RickScheibner.net

At 9pm PST tonight, Facebook offered the chance for their users to register their own names as part of their url (facebook.com/something).  I logged in and was surprised to find that my own last name was available!  You can now find me on there at facebook.com/scheibner.  I had long past given up on being able to register my last name as either .com, .net, .org, or dot-something else, so this will have to be the next best thing.  If you haven’t added me as a friend on there yet, feel free to do so.

In other news, WordPress 2.8 is out, and is it ever good.  The dashboard layout is similar to 2.7, but what’s new and vastly improved is the way it handles sidebar widgets and how you go out and get themes from within the dashboard itself.  With each release, I find myself using an FTP client a lot less.   Updates and improvements are getting more automated all the time.  If this release doesn’t convince you to go out and get your own self-hosted blog powered by WordPress, man I don’t know what will.

Our school district has dived head first into the model of Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s).  Our high schools and middle schools have been at it for a few years now, and now we’re on our way to it becoming part of the culture throughout our district. 

If you’re not familiar with the PLC model, the concept is this:

• Identify the most crucial learning standards that need to be taught to mastery
• Form common assessments based on those learning standards to be given to students in a given grade or subject level.
• Teachers meet regularly (weekly, or more when necessary) to analyze student data and adjust teaching strategies accordingly, including providing intervention strategies for students who aren’t learning the standards.

The heart and soul of PLC’s is that teachers collaborate and use data to make important decisions.  Each one of our teaching staff throughout the district now has the book, “The Collaborative Teacher,” published by Solution Tree, and compiled by Richard and Rebecca Dufour, leaders of implementing PLC’s into today’s schools.  Each chapter was written by educational leaders–principals, superintendents, curriculum directors–with practical experience implementing PLC’s.  Refreshingly,  much of this experience is in districts where lower achievement scores were the norm for many years.

At a couple hundred pages, it’s not a terribly time-consuming read.  Even though I’ve been to two of the PLC Dufour conferences now, I’m finding some concepts that I either didn’t know before, or that needed to be reinforced to me.    I appreciate that, up front, the authors acknowledge that change in education is difficult, and even spell out an anticipated learning/acceptance path for individual schools.  They also provide some strategies in working through the rough spots on the PLC path.  Especially intriguing to me is the epilogue, “A New Era of Spectacular Teachers,” in which the author Mary Ann Ranells enumerates the ways in which successful teachers are embracing the PLC process. 

This is the first professional book that’s on my list this summer.  I have a few more that I will post as I get through them and prepare for my new duties in the fall.

My blog here has taken a back seat to my other online activities lately (Facebook, Flickr, etc…), and projects at my current job as elementary counselor haven’t really lent themselves to posting here.  I did want to let all of you know about some upcoming changes to my job situation here in the Hermiston School District. Next year, I’m going to be the Dean of Students/Athletic Director at Armand Larive Middle School.  I’m very excited about the job advancement, although I will greatly miss the staff, students, and families that I have gotten to know over the last seven years at Sunset Elementary. 

ALMS houses students in grades 6-8.  There are two middle schools in our district.  The building itself is the oldest in the district, 60+years or so, and is slated to be demolished in two years.   Last November, our voters approved a 69 million dollar bond that includes the replacement of two elementary schools as well as this middle school.  We’re getting a new building!  For the time being, I’ll be directly behind Sunset, with just a soccer field and a playground separating the two schools.  I’ll be able to wave at my former colleagues from across the field periodically.

Technically, I will be a Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA).  The duties will essentially be that of Vice Principal:  Handling discipline issues, overseeing the behavior expectations in the building, and assisting the building principal where needed.  I anticipate working with our Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) to a large extent next year.  The district has adjusted the number of administrators it has for next year, but these duties are still essential to running a middle school building.  Some of the requirements in order to apply included an Oregon Administrator License, or be eligible for one by next year, and experience working with middle school kids. I believe my student services experience as a counselor also contributed to me getting this job.  In addition, I’ll be taking on the duties of Athletic Director.  Go Bullpups!

I’m looking forward to taking on the upcoming challenges head-on.  It will be a learning curve, to be sure, but this is the right step at this point in my career.  I’m grateful for this opportunity, and I plan to make the best of it. 

My immediate plan for this blog is to be able to chronicle current issues in school leadership, as well as create a record of my learning curve.  Periodic reflection is an important part of the education profession, and I will continue to keep this blog focused on those issues. 

Sierra Leone

Originally uploaded by One Laptop per Child

Despite much social and political unrest in Sierra Leone, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative is gaining a foothold there. India recently put in an order for 250,000 of these laptops to be distributed among their schools. At $199 each, they run on completely on open-source software and are built to withstand the rigors of the 6-12 year old, regardless of where they are in the world.

We’ll probably look back on this and laugh ten years from now, but I love the ideas of what might be some day. I especially enjoy the opening sequence with the two kids, halfway around the world from each other, connecting and communicating. Yes, it’s Microsoft, and I’ve been on an Open Source kick lately, but this is good stuff. Are we getting our kids ready for this kind of world?

Microsoft Sustainability from Kray Cédric on Vimeo.

Dr. Seuss never gets old.  I love how Google honored his birthday by featuring him on their home page.  I saw a lot of Cat in the Hat hats worn at our school today!  Mine, of course, is orange and black.

Sidelines

Originally uploaded by shareski

If this is true, then we as educators have a lot of work to do. Especially those of us working with populations who typically don’t have access to a lot of technology.