SchoolMatters Weblog

NSBA 2008 Blogs Panel

Blogging School District Leaders: Directly Engage Your Community Using the Internet
NSBA Annual Conference, March 29, 2008

If you are interested in my two-page handout from the 2008 NSBA blogs panel, you can find it here:
http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/NSBA2008presentation.pdf

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Links in that document

Blog authoring software:
TypePad http://www.typepad.com
WordPress http://www.wordpress.com

Web-based RSS readers:
Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com

Primers on RSS feeds:
http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2006/01/rss-intro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss

Listserv or e-mail mailing list software:
Yahoo! Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/ 

Online calendars:
Trumba http://www.trumba.com
Google Calendar http://calendar.google.com

Albemarle County Public Schools Policy BG: Board-Staff Communications
http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/ACPS-BG_0306.pdf

Brian Wheeler

School Board bloggers to meet at national conference

I will be attending the National School Boards Association Annual Conference in Orlando during March 28th to April 1st.  There I'll be reconnecting with Craig Colgan who organized a panel on blogging at NSBA's 2006 conference.  This year joining our blogging presentation will be a School Board member who was in the audience in 2006, Jennifer Abell (Charles County, MD).  I am really looking forward to hear about Jennifer's experiences since we encouraged her to take the plunge into the blogosphere.

Four other Albemarle County School Board members will be in attendance at NSBA.  This is the single best opportunity we have for professional development as a board.  I'll also be "blogging the conference" volunteering for NSBA to summarize the workshops I attend on their conference website.

Brian Wheeler

Another School Board blogger

I am certain I have given better interviews, but it is still exciting to read in this article in Pennsylvania's Centre Daily Times that another school board member has started blogging.  A reporter in David Hutchinson's area called me when he launched his blog called For What it's Worth.  It turns out Mr. Hutchinson of the State College Area School District had been in the audience during a presentation I gave on blogging at the National School Boards Association (NSBA) annual conference in Chicago in April 2006.  I was the school board blogger on the panel, a presentation Craig Colgan and I hope to be selected to update at the 2008 NSBA conference.

Congratulations on launching your blog David!

Brian Wheeler

Podcast on Blogging by School Boards and Superintendents

After I participated as a panelist at the National School Boards Association (NSBA) Annual Conference in Chicago this past Sunday, Steve Burt (also a panelist) and Tim Wilson interviewed myself, Superintendent Clayton Wilcox, and moderator Craig Colgan and created an audio podcast on the role and use of blogs by School Boards and Superintendents. You can listen to the recording here.

While attending the conference, I also was one of a dozen conference bloggers.  So I signed up to cover certain sessions and put a summary on the conference website.  Here are my postings from the conference (not sure how long these links will last):

• Getting Youth on Board
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024544.php
  [Session on getting students on school boards]
• Dandy gets Best in Show
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024562.php
• In AVID, they teach about life
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024568.php
• Guidance counselors closing the gap and bringing in the cash
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024569.php
• The good news about school safety
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024575.php
• Can we change the odds for teachers like this?
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024576.php
  [I only took the photo on this one, but the session was amazing and Lisa did a great summary]
• Parental involvement in the Latino community
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024582.php
• Schools spend over $1.5 billion annually on energy inefficient designs and equipment
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024583.php
• Conference with the Student Stars
  http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/conference/archives/024584.php

Brian Wheeler

NSBA 2006 Blogs Panel

Blogs: The Community Engagement Tool for the 21st Century
NSBA Annual Conference, April 9, 2006

If you are interested in my two-page handout from the NSBA blogs panel, you can find it here:
http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/NSBA2006-blogs-wheeler.pdf

Links in that document

• Brian Wheeler’s Internet sites
  • http://www.wheeleronboard.com (constituent website)
  • http://listserv.bnsi.net/mailman/listinfo/schoolmatters (constituent e-mail list)
  • http://schoolmatters.typepad.com (blog)
  • http://www.albemarlematters.com (a network of school-based e-mail newsletters)
• Technorati can help you find the blogs: http://www.technorati.com/blogs/
• My RSS feed: http://schoolmatters.typepad.com/my_weblog/index.rdf
• NSBA Boardbuzz feed: http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/index.rdf
• Blog authoring software: TypePad http://www.typepad.com
• RSS reader: Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com
• Listserv or e-mail mailing list software: Yahoo! Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/
• Albemarle County Public Schools Policy BG: Board-Staff Communications: http://www.k12albemarle.org/Board/Policies/BG_0405.pdf
• A primer on RSS feeds: http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2006/01/rss-intro/

Brian Wheeler

School Boards need Professional Development Too

I am writing today from Chicago, IL where I am participating in my second National School Boards Association (NSBA) national conference.  School board members need professional development too!  We have been giving a lot of attention and support in Albemarle County to professional development for our staff. I think school boards need to practice what they preach and assess best practices from all over the country, just as we expect our instructional leaders to do. 

I came back from last year's conference full of ideas about health education, the arts, and getting students on the school board.  Those workshops last year had a tremendous impact on my school board work.  I expect this conference to be just as valuable.

This year I am also at NSBA as a presenter and blogger.  I was invited to participate on panel called "Blogs: The Community Engagement Tool for the 21st Century."  I also volunteered to take my laptop and camera around the conference and report on various workshops and events.  The NSBA conference blog is here and I just posted a summary of my first morning workshop related to student participation on school boards.

Brian Wheeler