Attention Posterous Refugees -- Posting via Email with Blogger

If you are a Posterous refugee as I am, you are probably missing the old ability to post via email. Guess what? You can do it in Blogger as well, you simply have to turn the feature on. The attached photo should help explain this, but go to your Blogger Dashboard. On the left navigation bar, go to Settings, and then to Mobile and Email. You will need to add some secret words between your username and @blogger.com for it to work. Now go write an email and send it to that email address and you are blogging via email again.

Enjoy! 

ELCC Standards for Educational Leadership as a Professional Development Tool

As I finish my MSE in Educational Leadership from ASU, I am busily working on creating my portfolio as part of my internship. The seven ELCC standards are mostly focused on students demonstrating competency in the various areas of school leadership. But once your internship is over, then what? This got me thinking about professional development for educational leaders. Are any schools, associations, or individuals using the ELCC as a vehicle for professional development? Because on the international school scene, I'm not seeing it.

It would be easy to do. As a school, the Leadership Team could focus on one of the standards they want to improve for a school year. They could develop a Leadership Portfolio as a team and include their artifacts that demonstrate forward progress in this area. Another option would to to create a portfolio for yourself as an educational leader. The same basic principle as the group portfolio would apply -- choose an area you would like to develop and include various artifacts that demonstrate your growth within that standard for the year. Making this portfolio public and open for faculty and peer review is an important idea. A blog would be an excellent method for sharing your portfolio with colleagues.

Professional development is an important tool in education and all members of the faculty and staff, including administrators, need to work on continual growth. The infamous life-long learning we keep hearing and talking about -- time to walk the walk! Be a real leader. Don't accept excuses from yourself that for too many educational leaders fall into. You know the ones I'm talking about.

• I'm too busy to create a portfolio.
• Everyone is too busy! Make time, be a leader, be an example, be a role model. It is your job!
• I'm not a "blog" guy/gal.
• It doesn't necessarily have to be a blog, but a blog is an easy and powerful tool for doing it. If you want your faculty using technology, you need to use technology. Finally, don't think of it as a blog, it is a public portfolio.
• Portfolios and professional development are for my teachers, not me.
• If you don't take ownership of professional development, how will your faculty? Your faculty and staff will work as hard as you do. If they perceive you are slack, they will be more slack. If they perceive you are a professional engaged in improving yourself, they will as well.

An Idea for Educational Leadership Professional Development

In my MSE program through ASU, I have worked on several case studies in Educational Leadership. Some were about community relations, some were about school law, and others were about student or faculty issues. I've posted a few examples on my blog. I realized how valuable they are as a professional development tool. Do any schools have leaders who use case studies as a PD tool? I'm envisioning group discussion focused on a case study. Talking through the situation and coming up with different solutions. We have students role play so that when a real situation occurs, they have the tools to deal with it. Why don't educational leaders to the same thing? Case studies are like an opportunity to role play a problem and think of the correct response ahead of time. Everyone is busy and the job can be overwhelming at times, but surely everyone can find an hour in a month to do this type of constructive PD with colleagues. If you can't get people in your school to buy in to the process, you can look for people in your PLN to share ideas with. I think this is a great idea and I'm hoping to develop a community forum of some type to expand this idea. Please let me know if you are interested in it.

School Law Case Study -- Bullets in the Mustang

This case study was part of my School Law course at ASU with Professor Curtner. Dr. Curtner provided the scenario and the solution is my original work.

“Bullets in the Mustang”

As part of her duties as school security officer, Samantha Jackson was making her usual morning rounds through the student parking lot. She stopped abruptly beside a restored 1966 Ford Mustang. Did she really see a bullet on the passenger seat? She shaded her eyes and looked again. This time she could make out two or three bullets on the seat and what could possibly be the very tip of a gun handle between the seats. Using her police band radio, she called in the license plate for registration and warrants. She immediately recognized the name and realized that the car was driven by Ricardo “Frisky Ricky” Bingham, the favorite son of a local minister. Ricky, a well-known school Romeo, had recently developed significant problems with attendance and grades. Rumor was that Ricky was seen riding with members of the “Deuce Six Posse” and had become involved with a secret drug ring on campus. Samantha called for an assistant principal, and after a brief explanation, asked him to find Ricky and meet her in the

parking lot. The assistant principal arrived with Ricky who was dressed in baggy designer jeans, an Oakland Raider NFL jersey, and a gold necklace with a small cobra charm. Samantha recognized the cobra charm as a Posse trademark. Samantha and the assistant principal opened the car door. Her pulse quickened as she gingerly pulled a loaded .38 caliber revolver from between the bucket seats of the Mustang. Ricky, looking surprised, would only say, “Don’t look at me. That’s not mine. I don’t know how it got there.”

My Solution:

After reviewing my school’s policies with regards to weapons and due process, I recommend that Ricky Bingham be turned over to the police. The search was conducted by the school security officer with probable cause -- she could clearly see several bullets on the seat inside the car and the tip of what appeared to be a gun. The bullets were in plain sight and a violation of school rules; in addition, the car was located on school property. A gun on school property represents an urgent threat to the safety of students and faculty and merits an immediate response. New Jersey v. T.L.O. established that the warrant requirements are unsuited to the school environment and even though a school security officer conducted the search, there was ample probable cause and individualized suspicion. The appropriate action at this point in the scenario is to call the police and turn the matter over to them. The school should call the parents of Ricky and inform them that he is being arrested. 

My school does not have a zero tolerance policy for weapons, but the student handbook clearly states that any student in possession of a weapon on campus will be punished with a suspension and possible expulsion. We would handle the matter by having a meeting with Ricky’s parents where we informed them that Ricky was on indefinite suspension until his court case. If Ricky is found not guilty by the court, once the court case is finished he is free to return to school, but we recommend that the parents voluntarily withdraw him. If Ricky is found guilty by the court, we would move for expulsion.

In Korea, firearms are not legal; therefore, the idea of bringing a loaded weapon to any school campus is a very serious legal matter. Our Business Officer Manager, Mr. Choi (a local hire Korean), explained that in this type of situation Ricky would receive at least five years in prison but probably more. Apparently, in the Korean legal system, judges are given a fair amount of leeway when sentencing convicted criminals and they have a tendency to be very concerned with matters of public safety.

Recently the Korean Ministry of Education has asked the congress to enact new legislation about school discipline procedures. In the past, teachers and administrators were allowed to physically beat students who “misbehave.” There was no recourse for these students, school officials were the law within schools and their authority was beyond questioning. Within the last ten years, the Korean government as written new laws abolishing the beating of students and instituting due process procedures loosely based on those in the US. The spread of actually following the new laws has been slow; Korea is a country based on Confucianism and tradition is a highly valued. Korean public and private schools must now follow due process when punishing students. I sincerely believe that these new laws are changing the educational system for the better. International schools within Korean are outside of the jurisdiction of the Korean Ministry of Education, but we often comply with rules they enact for Korean public and private schools out of respect; we are visitors in their country and complying with their laws shows we are good visitors. For the most part, the international schools have lead the way with regards to things like due process and abolishing corporal punishment. At my school, we have always had due process procedures in place; our parents are generally happy with the school discipline program according to surveys we have conducted for accreditation.

Thanks @Twitter -- NOT! Officially Moving to Blogger in March.

Moving the Blog from Posterous to Blogger

Now that the guys at Twitter have decided to pull the plug on Posterous, I thought it was wise to announce something about where my blog will be moving in the very near future. As some of you know, I have been cross posting to my Blogger since last year when the Twitter purchased Posterous. I wanted to be like Rob Newberry (@robnewberry) and believe that everything was going to work out and that Twitter would see the amazing abilities and potential of Posterous... As we now know, that didn't happen for whatever reason. I'm over being upset and angry about it and ready to simply move on with my life. I enjoy Twitter far too much to continue being crabby over the Posterous situation, but the incredible short-sightedness of Twitter is simply ridiculous with regard to Posterous. Enough said. I will continue posting at Posterous up until March and then everything will move to Blogger. Bye, bye Posterous! It was a great run.