enjoying what they are finding.

Starting a blog is easy. Keeping it up, for many people, is the tough part. The newness wears off. We get busy. We run out of things to say. Pretty soon, the blog has gone the way of most of our New Years resolutions.

What has kept this blog going at a fairly regular pace for nine years? What has kept it fresh and fun to write? In this post, I am going to share what has made a difference for me in hopes that it will help other bloggers.

Compose posts now. Post them in the future.
The posts you are read on any given day are not composed that day. They are sometimes composed weeks ahead of time. They are composed when the thought occurs and schedule to post on a day which seems appropriate. Blogger allows me to schedule a date for the post to appear. I can write the post when the thought is hot, schedule a date, and let Blogger handle the rest.

I generally post three times per week. It's not that I have been writing at that interval. Sometimes I will write three or four posts in a single day. Sometimes I will go a week without writing anything. We all get busy and at other times, we all have "down time." I use some of that down time to compose material that will automatically appear during the busier times.

What I write has to matter to me, and if it matters to me, maybe it will somehow touch you as well. Remind yourself to post.
Anyone who knows me well knows how important my "Repeating Task List" is to me. I wish I had a nickel for every time I hear someone say, "I do it when I think about it." The same holds true for me. The only difference is that I set up a system that causes me to think about it when I need to be thinking about it.

I have a repeating task in my digital task list reminding me to compose new blog posts. This reminder appears every Monday. My goal is to compose five new posts that day. I believe in "batching" my work. When I get into the blogging mindset, and am "on a roll," I find my self more successful than if I write a single post at more regular intervals. Once a week, a task stares me in the face reminding me to post.

Read.
Material does not have to come exclusively out of our heads. Responding to the thoughts of others and putting a different twist on those thoughts makes for interesting material. We can also take current topics and combine the viewpoints from different sources into something that is fresh and interesting.

Take notes on the fly.
Good ideas occur at unlikely times. They come to us in the middle of meetings, sitting at a traffic light, during conversations, and reading the works of others, just to name a few. My phone is never more than an arm's length from me. A memo pad (that also holds my drivers license and credit cards) is always in my shirt pocket. I realized back in high school that good ideas, like opportunity, sometimes knock only once. Getting it from the brain to paper (or in recent years, digitized) is one of the best habits I ever acquired. When the idea occurs, I create a new task in my digital system, enter the basic idea, and include the word "blog" somewhere in the task. The search capabilities of that digital list allow searching for the word "blog" and seeing a list of all of the blog ideas accumulated.

Make it matter to you.
I enjoy going back and reading my own blog. I hope that does not come across as egotistical. If I don't enjoy it, I shouldn't think that you will enjoy it. What I write has to matter to me, and if it matters to me, maybe it will somehow touch you as well.

Comments matter.
For those who comment from time to time, thanks! From my end, I can never be sure what resonates with others or where I need to go into more detail. Your comments help steer the ship. They also remind me that my time putting this blog together does make a difference.

Last Chance Before Google Reader Goes Down

If you are a Google Reader user, you have less than a week to take action. After that, everything you have saved in that service and all of your subscriptions disappear. On March 13th, Google announced a July 1 shutdown of Google Reader. Over the next several weeks, over 1 million people signed a petition asking for Google to save this tool. Alas, on July 1, Google Reader will be no more.

Why all the fuss? What is Google Reader anyway? In short, Google Reader has allowed its users to identify the blogs they like. It gathers all of the new content from each of those blogs and delivers it to one place. It’s much like designing your own electronic newspaper with stories from your sources you get to choose. Regardless of your field, people are producing great content on blogs aimed at your niche, and it’s all free for the taking. Letting Google Reader do the work of putting it all together has made staying current much easier.

Tools such as Feedly allow all the great content to go one place. That deal is too good not to take! The good news is that less than a week is plenty of time to take action. In fact, all you need is about 10 minutes. In March, I wrote an article in this newspaper about “Feedly.” Between then and now, Feedly remains the best and easiest alternative to Google Reader.

Go to Feedly.com and create an account. You will be prompted to allow Feedly access to Google Reader and bring in all of your subscriptions. Within a couple of minutes, you will be reading your blog subscriptions from Feedly. When July 1 arrives and Google Reader goes down, your subscriptions are safe in Feedly.

On your mobile devices, download the Feedly app. One of the features sure to become a favorite is Feedly's appearance. You see beautiful images together with the title and snippet of each article. You skim articles by simply sliding through them with a thumb. Sliding upwards advances to the next article or page. Sliding downwards allows you to move backwards. Tapping on an article opens it.

Best of all, staying on top of your field becomes something you can do from anywhere. You can read one article or the entire feed during any given session. Therefore, it becomes a perfect option for filling spare minutes.

Below is a YouTube video which explains using Feedly.



Not a Google Reader user? 
For many, the reason they have not used Google Reader is that they did not know it existed or what it could do. The talk about its shutdown has sparked an interest for them, and may for you as well. Go ahead and take the plunge.

Go to http://Feedly.com and create an account, Click on the "add websites" button in the left-hand column. There, you will be given suggestions of sites to add. You can use the search window to enter the title or url of a blog you like. You could subscribe to my blog by entering the url "http://FrankBuck.blogspot.com" in the search window.

If you would like some suggestions, here are some of my Feedly subscriptions:

• Android for Schools
• BlackBerry Cool
• Connected Principals
• Constant Contact
• Cool Cat Teacher
• Copyblogger 
• Eduflections
• Eduleadership
• Free Technology for Teachers
• Gmail Blog
• GTD Times
• Inside BlackBerry
• Jennifer Cluff (Flute)
• Laura Stack Productivity Pro
• Lifehacker
• Michael Hyatt
• NewRayCom
• Phone Scoop
• ProBlogger
• PS22 Chorus
• Raymond L. Young
• Rigor in Education
• RIMarkable
• Seth's Blog
• Stepcase Lifehack
• Techcrunch
• Tentblogger
• The 99 Percent 
• The Daily Motivator 
• The Official Google Blog
• The Organized Classroom Blog
• The School Law Blog
• The Tech Savvy Educator 
• Time Management Ninja
• Your Best Just Got Better

If that list is more than you want, here are my top dozen favorites, in no particular order:

• Eduleadership  Justin Baeder writes on principal productivity with a heavy emphasis on use of technology (Especially Apple).
• Free Technology for Teachers Daily review of free sites, services, and apps for teachers.
• Gmail Blog  Update on what's new in Gmail.
• Lifehacker Multiple daily posts on tips for making life easier.
• Michael Hyatt Michael Hyatt blogs about leadership and offers weekly podcasts. Particularly good blog for aspiring writers and speakers.
• Phone Scoop  The latest information on what's new with smartphones.
• Raymond L. Young  Great example of a school principal blog. The audience is parents and community.
• Seth's Blog  Thought leader in the business world, Posts are always short yet thoughtful.
• Stepcase Lifehack Tips on technology and other topics designed to make life easier.
• Techcrunch Latest news in technology.
• The Daily Motivator  As the title suggests, a daily message designed to motivate.
• The Official Google Blog Latest news from Google.

Go to your phone and tablet to download the Feedly app. Log in using your username and password. The subscriptions you added on your computer will be present on your mobile device as well.

Tools such as Feedly allow all the great content to go one place. That deal is too good not to take!

What are your favorite blogs? Others may want to add them to their subscriptions.

Why You Need Comment Moderation

If you read this blog regularly, chances are good you author a blog of your own. One of the decisions before you is whether or not to allow comments. If you choose to allow them, something I prefer, "comment moderation" is a must.

You never want to put yourself in a situation where someone else can leave inappropriate material on your blog. Even though you could delete the comment, you canot afford for others to see it in the mean time.

The biggest source of unwelcome comments will come from "web bots," robots which roam the web looking for blogs and leaving their comments. The comments will always be very generic and complimentary. When you read the comment, you feel good that someone has appreciated what you write. But when you read the comment more closely, you see that it would be equally applicable to any post on any blog. The comment will always include a link, taking readers to their website.

Here is one example of a comment (complete with its grammatical problem) submitted on my blog:

Just wish to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity in your post is simply nice and i could assume you are an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please carry on the enjoyable work. My webpage [I am omitting the link].

Here is another:

I am really impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one these days. Here is my homepage : [I am omitting the link].

And it looks like this person wants me to be his mentor:

Heу! I know thiѕ is somewhat οff toρіc but I wаs ωondeгing which blοg platfοrm are уou using for this ѕite? I'm getting sick and tired of Wordpress because I've had iѕsues with hackerѕ and I'm looking at options for another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform. Feel free to surf my web blog [I am omitting the link].

You get the idea. The comments, together with the links they include, take my readers to their websites. "Comment moderation" is a way to combat the "web bots." With comment moderation turned on in my blog's settings, comments go to my email. I read them in my email and either approve or disapprove them. If I approve one, it appears instantly on the blog.

Another option for battling the web bots is to use a "CAPTCHA." It is an acronymn for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." We have all seen them. You are presented with a series of characters which you must correctly re-type in a little box. The CAPTCHA will stop the bots, but I do not recommend them for two reasons.

First, the CAPTCHA gives legitimate readers a hoop through which they must jump in order to leave their thoughts. The last thing I want to do is discourage thoughtful comments. I personally find when I am confronted with a CAPTCHA, most of the time, I mistype it initially. Some of them are so difficult to read, I frankly can't figure out what the characters are supposed to be.

Secondly, the CAPTCHA does not stop real people who want to leave something inappropriate. Any teacher who has taught secondary school knows that providing a way for someone to write whatever they like, and do so anonymously, is a recipe for disaster.

With comment moderation turned on, you take care of both problems with a single solution. You can't control the comments others leave, but you can control whether or not those comments appear on your blog. If you are a blogger and do not already have comment moderation turned on, I encourage you go to your settings and take care of that task today.

This post is a personal one, yet helps illustrate the advantages of having a blog.

Our nephew, B.J. Bonner, was accepted into the NOAA Corps. For the past several months, he and his colleagues have undergone extensive training to prepare them to be officers. Following graduation, the new officers begin their assignments on their respective NOAA ships.

Each officer candidate is allowed to list a top choice, but no candidate is guaranteed this preference will be honored. What you will see in this video is part of a ceremony where each officer candidate finds out the ship assignment, an assignment which will last for the next two to three years.





Davonia and I viewed the video on an email newsletter from NOAA. Naturally, we wanted to save the video, although we did not necessarily want to save the entire newsletter. So, exactly how would we extract and save the video?

I saw an embed code in the newsletter. Highlighting and copying it was the key. After creating a new blog post, the one you are reading now, I pasted the embed code into the new post.

For those who are using Blogger for their platform, but may still be relatively early in the process, when you compose a new post, you see two tabs: "Compose" and "HTML." You want to click the HTML tab and then paste the embed code there. While that embed code looks pretty cryptic, it is what causes the video to display in the blog post.

While you and I may have a Facebook page or a Twitter account, your blog is the one place you "own." I can come back to this post a week from now or a year from now and view this video. I can give someone the URL for this particular post. A person can come to this blog and search for this post using the search box in the sidebar.

What you are seeing in this post is one of the reasons I blog. I can post anything here that is important to me, and know it will always be here for me and others to enjoy.

Edublog Nomination for Best School Administrator Blog

Just a couple of years ago, the Edublog Awards began including a category for the "Best School Administrator Blog." I think it's a great addition. Speaking from personal experience as a principal, few things were as worth the time as blogging. It provides the opportunity not only to influence the direction of your own school, but to share with readers whom you may never meet. My nominee is a shining example of how a principal in a small town can use a blog to make a huge difference both to those in the community and potentially to a world-wide readership.

Five years ago, Pattie Thomas became a brand new principal in the middle of the year at Raymond L. Young Elementary School. I wrote this post to describe the impressions of what I saw in those first days.

Over the last five years, the school has improved in a every way imaginable. Test scores and attendance rose, and early on, the staff and the community realized that "a good place to learn and grow" is not just a motto, but reflects the child-centered approach at the heart of every decision made.

Through it all, Mrs. Thomas has used a blog to share the triumphs, the needs, and feeling of community at Raymond L. Young. Upon receiving her appointment as principal, she realized tardies, checkouts, and absences due to frivolous reasons were far too frequent. It was on the blog that she introduced the "Top Dog Club." As the prestige of being a "Top Dog" caught steam and attendance improved, the blog was right there to celebrate that success.

Following a newspaper article where Mrs. Thomas was quoted on the subject of bullying, it was the blog that allowed a concerned parent to write a lengthy, yet thoughtful comment. It was on this blog that Mrs. Thomas was able to respond with an equally thoughtful response that communicated not just to one parent, but to anyone anywhere in the world who chose to tune in, the philosophy and warmth that permeates the school. You can read that exchange here.

Elementary schools are places where memories are made, and this blog captures every one of them, whether it be a celebration of the holiday season, the sights and sounds of the Fall Festival. or the words of a student serving as a guest blogger.

Maintaining an 80-year-old building is no easy task, and with funding being tight, the school relies on outside supporters. Whether the project is the restoration of an auditorium, the replacement of a "mud pit" with fresh sod, or providing laptop computers for students, this blog has used the power of technology to open the doors of this elementary school to friends both near and far.

Some administrators use their blogs to give their opinions on topics of global concern. This blog takes a different route. It does not try to influence a national audience. Instead, it's focus is telling the school's story to the community it serves. In doing so, it provides a shining example of what other principals can do in their own communities. Across America, educators are doing great things, yet are discouraged when nobody seems to care. Pattie Thomas demonstrates that schools are in charge of telling their own stories, and that a blog is the perfect tool to do so.

And while the blog makes no attempt to influence a national audience, the example it provides may do just that.   

Take a moment to meet Pattie Thomas through her Principal's Message. Most of all, enjoy the blog, and see why they call Raymond L. Young Elementary School "a good place to learn and grow."

I am proud to nominate in the category for
"Best School Administrator Blog":
Raymond L. Young: A Good Place to Learn and Grow

From Stagnation to Life

The last post made the case for reviving a dead blog and putting plans in motion which would keep it alive into the future. Let's begin building that bridge—a bridge to the past and one to the future.

If your blog has been neglected, let the first post be one that offers an explanation for why the ox wound up in the ditch in the first place. Be honest, because your audience will probably relate to what caused your blog to run out of steam. Your readers have started gym memberships in January and never used them past Groundhog Day. They have gone on a dozen diets and quit smoking 49 times. They understand, "I dropped the ball." Readers have all experienced those projects in their lives where neglect has happened. Recognizing it is the first step to recovery.

The second message that post will convey is what will be different. We all know the definition of "insanity" is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Readers will welcome some assurance that something will be different this time. A plan which will avoid neglect lets readers know they will not be disappointed.

Even for those who don't discover, or rediscover, your blog for some time, that bridge will explain what might seem strange—huge gaps in the dates of posts, as well recent posts which have energy while preceding posts were lifeless.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but let's say it anyway: Write quality content. There is no point in reviving a blog only to provide content nobody wants to read. Let the writing reflect your blog is fresh and worth the read.

If you are not going to revive it, bury it
When a television program reaches the end of its run, we like to see an episode which brings finality. Nothing is worse than leaving viewers—or readers—hanging.

If your blog has fulfilled its purpose, if you have run out of ideas, or if you have simply lost interest in blogging, say so. Write a post that lets readers know "that's it."

As a principal, I created a blog to communicate with parents and a second to communicate with staff. Graham School took the place of the paper newsletter sent to parents. The ability to include pictures easily, to embed video, and insert hyperlinks into posts made it superior to its paper predecessor. Graham School Staff Page replaced the weekly memo, offering the same advantages of the ability to include pictures, video, and hyperlinks. When I moved from the principalship to the central office, my successor did not continue the blogs.

As a central office administrator, a co-worker and I started a blog to communicate with teachers across the district and one to communicate with the community. When I left that position, my co-worker continued the blog until higher-ups killed it a couple of months later.

In each case, there is a final post which explains to readers there will be no more posts, and at the same time points out the value of the content in the older posts.

What's your decision?
Do you have a blog you have neglected? Perhaps this is the time to renew the passion which caused its creation. Do you have a blog you would like readers of this blog to discover? Tell me about either case in the comment section.

How to Revive a Dead Blog

Cyberspace is full of school blogs with links to calendars or lunch menus two years old. We see blogs which sport 3 posts from the first day or its existence, 4 more posts over the next week, 2 over the next six months, and nothing new since last Christmas...Another casualty of a good idea for which someone no longer has the time or interest.

Our blogs are "home base" for our online presence. They define who we are, what we do, and what we think—in a context where we can dig deeper than 140 characters will allow. In short, of all of the social media options, blogs are the thing that is definitely "worth it."

Dead blogs don't have to stay dead. In fact, rekindling a dead one has advantages over starting a new one. The URL has been established. Some content is already written. There are some who are already subscribed through an RSS feed. Blow the dust off and begin where you, or someone else, left off.

What will be different this time?
How will the blog pump out quality content year after year when it died an early death before? What will keep fresh content coming...even during the busiest of times?

Planning is the key in so many areas of life, and it is what makes this time different. Specifically, the plan will include:

1. How often to post.
2. Where to trap ideas for posts.
3. A trigger to cause you to write.

Decide how often to post
Posting "when I feel like it," "when I have a good idea," or "when I think about it" are all recipes for disaster. I would suggest posting at least once per week. That may be enough, Your favorite television program likely airs weekly. Less-frequent posting would lose your attention, you look forward to the weekly episode.

Posting daily would likely be too much for both you and your readers. Producing that much quality content is a challenge. People are busy and may burn out if they are seeing your material every single day.

For me, fresh posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are the norm. Unfortunately, good ideas don't come three times a week, nor does the time to pen them come in such nice, neat blocks of time. Sometimes I write several posts in one day. Sometimes, I go for a week without writing anything. Blogger allows me to automatically schedule a date and time for each post to appear. Publication appears regular even if composition is anything but.

Establish a place to trap ideas
Ideas for posts come at the most unlikely times, and are often motivated by a situation just encountered. We need a place to trap that idea—not the complete text of the post—but just the idea.

Since writing the post is a "to-do," I use my to-do list to trap ideas for posts. The subject line of the task will include the word "blog" along with a germ of the idea. If I also know some details, and want a place to trap them, the note section of the task provides the perfect storage place.

For example, on my list, the "to-do" which eventually became this post was "Blog-How to a revive neglected blog." In the note section, I had entered:

World is full of neglected blogs. 
1. Decide how often you want to post. Schedule posts into the future 
2. Have a place to trap new ideas. 
3. Have a trigger which causes you to write the post and schedule it.

When I sat down to compose the post, I already had the beginnings of an outline.

A trigger to prevent forgetting
If "when I think about it" is what causes writing to happen, we should not be surprised when a month has passed without a fresh post. Life happens and we get busy. One month of inactivity turn into two. Two turns into four, and soon the blog is dead.

I talk about putting everything on a list and then working the list. Writing for your blog can't be something you do when the list is clear. It has got to be part of the list. Two things make it impossible for me to forget to blog.

First, my to-do list has a weekly repeating task which states, "Post drafts to my blog." If I have already composed several posts that week and scheduled them, I check off that to-do. If not, selecting an idea and turning it into a post becomes top priority. I search the to-do list for "blog," which is easy to do when the list is digital. I am now looking at a list of all my ideas for blog posts.

Second, because all of those ideas for blog posts are scattered through my list, each with its own due date, I am assured each of those ideas will be "in my face" at some point.

In the next post, we will examine making the transition from stagnation to vibrancy. We will also look at what to do when the blog has outlived its usefulness.

Welcome!...8 Years Later

Eight years ago today, this post appeared:

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in systems that people had that helped them get their "stuff" done--or what kept them from getting their stuff done. I have been in education for over 20 years, and am currently a school principal. During my career, I have managed to put together some a system and some strategies that I believe not only work for me, but can work for anyone who is interested in being more organized, experiencing less stress, and managing the limited amount of time available to us. Please visit often and enjoy.

Much has changed over the last 8 years; however, much has remained constant. Technology has improved; yet it has brought with it the challenges to keep up. We expect more from our gadgets; yet we must be willing to invest the time to learn how to use them.

The basic purpose of this blog has remained pretty much unwavering. Yes, we take a moment here and there to celebrate traditional holidays. At times, we share a personal note.Perhaps we all need diversions at times. Overall, this space has delivered nuts & bolts information and advice on how to organize your surroundings and manage your time.

What began as a an experiment in providing follow-up for live professional development has turned into a space which has impacted people who have never met me. Back then, there was no Twitter. Facebook was a mere 6 months old and was decidedly a tool for teens. Sending a professional email newsletter was beyond my imagination.

Today, social media has exploded. Despite a variety of tools, I believe the blog remains at the center. It is the place that offers enough characters to tell the story, and nimble enough to change direction when something "out there" suddenly impacts how we operate.

Thanks for being a reader. Thanks for the input you may give from time to time. I am firmly convinced the best is yet to come.

Who do you know that would benefit from reading this blog? While you are thinking about it, send them the link.  

Want to Have This Blog Come to Your E-Mail?

As always, thanks for reading this blog. In the almost eight years of its existence, the positive comments have let me know that what is being written here makes a difference.

Who do you know that would benefit from reading this blog but has not been introduced to it? Why not take a moment to compose a email, include the link, and send it to one or more friends.

An easy way to make sure you and your friends never miss a post is to subscribe by e-mail. You will see toward the top of the sidebar a subscription box. Enter and submit your email address. That's it! When a new post appears on this blog, it will appear in your email.

Right now, while you are thinking about it, send that email. I hope others thank you for it.

In Case of Emergency, Reach for Your Blog

This blog post caught my eye. In times of emergency, communication is critical. Realize “emergency” is in the eye of the beholder. For the parent of a 3rd grader, a bus that is late coming back from a field trip constitutes an emergency is nobody has communicated that “all is well.”

In my final year as a principal, I started a blog as a communication tool with parents. The blog replaced the newsletter which accompanied report cards at the end of each grading period. The initial reason for starting the blog was a desire to deliver information in “real time.” What happened today was reported today rather than in a newsletter a month from now. But I quickly found blogging had advantages far beyond delivering the good news.

Anyone who has ever worked in a school setting knows that the one thing you can expect is the unexpected. Being able to broadcast good information instantly is your best way to prevent panic.

For the principal or central office administrator who is asking, “What good is a blog? Sounds to me like one more thing to do,” I would suggest reading the post which inspired the one you are reading now, “10 Ways to Use Your Blog to Manage a Crisis.”

After all, it’s not communication that is time-consuming. The clean-up work as a result of failure to communicate—now that’s the time-consuming part!

Remember Your Accomplishments...With Your Blog

Where memory fails, the written word reminds. We write thoughts on our blogs to communicate what is important today. Later, those posts serve as a reliable record of that which is now history.

I was thrilled to receive an e-mail from a teacher with whom I had worked in my former school system. I retired, and her family relocated to another area. In the e-mail, she told me just being named "Teacher of the Year" in her new school system and asked me for a letter of support as her application moved to the next level.

I wanted to be specific enough about her accomplishments, yet careful to be accurate. A hazy memory about events from several years ago made it impossible to accomplish both objectives.

Then, a thought occurred. During my time in that school system, our school started blogging. When I left from the principalship for a position at the central office, we used blogs as our major method of communication with staff and the community. Every school had also started blogging.

I searched through old blog posts from her school and found details about a wonderful science night she had planned. The post gave me the details to give the letter the power this master teacher deserved. I also found a post on the blog the district maintained during my time at the central office. This post chronicled her being named "Teacher of the Year" for our system, confirming the year I had thought she received that award.

We blog for many reasons. Not one of the least of these is to capture the best of the present, so that when memories fade, the reminders are there.

The master thinker knows that ideas are elusive and often quickly forgotten, so he traps them with notebook and pencil. He heeds the Chinese proverb: “The strongest mind is weaker than the palest ink.”

—Wilferd A. Peterson in Adventures in the Art of Living

Wylio...Photos With No Attribution Worries

Photos are plentiful on the Internet. But...you have to be careful of copyright and Creative Common license restriction. Here is a website that handles that for you.

1. Go to Wylio and set up a free account.
2. Enter to search for a photo.
3. Select your picture.
4. Wylio displays a preview of the picture and asks you to decide whether to align left, right, or center. You can also use a slider to re-size the photo.
5. When you get the picture like you want it, click the "get the code" button.
6. You can now paste the code in your blog. The picture will appear with the correct Creative Commons attributions.

Could You Write a Book? If You Blog, the Answer is “Yes”

With all of the digital information we read, there’s still something special about a book. Watching the “pages” go by, even if those papers are digital, provides comfort. Seeing a book with our name on it provides a sense of accomplishment.

If you have a blog, you can turn it into a book in a matter of minutes, and do it for free. As a great side benefit, you will be backing up your blog in the process, so that if something happened or you wanted to move your blog to another service, you have all of your data safely stored on your computer.

First, you will make a backup of your blog. In your Blogger dashboard, click on “Settings.” Then click “Export Blog.” On the next page, click “Download Blog,” and you will be able to save a file to your hard drive with all your posts and comments. I have a repeating task in Outlook which prompts me every three months to backup my blog.

Next, let’s create our book.

The site we will use is called BlogBooker. Once at the site, click on the icon for the blogging service you use. You will then be prompted to browse for your blog export. Upload it and the site will create your book!

Are you authoring a blog that you know will be temporary? When the time comes that the blog’s purpose has been fulfilled, what better way to complete the project than turn it into a book? Store it digitally or print and bind it. Either way, you have something you can cherish.

Coming to SDE Conferences in Las Vegas or Chicago?

Coming to the SDE Administrator Summit in Las Vegas next week? What about the Midwest Differentiated Instruction Conference in Chicago later this month?

If so, I hope ou will join me for the following sessions:

SDE DI Administrator Summit

• The 5 Keys to Successful Organization & Time Management
• A Day in the Life of the Digital Administrator
• Your Own Blog in 10 Minutes or Less
• Free Digital Tools That Increase Productivity

Midwest Differentiated Instruction Conference (Chicago)

• A Day in the Life of the Digital Administrator
• Your Own Blog in 10 Minutes or Less
• Get More Done! 5 Keys to Organization & Time Management
• Free Digital Tools That Increase Productivity