Introducing "One True Media"

The ability to add pictures and do so easily is one of the advantages of a blog over other types of communication. If we have a large number of pictures, a "slide show" allows us to display those pictures in a small amount of space.

I have used Photobucket and Animoto on this blog. I included them in a list of my Top Ten Web-Based Tools. That list was published in Barbara Blackburn's recent book The Principalship from A-Z.

A good friend put me on to another option: One True Media.

To compare and contrast:

• All three offer free accounts.
• Animoto and One True Media allow you to add music. In fact, One True Media automatically assigns a music track and allows you to change it. Photobucket has no musical option.
• Animoto's free account limits the length of the slideshow to 30 seconds. One True Media and Photobucket seem to be unlimited inthe length of the presentation.
• Animoto mixes the pictures in a very imaginate way. One True Media may have editing capabilities, but if it allows you to do what Animoto does, it would take some work.

Below is a sample of each. Judge for yourself which you like best:

One True Media:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Animoto



Photobucket

Becoming a Computer Expert

This diagram from the Teach & Learning Blog was hilarious. Primarily, it's so funny because it's so true.

The Secret Motivational Movie

As we move through the first two months of a new year, what if every day could be like this? What if just a few more days could be like this?



What if we realized that we have more opportunity to shape the events in our lives than we are presently using?

Excel Part 5--Creating Graphs

A picture is worth a thousand words. Excel makes presenting a picture of your data easy.

Click here to go to the tutorial.

Keeping a Date-and-Time-Stamped Journal on Your Computer

For those who are near a computer pretty much throughout the day and and need to keep a running records of phone calls fielded or any other type of journal info, this tip may be just hit the spot.

I can't remember where I originally saw this idea. The best I could find through a Google search was this page (Scroll about half-way down the page.), and since I do subscribe to that magazine, that's probably where I saw it.

The idea is known as the "Captain's Log," and it makes use of the Notepad accessory that comes with Windows. On Windows XP, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>Notepad. Open Notepad and type ".LOG" (without the quotation marks and in all caps) on the first line and then hit a couple of times. Save the file on the desktop with an appropriate name. I like "Captains Log."

Every time you open the file, the current date and time will be displayed on your document. Enter your documentation and save.

The Principalship from A-Z

My friend Barbara Blackburn has just published another in her set of "A-Z" books. This one is entitled The Principalship from A-Z. (Click the link to see the table of contents and read several sample chapters.) The chapter on Juggling Priorities is particularly relevant to this blog. Barbara has included some of the ideas from Get Organized! and included the book in the "If You Would Like More Information" section of the chapter.

Excel Part 4-If Then Statements

"If-then" is a common formula. Once you have the hang of this formula, you will find yourself using it in many situations. They called this video "Conditional Formatting," but it's really not. If you understand the formula used when they calculate the letter grades, CONGRATULATIONS, you would really have the hang of it!

Click here to go to the tutorial.

Workshop for R. L. Young Faculty

"Life doesn't have to be hard" was the theme of a short workshop for the faculty at R.L. Young Elementary School here in Talladega, AL. There are tricks and tools that can reduce the monotony and help us get our lives in order. Often, the tools are already laying around; we just need to know how to use them.

In about 20 minutes, teachers had a good grasp of how to create data with the Renaissance Place dashboard and how to get e-mail from "In to Empty" using Outlook's drag and drop feature. If you would like to read more about the workshop, here is the post from R. L. Young's blog.

Air and Simple Gifts

I didn't know exactly what to write about this inspiring moment from today's inauguration. One of the comments about it left on YouTube did it for me:

When I heard Yo-Yo Ma was in it, I knew it was going to be good.
When I heard Itzhak was in it, I sat up a little bit straighter.
And when I heard it was arranged by John Williams,
in those 5 minutes, you could not have done anything
to take my eyes away.

If seems that when we as a people gather at an important event, music becomes not only a important element but an element long remembered after the event is over. For my entire adult life, John Williams has brought us music that has entertained, inspired, and moved emotions. Today was certainly no exception.

Excel Part 3-Autofill, Formulas, Formatting, Sorting

This tutorial gives examples of Autofill, writing formulas to find sums, percentages, averages, maximums, and minimums.The examples also shows how to sort rows, resize fonts, and merge cells.

Click here to go to the tutorial.

Syncing Google Calendar to Outlook

This post covers two points:

• The ability to sync Outlook with a Google Calendar
• The rationale for doing so

I was surprised at how easy the process was. If you are sitting at a computer which houses your Outlook data, you are about 5 minutes away from being able to see your Outlook dates on Google Calendar.

You must first have a Google account. The next step is to create a Google calendar. You will see a list of Google features. If "Calendar" is not one of them, look for "More" and click there. Once you have created a Google calendar, you can now sync with Outlook.

Click here to see an easy article that takes you through the process.

I was prompted to download and run an installer. On my desktop, I then had a shortcut which would take me straight to the Google Calendar. In the Windows System Tray, I had an icon which allows me to edit settings and manually sync. It was that simple.

Why would you want to be able to sync Outlook with a Google Calendar?

• One tremendous advantage I see is that if someone else has some responsibility for managing your appointments, Google Calendar is the perfect way for that person to view and add to your calendar. To begin, the other person would need to sit at the computer which actually houses the Outlook pst file on it and go to their Google calendar. That will set up the link between that particular Outlook pst file (the file where Outlook data is kept) and that particular Google calendar. From there on, that second person can view and add items from his/her own work station and the results appear on the Outlook calendar.

• Similarly, one spouse may want to create a Google Calendar to view the other's Outlook calendar.

• A person who houses their calendar on Outlook yet does not sync it to a smartphone could certainly benefit. Syncing Outlook to a Google Calendar gives the ability to view it from anywhere. In particular, web access from a smartphone would keep a person in touch with their calendar just by pulling the smartphone from their pocket.

I do not think that a Google calendar is the answer for everyone. Personally, syncing my BlackBerry to Outlook gives me my calendar, tasks with all of the related details, a very complete list of contacts, and tones of "Notes" information, and it's all a couple of clicks away. I am not dependent upon quality or availablility of cell phone reception in order to see where I am supposed to be or what I am supposed to be doing. For many others, a Google Calendar synced to Outlook may just be what the doctor ordered.

Follow Your Dreams

Excel Part 2--Setting Up A Budget

A budget is a pretty standard Excel example to work through. This example shows how to add labels in Excel, enter numbers, format the numbers as money, total the amounts rows, and total the amounts in columns.

Click here to go to the tutorial.

Teachers, I Need Your Help

Teachers, I need your help. The project I am working on is a second book, one geared specifically to the classroom teacher. Get Organized! Time Management for School Leaders seems to be finding a niche with school administrators more than any other group, although the strategies are applicable to anyone. This second book will serve as a guide for the teacher who is new to the profession, the teacher new to a school who may have inherited a mess, or the teacher for whom organization and time management have never been strengths and wishes to “turn over a new leaf.” I hope the book also finds an audience with the teacher who is well-organized and a good manager of time, yet wants to get even better. The book is intended to be a manual that begins with organizing the newly-inherited classroom and continues through structuring a signature tool, taming technology, and staying afloat in a profession that throws far too many tasks our way. Of special interest is how the teacher can help students with their own organizational struggles.

Here is where I need your help: Does anyone out there have a really good reference filing system set up in your classroom (forms, instructional materials, correspondence, etc.)? If so, I would like to hear about it and credit your ideas in the book. Ideally, I would like to hear from both elementary and secondary teachers. Input from “specialty” areas such as physical education or music would also be welcome. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail me at Frank.Buck@centurytel.net and we can talk from there.

A Special Dedication...

Why I have chosen to embed this video on this blog at this particular time will make no sense to most who are viewing it. It's really intended for one in particular who will know exactly why it's right here and right now.

Excel Part 1-Writing Simple Formulas

One of the best investments of my time was learning the spreadsheet portion of AppleWorks back in the days when an Apple IIe was "cutting edge." The first accomplishment was immediately moving my gradebook from paper to computer. Never again did I have to average a grade. Since that day, spreadsheets have been huge time savers in many projects both for me and for many others with whom I have worked.

For today's school leader, a knowledge of Excel, at least at some level, is a necessity. Some will learn enough about Excel to have a sense of the capability. This user knows enough about the program to have a mental picture the results of the project and will call upon a more tech-savvy friend to figure out the formulas. Others will embrace the design and composition of formulas.

If you are a newbie with Excel, the post for each of the next seven Mondays will present a tutorial from TeacherTube on a different Excel technique.

This first post teaches the basics of writing formulas. You will learn how to write a formula to add, subtract, multiple, or divide numbers. You also learn how to sum numbers in rows and columns using a simple budget as an example.

Click here to go to the tutorial.

I Do It When I Think About It

How often do we hear someone talk about performing a routine task “when I think about it”? The corollary for that one is when the task goes undone, the excuse is likely to be “I didn’t think about it.” We hang up the phone after talking to Sam for 15 minutes and then remember the 3 things we really needed to ask. We think about the application we need to submit the day after the deadline. We wake up at 3:00 A.M. thinking about needing to buy ketchup. The next day we walk right past ketchup at the grocery store without a clue. If only we could think about things at the right time.

Let me pose this question: When is the last time you thought about chocolate ducks? My guess is that you have not thought about chocolate ducks in a while. Yet, what are you thinking about right now…? Yep, that right—chocolate ducks! A simple trigger caused you to shift your attention, even if for a brief moment.

In all seriousness, I believe that all of us do things when we think about them. The challenge is to develop some type of mechanism which causes us to think about them at the right time. Car manufacturers understand this concept and build in a little chime to indicate the fuel level is low. That mechanism causes the driver to think about getting gas at the exact point the tank is approaching empty.

Cooks understand this concept and set timers to cause them to think about taking the cake out of the oven at just the right time. Merchants buy air time so that their commercials can remind us right at the peak of the gift-giving season of the products they sell.

Some people seem to always be doing the right thing at the right time. Others are continually letting things slip through the cracks. What is the difference?

If it is true that I do things “when I think about it,” then the magic becomes developing a system which causes me to think about it at the right time. Yet there is one more crucial step. The real magic is making that system easy enough that I will sustain it not for a week or a month, but for a lifetime.

Countless times during the day, responsibilities come my way which cannot be handled at that moment. What I can do is trap that thought before it escapes. That reminder likely goes straight into the BlackBerry or Outlook worded clearly enough that its meaning will be understood weeks later. If the ideas are flying and the exact task is hazy, my journal traps the conversation and I flesh out the “to-dos” at a more quiet time later in the day. Or, when obligations or thoughts come “on the fly” as I am walking down the hall or sitting in traffic, the memo pad I carry in my shirt pocket traps the basic idea.

What I can do is look at everything I have trapped during the day, make decisions about when I want to see each task again, and word them clearly in my signature tool. Now, everything I wanted to think about today is going to appear on the list for today. All I have to do is look at it. If I need something more, adding an alarm to any appointment or task causes me to think about it at the precise time I need a reminder. One of the beauties of organizing with a digital tool is that when Sam calls unexpectedly, quickly keying “Sam” in the find command on my BlackBerry or in Outlook brings up a list of everything I wanted to talk to Sam about.

We live in a world that is potentially filled with stress. In February 2003, Fast Company magazine referenced data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stating that 80% of our medical expenditures are now stress related. The National Mental Health Association estimates that 75-90% of all visits to physicians are stress related. Tools as simple as a memo pad or as complex as a smartphone combined with a strategy for how to use them can relieve a good bit of unneeded stress.

Those little tools serve as our personal assistants and remind us at just the right time of our meetings, the gifts we have to buy, the reports we have to write, and even the chocolate ducks we might like to see on an Easter morning. All the while, we are able to focus and be fully present in the moment. Carrying that smartphone or memo pad, and developing the discipline to use it, is a small price to pay for the freedom from stress that it brings.

A very good friend who proof-read the original draft of this post asked, “Did you write this with me in mind?” I was a little surprised, seeing as how this person is someone I view as being one of the most having-it-all-together people I know. The question did let me know that this message is one that probably speaks to us all at some level. Somehow, it clicked for me my senior year in high school and has made all the difference ever since. Perhaps it will click for someone else today.

We do it when we think about. That’s our nature. We just need an easy system, one that runs constantly in the background, does our remembering for us, and nudges us at the right moment. As we begin a new year that holds so much potential for each of us, can there be a better time to adopt a simple tool and simple system which will allow us to unleash some of that potential?

Picasa 3

Picasa is a free piece of software which allows you to store, edit, organize, and share digital photos. I just started experimenting with it and am finding it very easy to use. Picasa has organized my photos into folders, yet I am able to scroll through the entire collection from beginning to end and see every picture without having to open and close folders.

You may download Picasa by clicking here. I found a particularly helpful video which gives an overview of the program. You may view it by clicking here.

I opened Picasa for the first time this evening. It immediately asked to scan my hard drive copied every one of them into Picasa, all categorized into folders.

That's really all I know right now, but what I do know, I learned in about 10 minutes. So, if you are looking for a way to organize your digital pictures, check it out.

Jing--Free, Easy, Screen Capture

Jing is a program which allows you to capture images and videos of what you see on your screen. Imagine you are trying to demonstrate how to execute a technique in Word or PowerPoint. You could sit another person beside you and let them watch your screen as you explain what you are doing. That would not work, however, if the person was 1,000 miles away. With Jing, distabce does not matter.

Jing allows you to record videos of what you are seeing on your screen along with your commentary. There are two versions of Jung, with one of the them being free. The free version does limit you to 5 minutes of recording time for any one video.

As a next step, watch the video that is located on their homepage. It provides a thorough explanation. The website is http://www.jingproject.com

Thanks for Mentioning Me!

It's a nice feeling to know that your work makes a difference. I ran across two posts, both from people I never met.

In Living La Vida Normal, the author talks about books that she has read. She and her husband are reading Get Organized! by section.

On the LeaderTalk blog, Jan Borelli asked for suggestions for a list of "must read" books for principals and aspiring principals. Charlie Roy included me in his list of five authors. The most humbling thing was the other people he included in the list:

• Malcolm Gladwell: Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers
• Jim Collins: Good to Great
• Frank Buck: Get Organized- Time Management for School Leaders
• David Allen: Getting Things Done
• Dan Pink: Whole New Mind

I certainly would not pretend that my name belongs in the same sentence with the other four, but it certainly is great to know that what I do is seen as needed.

Ironically, Jan Borelli was one of the reviewers of my book. Her comments on the book as it was being written and the supportive things she has said and done afterwards are greatly appreciated. I subscribe to Dr. Jan's Blog. Probably my favorite post is one that she posted almost exactly one year ago. To read the way that post spoke to me, and to read Jan's post, click here.

Christmas Memories

The days leading up to Christmas vacation are always exciting times in an elementary school. During those last three days I had the opportunity to participate in musical events at two of our elementary schools.

Fancy restaurants often feature live musicians to entertain their important customers during the Christmas season. Figuring that the lunchroom at C. L. Salter Elementary qualifies as a fancy restaurant and that the students are important customers, I teamed up with reading coach Allison Gray to entertain the students during lunch. Starting when the kindergartens came in and continuing through the lunch wave, I played flute and Allison played keyboard on a steady stream of Christmas carols. I wish I had a picture or two to post, and who knows, someone may send me some.



On our last day, I was invited to be a part of the Annual Sing-A-Along at Raymond L. Young Elementary School. The musical quality that is present in that school despite the fact there is no music teacher on staff is really quite impressive and speaks volumes for the faculty and leadership there. I was absolutely blown away by Carolyn, a first grader who sang "Silent Night" while I accompanied her on flute. Her beautiful voice, complete with vibrato, and keen sense of pitch serve as reminders of what children can do when their talents are nurtured. More pictures from that program can be found here.

Of Givers and Takers

After reading the post entitled "Keeping the Fire Alive," Dave Sherman added this comment:

...I have come to a crossroads in my own blogging. I am transitioning from a school district owned blog to my own personal blog so that I can write about more than just school related topics. I am struggling a little with this because does anyone really care about my interests away from education, and should that matter to me? Do we blog for ourselves or for others?...
- Dave

Dave's question is a pretty significant one...do we blog for ourselves or for others? I just hope my answer remotely approaches being as good as the question.

We blog for ourselves
For centuries, people have kept diaries in which they have recorded their private thoughts, thoughts for their eyes only. There seems to be something about the act of writing our thoughts on paper that clarifies those thoughts in our own minds. If I am forced to write it in such a way that it would be understandable to someone else, even if that never happens, then I am forced to make it understandable to me.

There is also a permanence about putting those thoughts to paper. They never change. We can revisit them, and in essence, step back in time for a brief moment. Later, if we choose to share those thoughts, the diary's many entries paints a portrait of who we are and who we hoped to become.

Today's blogs afford us that same opportunity with the added benefit of access from anywhere, ability to add media, and no chance of dropping it in a mud puddle leaving it on the counter at the grocery store checkout.

We blog for others
By nature, we are interdependent creatures. Our society has reached its present level of advancement not because we are smarter or more resourceful than our forefathers. Instead, we are able to begin where they left off and lay the next layer on the foundation they have built. We have been the ultimate takers reaping the benefits of their work.

On a personal level, any of us who have experienced success in the various arenas of our lives can surely point to someone else who made the road easier. Someone saw in us potential worth nurturing and went out of their way, doing what they did not have to do, to help spin straw into gold. We took very freely from their wisdom.

If balance is to be maintained, we must move beyond being takers and also be givers. We all have something to share, something to give back, and someone somewhere who has a need which matches perfectly with our gift. Our blogs offer an easy way for us to become givers.

Does anybody really care?
Perhaps the toughest part of blogging is knowing whether or not what we do makes an impact on anyone else. Of course, the same could be said of other venues. I am reminded of a workshop conducted years ago for a group of teachers, none of whom I knew at the time on a personal level. Nine years later when one of them became a close friend I was told, "You changed my life" through that workshop. The feedback makes all the difference, and it is that element that tends to be missing.

We must write as if what we say does matter, because that's the only way that it will matter to us or anyone else. At the very worst, our blogs provide for us an outlet for our own creative juices. At the very best, they just might be changing lives, even in subtle ways, for people we may never meet. And in that delicate balance between being givers and takers, we may see ourselves begin to hold up our end.

Keeping the Fire Alive

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. More than 4 years and over 300 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 over four 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 post you are ready today was not composed today. I wrote it on December 14, the day the thought occurred to me. 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.

Lately, a new post has been appearing roughly every other day. 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.

Starting soon, you will see a series of posts on using Excel. The posts on that topic will appear one per week extending into February. I composed the whole set at one sitting and simply scheduled them so that they will be spread out over almost two months. Another evening, I stumbled upon quite a few motivational videos on YouTube. I composed posts on the whole set that evening and have been sharing those periodically.

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 Outlook and my BlackBerry to compose a post to this blog as well as the two blogs for my school system (TeachTalladega.blogspot.com and TalladegaCitySchools.blogspot.com). Once a week, a task stares me in the face reminding me to post. Usually, I can simply check it off the task because I have already posted something in just the last few days. If not, that little reminder ensures that posting to those blogs never drops off the map.

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 BlackBerry 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.

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.

Principles of Greatness

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Just a little Christmas cheer...

Lessons from the Grinch

One of my Christmas favorites is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Is it just me, or have some others have picked up on a particular message.

The turning point, of course, is the point where "the Grinch's heart grew three sizes." Thinking back to the story line, what was it that caused the Grinch's change of heart?

The "Whos" were gathered in a circle singing. The Grinch had taken all of the material symbols of Christmas, but he could not take from them the gift of music, and it was music that sustained them. It was when the Grinch heard the joyful sounds of the voices that he began to change.

Examples of the importance of music are all around us. As a people, we always incorporate music into those events associated with our greatest times of joy as well as our times of sadness. It is a language which speaks to all.

Why talk about this subject in a blog devoted to time management? Two reasons. First of all, as we use organization and time management to held us accomplish more and accomplish it faster, what are we going to do with the time we have saved? For me, devoting more time to that particular area of my life is a goal.

Secondly, as Aristotle once said, "Since music has so much to do with the molding of character, it is necessary that we teach it to our children." As schools are grappling with the time crunch of how to "fit it all in," all too often music goes by the wayside despite mountains of research saying we should be doing just the opposite. There are places that find the time to include these kinds of experiences for their children, even without a music specialist on board. I had the pleasure to witness a program just the other day where this kind of culture is present, but that's another story for another day.

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the other two; but of the three, the only trustworthy one of them is the last.

-John Ruskin

O Magnum Mysterium

This one is for you , Davonia!



On this Sunday before Christmas, here is a rendition of one of the season's more beautiful works performed by a truly spectacular group. Enjoy the Nordic Chamber Choir.

Latin text

O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.

English translation

O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!

What's in My Tickler File?

For those who have been to my workshops, the "tickler file" seems to be the tool that catches on universally. Today, I thought I would give you an idea what I kinds of things "pop up" on a Saturday morning in my tickler file. So, here they are:

• Envelopes which contained the Christmas cards we received this week. After opening the cards which came each day, I threw the envelopes into Saturday's file. This morning, I took the whole set and marked them all off on the electronic Christmas card list as being received. Handling the job once per week takes far less total time that handling the job daily. Throwing them in Saturday's file allows them to collect so that I can handle the whole batch at once.

• Application to present at next year's National Middle School Association Conference. The deadline for the longer all-day and half-day workshops is December 28. I figured today would be a good day to hash out the verbiage for the proposals.

• Birthday card to a friend. The cards were bought last December along with the cards for everyone else on my list. Putting them in the tickler file for the date they need to go in the mail means I will never miss a birthday.

• Gift cards. The gift cards we have received yet not completed used are together in today's file. My wife and I quickly look at them and decide which ones we might like to use during the next week. The rest get re-filed for next Saturday. Today, we were planning a shopping trip which would take us right past a Book-A-Million. I am getting my wife Steve Doocy's Tales from the Dad Side, so I pulled out the Book-A-Million gift card and put in the credit card wallet which I carry everywhere. (It's outfitted with my driver's license, two major credit cards, health insurance card, a few business cards, and a memo pad. Currency is in a money clip and I carry no wallet. I gave up sitting on that thing almost 10 years ago.)

• A coupon for a free video. It expires at the end of the month. Today is a good time to drop by the video store and enjoy one "on the house."

• Tutorial on Photo Story. I was planning to create a Photo Story this week now that school is out for the holidays. Throwing the tutorial in the Saturday folder serves as a reminder to refresh my skills before creating the project. If you are not familiar with this program, click here to see a Photo Story that my colleague and friend Pattie Thomas and I created for our system's District Accreditation a year ago.

• Tutorial on Camtasia Studio. I still consider myself a novice at this very powerful program and wanted to make some improvements.

For me, the tickler file folder at home for any given Saturday tends to have more items than the other days. Since I have more discretionary time at home on Saturday, I like to use that as a place for similar items to "pile up." Bills to pay or the Christmas card envelopes serve as examples. Items I want to simply examine periodically, or for some other reason have no real date attached, are other good candidates for Saturday's folder.

For 30 years, tickler files have kept my desk clear of paper and have ensured that paperwork appears exactly when I need it.

And the Votes Are In...

One never knows what the day may bring. Today's mail contained an evaluation of the session I presented at the National Middle School Association Conference in Denver around six weeks ago. The numbers were good. I was especially pleased with the response to the question, "I would rate this presenter as excellent." On a scale of 1-5 (with fours being "Agree" and 5 being "Strongly Agree"), the score on that question was 4.81.

Here are the comments:

• Great strategies and tools to move to a higher level of organization.

• One of my professional goals is to be more organized and to manage time more effectively. This hit the target.

• Good tools! I will implement it ASAP!

• If would have been great if Dr. Buck would have been able to present only to teachers and students at another session. He is very resourceful. Great motivation @ the end of the presentation!

• Really enjoyed session as well as the system. The trick will be to follow it until it becomes habit.

• Excellent, helpful, useful, and practical information.
  

• Thank you. These are tools I can and will use! WHEW!
  

• Excellent presentation, shared some strategies that I will try to implement to help me be more organized. Frank was impressive and his help/expertise would benefit our entire staff. I will explore the possibility of securing his services for an inservice presentation at our school.
  

• Practical.
  

• Excellent session. I am already ready to get organized better as a principal.
  

• Fantastic! Great info—can’t wait to try tickler.
  

• Really enjoyed the learning experience.

• Thank you—I needed this!
  

• I think the presenter did a marvelous job. I plan to go back and implement the things he shared. Thanks!
  

• Excellent presentation. Could be longer.
  

• Good tips given.
  

• One of the most informative sessions I have been to in 5 years.
  

• Excellent!
  

• FANTASTIC! One of the best I’ve been to! I could have stayed longer.

• Excellent practical tools.

The presentation said nothing about reaching the adolescent learner, how to improve test scores, or how to build positive public relations. Some other presenters covered those bases well. Every one of those good ideas, if implemented, would happen through the dimension of time. Good ideas not implemented would likely be blamed on lack of time. When the conference was over and everyone stepped back into the day-to-day activities and confronted the e-mails, phone messages, and left-over tasks, an organized approach to managing our time becomes our only hope of rising above the mundane and touching excellence.

Davonia and I had a great time in Denver. I felt like we gave people something they could use in every area of their lives. After reading the evaluations, these feelings were confirmed. If you are reading this blog as a result of attending the session in Denver, thank you! Thank you for taking the time to attend the session and for taking the time to stop by here and dig a little deeper.

NMSA 2009 will be in Indianapolis and the application is in the tickler file to complete this Saturday. Hope to see you there!

Improve Your Google Search With a "Time Line"

A typical Google search yields results for articles published yesterday or years ago. Sometimes the timeliness of the information is important. Perhaps you are looking for research on cancer, yet you are only interested in information published in the last year.

Google has a "timeline" feature which allows you to organize and filter your results chronologically. When you perform your Google search, enter your search term followed by view:timeline

For example, if you wanted to view articles related to "chocolate" using the timeline function, I would enter in the Google search window the following:

chocolate view:timeline

The link I have provided will take you to the results of that search. Filter the time period by clicking on the graph at the top of the page, and you see your results.

Gene Hackman on Basketball...and Life

From my favorite movie of all time. Listen to what Gene Hackman is saying. While he’s talking about basketball, his message is just as applicable regardless of the task at hand.

Google Reader

One of the great things about blogs is that it allows for two-way communication. Sometimes, the writer learns from the reader. Such is the case today.

A week ago, I composed this post on using Bloglines to keep up with the various blogs that are of interest. Dave Sherman commented that he uses Google Reader. He mentioned that it works well with iGoogle, and I swear by my iGoogle page. For more on how to set up an iGoogle page, click here. Dave really got my attention when he used one of my favorite words: "easier."

So, tonight I gave it a whirl. Installing Google Reader was as easy as going to my iGoogle page and clicking "Add Stuff." Google Reader is simply another gadget. Below is a short YouTube video which explains Google Reader.



I was even able to import my feeds that I had already established in Bloglines. So far, I like what I see. For those who have an iGoogle page, adding Google Reader and subscribing to your favorite blogs may just be the way to go. Thanks, Dave!

Leadership and Management

In the October 2008 issue of Principal Leadership (page 21), Doug Reeves addresses the topics of leadership and management:

Well, I think we have to be very careful about avoiding the false dichotomy between leadership and management. Whether you're talking about the leader of a large, complex school system or the leader in a classroom, all sorts of routines and protocols--plain old garden variety management--have a lot to do with allowing us to be successful and creative. I think that people see that there's a divergence between creativity and visionary leadership at one extreme and dull old management on the other.

My argument is, you don't get to do the creative and visionary work, whether you're a teacher or a superintendent, without having attended to the nuts and bolts of time management, people management, project management--getting the right things done in the right order at the right time.

Leadership and management, then, are not mutually exclusive. The second is a necessary element of the first. I have said many time that every good thing thing that we do for our schools, our familes, or communities, or ourselves is done through the dimension of time. Manage time well and the possibilities are unlimited. Manage time poorly and everything becomes more difficult.

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

The Common Craft Show provides a wealth of short, understandable videos related to technology. This one gives tips on searching the web and would be understandable from upper elementary school students and beyond.

Phishing Scams in Plain English

The Common Craft Show produces short, understandable videos on hot technology topics. This video explains phishing scams and how to avoid them.

44 Blogs in 5 Minutes

I just counted...44 blogs. That's right, 44 different blogs that are of enough interest to me that I want to read them regularly.

Our school district has two main blogs. Most of our schools have at least one active blog. Our junior high band has a blog. Today, I found that our junior high gifted program has its own blog. I like to follow the blogs of several principals in other parts of the state or other parts of the Unites States. In addition to education, I enjoy several of the blogs others are writing on personal productivity, organization, and time management.

Want to take a guess at how long it takes me to check all 44 of those blogs and read the new posts? I am afraid the title of this post has given me away.

That's right. Five minutes. How? Glad you asked. Bloglines. Bloglines allows you to "subscribe" to your favorite blogs. From there on, you simply go to one site, Bloglines. All of your "feeds" are listed down the left side. Any feed with new posts shows up in bold print. Click on the link and you are ready only the new posts.

Bloglines is free. For a tutorial on how to set up an account and get started, click here.

Bloglines is on example of an "RSS reader." RSS stands for "really simple syndication." To learn more about this concept, go here for a short video from the Common Craft Show.

Choose Your Friends

Enjoy the music and a timeless message about choosing the company we keep.

What's On TV this Christmas Season?

If you are looking for your favorite Christmas-time television shows, there is no need to search. Here is a list in chronological order.



I borrowed this link from a post on the Raymond L. Young Elementary School blog. Of all of the principal blogs I have read, this one is particularly warm and keeps the focus on the kids.

Anything Worth Doing ...

...is worth doing well.

...is worth doing poorly.

Which way did you expect the sentence to end?
Which one is correct?
Could both be correct?

A quick internet search revealed that others have put a twist on the old adage, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well." Most notably, Zig Ziglar tells us, "Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn how to do it well."

This subject seems particularly on point when we talk about the use of technology in the classroom. I remember vividly how much technology was transforming the administrative aspects of my job twenty years ago. A spreadsheet served as my gradebook. A database kept track of all of the music in the band's library. Word processing software held all of the documents I was producing.

Since that time, technology has become cheaper, better, and more accessible. That being the case, many in the teaching profession speak of "not being able to turn on a computer." Others who may be able to handle some of the administrivia of the job on a computer hesitate to use technology in their teaching. I believe the root of the problem goes back to one simple thing: We must be willing to something poorly in order that later we will be able to do it well.

We get good at what we practice. When our tools consist of a piece of chalk and a chalkboard, we become good at conducting a lesson that way. Given a digital whiteboard or document camera, we would find ourselves fumbling. Why go through that? Why not stick with that which is comfortable?

In the short run, sticking with the familiar pays off. After all, learning something new takes time, and time is in short supply. "Someday," we will learn to use technology. Days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months. We wake up one day and wonder where the last ten years have gone.

Technology is a time-saver when used well. Technology makes things easy. There is one caveat: We have to be willing to make mistakes as we learn. We have to be willing to deal with some frustration at first. We have to be willing to ask questions and get outside of our comfort zone. We have to be willing to do it poorly, at least at first.

Some people are not willing to go through the process of being bad on the way to being good. I fully realize that we could substitute any term from "ice skating," to "flyfishing" in place of "technology" and we would have a valid argument. Just about anything in life that is worth doing takes some degree of skill in order to do well, and skill comes with practice, and practice takes
time.

What is it in your life that is worth doing yet you have not devoted the time? Why have you continued to say "no" to devoting the time necessary to developing it? What else could you say "no" to in order to say "yes" to this area of your life? Maybe that area is using technology in the classroom. Maybe it is something else. Whatever it is, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing poorly...at least at first.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
--Leonard Cohen

Just Say "No"

I recently presented a breakout session for the Alabama Staff Development Council Convention. As we talked about how to organize the task list to get the most done in the shortest amount of time, one participant asked, "Is it OK just to not do something?"

What a great question, and what an important question! The answer is not only "yes," it is OK to leave certain things undone, it is essential. Today's world presents unlimited choices and finite time. We could easily spend all day watching YouTube. One diversion blends into the next and all of them are "nice."

There is nothing wrong with a little diversion, but I think there are two important points to be made:

• We must recognize when we are engaged in diversion
• We must recognize that if important tasks are not being handled, minimizing what does not need to be done in the first place is a prime place to start recouping some time.

Take a good look at your to-do list. Is it longer than you would like? If the answer is "yes," start looking at what could simply be eliminated with no harm being done.

This sentiment was echoed by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, in his keynote at this year's National Middle School Association national Conference. Collins advocated having a "stop doing" list.

Examining your to-do list will help in another way. When you realize the volume of what you have on your plate, you are less likely to take on trivia.

When we say "yes" to one thing we are by definition saying "no" to something else. In these busy times, let's make sure we are saying "yes" to the right things. Learning to say "no" to the others is a good place to start.

Ambiguity and Gratitude

As we approach another Thanksgiving, I invite you to listen to a story of the events that led up to that first celebration. The story is told by the Rev. Dr. John R. Claypool, IV. He makes the point that when confronted with life's ambiguities, we have two choices. One is to focus on the forces which oppose us. The other is to focus on the positive, to see the future as a friend, and embrace the concept of gratitude as a means for coping with those times when life works us over.

Dr. Claypool recounts the harshness of that first winter in the Plymouth, the several significant decisions that were made beginning shortly after the initial voyage and continuing through the first year of the colony's existence, and the impact on the rest of American history of the decisions to accept gratitude in the face of ambiguity .

You may listen to his message by clicking here. The complete text is found here.

I Love You. Now What?

The October issue of Fast Company included an article by Dan & Chip Heath entitled "I Love You. Now What?" They argue that while businesses have an efficient means of handling customer complaints, they are generally lousy when it comes to making it easy for customer compliments to get to the right people.

Examples the Heath brother cite include the compliment you have about the meal that will never make it back to the cook. The note you write about how much you appreciate the extra-deep automobile cup holder will never be read by the engineer who actually designed it. The article goes on to highlight the effects that expressing gratitude have on the giver, and that one point alone makes the article well worth reading. It can be found here.

The sentence that struck me most was, "What is your company doing to let gratitude blossom?" Perhaps an even more pointed question for each of us is, "What am I doing to let gratitude blossom?"

The article spotlighted an idea from American Airlines, pre-printed "Applause" cards given to frequent flyers who had reached "elite" status. The customer, provided he happened to be carrying the card with him, could write a quite note and hand it to any employee who had demonstrated a praise-worthy act.

The idea American Airlines idea is interesting, but do we really have to reach any particular status or be given a set number of special cards in order to do basically the same thing? Anywhere I go, I always have a few business cards with me. It takes only a few seconds to jot a note on the back of one of them and leave it on the table for an especially good member of the wait staff or ask someone to pass the card note along to the chef or whoever needs to realize that their talents have been appreciated. Charles Hobbs would call that "throwing golden bricks." I think I have gotten better about that sort of thing and have worked with a very good role model for the last couple of years.

As we approach another Thanksgiving, there is perhaps no better time to examine the importance of gratitude in our culture. The post for the 24th, "Ambiguity and Gratitude," argues that choice to embrace gratitude was a deciding force in shaping American history.

Dear Me,

While at the National Middle School Association Convention, my favorite session was one conducted by Lonnie Moore, author of The Inspirational Teacher. One of the ideas he talked about was writing a letter to yourself and reviewing it regularly. That letter could outline your goals, your thoughts about yourself, or whatever was needed to help bring you in line with the "you" that you would like to be.

Lonnie's idea is similar to one that I proposed last December in a post entitled Christmas Letters from the Future. As we approach this Christmas season, I invite you to click on the link and read that post, a post about having a vision for the future, and through regularly reviewing it, bringing reality and that vision closer together.

Hoaxes Revisited

If we are looking for a way to save some time, one favor we might do our friends is checking out those "warnings" before passing them on. Here is an example of one that came to me from someone in our school system. Parts of the e-mail read as follows:

You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail with a Power Point presentation ' Life is Beautiful.' If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and delete it immediately. If you open this file, a message will appear on your screen saying: 'It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful. '

Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC, And the person who sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password.

THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY SNOPES

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/mailserver.asp

The interesting thing is not only is this a hoax, but if the reader even clicked on the Snopes link, they would see that the link is about a totally different hoax anyway.

How long did it take me to determine this e-mail was a hoax? About 10 seconds. How did I know? I wrote about it in this post.

In a similar post, I talked about a hoax that almost hooked me, and why educators should be the least likely to forward hoaxes. You can read about it by clicking here.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

After my last post on an inspiring rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner, a reader pointed my to an equally impressive Battle Hymn of the Republic. This group of young ladies is known as the "Cactus Cuties."

Well Done, Ladies

I have heard many renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner. This one is memorable.



The group is known as the Cactus Cuties.

E-Mail on Repeating Tasks

I have received some nice comments on my repeating tasks e-mail. If you are not on the mailing list and would like to be, click the link to e-mail me.

Unveiling the BlackBerry Storm

Looks like the iPhone is going to have some competition. From what I am reading, the BlackBerry Storm will be sold exclusively by Verizon.

Happy Birthday, Davonia!

Happy Birthday to my wife, Davonia. Every day I ask myself what I did that was so good to deserve her.

Still More Scenes from Denver

More Scenes from Denver

A few more pictures from Denver. More to come...

Scenes from Denver

A few pictures from our trip to the National Middle School Association Convention in Denver. More pictures to come.

The Don't Quit Poem

This poem used to hang on the band room wall when I was in junior high.

National Middle School Association (Denver)

Thanks to the audience of well over 100 who came to the session and to those who came up to me at some point during the conference to let me know how they intend to implement what they heard. During the one hour and fifteen minutes, we were able to give at least an introduction to the following ideas:

• Mastering paperwork with tickler files
• Organizing it all with your "signature tool"
• Handling repeating tasks
• Documenting made easy enough you will actually do it
• Getting e-mail from "in" to "empty"

I am beginning to hear the same comments with regularity:

• This makes so much sense.
• I had no idea it was so easy.
• Why hasn't anybody told me this before?
• I needed this!

Special thanks to Kerry Palmer for being my facilitator for the session. Kerry is principal at Trinity Middle School in Montgomery, Alabama and doing an outstanding job as a first-year principal. His blogs serve as just one example of the professional, positive approach he takes. You can view his faculty blog by clicking here or his parent blog by clicking here.

If you are visiting this blog for the first time as a result of coming to the session in Denver, thanks for stopping by. You are the reason I created this blog in the first place! We can cover just so much in 75 minutes. Web 2.0 allows us to continue the discussion.

This next weekend, I will be sending out the next e-mail newsletter, so by November 10, you should receive it. Be sure to check your spam folder and in case it gets caught there.

More pictures from Denver will be forthcoming!

Good to Great...It Takes Time

Jim Collins was amazing in his address at yesterday's general session for the National Middle School Association Convention. Author of the best seller Good to Great, Collins tailored his remarks to hit home with the gathering of middle-level educators. Several of the significant points are as follows:

The adage "schools should be run like a business" is poor advice for schools. While there are businesses which are "great," most businesses are, well...average. Why in the world would we want to take practices which are merely average and import them into our schools.

We need to look for those things which work and stick with them. Our tendency in education is to start new things, abandon them quickly, and start something else. As Collins put it, "The signature of mediocrity is in inconsistency." Furthermore, he implored leaders to empower others to have freedom to "polish a lead bullet into silver and have time to do it."

Of particular interest to me was when Jim Collins touched on time management and implored us to develop not only a "to do" list but a "stop doing" list. More on this subject later.