LEADING THROUGH LISTENING

'Tis the season for jingle bells, cookies, trees, family, giving, music, snow (sometimes), and oh yes... the jolly old man in the big red suit. Do you remember the day when you used to believe? The season seemed to be filled with anticipation, excitement, and pure happiness about everything. A general positive feeling filled the air and nothing seemed as if it were impossible. Everything was a Christmas miracle. Ironically, this feeling is no different than that time when you thought you could actually make a difference in the world . Do you remember when you used to believe that? Unfortunately too many adults (young and old) stop believing in that as well and that is when negativity and apathy begins to consume our lives. The reality is that YOU can make a difference. One person can make a large difference in the world. It's all about perspective though. One person may not be able to be THE difference in the world but they certainly can be A difference. Each day in educati...

Almost on a daily basis I see the immediacy needs of our society enacted in both children and adults feeling the need to play the role of Judge, Jury, and Executioner. Technology and social media are wonderful tools and are debate-ably the worlds most meaningful inventions. However, if not used appropriately, can be the worlds most devastating force. There is a phrase that goes something like this; "It took centuries to build an empire but only days to destroy it." This phrase is indicative of our current society's desire to use social media and the internet to make rash judgments about things without truly knowing what's going on. There's a reason why our English teachers and Social Studies teachers are struggling to teach kids about proper/legal citations for writing papers and the concept of freedom of speech. Our children are growing up to 'think' that everything on the internet is accurate and that freedom of speech means you can write or say whatev...

In an era where most educators and parents want to criticize everything, especially those that are decision makers, I have to say, I think NYSED got this one right!! On a daily basis I am finding adults that lack the essential 21st century skills that our decision makers feel our students must possess in order to be productive citizens in the future. In my opinion however, 21st century skills are "soft" in nature, difficult to measure, and not a traditional part of American high school curriculums. To tell you how many emails I receive a day that make me wonder if the adult on the other end has ever sat through an English class would be embarrassing. Electronic communication is a 21st century skill, but where is the education in regard to how to use it? Just because it's an email doesn't mean we have to forget the basic conventions of standard American English, does it? Can we not combine 2 skills into one here? Typically, all of these "skills" as we are...