Great leaders make communication the essence of their work.  And they know where to find the best pork buns. 

We’re feeling very proud of ourselves on #TeamNorthBay – our little show had its first guest, and (oh my goodness!) WHAT a first guest!

According to Wikipedia, Oprah Winfrey tried to get actor Don Johnson as her first guest back in the mid ’80’s – apparently the producers did their best to lure him with fancy champagne and rhinestone sunglasses (he declined to appear – the essence of cool, n’est pas?).  Well, maybe it’s our sense of collegiality as educators – or the fact that our guest is perhaps the nicest, humblest National Association of Secondary School Principals Digital Principal Award winner EVER – that explains why we didn’t have to shell out anything fancy to snag Jason Markey as our first guest on Wired/Inspired.  (I think he would definitely look good in rhinestone sunglasses, however)

Half the team was able to assemble – Catina tried to make it but an unforeseen issue arose at her school and, as the thin blue line between order and chaos, she had to take care of business! (It was a dog on campus – it turns out Jason was not the only “Beast from the East” joining us!)

 

When you poke around the Leyden High School District info online, you start to get a sense of the culture of learning and spirit of service they have built.  The banner motto on their district homepage?  “What’s Best For The Kids.”  Yeah, reminds us of Teammate Adam Welcome‘s John Swett Elementary slogan: #TeamKid.

Resource quiver:

Breaking Silos PD blog for entire district, overseen by Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Mikkel Storaasli.

Soaring Eagles blog – DAILY posts about great things happening at East Leyden HS from Dean of students Michael Grosch.

Leyden_Learn365 – more sharing, more magic.

Hashtags:

#leydenpride

#lhs212

#leydenPLN

Check back! Coming 4/23 & 4/24 – #LHS10X 

One thing Jason didn’t mention, but I know from hearing him tell it at the Napa GAFE Summit in January: his school hands over the official Twitter feed to students one week at a time (profile pic is proof!).  I’m happy to say we have built a (small but growing!) team of Social Media Ambassadors at my school.  It is incredibly exciting to see kids sharing what we do as a school with the world; “curating” our digital footprint, if you will.

 

Jason is the principal I want to be when I grow up.  After Episode II, TeamNorthBay feels like we just planted a redwood tree in Chicago!