Island Life

Tropical Paradise
I want to talk about island life for a moment and full disclosure, I have never lived on a remote island, so no offense to those who have. Living on a remote tropical island really sounds good though, at least for a short amount of time, but long-term, being on an island can become isolating. Not interacting with others, sharing, and working alongside peers that challenge you, will keep us from growing as individuals and we can become stale.

Stay Fresh
It is easy to become isolated on internal islands within our own technology departments. With the grind that comes with answering help desk tickets and trying to maintain normal daily responsibilities while pushing ahead with additional projects, communication between our peers becomes increasingly more difficult. If we layer on top of that the rapid pace that technology changes and the amount of content generated on a daily basis, the island starts feeling like a safe place to be. We all know however that isolation will not help us solve the problems in front of us, keep us fresh with new ideas, and increase collaboration amongst our peers to better serve our students and staff. 
 

PLN Strong
The concept of a professional learning network has been around for quite some time now and still, in my opinion, the most effective way to connect with peers. The power of a PLN is the informal manner that a person can participate, share content as well as consume, and take advantage of a global community. Having a staff that has strong PLN's will benefit our internal technology teams that often struggle with getting out and allows that isolated island feeling to creep in. Although the PLN and PLC terminology is synonymous with teachers and administrators, there is a vast community of technology-related professionals waiting to connect. A few places to connect with other technology-related professionals.

• Twitter: Search hashtags, ie. #itdirector, #networkadministrator, #datasecurity, #programmer
• LinkedIn
• COSN: Consortium for School Networking
• ISTE: International Society for Technology in Education
• State and local listservs 

Creative Time
I am not sure that creative time is a thing, my point here is that time is the magical piece that there is never enough of. Instead of using the old saying that you will find time for what is important, be creative with time and find different ways to get together other than the traditional meeting. A recent post on Engage, an employee engagement blog, on "7 Fun Ways to Host Team Meetings", points out a variety of simple common sense ways to make meetings not boring. Three of my favorites are mentioned below that I have added some ideas on how to make these easily happen with minimal time involved in preparation. 

• Use grouping: We know birds of a feather flock together right, so instead of having everyone count off from 1-5 then split up, which is boring, pass out different pieces of candy to everyone when they arrive and find their table of like sugary fun. Substitute anything you would like if candy isn't your thing. 
• Change the scenery: This one is very self-explanatory and why not meet at the local coffee shop, nothing makes a meeting more enjoyable than sitting in a comfortable chair with an iced coffee. One notable mention here is as the leader, you need to reassure your leadership team that this is OK. Let them know your expectations, traveling an hour across town to a nice speakeasy is probably not what counts as productive for most organizations. 
• Switch up positioning: This is similar to grouping in moving people out of their comfort zone by not having them sit in the same exact chair every week. Here is where you need to lead by example, the next time you walk into the meeting room, you start it off by sitting in a different spot every time. If we expect others to venture out of their comfort zone, we must lead by example.
  
  

Sharing is Caring

I would love to hear what others are doing with their staff for staying fresh, building their PLN's and being creative with time. Leave a comment, tag me on Twitter @jcastelhano, share the great things you are doing!

Been A While

Been A While

courtesy of Arndt Nollau

It has been quite some time since my last post, a little over three months actually. I would imagine that is probably a bit to long in between posts, but the inspiration to write has been lacking. In my opinion, it is probably better to take a break than force something that just isn't there. Lacking the motivation to blog is not any different than becoming stagnant with other things in life, even in the workplace, where there are numerous things to keep us busy. So how do we stay motivated, inspired, full of enough energy to keep innovating and moving forward at work or anywhere for that matter?

courtesy of Bjorn Hermans

Get Out...
of the four walls of that office or classroom and start building your personal learning network! The greatest source of inspiration for me comes from others that I am connected too. It can be virtual connections or face to face, but sharing thoughts, ideas, and opinions with others will contribute to your professional development and knowledge. And (not sure that is grammatically correct), we all need support, information in today's world comes at such a rapid pace it is impossible to keep up without a network.


Where Do I Start?
The first step in any new adventure is the hardest part, but let's just be honest with ourselves here, you are not climbing a 500 ft. cliff without a rope, or walking a tightrope with no safety net, you are looking for individuals that share a common denominator. If in a classroom or office, prop your door open and say hi to your colleagues as they pass by, maybe they will drop in and you can talk about what they have planned for the day. Jump into the Social Hurricane and build your PLN virtually through social media. Find a group that is outside of your school walls but maybe local in your state (AzTea, AZ CIO/CTO, @azk12) or venture out to the national organizations (ISTE, COSN, TLN)!

Big Thanks
I want to thank the AZ CIO/CTO group for being a big part of my PLN. The passionate, diverse, thought provoking contributions by this great group has been very helpful in building my professional development and knowledge. The recent activity on the list serv is what inspired me to get back to my blog, thanks all.