Navigating the Orlando Tragedy In Our Schools #LoveWins #WeAreOrlando #LGBTQ

This week I am in Florida. A state with the unwanted distinction as being home to a tragic mass shooting at Pulse, a popular #LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Educators will undoubtedly have the difficult job of discussing what took place with students.

Fortunately, Jared Fox, the New York City Department of Education’s (NYCDOE) full-time #LGBTQ liaison has put together a helpful list of crisis response and emotional support resources. These were compiled to complement school-based support services and provide teachers with guidance and reassurance to students as they navigate their way through the coming days.

Fox advises that the resources at the links below were created specifically for the NYCDOE, but can be shared with others.

Support the LGBTQ Community

Avoid Islamophobia

Comfort the Community

Practice Self-Care

If your students are using social media you may also want to discuss what they are reading as the news is being reported using various hashtags.  These include the following #LoveWins #WeAreOrlando #LGBTQ. You may want to look at ways different high-profile individuals are using and/or honoring this hashtag from elected officials to entertainers. You may want to discuss with your students what they want their contributions to be concerning this issue both online and face-to-face. The links to resources above share helpful places to turn and resources for support.

Discuss with your students what they may want to do locally both short term or ongoing. Does your school have a gender and sexuality alliance? It may be time to start one. Are there other ways they may want to show support? Work with a support team at your school (i.e. guidance counselors, social workers, parent coordinator, librarian) to discuss this with your students to find ways to support them so they can support themselves and others in this difficult time.

Images featured on Twitter with the #LoveWins hashtag.

8 Strategies To Get Your Principal to Say Yes To Anything

So, your PLN is raving about a new product or program that has made teaching and learning better than ever and you want to bring this to your classroom too. Since you work for a school though, it’s not 100% up to you. You need buy in and support from your principal to allow you to move forward. That’s not always easy, unless you know the following secrets to success shared by former @NYCSchools Principal Jason Levy (@Levy_Jason), who now advises principals and superintendents on how to develop a compelling vision and strategies to succeed with educational technology. Jason presented “How to Get Your Principal to Say Yes” at the annual EdXEdNYC, sharing key strategies to get your principal on board with your ideas.

Here are the key ideas Jason shared:

The Hottest Posts Everyone's Reading

For a second week the top post is one where we see what happens when we stop telling students what is right for them and instead, start asking them.  Check out the post on how to stop fighting social media and start working with students to learn more.  Next up is an amazing new tool called Synergyse. If your students or teachers don’t know how to use Google spreadsheets, word processing, or presentation software, that’s okay.  Synergyse which previously went for $10 per student is now offered for free to students and educators courtesy of Google. After that is a post making it to the top for the first time. It outlines some ways innovative educators can save time at work.  Next up another tool courtesy of Google. This one enables you to make presentations more interactive for your students or audience.  Finally, a post on how you can do your job better by eliciting helpful feedback.  If any of these posts look of interest, check em out below and share with others.

Entry	Pageviews
Stop Fighting Social Media. Start Working with Stu... May 22, 2016,	4264
Free Google Apps Training for All with @Synergyse May 15, 2016,	3926
7 Time Savers for Innovative Educators May 29, 2016,	3232
Make Presentations Interactive with Google Slides ... May 11, 2016,	2910
4 Ideas For Gathering Feedback To Help You Do Your... May 18, 2016,	2260

Celebrating Success: #NYCSchoolsTechChat Insights

During our latest #NYCSchoolsTechChat we discussed celebrating success where participants shared great ideas to ensure your year ends with a bang.  @Eileen Lennon led another successful discussion of 92 Tweeps who left more than 1.6 million impressions on those who were following the conversation. We also trended on Twitter in the United States. You can check out stat details at the end of this post and read this tip to the success that makes these Twitter chats so wildly popular. 

An #NYCSchoolsTechChat Tweet I will follow up on is this one:

A5: Heard of this new cool tool. Recap App for students #NYCSchoolsTechChat https://t.co/UbWtgsDRIv

— Darlynn Alfalla (@DarlynnAlfalla) June 1, 2016

An #NYCSchoolsTechChat Tweet that was packed with good ideas is this one which asked us to select one celebration idea that we would do immediately based on Pernille Ripp's article on topic:

Your exit ticket is here. Which of these are you going to do tomorrow? #NYCSchoolsTechChat pic.twitter.com/5kCUP9WFtI

— Eileen Lennon (@eileen_lennon) June 1, 2016

A big thanks to the Tweeps that joined us:















We had nearly 400 Tweets and RTs in that hour, but if you missed the chat, don't despair. You can read the recap below where I neatly captured them all. Check em out and discover what teachers had to say about how they celebrate success and cultivate a community of celebration. Even though the chat is over, you can still jump in and reply to a Tweet or answer a question to share your ideas using #NYCSchoolsTechChat.