The School Principal Blog

Google Wave is a new service from the internet giant that has the potential to greatly enhance the way students communicate with each other when creating group projects for class. Wave combines many of the best features and benefits of other real time editing tools into a near total solution for group work and project development.

When Google Wave is launched a student or educator will immediately be presented with a window where waves are separated into viewing fields in the center and right hand side of the screen. A handy organizer (much like an e-mail folder lit) and contact’s list are present on the left side.

A button aptly labeled “New Wave” will start a new project, and this is where a teacher or student can really begin to utilize the features of this service. If a social studies class project requires four partners to work together to create a presentation, then each of the four students can be quickly added to a new Wave specific to their assignment.

Each participant can log in and out of the Google service from home, school, or a public library while conducting independent research. Videos, pictures, and other attachments can be uploaded directly into the Wave viewing field for quick and easy access to all source materials; this also provides an easy way to back-up all versions of a project!

Wave provides many handy features and keyboard shortcuts that make it an ideal choice for schools where students are encouraged to utilize laptops for note taking and homework assignments. Students can add materials, chat about the progress of a class project, and more after mastering a few quick commands provided in an introductory video to Wave compiled by Google (this video will show up in a sample wave the first time the service is accessed).

Teachers concerned about unevenly balanced workloads within a group project can easily view a Wave with the built-in playback feature and see the development of the Wave (and research) to ensure that all students are properly credited for work done. Teachers can also use this feature to ensure that all participants are behaving according to school rules when communicating with each other in the course of a classroom assignment and to make sure that no instances of cyber-bullying occur. Parents and teachers can also rest assured their students are safe, as Waves can only be viewed by contacts who have been cleared to contribute to the project.

Google Wave provides a tremendous amount of benefits to the teacher or student wishing to maintain a hub for real time project collaboration in a controlled environment. Classroom and school utilization of Google Wave will help students learn the collaborative skills needed to succeed in a business world that centers around social media integration and introduce them to practical applications of technology.

Google Wave demo video:

1. Makes information on school events more accessible for students.
Schools have tons of extra-curricular clubs and yet it can be difficult to get the word out that these clubs exist. If schools publish all their school events on a online calendar like Tandem for Schools, it will help students find out about the extra-curricular groups that they can get involved with. This can help them be more involved with school activities and also pad their resumes for college.

2. Makes information on school events more accessible for parents.
Parent involvement is critical to the success of students and an online calendar encourages parents to be more involved with school events. An online school calendar effectively communicates the when and where for school activities and events, which makes it easier for parents to participate.

3. Alerts students and parents of time critical information.
One of the interesting features of Tandem for Schools is that it allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed, or sync the school calendar with your main personal calendar like iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar, or Cozi. When there is a change to the game time or a school delay due to weather, school administrators can make changes to the school’s calendar which will be immediately reflected on the online calendar as well as get distributed to parent calendars and RSS feeds.

4. Go Green
Printing paper calendars for every student and staff can consume a lot of paper and ink. Also paper calendars often become outdated as soon as they are printed because there will inevitably be changes to scheduled events, which leads to more paper being used to notify everyone. Going digital can save many, many trees.

Try our full version online school calendar free for 30 days, or get the free annual school calendar.

The Kindle 2 is a really great tool for learning, although the price ($359 for a Kindle 2) may be restrictive. The Kindle is the best e-book reader currently on the market, mainly because of it’s ability to wirelessly access the Amazon store for free from virtually anywhere. In about a minute you can download a digital book to your Kindle which are usually cheaper than the paperback copy. There are several other useful features that make it one of the best learning tools available, if your school can afford it.

Browse previews of virtually any book

Most books that were recently published are available at the Kindle store. One of the cool features of having a Kindle is that it is like having a book store in your hand. The Amazon store lets you preview the first chapter or the first dozen or so pages of any book that is available.

Holds 3,500 books

Instead of carrying around heavy books, having a digital copy can be pretty convenient. It is nice to be able to access your entire library.

Text books will be available

The new DX version of the Kindle has a 9.7 inch display, which makes it easier to read textbooks. According to The Times Online,

“Three textbook publishers – Pearson, Cengage Learning and John Wiley & Sons, which between them publish 60 per cent of all higher-education textbooks – have agreed to sell books on the device.”

This may or may not save students or schools money depending on the cost of the digital copies compared to the hard back editions.

Free Classics

You can get lots of free classics books on your Kindle. I recently downloaded The Three Musketeers for free. There are some available at the Kindle store but you can also Google “Free Kindle Books”.

Free Internet

One of the best features on the Kindle is the “experimental” internet browser. Although, Amazon could get rid of this feature at anytime since it is advertised as “experimental” it seems unlikely that they would without a significant consumer backlash. This feature is great for browsing text sites and works virtually anywhere where a cellphone would work.

Upload Documents

You can email documents to Amazon, which will convert and upload them to your Kindle for a small fee, or you can do this yourself. If you convert the text to a .txt you can upload it from your computer to your Kindle.

At $359, it may be smarter to invest in a netbook which can cost less than $300. Nevertheless, it is a great educational tool if it can be put in the hands of students.

Photo by treydanger

A web based school calendar that allows collaboration of school administrators can make it much easier to schedule events for a school or district. Often the school administrator gets bombarded with requests by email or other methods and has a huge challenge of organizing everybody’s calendars into the master calendar. Often this can lead to double bookings for an athletic facility or school facility, which can lead to a major inconvenience for everyone involved.

How Tandem for Schools solves this problem is by streamlining and simplifying the process.

1. School staff log on to the calendar and make requests for facilities.
2. Tandem automatically checks for any scheduling conflicts and sends a notification by email to the “master queue manager”
3. The “master queue manager” approves or rejects the request.
4. If the request is approved the event is posted to the calendar for all students, parents, and staff to see.

By allowing staff to collaborate to schedule the schools events in a simple and efficient way, Tandem can save a significant amount of time for everyone involved. School administrators and coaches don’t have to play phone tag to change an event on the calendar. The calendar also communicates with students and parents, who can receive real time notifications of any changes such as baseball rain outs or reschedulings. Students and parents can sync the school calendar with their other calendars such as Outlook, iCal, Google Calendars, or Cozi so that when a change is made, a notification is automatically sent to their calendar.

Tandem for Schools is school administration calendar software designed to make the job of administration easier while improving communication with students and parents. What sets Tandem for Schools apart from other calendar options is the elegant design, ease of use, and time saving features. Not only will it make school calendar management way easier for staff, it will make parents happy because they can easily access the calendar of extracurricular events with real time updates, from any internet connection.

This is the greatest communication tool we have on campus. It saves me hours a week. The program itself is easy to use and the information is instantly available to our community. What more could you ask for?” - Vicki Storey - Library Teacher Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, California

Two full time people were managing our calendars. Now there is only one person. Tandem for Schools has made the process fast, easy and powerful.” - Teri Turner - Database Administrator Fremont County School District, Wyoming

These school administrators have found Tandem for School to be a tool that has made their job easier by cutting hours of time from their workload. Posting events on the Tandem calendar is very quick and it automatically checks for any schedule conflicts. It is also super easy to implement because the calendar is hosted on Tandem’s secure servers. It can take minutes to get up and running and integrating Tandem with your website is as simple as adding a link to yourschool.intand.com.

To learn more sign up for a free one on one demo on your computer via go2meeting, or try Tandem for Schools free for 30 days.

The state of Virgina has implemented a pilot program to use a math video game called DimensionM, which uses 3-D graphics and math orientated missions, to teach algebra. In 2008, the University of Central Florida conducted a study of students who played the game and concluded that it improved students’ understanding and significantly raise test scores.

According to eSchool News:

Students in the experimental groups who played Tabula Digita video games over an 18-week period scored significantly higher (in some cases, twice as high) on district benchmark tests than students in the control group who did not play video games, researchers said.

Also, four out of five teachers (and all 15 students) who were interviewed reported that students’ math understanding and skills improved as a result of playing the educational video games.

Often video games are given a bad name, but they also have the potential to increase learning if used in an educational way. I have heard anecdotes of schools in Japan issuing the Nintendo DS to students and there are many educational games available on the iPod touch that can exercise the mind or improve vocabulary. One of the reasons that video games can help learning is that it is fun and engaging for students. Also, games often have specific goals that must be accomplished to win, which can motivate students to keep trying until they successfully solve problems. This can build student’s resiliency when they can’t solve a problem on the first try, which author Malcom Gladwell argues is an important component of educational performance. Gladwell argues in the book Outliers, that one of the main reasons Asian students score better in math tests is because they have been ingrained with the habit to keep trying, a trait that is generally less present in American students. It seems that video games may not rot the brain after all.

photo by hiperia3d

Here are the best education books for 2008-2009 based on reader reviews and the thought-provoking or intriguing topics. Put these books on hold at your local library or order them from Amazon or your local book store.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality by Charles Murray

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, and Michael B. Horn

The Obama Education Plan: An Education Week Guide by Education Week

Grown up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World by Don Tapscott

Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America by Jay Mathews

Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them by Ross W Greene

Why Don’t Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom by Daniel T. Willingham

The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time by Stephen R. Covey

For more good reads check out Top Education Books of 2007 by the American School Board Journal

Any books that you think should be on this list? Tell us in the comments!

Photo by zsita

This is an inspiring video urging support for improving education under the Obama administration. It is part of the Will We Really? campaign launched by The Forum for Education & Democracy which promotes “a public education system worthy of a democracy, one characterized by strong public schools, equity of educational resources, and an informed, involved citizenry.”

Education columnist for the Washington Post recently created “7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals” based on the paper by University of Minnesota school leadership scholar Joe Nathan who studies what makes great leaders in schools and companies.

Here is the list:

1. Insist on being trained at one of our leading schools of education.
2. When you become a principal, make sure you keep your goals to yourself and avoid mission statements at all costs.
3. Fight the current fad to assess students regularly. It is intrusive and insulting to teachers.
4. Crack down on mistakes.
5. Don’t let teachers meet regularly to talk about students and share ideas. They will only gossip and plot against you.
6. Inspiration is for saps. Your staff must know you’re their boss, not their preacher.
7. Whatever you do, don’t try to select and train a successor.

The most important habits on that list, in my opinion, are the ones of mission statements and inspiration. The really great leaders are able to inspire their people to overachieve because they believe in the mission and are willing to go above and beyond because they have a sense of purpose. Especially in a field like teaching, in which performance is tied to effort, being inspired can make a huge difference. Therefore it is much better to have a leader that is inspirational rather than intimidating.

Teacher Voices came up with some additional habits of ineffective principals

8. Bully and intimidate to get things done.
9. The more meetings the better.
10. Respond to the crisis of the moment…do not stay focused.
11. Use observation as punishment.
12. Provide teachers with lots of negative feedback.
13. Play favorites.
14. Avoid any suggestion that teachers are accountable.

Photo by James Jordan