Is Your School Ready for the Apple Watch?

by | Dec 24, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

Do you remember the days when monitoring student technology was as easy as making sure their calculators were put away…oh the days of TI-85 tetris.  That calculator’s around here someplace just begging for a reboot. Today, it’s becoming almost impossible to monitor what kind of technology students bring to school.  We have a “no phone during the school day” policy at my school, but only the naive can really believe it works. The battle for monitoring student technology is about to get a lot harder as Apple’s new Watch goes on sale later this year.  It’s been somewhat reasonable to asks students to keep their phones in their locker or bag, but an Apple Watch will be a whole new level of difficultly. So is it worth it?  Is it time to stop monitoring student technology?  What are you going to...

Are you raising an evil genius?

by | Dec 1, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

My daughter Hattie loves the outdoors, in fact if it was up to her she’d spend every waking moment outside (good thing we live in Honolulu).  This became even more apparent last year after she began to unlock the deadbolt of our front door to make a mad dash to the courtyard of our apartment building.  So like any responsible parent we added an extra lock at the top of the door about 6-and-half-feet high; clearly out of her reach..or so we thought. Yesterday, as we were eating lunch, we watched Hattie’s insistence on going outside shift from words to actions.  At first she attempted her escape with the help of a small step stool from the bathroom. But she came up short by about 3 feet. Then she grabbed her empty backpack. Still need about another 2 feet 11 inches to cover. Of course, like all good parents, Lisa and I continued to eat lunch while mocking Hattie’s attempts with our smirks and eye rolls.  Not to be deterred, and somehow without us noticing (you know that kind of moment when you’ve somehow blocked out what your kid is doing, like eating a stick of butter while you’re making cookies), Hattie climbed onto the nearby table and with a final stretch managed to unlock and open the door. So what do you do next as a parent, educator, and all-around encourager-of-resourcefulness? We clapped! We gave Hattie the applause she deserved for accomplishing more than we thought was possible. Watching Hattie makes me think, “Do I really know what she’s capable of doing?”  If you’re a parent you should...

What's Wrong with the Girl's Toy Section?

by | Nov 29, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

Have you walked by the girl’s toy section lately?  It looks like Valentines Day threw up on everything.  Earlier today I made a quick trip to Target with Lisa my wife, and Hattie our 3-year-old daughter.  To burn a little time while Lisa was busy doing something in the women’s section, Hattie and I went to go check out the toys.  Now, for the record, as a parent I never insist that Hattie play with gender specific toys, and on any given day you’ll see her playing with Legos or putting her doll to sleep.  Other days she’s putting her legos to sleep and tag-team wrestling with her doll and stuffed cat. What I don’t understand is why retailers insist on stylizing every girl toy in pink, purple, and robin egg’s blue.  Is this supposed to make it more appealing?  Is there some study out there that shows that girls are more likely to buy things when they look like they’ve been dipped-in-Easter?  Or is this supposed help clear up what each gender should like to do, because I’m pretty sure Hattie would have no problem rocking a GI Joe to sleep…heck she’d rock a bag onions to sleep if she wanted to (actually I think she’s done this). Luckily, with Hattie’s good sense, she walked right past all the pinks and purples and wandered down to the volleyballs. What insights, eh?  Have you signed up for our newsletter yet so you don’t miss out on any of these nuggets of wisdom?  Sign up...

Why is it so hard to take a break from work?

by | Nov 28, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

Did you eat Thanksgiving for lunch or dinner?  For me it was dinner, and boy did I eat way too much turkey.  By the time we got home from the feast at a friends house I felt like I had to be rolled into bed.  I think I’ve learned that it makes a big difference if you celebrate Thanksgiving in the afternoon or evening.  By the time I rolled out of bed this morning I could tell that I would be walking a little slower today. I never really know what do to on Black Friday.  We eventually ran a few errands and cleaned the house…by the way I don’t recommend the latter if it includes cleaning out your closest and trying on old pants…that was a stupid idea. Anyway, I don’t know about other educators, but I always find it so difficult to really take a break over break.  Don’t get me wrong I haven’t really done anything too noteworthy today (hopefully this blog counts for something), but all day I’ve been thinking about some of the work I need to get done.  Is that healthy?  I’m starting to wonder whether working half days over the break would make me more present during the time I’m not working.  What do yo think?  Anybody got any answers of why it so hard to take a break from work?  Or is that wrong question?  How about...

Should Schools be Teaching Kids Coding?

by | Oct 1, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

Everyone seems to think so!  No doubt there are a ton of interesting skills like problem solving and collaboration that are developed through coding, but does that justify the call for everyone to learn to code?  I’m not so sure, but I’m sure many would disagree with me.  Still depending on what demographic of students you teach, I wonder whether coding is worth it? Why do I think this? Well it seems that because of the virtual nature of coding anyone anywhere in the world can do it.  We’ll certainly need more coders in the future, but I wonder whether this will become a job dominated by distant website developers in developing countries.  For example, before I redeveloped Learn[ed]Leadership myself I commissioned Cat Trivino, a talented & young 19-year-old Filipina website designer to build the original site.  It cost me about $350 dollars and required no coding ability on my part to get it done.  What’s crazier is that I’ve actually never met Cat in person, because all of our communications have been via email.  She designed the logo, layout, even my business cards.  What did I bring to the table besides money?   A vision for what I wanted.  Want another example?  Yesterday I wanted to change my sidebar width on this website.  I looked at a bunch of blogging websites to try and figure out how to do it, but still had no clue.  However, on a blogging forum I posted my problem and within minutes received the code to fix the sidebar.  Didn’t cost me a penny. I’m sure I have more thoughts on this, but I’m...

How's Your Elevator Pitch?

by | Sep 29, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

I don’t ride in too many elevators these days.  If you’re in the education world this is probably the same for you too, so the idea of the elevator pitch might be a little foreign.  For review, the idea originates from the practice of pitching your great idea to someone of importance, if you ever happen to be riding in an elevator together…so approximately 30 to 60 seconds.  Of course, you don’t need to be in an elevator to give an elevator pitch, instead the concept has evolved to include anytime you’re trying to convince someone else that your idea is compelling enough to make them want to learn more. I’ve been reading about elevators pitches in Daniel Pink’s book To Sell is Human where he outlines a number of successors to the elevator pitch, including the twitter pitch, email subject line pitch, and a few others.  He also asks the question “What’s your Invisible Pitch?”  Meaning if you asked those around you to describe you in 3 words, what would they say?  Pink describes the Invisible Pitch by saying, “we don’t always realize it, but what we do and how we do it are themselves pitches.  We’re conveying a message about ourselves, our work, or our organization.”  Although not completely related, I’m reminded of the famous Peter Drucker quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Despite our best intentions and best plans what are you as a leader pitching to your community?  What are your teachers pitching to your students and parents?  What are your students pitching to each other and...