First, you . . . → Read More: How to Support TeachMeet Nashville]]> As a teacher, I know how much teachers make and try never to ask people to buy or spend anything. When working with teachers, I try to always suggest free tools. I would like to ask  your help with getting TeachMeet going. There are several ways that you can help.

First, you can sign-up to attend, volunteer to help out (We need help setting up, cleaning up, and making sure everything runs smoothly.), sign-up to present, or agree to facilitate a panel discussion, round-table discussion, or a workshop.

Second, you are able to donate if you would like to and are in a position to do so.

Donations of any amount will receive the following:

• Be listed as a supporter on the wiki, this blog, and all official literature.
• Have a link to your blog or website included in all official literature.
• The satisfaction of knowing that you helped a good cause.
• An entry in a raffle to win 1 copy of Camtasia Studio, a $200 value.

Donations of $150 of more will receive the following:

• All of the previously mentioned items.
• The ability to have a table at the conference to present a product.

Third, especially if you are not local and still want to help, you can help spread the word. The Educators Royal Treatment recently ran a guest blog post about TeachMeet to help spread the word. If you have a blog, we would be honored if you would consider doing the same.

Fourth, you can email people you know who might be interested. You can write you own, but if you would like, here is one that I am sending out to many. Feel free to use or modify it.

I would like to let you know about an exciting opportunity and would ask that you share it with your staff. We are planning, organizing, and hosting a TeachMeet Conference at the Nashville Public Library on April 1 and 2. If you’re not familiar with TeachMeet, see http://teachmeet.pbworks.com. It’s a really cool idea where normal teachers host a conference for other teachers. Anyone can attend, anyone can present. It will be completely free of cost. I will be providing free lunch, some breakfast items, and refreshment throughout the day, as well as free ed tech giveaways.
I would like to ask for the participation of teachers, librarians, and technology coaches in the conference. All school districts and libraries within driving distance are being invited with some people coming from as far away as Van Meter, Iowa. If you have time, feel free to take a look at the tentative schedule of events. All conference information is listed on our public wiki, http://teachmeetnashville.wikispaces.com. Anything listed as a full presentation consists of 4 15-minute presentations. Micro-presentations are 7 or 8 7-minute presentations on a given topic in an hour, right after another. There will also be an interactive lesson planning workshop and more spontaneous round table discussions (see the Wallwisher page we just started: http://wallwisher.com/wall/tmnashville), and 4 panel discussions. If you could, please also help spread the word to other people you think might be interested in coming or presenting, even if they can only make 1 day. The event schedule is here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhPMGG4VfjIOdFRoWldWel9TMzlha0ZwdmlrUzFLTUE&hl=
The conference is really a good deal. It costs nothing to come (other than asking the principal to take professional leave); educators get a good time, a free lunch, and some great free prizes. We are giving away 3 database subscriptions to Soundzabound royalty free music ($200 each), 5 copies of Camtasia Studio, a Windows/Mac program to make video tutorials ($200 each), and a $900 school wide subscription to Starrmatica, a company that makes interactive content for elementary schools. I believe that we will have the funding to but a netbook or a laptop, and an iPod Touch to giveaway as well. Anyone can win, but you have to come.
I am also in need of presenters on any topic (check the wiki for a list of broad topics), participants and moderators for the panel discussions, facilitators for the round-table discussions and lesson planning workshop, and volunteers to help setup or clean up. You can sign up for anything on the wiki, or by emailing me (jason.bedell@cmcss.net) or calling me (931-320-9582).
Please invite any educators you know anywhere within driving distance. Parents, community stakeholders, and politicians are all welcome. I have some students coming on a field trip to participate as well. I think that if we are going to spend 2 days working on better ways to help students, that we should involve everyone we can.
Lastly, we have a great keynote speaker coming in from Iowa. The Van Meter school district is an amazing distict that is doing great work in using technology to spur change. Recently they have lobbied congress and spoken before a group of 90+ superintendents. They have 1:1 laptops, have social networking integrated throughout their schools, and even use virtual reality to aid teacher. What is amazing, though, is that the whole district seems to be on the same page. The superintendent, high school principal, media specialist, and at least 1 teacher are all coming down to deliver a collaborative keynote.
As always, if you have anyone questions, please contact me. Make sure you sign-up on the wiki to come, or email me. That way, we know how much food to buy. Again, the public wiki with full expectations and a tentative schedule of events is posted at http://teachmeetnashville.wikispaces.com. There is a brochure that you can distribute to teachers you know here: http://drop.io/TeachMeet (just click TeachMeet.pdf). My personal and work phones are below if you would like to contact me. This should be a fun, dynamic, and participatory conference unlike what many of us are used to. Everyone who wants to will be able to share and network. If you’re able, come out and have a good time.

Lastly, I know that there are many people out there much smarter than I am. So, if you have any ideas for things we can do to help spread the word, please let me know in the comments.

I was inspired to write this post . . . → Read More: The Importance of Leadership]]> If you have been regularly following my blog, I apologize for taking so long getting this last post out. As a teacher, this was my first week back to full time work and I’m still trying to find the balance that lets me write often.

I was inspired to write this post on Wednesday, which was our first full day as a staff. The day before school starts for students is usually a day that administrators use to prepare and motivate teachers. This is my fourth such day, with my fourth principal in two states. I should preface this by saying that I am extremely critical of administrators. I am more offended when I see laziness, hypocrisy, or incompetence in school administrators that most others simply because their actions directly affect the lives and development of, in the case, over 900 students and 100 teachers.

This was without a doubt the best first day that I have been a part of. There were several reasons for this that reflect the leadership capabilities of the administrative team. Two of the previous years consisted of about 7 hours of paperwork being read to us with some time to possibly prepare our classrooms. Last year was slightly better because the teachers were able to go to different stations to hear different people tell them the requisite information; however, it was still basically the same day packaged in nicer wrapping. This year was refreshingly different. If you read my post from July 30, you know my feelings on most in-services are less than optimistic.

The day started with each administrator sharing the personal story from their lives of why they do what they do. Sharing your testimony is tremendously effective in many situations. It can help you to connect with students in your class and to share the love of Christ effectively with others. Afterwards, the teachers did the same in groups, which promoted confidence in each other as well as started to build healthy working relationships.

Second, the administrators as a team modeled several aspects of both good leaders and good teachers. I like that they made a point to identify servant leadership by actually cooking breakfast for the staff and discussing how the idea can be beneficial in the classroom.

Overall, the day consisted more of activities designed to build relationships between colleagues, motivate the teachers, and bring focus to what is most important, helping the students. Also important, each school has to develop a school improvement plan for the state of TN. One critical part of that is the values statement. Usually, administrators assign certain teachers to a SIPS team that has almost full control over the school improvement plan and what goes in it. As teachers, we did an activity where we had to reach a consensus about what our most important values are and why. This encouraged teacher participation and buy in to the school and the mission. This is important to do with students as well. Giving them a choice over how things work in the classroom lets them feel like the classroom is theirs and, when that happens, they will want to participate and do well.

There are many aspects of leadership that cannot all be dealt with in a short post. I just want to highlight those that stood out to me. First, as was mentioned, we can only lead if our heart is in the right place and we are willing to serve our students and others faithfully. As it says in the Bible, “Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35). Second, we have to lead by example and model what we want to see in others. I believe it was Gandhi who said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” If your example is sound and upright, others will follow it. Finally, we need to endeavor to lead the same lives in public as in private. We cannot optimally lead others when we cannot control our own lives and feel the need to hide it and put on a façade for the public.

Everyone leads sometimes; no one leads all the time. We should hold the leaders in our lives to high standards. It is imperative, though, that we keep a distinction between the leaders and the goal. I know too many people personally who have fallen because of trust in a leader without a foundation. For example, if I found out my pastor is cheating on his wife, I am not going to stop pursuing God and telling others about Him. If my principle decides to quit in the middle of the year (this actually happened), I am not going to lose sight of trying to reach the students. Leaders can help us to achieve goals, but they themselves are not the goals or our foundations. Leaders are human and all will at sometime let us down, as we will do to others. We need to be understanding of that and keep the leader’s failure to the specific context in which it happened, not generalizing it to a whole group of people.

At the very least, we are leaders in our families, and that is no small thing. Husbands and wives each have their own unique strengths. They must recognize that and mutually submit to each other. Keeping Christ as the goal and center of the marriage will help to keep them focused. Parents need to be examples and lead their children. We cannot expect school, church, television, and others to raise our children. We need to raise them up in the way that they should go so that they do not depart from it (paraphrased from Proverbs 22:6). No one can take on this responsibility for us. We cannot be effective leaders anywhere until we are effective leaders in our homes.