My school is celebrating Lutheran School week this week, which is a week earlier than most schools. We are doing this since we will be on trimester break the next two weeks. We have a week full of fun days.
Yesterday we had an all school singing in Church. Today is Color Day: each class has a different color they are suppose to wear, I got stuck with purple. I have only one shirt that has purple on it. I am not a purple wearing person really. Tonight is our History Fair. Tomorrow is Mixed-Up, Crazy day and we have breakfast for lunch. Wednesday is Dress Up Chapel Day, wear your best. We are also celebrating our 2nd grade teacher 50th birthday, that should be fun. On Thursday we are having Pajama and Stuff Animal Day. Thursday is also promotion day where the students go into their classroom for next year and then we finish the day off with a school spelling bee. Friday is Sports Day and will be doing Jump Rope for Heart. It is always a fun time to promote our School and Lutheran Schools across the Nation. WE LOVE OUR LUTHERAN SCHOOLS.
Next week I am visiting a school in Michigan that has extended a call to me for principal and I get to partake in their National Lutheran School Week. I am excited
As I was contemplating what to write about next, my mind is a little fried with other thoughts, I asked my PLN on twitter. Dennis Grice mentioned I should commented on Ten commandments of school tech support.
I enjoyed the list immensely! I did think how could I fit this to Lutheran Education, since many of us are our own Tech Guys or IT guys. So I came up with my own list. (more…)
It stands for 21st Century Lutheran Education. 21CLE is an online conference in its 2nd year. There are speakers across the map. All the presenters love Lutheran Schools and Educators and want to improve Lutheran Schools and Education.
As I was looking through the followers’ list of one of the Guild’s Twitter followers (and after doing some searching of my own), I came to the conclusion that many of our Lutheran schools are missing out on some great opportunities to spread the word about their ministries online. I’ve spend several hours over the last months scouring Twitter for Lutheran schools with little success in locating very many. Of the ones I have found, several have tweeted a handful (more…)
This past Sunday we hand a very important voters meeting. Most of the meeting was focus on creating a list of individuals we will vote on who we will issue a call to the position of our Pastor. The other part was about the budget. (more…)
Lutheran Schools always have a motto that Lutheran Schools Cares… but do we?
I am not trying to bag on Lutheran Schools, because I LOVE Lutheran Schools. I am forever in debt to Lutheran Schools, but do we care? This could apply to public schools also and Catholic schools. DO WE CARE? (more…)
One thing I find very tiresome is helping students learn good searching habits. Even after they search for something getting them to pick a good site (not an advertising site) is hard. I tell me to put the words in Quotations for exact matches. I tell them to use the words AND and OR and so forth. It never gets into their heads like I want them to. Well now I am just going to use this Prezi to show them how to search on Google. Now I am not the author of this Prezi, but I find it very helpful and even learn something new myself. If you don’t know what Prezi is, wait for future article that will go into detail what it is and how you can use it in your classroom to engage your students.
I am sitting in the Vegas airport, hoping my battery doesn’t die before I finish this, but waiting for my flight back to LA. I spent all day at Faith Lutheran Jr. High and High School in professional development. No one is making me go. Well no one but me. My school didn’t say I had to go, I wanted to go.
This past Thanksgiving week I got very sad, because I was not able to go to our annual Lutheran Educators Conference (LEC). Our school didn’t have the money. I am also guessing they didn’t have the love for their teacher or students. I was told the conference was “optional” and not “mandatory.” Everyday we ask our students to learn, but do not ask it of ourselves. Professional development is MANDATORY! In a recent survey of Lutheran educators it reveals that professional development for information, media, and computer literacy is a PRIORITY. Dr. Perry Bressman shared this thought, “Who wants to go to a surgeon who hasn’t learned anything new in he last 10 years?” Why should parents send their kids to us, if we are stuck in our teaching methods that are outdated.
So the only thing that can come from PD is good things. (even if the conference sucks)
I love going to LEC for numerous reasons. It is a time to relax (vacation time for my family), it is a time to learn, and it is a time to interact. Although our staff does interact with each other during the rest of the school year, it is always nice to sit down as a staff for a nice meal. It is a time to bring each other closer to each other. As you may know the Lutheran school system is actually very small in some terms. I have taught at 3 different Lutheran schools and have made connections with other teachers, which is always nice to catch up with at these conferences. I meet new people who in turn can become part of my PLN.
I love going to the sessions and learning new concepts and applications. If I could I would go to a conference every week to learn something new. But, it is also a way to refuel my tank. I can get excited and can’t wait to be back in my classroom to try something new. It helps you from getting burnt out. Most Lutheran teacher burn the match on both end. We need time for ourselves. Mary Irish, principal, talked to this very statement about how we need to make sure we take care ourselves so we can take care of others. Mary compared it to taking an airplane. They always tell us on flights that if we need to put on oxygen mask to make sure we put ours on first before we help anyone else. It is nice to be at a great place. For this SLED conference we were at the Red Rock Resort in Vegas. It was so relaxing. The room was great and peaceful.
What are you doing for PD?
If your school is like mine, you might not get the opportunity to go to conferences, because it is too expensive. But, you should not worry. You can still learn and interact. You need to take your ownership in PD as I mention in earlier post about this being your year. Create your PLN and learn from them.
Here is what you should do.
Go to http://blog.cuw.edu/21cle/archive-2009-presentation-recordings/ and listen to the different presentations from last year 21CLE. Then, make sure you mark your calendars for this years conference – February 25th, 26th and 27, 2010!
Finally you need to keep reading here on Lutheran Educator’s Guild.
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