Currently the site links to our first school webpage.  As we develop a new site, I imagine that we will have a "rollover". 

I hope that everyone is having a great summer!

Travis

There are roughly 6.5 billion people on earth, about 2.5 billion in China and India, 300 million in the United States, 1.7 million people in Nebraska, and 90,000 in the panhandle. (please double check my math) 

Let's look at the numbers another way.  We, the population of the panhandle make up 0.00139% of the world population.  That means 99.99861% of people in the world live somewhere else.

In the global society of today, technology, specifically Web 2.0, is a tool for keeping us connected to the rest of the world.

So we may be blogging along with only an emerging, purpose, audience, and voice, but we have taken a meaningful step into the future by joining the professional development blogging community.  Keep the blogs coming

 That being said, I can't help but post one more thing for everyone to scroll through . . . just to make things interesting, I thought I would share my new avatar (cartoonish, online person-thingy) with you.  I saw one of these on the blog site of another school administrator (Melinda Miller) and decided to create one for myself.  You can create your own at www.meez.com or you can click on the following link to see the animated version of mine:  http://images.meez.com/user/4/8/8/6/2/1/5/4886215_bodyshot_300x400.gif  

By Travis Miller

Banner County School recently received a set of posters from the Peter Kiewit Foundation promoting the foundation’s “positive parenting” media campaign.  Several of these posters are currently displayed in the school cafeteria.  However, I realize that many of the readers of the Scratchin’ Post are not able to come to the school and see the messages, so the messages from the Peter Kiewit Foundation are listed below:

• ABC’s Before TV
• Help Them Achieve Their Dreams.  Kids Need 9 Hours of Sleep
• Kids Who Love Reading Live Happier Ever After
• There’s a Reason Pancakes are Always Smiling.  Kids Need Breakfast
• Participation Counts.  Get Involved in Your Kid’s Education
• Share More Than the Meatloaf.  Have Conversations for Dinner

Many of these phrases reflect recent research about the importance of family involvement in education.  For example, by having conversations at the dinner table about what students learned at school, families can help reinforce student learning.  As brain researcher Dr. Robert Sjolseth states, “Without reflection there is no learning, only exposure.”  When students have an opportunity to reflect on their studies and share that information with others, learning is solidified. 

Similarly, the other statements from the Kiewit Foundation correspond to research about student learning.  If you would like more information about any of these statements or would like to discuss how to use this information to support your child’s learning, please contact the school.  As always, if you would like to share success stories about Banner County School or if you have ideas about how we can work together to make our school even better, please call the school or email me at:  travis.miller@panesu.org.

1.  infinite campus,  2.  Reading programs, 3.  Curriculular models, 4. Math programs

Are these issues that can be handled at a PLACES meeting--or should small sessions be set up that would have specific focus?  COuld DL serve a role so that a very short meeting could be held and people could share issues and solutions and maybe plan together for shared resources?  For example,  the Infinite campus group could meet and one person knows how to do the more complex reports and can teach that to others.  The reading group could meet and could decide to share expenses to bring a trainer to the region. 

Our current structures haven't been able to give much time for this sort of specific needs.

Does anyone want to see that type of specific mini-meetings started?

The following quote is taken from the "About" section of their homepage.

"LeaderTalk is the first group blog written by school leaders for school leaders. We hope that our insights and resources are beneficial to P-12 administrators and educational leadership preparation programs."

One link from the LeaderTalk page will take you to CASTLE (Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education). This is not a blog site, but does contain links to a few blogs in the left column.

These two sites alone provide access to enough information and links to additional resources to build a solid foundation of blog sites. 

Which blogs...which communities do we join?  The list of professional journals and books was at least finite, and I knew where to go to select those which would give me the most bang for my buck.  Blog choices, while not yet infinite, appear to be expanding exponentially, and I don't know how to choose the most effective ones for myself.

One thing I stumbled across was the World Cafe Blog (see link below)

http://www.theworldcafe.com/blog.htm

Seems to me the thinking would be cutting edge and creative, so I'll be checking that one out and letting you all know if it was worth the time or not.

Anyone else out there have great suggestions?

I would like to thank Jim for sharing the evaluation form that he uploaded, and encourage everyone to contribute to the site. The value of this site grows as participants share information. 

1. Scheduled staff development time on school calendar spread out across the school year

2.  A consistent method and scheduled plan for being in classrooms to collect the data of what is happening in the instructional setting (doesn't have to be solely work of principal)

3. A regularly scheduled leadership meeting in which data from the instructional setting and student achievement data are analyzed and used as a springboard for planning staff development (could be the SIP team, should include principal(s), curriculum director, teacher leaders, possibly superintendent)

"Structure is the first step toward organizational maturity."  AdvancEd

Until a district has these structures in place, effective follow up will only be something we talk about.