Archive for March 2014

The MSPRA Spring Conference passed the David Zach test. Not every conference will. David Zach is a Wisconsin based futurist who gave one of the best keynote presentations I’ve ever heard at the national NSPRA conference in San Antonio in July, 2000. I’ll spare you my 8 pages of notes, but 14 years ago he…

This was a train wreck I could see coming.   I felt eerily uneasy as I settled in for the “Managing Your Online Reputation” presentation by the social media coach and teacher-consultant Sommer Poquette. Sommer’s remarks were both wise and engaging, so the queasiness in my stomach had nothing to do with her. I was…

2nd graders have it made. They can admit to looking forward to lunch and playtime without the fear of ridicule. This profound thought popped into my brain right after the final session of the morning on day one of last week’s MSPRA Spring Conference. Yep, kids are lucky to be able to blurt out whatever they’re…

Here’s a “Session #2 Review” from the MSPRA Spring Conference. But before I give you a recap based upon my extensive scribbles, the SCN legal counsel (barristers to indigent) requested that I begin with the following: This Encourager may or may not be a work of fiction. The expense report turned in by this author…

Superintendents – don’t worry! The Spring MSPRA Conference in East Lansing was awesome. Your investment in your school communicators was money well spent. MSPRA President Allison Kaufman (Kent ISD) and President-Elect Micki O’Neil (Ingham ISD) and their committee mapped out a solid speaker line-up and delivered a two-day conference that was well done, well run,…

Did you see Westjet’s Holiday Miracle video? About 35 million people did. Once my daughters tweeted out confirmation back in November that I had nothing to do with it, its viral success was virtually guaranteed. It definitely was last year’s feel good YouTube sensation. And the video I’m sending to you today is not like Westjet’s…