Focused Schools

My inspiration for using Web 2.0 tools in my presentation came from Scott Elias’s “Practical Principals” blog. His section entitled Practical Principals 06 - “Ketchup” had a section called “Presentations on Presentations”. This linked to me to a Slide Share presentation and it was amazing. As I watched the presentation I could definitely relate to his topic. From presenters standpoint I knew I needed to change the way I designed my presentations. You see, in my position, I find myself in front of an audience often. Usually once or twice a month and my topic is not the most exciting (Data Driven Decision Making Etc.) I usually could keep my audience engaged with humor or motivational statements. I also have to present on other topics that are little richer in content. Scott’s statement “Images are a very powerful visual anchor to give your audience while you are speaking.” really connected with me. I felt this was my opportunity to improve my presentation skills. I also followed some of the suggested links offered in Scott’s presentation.
In a short time I learned how to enhance my blog, create a slide share, and improve my presentations. My goal for this presentation on our student agendas was to incorporate more web 2.0 tools as part of the presentation. My participants will benefit from a more vibrant presentation, access to the presentation via the web, and examples of well-written content for their student agendas. My presentation notes have a link at the end of the page to these Web resources.
http://focusedschools.edublogs.org/hcs-agendas/

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My journey began at the National Title I Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. I was attending a session lead by Pedro Noguera on school reform. In his session he mentioned to keep up with schools who are actively using research in their schools. He mentioned the Miller Blog and how leaders are establishing professional learning communities online. Later I attended another session where Parent Involvement Specialists from Cobb, Georgia were presenting session on home school partnerships. The presenters were sharing their parent involvement Wikis and Parent Blogs as part of their session.
I was very intrigued about this concept of Educational Leaders using Web 2.0 tools to strengthen their own professional development. It was puzzling to me that I seemed unaware of this community rapidly growing around me. So I took it upon myself to learn more about this concept, which I have called “Professional Learning Communities for 21st Century Leaders”. I spent some time studying two blogs created by Melinda Miller and Scott Elias. To say the least I was blown away by the tools they were using. I guess you could say it is not the “what” but how they were using these Web 2.0 Tools.
That’s it I was sold. I mentioned this concept to one of my colleagues in the central office of my district. She is the Coordinator of Organizational Development. She mentioned that this would be a great session for our Leadership Academy this summer. You see the Leadership Academy is an opportunity for us to present to other Principals and Leaders within our district on the latest strategies and practices. I have enlisted the support of one of our administrators Mike Stutt for the development of this presentation. Our hope is to learn more about growing community of leaders and the Tools they are using.

Welcome to the Focused Schools Blog for educational leaders. I have designed this blog to communicate and collaborate about educational strategies with other leaders in ecucation. In my position I provide support to 14 Title I schools through training and consulting on “Data Driven Decision Making”