Archive for July 2013

If you’ve got it, flaunt it. If you don’t, just write about it. I really like to walk around funky downtown areas and shopping malls and just look around. Why? Because I believe that our schools are very much like “brick and mortar” retailers – and there’s so much to observe. Like the top retailers,…

My good spirits have returned. Encouraging you and other school communicators is not a problem for me today. (And yes, I know it’s a Monday…) All it took was a one-day roundtrip excursion via train to Chicago over the weekend. While seated comfortably with my wife Cindy in the train car, I thought about how…

I won’t lie to you. I’m somewhat discouraged today. The purpose of the Encourager is to provide an “encouraging email check-in” with you and other school leaders and communicators. And since the purpose of the Encourager has nothing to do with providing guaranteed wisdom, fool-proof communications strategies, free 24/7 tech support, or getting pizza to…

Fantasy? (It’s overdone.) Reality? (Ho-hum.) What’s left?  Jenna Wortham is the tech writer for the NY Times. Her recent article “Instagram Video and the Death of Fantasy” calls to question without totally dismissing Facebook creator Mark Zuckerman’s prediction that the creation of millions more micro-videos for sharing on social media is the “future of memory.”…

The brains of educators are complex. Yours too. Don’t deny it. Delight in it. Take a look at this scientific diagram of “The Teacher’s Brain” from the Pinterest board of “WeAreTeachers.com” It still makes me chuckle. It also gave me a “gotta do this” copycat idea for a different project. I’ll bet you know what…

I feel the most alive when I’m in panic-mode. As true as this may be, I would never write this in a letter to my children. I’d try to think up something much better, as true as it may not be. A book entitled “Posterity” by Dorie McCullough Lawson caused me to think about this.…