Superintendent Wigent comments on President Obama's Speech

Recently our Wayne RESA Superintendent Chris Wigent attended President Obama's speech at Macomb Community College. He shared some thoughts with us and I would like to share them with you.

Hi everyone,
Earlier today, I had the honor and privilege to represent Wayne RESA and attend President Obama's speech at Macomb Community College. I was humbled by this opportunity and listened intently as the President made his remarks. The purpose of his visit was to announce a significant financial investment in those community colleges that will focus on teaching the skills that are necessary for the jobs of the future. I will let the political pundits and the media debate the pros and cons of this concept, but it is clear that many in high places believe that increasing the quality of education, pre K-12 through post secondary is one of the keys to getting us out of our current financial problems.
As I sat in the audience waiting for the President to arrive, I thought a lot of Wayne RESA, our mission and quite frankly, the awesome responsibility that we have to provide quality and relevant services and leadership to those whom we serve. Our importance in the big picture of education is only increasing and that should be very exciting for us all. I look forward to going through these exciting times with all of you, and together, ensuring that we are part of the educational solution. Make no mistake, this will not be easy work and it will require that we change some of our past practices, but nonetheless, we can and will do this work together.
It was quite a day and I want to thank all of you for your continued commitment to your work and to our organization. I am very thankful for the opportunity to serve as your Superintendent and for the opportunity to truly make a difference.
Keep up the great work. Chris

Chris Wigent , Superintendent
Wayne RESA
33500 Van Born Road
Wayne, MI 48184

Full text of the President’s speech [White House website]

State Superintendent Flanagan on Twitter

Sharing this new effort:

"State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan is on Twitter. Sign up to follow the State Superintendent at www.twitter.com/SuptFlanagan and get his latest thoughts on educationand current news events. Flanagan's tweets will be insightful, provocative, informative, thoughtful, and at times quite humorous. We in the Communications Department are a bit anxious with Mike having this kind of access to exercise his unwieldy "freedom of expression," but he's the boss so we just hold our collective breath.
Martin Ackley, Director
Office of Communications
Michigan Department of Education"

Sci Fi nursery rhyme - cute and thought provoking

The Day the Robots Woke Up
Uploaded by SFLTV. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Thought you might find this interesting!!

I ran into a student of mine from the first school where I was principal, Yost Academy. She attends a Historically Black College studying chemistry. She will spend her upcoming Jr. year in Australia. Her long range career goal is to become an orthodontist. I remember Ashley well, bright eyes, big smile, loved school, happy with life and herself. That doesn't seem to have changed much. Maybe I'm thinking selfishly but it pleases me to no end to think that I had some small part in the development of this wonderful young person. (She remembered both my last and first name - most students I run into remember "Ms. Holland" so I must have made some kind of impression on her :). It makes all those long, hard days and unrecognized sacrifices worthwhile.

For all of you out there who are positively impacting children in one way or another, be encouraged. The work is hard, but it's good work. The results last long beyond this year's test scores or even next week's check. Hang in there. As always, thanks for listening, Leslie

Thanks Beverly!

I attended the memorial service for Beverly Butler, Principal of Brenda Scott Middle School in Detroit on Friday evening. It was held at the school and was a wonderfully moving event. As the accolades from staff, students, her neighbors and community were given I could not help but wonder if Beverly had ever heard these things while she was among us. Beverly was a "tough" administrator who was lauded on that day for high expectations and standards, her staff joined together and sang with one voice during the service. What a symbolic effort. Student messages and cards were posted all around on the walls expressing their love and appreciation for their principal. They knew she loved them. I think she would have been pleased with what was said and done. I am coming away more determined to give my flowers now. Flowers of appreciation for hard work done and efforts given in the way of encouraging words, a listening ear and expressions of a grateful heart. After all isn't that the core of an educator - one with a heart for learners of all ages and stages. As always, thanks for listening. Leslie.

And by the way, if you are reading this thanks for being one who tries to stay "on top of things", be well informed and a perpetual learner yourself! Keep up the good work.

Privacy or No privacy...that is the question.

Facebook Shuts Down RSS Feed App
By Marshall Kirkpatrick on Info Architecture

Google Latitude Comes to More Locations: Google Talk and Your Blog
By Frederic Lardinois on News

These two new posts were in my Bloglines box today. I found it amusing that one (Kirkpatrick)was raising Cain about Facebook's cutting out the opportunity to make sharing data easier and the other was really worried about Googles new "locator" that provides information about where you are by city or longitude, latitude.

Sounds like we're caught between a rock and a hard place. I struggle to understand all the techy type details but one thing is for sure you can't have it both ways. Either my information is secure and I can choose when I share and when I don't OR it's not and I lose control of who can access my information and what they do with it. Maybe that's an oversimplification but I hope we continue to err on the side of secure at the level I choose.

I wonder if Frederic and Marshall read each other's posts...maybe we're talking about apples and oranges but the more data I share on various sites the more I have concerns about where it's going. I think it's even a little creepy to have a website suggest a "friend". Perhaps that's because I'm not a digital native. Let me know what you think. As always. Thanks for listening, Leslie

Audio Journal Session 3 Reflections

When principals and coaches get together in a well facilitated dialogue the results are always awesome. Thanks Mary, Bevelyn, Anupam, Lisa and Team. The evaluations clearly reveal that hands on computer sessions and collegial dialogue are by far the most favored activities.
Using the CPS was a bit cumbersome because of software issues but the data driven dialogue that took place based on the graphs generated by the software was rich and revealing.

We also used the Flip Video Camera to record the activities and shared that at the PLC meeting this morning. What a hit - the camera itself and the video. We will be using it often. Here is the link to the site. http://www.theflip.com/ The team will be participating in an evaluation session soon so that decisions that can be made for next year. We're thinking about an all day session instead of short ones. We'll keep you posted. As always. Thanks for listening. Leslie