I survived my trip to San Antonio.

Sadly (for blogging purposes), nothing out of the ordinary happened.

I don’t mind saying, I felt a little jipped.

No drama.  No “incidents” on the plane.  No random stranger doing something stupid.

Just a Google Conference.

I say just, but it was so much more.

A 12 hour conference (sounds long, but it’s not really that long once you figure in snack time… and I do love my snack time).

The conference was many things.  Mainly it was an overload of information.  But in a good way.

Now that I’ve had a few days to comprehend my experience, here are my thoughts (in no particular order). 

• Conference hotels gouge you.  Bad.  This should be a crime, but instead it’s considered good business.

• The Alamo is still next to the mall (and surprisingly small… The Alamo, not the mall… it’s huge).  If that wasn’t bad enough, The Alamo is now directly across the street from Fuddruckers (I wish I were kidding).

• It came to my attention (in the first 14 seconds) that employees of Google are way smarter than me.  Way smarter.  Way way smarter (and childlike… they looked 12 years old).

• Presenters with a sense of humor interest me.  Your information can be life changing, but after sitting 9 hours straight… I need a laugh.

• Google employees seem to really enjoy their jobs (they seem happier than educators… maybe because, in my mind, they are allowed to take their dogs to work).

• No matter how much you know about Google Docs, Google Calendar, and everything else Google… you know nothing.  Actually you know less than nothing.

• A 3 hour layover doesn’t sound like a long time, but it is.  Time spent in the Atlanta airport is like prison.  Every second lasts hours (and there’s no early release program).

• Ben and Jerry’s serves a fabulous lunch.  I recommend adding a brownie to whatever entree you order.

• Google’s applications are free.  Microsoft’s are not.  You do the math.

• Outdoor heated pools are still cold when the temperature is in the 50’s.

• Google Calendar has a thousand great features.  Unfortunately none of them get me places on time.

• All schools are different.  All schools are the same.

• No matter where you go, there are interesting people.

• Eating Mexican food while wearing a suit almost never turns out well.  Or at least for your tie.

• They sell a lot of jumbo extra large margaritas on The Riverwalk in San Antonio, yet you never see someone fall in (the river).  How is this possible?

• Now that I travel extensively (not), every airport in America looks the same.

• Did I mention Google employees are smart?  I did?  Sorry for repeating myself, but I’m stupid (or at least way less smart than them).

• You can’t decide the long-term direction of your school district after a one day conference.  Even if it’s Google.

• One day soon, there will be a news story about a divorce caused by too much Twittering.  One of the spouses will have had enough.

• Airplane seats in the emergency row are pure gold (so that’s what it feels like to stretch my legs…).  They are First Class (or Business Class) without the free booze.

• Google Docs is free magic.  I would explain it to you, but I’m still trying to process it.

• Every tech nerd in America owns/wants an Android phone (sorry Blackberry… you had a good run).

• If you walk up to me and say “I’ve read every blog you’ve ever written”, you might want to consider getting a job.  Or possibly a date.

• If you recognize me in an elevator, I might want to get a restraining order.

• Microsoft should be worried.  If Google plays their cards right, Word and Excel may eventually disappear from schools.

• How do people taller than 5’10” fit into an airplane bathroom?  Even more confusing, how do they use an airplane bathroom?

• All airplane stewardesses (flight attendants.. whatever) look tired.

That’s my trip.

To summarize, it was an honor and a pleasure.

I’m thrilled to be one of only 2 (?) superintendents in the country to be a Google Certified Teacher.

I now feel like I know so much.  And I feel like I have so much to learn.

Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Google.

Thanks Buddy the Dog.  Without your video, I’m just a creepy guy talking to himself.

Comments: 4
Tags: Atlanta Airport, Google, Google Calendar, Google Docs, GTA, Microsoft, Riverwalk, San Antonio, The Alamo

Are resumes dead? 

If your answer is NO, you can stop reading (thanks for stopping by and please tip your waitress).  If you said YES, am I under any obligation to notify the next of kin?

You can probably guess I think paper resumes have outlived their usefulness.

You can also probably guess that I’m not comfortable delivering the unfortunate news of death (but that’s a whole different blog).

Email (along with texting for you crazy kids) is replacing snail mail.  Land lines are being put out of commission by cell phones (how I miss the rotary phone and the party line).  Newspapers are getting crushed by the internet.  And the Kindle seems to be every librarian’s worst nightmare.

Since technology seems to be changing every facet of our lives, why should resumes be any different?

Maybe it’s time to lighten my mailman’s load.

Maybe it’s time to stop killing so many trees.

Maybe it’s time to stop wasting money on stamps.

Maybe it’s time to shift the focus from fancy resume paper and cool fonts to what a candidate has really accomplished.

Maybe the new resume should be electronic.

Maybe it should be a personal website, wiki, blog, a series of podcasts, or even a summary of a candidate’s online presence.

Maybe this could be a mandatory class in every college education program.  Just think, we could produce graduates who understand technology and how it can be used in schools to benefit students (a novel concept I know, but call me a dreamer).

I haven’t worked out the details (don’t worry, they are just details), but resumes should be more than a phone number, an address (snail mail… it’s dead people, move on), an odd sounding objective statement, embellished job history, and three references.

While the classic resume drives me crazy, nothing angers me more than the three references at the bottom of the page (yes, I said one page… don’t even think I can wade through 5 pages of your resume… I’m just not that into you).

Who’s idea was the whole reference thing?

When did this become the standard end-of-the resume space filler?

When did we convince ourselves that it was so important to ask potential employees to name three people who think they are great?

I get it, your pastor loves you.

Your pastor loves everyone.  That’s why they are in the pastor business.

Your pastor might even like me (okay, that’s just crazy talk but you get my point).

Do we actually believe people who are desperate to find a job will list references who think they are lazy, incompetent, and don’t deserve to make a living wage?

I know resumes are simply a way to narrow down a group of candidates into a manageable number of interviews, but how great would it be if you could just get online and learn a candidate’s personal history.

To me, knowing someone’s technology ability is far more important then if they were on their high school swim team or a member of swing choir.

I can Google a person’s name and find drunken inappropriate pictures of them, but I can’t access their technology skills online.

It just doesn’t seem fair.

Or very 2010.

As an added bonus, electronic resumes mean less paper cuts.  And I don’t care who you are, that’s always a good thing.

Comments: 10
Tags: Google, resume paper, resumes, snail mail

Buddy the Dog is man’s best friend.

Or at least Mom’s Best Friend.

On my behalf, Buddy was kind enough to put together a 1 minute video for the people at Google (which is all the more impressive when you consider he doesn’t have thumbs).

Because of his good work, I’ve been selected as 1 of 50 school administrators in the United States to attend The Google Teacher Academy for Administrators (I’m no marketing major, but shouldn’t it be “The Google Administrator’s Academy”).  This is a free professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies.

At least that’s what I’ve heard.

Basically, I’m going to get Googlized (I hope they’re gentle).

This is a win-win.  I like Google and Buddy likes it when I’m not home.

There is only one downside.  The conference is in San Antonio.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the chance to return to the home of the Alamo.  And the mall next door to it (when visiting a national monument you may be overcome with hunger pangs and need a Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookie ).

But come on Google, you couldn’t splurge for a city with a beach?

In the time it takes me to write (?) this blog, Google has made about 47 bazillion dollars.  At least.

When I think of that kind of money, I think waves.  And not Google Wave.

I shouldn’t complain because I’m guessing Google had several applications for this conference (although only 1 by a talking dog), so I’m honored they invited me.

I’m also willing to bet that out of the 50 administrators less than 10 are superintendents.

Out of those 10, probably 2 have rambling incoherent blogs.

And only 1 of them has a semi-famous talking, YouTube video-making, wife-stealing dog.

How many people are thinking… I could have done a better video than that stupid dog.  Well too bad, Buddy thought of it first.  And to review, he doesn’t have thumbs.

Comments: 17
Tags: Alamo, Buddy the Dog, Google, Google Wave, San Antonio, school administrators

Why does it take schools so long to change?

Why do I feel the need to write so many blogs about change?

The answer to the first question is we’ve been allowed to rest on our laurels.  Question number two, I’m either obsessive compulsive or just weird.  Could go either way.

Whatever it is, you have to admit it’s like pulling teeth to get a new idea implemented in education.

Educators growl like frightened cats when they hear the word Change (yes, this is an excuse to use a wacky animal picture in a blog).

Everyone seems to believe that we should teach our students in the same ways we were taught 20 or 30 years ago (I know, I’m dating myself).

Worse, we continue to teach the subject matter we were taught.  To compound the problem, we use the same techniques we learned during student teaching
(can anyone say chalkboard, overhead, and worksheets?).

I’m here to propose some changes.  Again.

Big changes.

So go ahead and growl, hiss, and spit.

Get over it, because as always, we are here for the kids.

Now take a moment to compose yourselves.  And stop crying.  It’s sad.  And pathetic (plus, you don’t want to drip tears on your keyboard).

When I’m done please feel free to tell me what you think. Just keep the cursing to a minimum.

Here we go.

One, we need to get rid of penmanship, keyboarding, memorizing state capitals, and cutback on spelling.

And that’s just a start.

Am I crazy?

Possibly, but more likely I’m just slightly paranoid with some anger issues (it’s all about the proper medication).  But that’s a whole different subject.

Penmanship is rarely used by most adults.  Unless they are signing their name, so spending hundreds of hours teaching children how to make the perfect “Q” in cursive could be a waste of time.

We don’t have time to teach students a skill they will one day use in writing thank you notes.  If they need to produce such a note they can print them (by hand or a computer… I really don’t care).

Keyboarding?  Haven’t we progressed past the point of controlling our students by making them sit straight up and down with both feet on the floor while they type?

I don’t know of any former students who have computer skills and weren’t hired for a job because they didn’t type fast enough or use the proper technique.

Last time I checked, most elementary students know their way around a keyboard.

Let’s just agree the “Home Row” isn’t life or death.  Enough with typing “asdf gh jkl; fall gall hall lass” a thousand times.

Stop with the memorizing state capitals.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again, it was fun in the 1950’s, it can be Googled in 2010.  If you find yourself desperately needing to know the capital of Delaware… look it up.  There’s no need to spend the entire 4th grade year forcing students to learn where Montpelier and Salem are located. 

Lastly, what’s with all the time on spelling?

Do we really need to know how to spell in this day and age?

Can’t we just come close when we are typing and then let the computer correct us?  During the typing of this blog, I misspelled 12 words.  Maybe it’s my keyboarding skills, maybe I’m just stupid.

Either way, it took me 1.3 seconds to fix them.

This is just a start.  I haven’t even gotten to the Periodic Table, poetry, and our obsession with dictionary skills.

Once, we get these things out of the curriculum, schools will have time to address skills needed in this century.

Like foreign language starting in elementary school.

Not as an elective, but mandatory (might I suggest Chinese?).

And computers, computers, computers.  We can’t keep pushing technology skills to the background because Grandma the 3rd grade teacher is afraid her students might break the printer or download a song.

Why is it that it’s embarrassing when we don’t know math, history, science when we stand in front of our students, but it’s okay to be clueless about technology (in the interest of full disclosure I stole this from someone on Twitter and I’m also on steroids so I can blog faster…).

As Ben Franklin said, “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished”.

And I don’t think any of us employed by a school should be done.

Comments: 52
Tags: Ben Franklin, change, foriegn language, Google, keyboarding, Montpelier, Salem, state capitals, Twitter

A single meeting can drag on for hours.  Days last forever.  And weeks seem like they will never end.

How is it that a decade can fly by so quickly?

By my estimation decades are about 10 years long (feel free to double-check my math).  That means the last ten years accounts for approximately 1/8 of my life (if all goes well).

I’m starting to get the feeling that I’m living on borrowed time (my life is half over… I hope it wasn’t the good half).

Before the inevitable happens (I’m crossing my fingers that my Evil Spawn doesn’t put me in a nursing home… or a crate), I want to acknowledge how things have changed for me since the good old days (the year 2000).

Back then:

I was a punk teacher who thought I had all the answers.  Now I’m a punk school administrator who realizes that I don’t have any answers (and barely know all of the questions).

I coached a high school varsity boys basketball team.  Now, I coach 3rd and 4th grade girls.

In 2000, I didn’t own my house, truck, a suit, or have any investments.

I believed athletes were honest (steroids), hard-working, and good people (sorry Tiger, but I’m still heart broken).

I trusted politicians.

Buddy the Dog didn’t rule my house (that I didn’t own).

I was a year away from meeting the Evil Spawn.

And hearing my wife curse like a sailor during childbirth.

I didn’t have a Master’s or Specialist’s Degree.

I had never been to Florida, Texas, California, Colorado or basically anywhere.  Mainly because I had never been on an airplane, in a cab, or on a train.

I didn’t have a passport.

Or a cell phone.

We had a computer (that was huge), but it was slower than the phone I now carry around in my pocket.

I used to read the newspaper and look forward to the mail arriving.

Google, Twitter, Posterous, and thousands of other technology things were yet to be discovered.

I was newly-married (and yet my wife hasn’t aged a day in the last 10 years… yes, she reads the blog).

I hadn’t written a blog, read a blog, or heard of a blog.

My big concern back then was Y2K, not the Swine Flu.

Gas was cheap, but I never thought about it.

I spent my evenings watching TV, not working on a laptop.

I had a credit card, but no money to pay it off (because every cent went to student loans).

Any maybe the biggest thing… in 2000 I had absolutely no concept of time.  I didn’t think about the future.  I didn’t think about anything. 

Oh, how life has changed.  So quickly, in such a short time.

It makes me wonder what I’m about to face in the next decade.  What we are all going to face.

In the world.  At school.  In our personal lives.

For me, the next 10 years means I will celebrate my 50th birthday (how is that possible?), my 25th anniversary (what was she thinking?), and my daughter’s high school graduation.

My biggest hope for the next decade is it goes a little slower than the last one.

And I don’t end it in a crate.

Note from wife… Newly married?  We got married in 1995.  A half a decade prior to 2000.  Does that still qualify as “newly married”?

Comments: 3
Tags: basketball, decade, Evil Spawn/Daughter, Google, Posterous, swine flu, Travel, Twitter, Y2K

The following is a comment/response to Greg Bicknell’s Out of My League blog on September 1.

He was kind enough to link my The Perfect School blog. So this blog is about his blog which was about my blog (got it? Kind of confusing, sort of like Algebra)

Besides linking to my blog, he also listed the benefits that Google employees receive and then used those to make his point about education.

He said “Google is doing what I think we should be doing in education. Not just doing for the staff… some of this would be great… some of this would keep the good ones from going into the private sector.

If we are going to transform education… we have to truly transform it… attract the best and the brightest… change it for the better”

That would be great, but I do have another thought…

But first, if you worked at Google this what you could get (taken from his list… as I pride myself on doing absolutely no research… hey, it got me through college).

Health and Wellness Benefits

• Medical Insurance: 3 Carriers
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Flex Spending Account Plan
• EAP – Employee Assistance Program – Services for employees and their dependents include free short-term counseling, legal consultations, financial counseling, child care referrals and pet care referrals.
• Life and AD&D Insurance – Automatic coverage at 2 times annual salary.
• Voluntary Life Insurance – Option to purchase additional life insurance.
• Short Term & Long Term Disability – Short Term Disability Insurance coverage provided at 75% of salary. Long Term Disability coverage provided at 66 2/3% of salary once Short Term disability is exhausted.
•Business Travel Accident Insurance – Automatic coverage at 2 times annual salary.

As he said, this would be enough, but there is more…

Retirement and savings

• Google 401(k) Plan- Employees may contribute up to 60% and receive a Google match of up to the greater of (a) 100% of your contribution up to $2,500 or (b) 50% of your contribution per year with no vesting schedule! We offer a variety of investment options to choose from, through Vanguard, our 401(k) Plan Administrator. To help you with those tough investment decisions, employees can access Financial Engines to receive personalized investment advice.
• 529 College Savings Plan- This plan provides employees with a way to save money for post-secondary education.

Time away (why you would ever want to get away from the Google campus, I don’t know)

• Vacation
1st year- 15 days
4th year- 20 days
6th year- 25 days

• Holidays- 12 paid holidays (sick days taken as necessary)
• Maternity Benefits- up to 18 weeks off at approximately 100% pay
• Parental Leave (for non-primary caregivers)- up to 7 weeks off at approximately 100% pay
• Take-Out Benefit- To help make things easier, new moms and dads are able to expense up to $500 for take-out meals during the first 3 months that they are home with their new baby.

Still not done…

Extra Benefits

• Tuition Reimbursement- We’ll help you pursue further education that’s relevant to what you do. You must receive grades of “B” or better. Why a “B” or better? Because we said so. Tuition reimbursement is $8000 per calendar year.
• Employee Referral Program- Good people know other good people. Our best employees have been hired through referrals. Google encourages you to recommend candidates for opportunities here and will award you a bonus if your referral accepts our offer and remains employed for at least 60 days.
• Back-Up Child Care- As a California employee, when your regularly scheduled child care falls through Google will provide you with 5 free days of child care per year through Children’s Creative Learning Center (CCLC). 13 Bay Area locations serving ages 6 weeks – 12 years.
• Gift Matching Program- Google matches contributions of up to $3000 per year from eligible employees to non-profit organizations. Bolstering employee contributions to worthy causes with matching gifts doesn’t just mean helping hundreds of organizations, both locally and globally; it’s also a tangible expression. We want Googlers to get involved and the company is right behind you.
• Adoption Assistance- Google assists our employees by offering financial assistance in the adoption of a child. We’ll reimburse you up to $5000 to use towards legal expenses, adoption agencies or other adoption professional fees. Parental leave and take-out benefit also apply.

More Benefits (do they need more?)

• Food- Hungry? Check out our free lunch and dinner at our gourmet chefs create a wide variety of healthy and delicious meals every day. Got the munchies? Google also offers snacks to help satisfy you in between meals.
• On-site Doctor- At Google headquarters in Mountain View, California you have the convenience of seeing a doctor on-site.
• Shuttle Service- Google is pleased to provide its Mountain View employees with free shuttles to several San Francisco, East Bay and South Bay locations.
• Financial Planning Classes- Google provides objective and conflict-free financial education classes. The courses are comprehensive and cover a variety of financial topics.
• Other On-Site Services- At Google headquarters in Mountain View, there’s on-site oil change, car wash, dry cleaning, massage therapy, gym, hair stylist, fitness classes and bike repair.
• Other Great Benefits- Ski trip, company movie day, summer picnic, Halloween & holiday party, health fair, quarterly group offsites, credit union, sauna, roller hockey, outdoor volleyball court, discounts for products and local attractions.

I have to admit as an educator, I would settle for the free food and roller hockey. Keep the rest, as I am easy to please.

My thought on this: Google employees get these benefits for one reason and one reason only.

Because they can.

And it doesn’t make America anti-education. Or teachers underappreciated. It is all very simple.

It is supply and demand (see, I did learn something in college… they don’t just give away those Bachelor Degrees in Business Administration… actually they do, so please disregard the first part of this sentence).

Because there are more people qualified to teach than there are people qualified to work at Google, the amount educators get paid is less (okay, far less and no doctor on site).

Supply and Demand.

Lots of people want teaching jobs, but there are a limited number to go around.

Competition always drives the price down. Schools don’t pay more because they don’t have to.

If we want teachers to earn higher salaries, we need to have a system in which great teachers are allowed to shop their services and school districts are allowed to negotiate individually with employees.

And for a variety of reasons, this is not going to happen in the near future.

Google has this ability. And therefore, their employees are paid more and have better benefits.

The downside (if it is a downside) for their employees is being under Google’s control.

They can be dismissed, transferred, or demoted at a moment’s notice.

As educators would we be willing to allow changes to our present system to receive the benefits under Google’s system?

Comments: 5
Tags: benefits, Google, teaching salaries

As we start back to school, I would like to take a moment to mourn… I mean cry… I mean reflect on our students and the expectations we have for them.

Pay attention because this may be the only time that I take the students’ side.

Of course that’s not true because I am extremely pro-student. But I will be watching them. And their friends. Especially during the lunch hour… and between classes… and before school… and at dances… and during games (I think you get the point).

It is relatively common to hear older generations (that would be us) say kids these days are lazy, unmotivated, and not as interested in school (or anything else) as we were.

I am here to make the case that this isn’t true. In fact, they may be more ambitious and open to obtaining knowledge than we were as kids.

I believe this to be true because during my teenage years I was completely uninterested in work, waking up, breathing, reading, school, and anything else that required effort (other than sports… I loved sports… and girls, but unfortunately they were something called “frightened and disgusted” by me).

I think kids in 2008 are so far advanced of our generation that it makes us nervous. Consequently, we label them as lazy or worthless just because they have different interests than we did.

It is important for us old folks to keep in mind that the “good old days” weren’t all that great.

No computers, no video games, no air conditioning in my parents’ station wagon (with the fake wood paneling on the side… don’t kid yourself, it was sweet), me always having to sit on the hump in the back seat of the hot station wagon, no cable TV (or Dish Network, just an antenna that pulled in 3 stations… one of which was PBS, so it didn’t even count), no watching movies in the car (or ever: see crappy TV), no internet, no vacations, no ice cream, no pizza delivery, no electricity, 18 hours of chores every morning, Christmas got cancelled twice… so again you get the point… no anything fun, ever.

When I was a kid we walked 87 miles uphill to school (both ways… usually in the snow), slept on the floor, ate dirt for dinner, went to bed at 6:30 p.m. (because our parents were sick of us by then), sweat all night in the summer, and froze to death in the winter.

And worst of all, I had to wear clothes that were hand-me-downs. That isn’t even the worst part. The worst part is I don’t have brothers. Only 2 sisters. Try explaining the frilling jeans with sequin purple flowers on the back pockets to your buddies (I do miss the fashions of the 70’s, but maybe this partially explains the “frightened and disgusted” reaction I so often received from the ladies).

Today’s kids grow up in a world that I barely recognize. And I try to stay somewhat current.

Sure, they don’t play outside as much, do as many chores, or ride their bikes 20 miles a day. But this isn’t laziness, it’s because they have more exciting things to do.

If my generation was so smart, why did we follow the truck on Saturday night that was spraying for mosquitoes in the summer? And I mean right behind, where we could breathe in as much of the chemicals as possible (any chance that explains my frequent blackouts and night terrors?).

We did things like that because we were trying to amuse ourselves. And trust me, after speaking to my doctor, a Nintendo Wii or laptop computer is much safer.

We shouldn’t try to convince students that computers, cell phones, texting, video games, Google, YouTube, etc. are bad. It is just different.

It is called choices. And they have lots of them. So when they are given these opportunities to make a choice, naturally they choose whatever is the most fun and exciting.

Don’t kid yourself. If we had the chance to play video games for 5 hours straight rather than skip rocks across a pond, we would have chosen the video games every time.

We played Cowboys and Indians outside in the heat. This generation plays computer games where they get to shoot things without leaving their air conditioned family rooms. Who do you think is smarter?

As educators we need to stop fighting progress and embrace it.

Kids aren’t lazy; they are just simply used to instant gratification. They aren’t dumb because they don’t read newspapers. They are smarter because they get their information online, immediately as events happen.

Sure they choose to stare at a computer instead of going outside. But they are learning, just in a different way.

We can’t expect them to come to school and go backwards. So we can’t be surprised when they find a whiteboard or an overhead projector painfully boring. They need to be fed information at a faster pace than we were taught. It is the way we are raising them and all of the caffeine they drink (trust me, if we could have bought a 64 ounce Big Gulp for 79 cents… we would have).

How would we feel when attending a workshop where the speaker wrote their speech on a chalkboard…in longhand…and we had to take notes?

Our reaction would probably indicate the presenter needing to catch up with the times.

And that is how kids view us.

Progress is good. And inevitable.

As old people, we need to jump aboard with technology or get out of the way.

Students are coming to school smarter. And they want to learn. And they want technology. And lots of it.

The next time I hear a student complain about a SMARTBoard, a computer assignment, or anything related to technology being boring… it will be the first time.

In a perfect world, education would be out front leading the changes. In the real world, education has to change because the students already have.

Comments: 3
Tags: caffeine, Christmas, computers, Dish Network, Google, YouTube