21st Century Learning......

Great article on the 21st Century Framework....how appropriate that I received this upon the return of our team members who are leading the way for us.................


http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24309

Change and Miserable Jobs..............

I just finished reading [finally- since I have had the book for over a year] Kotter's Our Iceberg Is Melting about change and succeeding under any conditions. It is similar to Who Moved My Cheese? in that it is a fable.....Kotter uses penguins and their need to change in order to get across his eight steps to change......the book was a very fast read....I will need to read it again with a different lens this time.....Kotter's 8 steps are nothing we have not heard of before.....however, reading the book reminded me how important it is to be open to change. It is said..."without change there is no growth...." So why is it that we know this.....recite the quote....and yet, so many of us are so unwillingly to change.....?????????

This book aligned quite a lot to Lencioni's book on Silos.....the premise behind Silos is change.....or at least be willing to come together with common goals....in order to do that, we must be willing to change.....

I am now reading Lencioni's book- Miserable Jobs....I was skeptical at first.....mainly because I love my job....but it is really not about that...it is about culture and the way culture in an organization [which begins with the big bosses] determines how happy we are in our jobs....I have just started this book....so I dont have much to say right now....however, I have always been an advocate of treating people right....in my head rings- "do onto others as you would have them do onto you....." that is true anywhere...family, relationships...and work!

Technolgoy and student gains.......

I thought this was an interesting article...wanted to share...............

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58362

Interesting info about where we stand as a nation in terms of being "connected."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008748455_globalist16.html

Silos or Not?

It has been a long time since I have posted....its about time. I would not want my blog police friends to come afer me! So much has happened since my last post....I finished reading the Frantic Family and Silos....both authored by theman who wrote The Five Dysfunctions of a Team- Lencioni. From both of these works many thoughts came to my mind....they are connected....the idea of working in silos....turf wars......does this really happen where we exist? Perhaps? Then the Frantic Family feeds off of silos.....what can be done in your family to eliminate chaos.......

Eliminating chaos...what a refreshing idea....this all goes back to saying - NO- when at all possible....but back to silos......After reading this book, I truly began looking at my own work in terms of silos and, politics and turf wars.....I live in a land of utopia....do they exist in our division...perhaps? If we do not see it...are we masking the behaviors? I would like to think [again utopia] that our division has such a strong sense of family that this notion of silos is minimal.....

What do you think? Silos or not??