Peaceful Resolutions: Personal or Professional

Peaceful Resolutions: Personal or Professional:               .

Activity 2

As you read the blogs in Activity 1, you may have noticed that the line between professional ideas and personal opinions became blurred.  How do you think this kind of transparency affects the school community?

I think the way this kind of transparency affects the school community is positive overall.   Blogs provide a good way for administrators to be proactive in addressing issues that  may be seen as controversial by the school community.  By building an atmosphere of trust and goodwill administrators open an avenue for dialogue, discussion, and feedback from the school community.  Blogs facilitate ongoing conversations between administrators and the school community in which multiple stakeholders can contribute their comments and opinions.  By having a blend of professional ideas and personal opinions on the blogs, the school community would view the administrators as more human and be more comfortable expressing their comments and opinions and probably be more likely to share their comments and opinions.



Were you more drawn to those posts with personal reflections or did you prefer to read blogs in which the author focused on the issues important to school leaders?

When reading through our assigned list of blogs, I preferred the authors who focused on the issues important to school leaders rather than the authors who used personal reflections.  This seemed to be more what I was interested in to help my school district.  I thought the personal reflections of the authors were based more on their opinions rather than their research.



What are your initial thoughts about the type of blog you would want to maintain?

I think that the type of blog that I would want to maintain should contain several elements.  My blog would be used to:  1) inform the school community of changes and reminders about school events; 2) update stakeholders on the progress of ongoing school activities;  3) facilitate interactive dialogue with the school community leaders; and 4) promote positive public relations.



How would this type of blog meet your administrative needs?

This type of blog would meet my administrative needs by:  1) providing transparency and accountability with the school community; 2) providing an efficient method for updating the school community about news and events; 3) costing less than paper communication; 4) building school community relations; and 5) updating those individuals who are advocates for the school.



Activity 3

My Twitter ID is @SusanMcSwean.

My Personal Learning Network

Reflect on how your personal learning network has changed and grown during the course of this workshop.  Discuss your plans for how you plan to continue to grow your learning network and how you hope to contribute to the professional learning of your administrative colleagues.

Before this workshop, my personal learning network consisted of only colleagues who taught mathematics around the state.  It was confined to just one subject area ---- mathematics.  During this workshop, I have learned about several Web 2.0 tools.  I now have a Google account with a Reader for RSS feeds and a Blog (as you can see), a Twitter account, and have learned how to create a Podcast.  As I see it,  rather than trying to implement all of the Web 2.0 tools that we have learned about in this workshop I will choose the tools that I feel best suit my current needs for me and my students.  I plan to keep up with the Reader for RSS feeds and follow certain educators' blogs and tweets.  For my current needs, I feel that the RSS feeds will be the most helpful.  I plan to share what I have learned in this workshop with my fellow colleagues and my student teacher interns as well as the mathematics students in my courses at Troy University Dothan campus.  I am very excited about the possibilities in the future that the Web 2.0 tools have opened up to me.

I would also like to thank my classmates in this workshop for sharing their knowledge, expertise, and ideas while I have been enrolled in this workshop.  Your comments have helped me grow both personally and professionally.  I wish you much success in your respective districts as you implement the Web 2.0 tools that we learned about in our workshop.    

My First Podcast Script

My name is Susan McSwean.  I am a member of the Alabama Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ACTM).  For those of you who don't know what ACTM is, I would like to provide you with the following information. 

The purpose of ACTM is:

• to provide a vehicle through which teachers and other educators can work individually and collectively for the improvement of classroom instruction;
• to provide publications and services;
• to provide a forum for the discussion of new developments in mathematics;
• to provide an opportunity for sharing innovative classroom experiences and evaluation trends in the teaching of mathematics.

Our current president is Dr. Sarah Patrick who will be turning over her gavel to Ms. Nydia Powell, vice president, in November, 2012.  On a personal note, I am the District VIII Director on the Executive Council and the Signs Chairperson for the 2012 Fall Forum.  I would like to inform my fellow educators of the details for our 2012 Fall Forum.  The 2012 Fall Forum will be on November 1 - 2, 2012 at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama.  This is the first year that we have held our annual conference at Alabama State University.  The theme of our 2012 Fall Forum is Practices for Professional Perfection or P^3 with a focus on Standards for Mathematical Practice.  We are still accepting speaker proposals for the 2012 Fall Forum.  If you would like to present, please go to our website to obtain the application form.  The Executive Council has a meeting on July 28, 2012 to finalize the details for our conference.  After that meeting, the details such as the program book, directions to Alabama State University, hotel information, and registration information will be posted to the website.    

We always gladly accept new members who are willing to become actively involved in our organization.  You can find additional information about ACTM at our website which is http://www.alabamamath.org.    

Blog Preference

When reading through our assigned list of blogs, I preferred the authors who focused on the issues important to school leaders rather than the authors who used personal reflections.  This seemed to be more what I was looking for to help with the problems within my school district. I thought the personal reflections of authors was based more on their opinions rather than research.