BFTB: Picking your fights

A Saturday Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past.

Picking your fights (Originally published August 19, 2005)

A coach was the keynote speaker at a banquet I recently attended. Is it just me, or do coaches speak only in clichés? This guy had forty-five minutes worth.

But he did tell one joke that I'd not heard before. It’s on the slightly blue-side, so if you are easily offended, stop reading now. Here it goes:

On his way into the saloon, a runty little cowboy passes his horse and notices that somebody has painted its testicles bright pink. He storms into the bar and shouts, “Where’s the low down dirty varmint that painted my horse’s testicles bright pink? I’ve got something to say to him!”

From the back of the saloon comes a giant, mean-looking cowboy who stands right up to the little cowboy, towering over him. He looks down and says, “I painted your horse’s testicles bright pink. Now just what was it you wanted to say to me?”

The little cowboy gulps, then squeaks, “Just thought you might want to know the first coat is dry.”

The point of the story, said the coach, is that we should pick battles that are big enough to matter, but small enough to win.

Now that is not bad advice, but no one ever goes on to explain just how a person determines a battle’s size or importance. I know more than a few librarians and techs who seem to fight very hard about some very trivial issues and others that are just doormats.

While I am by no means perfect at picking my own fights, I’ve gotten better at it as I’ve gotten older. One concept that’s worth thinking about is the relationship between one’s “Circle of Influence” and “Circle of Concern” described by Stephen Covey in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Most people’s Circle of Concern is far larger than their Circle of Influence. (I am concerned about global warming, but my ability to stop it is relatively small.) Covey states, “Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. “

That seems pretty simple. Spend your time on the things you can actually do something about. If I am worried about funding for my program for example, I just might allocate the time I have available to work on this issue as follows:

• Building budget: 90% Working with my principal, site team, advisory commitee, and PTA to create a building budget and to prioritize the building’s budget. Serving on the interview team when selecting new administrators. Working with teachers to build units that use library and technology resources.
• District budget: 5% Serving on a district library/tech committee. Speaking at school board meetings. Working for the election of library friendly school board members.
• State budget: 3% Lobbying for state dollars for libraries, technology and the general education formula with teacher and library/tech organizations. Working to elect state political leaders friendly to education.
• National budget: 2% Working to elect national political leaders friendly to education.
• Global economic policies: 1%: Staying informed. Donating to “causes.”

How do you know if the battle is too small? That’s easy - if the issue impacts only you with no direct negative consequences on your students or staff, it’s too small – period.

So how do you determine which battles to fight? 

But haven't we always...? The new normal

We may be lost, but we're making good time. - Yogi Berra

I love the Beloit Mindset list. It's a great reminder that for today's kids some things have just always been a fact of life. That some technologies that still seem remarkable to geezers like me are about as exciting as indoor plumbing or electric lights to them.

A few of examples from this year's Mindset List:

Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.

The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.

The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.

Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.

They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.

I have evidence that teachers are getting younger all the time (and that we old teachers' memories are getting shorter.) I hear "But haven't we teachers always...

• Had web-based school e-mail?
• Had individual school webpages?
• Stored documents online?
• Had student and parent portals to our gradebooks?
• Only done states tests in computer labs?
• Had IWBs and permanently mounted projectors in our classrooms?
• Used electronic gradebooks, done attendance online and gotten staff bulletins via e-mail?
• Searched for books using the online catalog from our classroom or home?
• Received a new computer every five years and had a choice of laptop or desk top?
• Had high speed Internet access from our classrooms and been able to look anything up on a second's notice?
• Had lots and lots of data on every student?
• Had access to online tutorials like AtomicLearning and online videos like Learn360?

Give it six months around here and I hope they'll be saying "But haven't we always ...

• Had caller ID and our own DID number on our VOIP phones?
• Had kids turn in their assignments by sharing them on GoogleDocs?
• Used shared calendars?
• Used online handouts, agendas and minutes for our meetings instead of paper?
• Found all our curriculum guides online?

Maybe a short memory and high expectations is a GOOD thing. We keep raising the bar for the "new normal" when it comes to technology use in our district. Maybe not as quickly as some would like (why aren't we doing 1:1?) - and way too fast for others (collaborative learning tools are just a new way for kids to cheat!).

At least it feels like upward movement.

Oh, just for fun:

Mindset List for librarians

Mindset list for new teachers

MAPS Apps - Letter to Teachers

I have been asked to share documents related to our roll-out of GoogleApps (MAPS Apps) for our students this fall. This is the third. As always, I'd love to hear suggestions for improvement and readers are welcome to use it if they can in their own districts. - Doug

MAPS Apps - Letter to Parents
MAPS Apps - Letter to Students

Fall 2010

Dear Teachers in District 77:

This fall, all students in grades 3-12 will be supplied with MAPSApps.

MAPSApps is a set of online tools for communication, collaboration, time-management, and document storage. Provided by Google to the district at no cost, these tools include:

• Gmail: a full functioning e-mail program
• Calendar: a customizable calendar and to-do list
• Contacts: an address book
• GoogleDocs: a word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing program that allows multi-user access and editing

Google continues to add new tools and the district will evaluate each for its educational potential. This is basically the same set of tools you as a teacher have had access to since December 2009.

As you know, all of these tools are housed on the Internet and can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer with a web-browser. No special software is required.

The district’s primary reasons for supplying these tools to students are:

• To give our students practice in using current technology applications and tools, including e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet use, survey development, graphics use and slide show creation
• To give students planning and time management tools (and skills)
• To facilitate “paperless” communication and transfer of work between students and teachers
• To provide adequate (seven gigabyte) long-term storage space for student work
• To help students work collaboratively, engage in peer-editing of documents, and publish for a wider audience

There is also a cost savings to the district since fewer licenses for commercial copies of programs will need to be purchased and less file storage space needs to be maintained.

To ensure the safety of our students, MAPSApps student domains will be “closed.” This means that students can only e-mail and share documents with you, their teachers, and other students within the district. The applications also have spam filtering enabled.

Library media specialists will be reviewing our district’s acceptable use policy and Internet safety guidelines when they introduce these tools to students. Using online tools responsibly will be an important part of the learning experience. (Please see the attached procedure if an inappropriate student use is suspected.)

We hope that you will take advantage of students’ having access to MAPS Apps by allowing assignments to be submitted electronically, using the program for collaborative work, and encouraging students to communicate with you electronically.

Please contact me or your child’s library media specialist if you have questions about MAPS Apps.

Sincerely,

Doug Johnson



Inappropriate MAPS Apps Usage Procedure*

Dear school staff,

The purpose of this document is outline a procedure if a student receives inappropriate content within their MAPS Apps account (in a document or e-mail). Student confidentiality will be protected throughout this process.

If a student discovers inappropriate content:

1. The student reports the incident to the classroom teacher or other adult supervisor.
2. The supervising adult requests that the objectionable content not be deleted.
3. The supervising adult informs the library media specialist and building principal.
4. The library media specialist contacts the district technology director via e-mail, sending

• A screenshot and description of the offense
• Username of student receiving the inappropriate content

5. The district technology director will work to determine the original source of the inappropriate content and will report to the building principal the outcome of the findings.
6. The building principal determines the consequence of the action if needed.

* Modeled on the Osseo (MN) schools procedure