My Obligatory Post On My Most Clicked Posts From 2014

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I believe that it is written somewhere in the “Blogger Rulebook” that if you are a blogger you are obligated to highlight your most viewed posts from the year.  It is an interesting reflective exercise to see what caught the attention of others.  While I blog about things that strike me as interesting, it is reassuring to see that others sometimes agree.

Best to all for a great 2015! Blog on!

#1 A Great Social Etiquette Lesson from Jimmy Fallon – May 1, 2014

This one was all about the video and the fact that people act differently when dealing with someone face-to-face. Check it out for yourself below…

#2 The Positive Power of Edcamp Hits the US Department of Education –June 7, 2014

One of my highlights this past year was having the opportunity to attend the Edcamp hosted in Washington D.C. at the United State Department of Education. Thanks to Kristen Swanson and the rest of the people that made this great event possible!

#3 How Staying Uncomfortable is the Key To Success – April 23, 2014

This post was based on the work of Amy Edmondson and her article The Competitive Imperative of Learning.  It centered around the following question that we struggle with in schools constantly – How can we continue to move forward?

#4 A Rant on Reading Online vs. Reading on Paper  – April 21, 2014

A pet peeve of mine is the fact that so many people want to cite statistics that show people are less effective when they read online. The reality for me is that we are still very early on in this transition and we should be encouraging people to try different workflows and seeing what works best for them.

#5 How I Try To Keep Up With BPS  – November 25, 2014

A quick overview of the different digital tools I use to try to keep up with all of the happenings in our school district.

 #6 It’s Time to end the Device Debate  – August 11, 2014

Let’s face it, there is no perfect device. The best device is the one that works best for the individual. If something works well for you, then you should use it. Of course, we always have to be on the lookout for tweaks to our workflow that can make us more productive.

My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (December 28, 2014)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sights and Sounds of the Season in BPS – Burlington Blog Update (Edition 14)

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As we head into our December vacation, there are a lot of fun things happening with Winter Concerts at all of our schools and various pre-break celebrations. 

Enjoy the video below which has a few sounds from Burlington High today and a song from our Fox Hill Grade 4-5 Chorus! Have a restful break!




Here are the latest posts from the BPS Blog:


My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (December 21, 2014)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Is It The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year?

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English: Screenshot of Jimmy Stewart and Donna...
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The energy level in our schools is certainly at its peak as we enter the holiday season and and near our December vacation. While so many of our students are excited about the impending festivities of the holiday season, there are a number of students who do not see this as “the most wonderful time of the year.”  There are numerous reasons for students to feel a bit down about this time of year…

I was reminded of this while reading Patricia Polacco’s Welcome Comfort, a sweet story about a foster child who never had positive feelings about Christmas until he met a special member of his school’s staff. While we cannot replicate the wonder of Comfort’s experience in the story, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to provide support for our students when they need it most.

With this in mind,  please look out for those students who are acting up or melting down during “the most wonderful time of the year.” The fact of the matter is that for many of these students school is the most stable environment they have in their lives and the thought of being away for a “vacation” is not a vacation at all.

BPS Evaluation Update – Uploading Evidence to TeachBoost

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We are coming close to the midpoint (February 1) in the Educator Evaluation cycle for educators on a 1-year plan (all Non-PTS educators). This means that Non-PTS staff will be receiving their Formative Assessment Reports from their evaluators by February 1. At least two weeks (January 16) prior to this deadline, educators should provide their evaluators with evidence of the following:
  • evidence of family outreach and engagement
  • fulfillment of professional responsibility and growth
  • progress on attaining professional practice and student learning goals.

I have shared two workflow options for moving evidence of meeting the standards of the Massachusetts Model System for Educator Evaluation and one for uploading evidence of attaining professional practice and learning goals.  

Option 1 is a simpler workflow and also may be preferable since any changes that are made to the Google Drive document will be updated automatically if changes are made later after the initial upload to TeachBoost.


Option 2 is the workflow that should be utilized if you are uploading a file from your computer’s desktop or hard drive.

Evidence for goals upload is also a pretty simple workflow that allows you to grab evidence from Google Drive or from your computer. 

It is recommended that you continue to use Google Drive for organizing your evidence. Remember that you can save all file types to your drive and that your BPS account provides you unlimited storage.

Option 1 – Upload Evidence by sharing a link from Google Drive


Option 2 – Download from Drive first (and/or Upload from Laptop)

Evidence for goals upload

BHS Faculty Flash Mob Is A Record Breaker – Burlington Blog Update (Edition 13)

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The post below is actually a copy of a weekly e-mail that I send to our staff  to promote our Burlington Public Schools Blog which shares the great work going on across our school district. I also try to give a quick technology tip/resource that I think would be useful. It is the 13th post in the series.

Checking in on The Burlington Public Schools Facebook Page

Checking in on the insights from the district Facebook page, we recently had a noteworthy occurrence with a post. A typical post on the page usually garners a reach total in the low hundreds and on rare occasions we have posts that reach over 1,000.  But the BHS flash mob from the pre-Thanksgiving Pep Rally more than tripled the previous high for the reach of a post with over 9,000 people reached!  Let’s see who can top that! 

As always, feel free to forward any posts that you would like to share on the BPS Facebook Page, the BPS Blog, as well as photos for the BPS Instagram account.  We scan the district blogs and websites for material, but there are always things that fall through the cracks due to the volume of online sharing across the district. 


Burlington Blog Update 


Here are the latest posts from the BPS Blog:



Only 111 posts to go…

My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (December 14, 2014)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.