The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
July 11, 2009
In an Emergency
One of the true tests of
leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an
emergency.
Arnold
Glasgow
Last Friday I had a two-day break from our summer conferences, so early
morning found me at home doing laundry, packing, and introducing myself
again to my neglected husband. I logged into the Choice
Literacy website, and noticed our credit card processor (Authorize.net)
was down.
I didn't think much of it - we use Authorize.net because it is one of
the largest and most reputable processors on the web. I
thought it must be some sort of temporary glitch. I figured there was
no need to phone in and alert them, since thousands of the 250,000
merchants they serve had probably already called or emailed.
After another hour, I checked again - still no service. At that
point, I went to their website for an update. The website was
down. Googled for a number to call, and discovered a flurry
of posts on different blogs and news sites about the problem.
Apparently an electrical fire at their Seattle facility had knocked out
their credit card processing, email, website, all phones, and even
(ominously) their back-up servers. Those of you in the
Northwest may have heard a bit about it, since the fire also disrupted
two television stations and Internet service providers housed in the
same complex.
No service, no email, no phone, no website, burned and flooded offices,
a holiday weekend, and 250,000 merchants across the country and world
frantic for updates about when service would be restored.
What to do? Authorize.net set up a Twitter account, and had
service reps fielding questions and posting updates every minute or
two, throughout the six-hour service outtage. The questions
and responses would be of no interest to anyone who didn't have an
account with them, with lingo and acronyms only a web merchant could
understand. But the updates reassured everyone that the
credit card processing service would be back up by noon Pacific
Standard Time (and it was), with website access to follow somewhat
later.
I never worried much about the outtage - we're a pretty small outfit
and it didn't affect access to our actual website. I would
hope teachers who visit our site were turning off their computers and
enjoying the long 4th of July holiday with their families
anyway. But I still marveled at the way this enormous
business with a huge, "this could bankrupt us" problem managed to
harness technology to communicate with its customers. I
suspect some of those service reps were working from cellphones at
home, since this might have been their only way to connect to the web
and customers.
Let me say upfront this isn't a paean to the glories of
Twitter. For those of you crawling out from under a two-foot
stack of end-of-year report cards and assessments who have never heard
of Twitter, it's a web-based social networking tool that only allows
you to post messages of 140 characters or less that update others on
your life anytime you like. You "follow" people to receive
their updates, and they choose to follow you to receive
yours. You never know if someone you follow is going to post
a link to the best education website you've ever seen, or let you know
what their dog ate for breakfast.
I'm trying to twitter (like I'm trying to exercise), which is to say
I'm not doing a good job of it. I don't post enough, I'm
overwhelmed every time I go to Twitter and see all those unread
messages, mostly from people I don't know well. Every time
someone signs up to "follow" me, I want to email back and say, "Please
don't. My updates are boring and pathetic and sloppy and
rare." But I never do, because I'm assuming that would be bad
Twitter etiquette. (Plus I figure they will discover this
truth on their own soon enough.)
And yet. . .last week as I checked in to Twitter every 20 minutes or so
for my latest Authorize.net update, I saw the power of this technology
for school leaders, even if you never use a Twitter account as part of
your social networking. Its value in an emergency isn't about
following Ashton and Demi, or even finding some useful curriculum
websites or provocative articles about teaching and learning to share
with colleagues.
At some point in the next five, ten, fifteen years, your school
community may face a sudden natural disaster - a fire, flood, blizzard,
or flu pandemic will strand students and staff, and leave school
leaders without access to the school website, phones, and other normal
channels of communication. The problem with these disasters
is that everyone in your area usually faces them at the same
time. Even if there is radio or television communication,
those avenues are swamped with updating everyone on everything at the
same time. Let's not even think about the unnatural disasters
that can cut off a school from communication channels, and leave
parents desperate for updates about their children.
Maybe every school needs an emergency Twitter account - it costs
nothing, takes all of two minutes to set up, and hopefully you will
never have to use it. But if you do, all you need is a
cellphone with even the most primitive web connection, and you can post
updates to families and staff.
I hope your planning this time of year is mostly the fun
stuff, and has nothing to do with emergency preparedness.
This is a great time of year for thinking through the authors and books
you will feature all year long in classrooms. We've posted
some resources to help you do that planning, plus more as always. Enjoy!
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
Free for All
If you are knee-deep in planning for author studies and visits this
year, you might enjoy two resources from the Choice Literacy Archives -
Gayle Brand created an eGuide for planning author studies, taking
teachers through the process of charting individual studies and plans
for the entire year:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/218.cfm
In "Inspiration from Author Visits, " Jennifer Jones reflects on the
power of a local author visit in her school, and also provides some
quick tips and weblinks for planning a visit:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/596.cfm
Summer is a great time for catching up on children's literature, as
well as classic kidlit you may have missed over the years.
Picturing Books has developed an interactive timeline of children's
literature, with milestones from the last century to current
times. Lots of other great links at this site, too, including
author birthdays for when you chart out your year of author studies:
http://imaginarylands.org/timeline.html
Are you mentoring a new teacher in the fall, or leading a new teachers
group? Here is a tremendous resource to share with them - 100
helpful sites for new teachers:
http://tinyurl.com/m753lx
The International Children's Book Library is a remarkable teaching
resource, with scores of texts and teaching ideas ready to download or
view with students on your smartboard or LCD:
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/index.shtml
Thanks to all who joined us for our summer workshops this
year! It was wonderful to meet so many of you face to
face. Upcoming events in Tacoma, Washington and San Antonio
are completely sold out, but we still have plenty of space in our
Rockland, Maine workshops in October. These are our last workshops in
2009, and include CAFE with the Sisters, Assessment with Clare
Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan, Delight in Words with Franki Sibberson,
and Literacy Coach Jumpstart with Jennifer Allen. If you have
never been to the Samoset Resort on the ocean, you are in for a treat.
You can download the two-page PDF brochure describing the workshops at
this link:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/samoset09.pdf
For Members Only
Many literacy leaders are embracing, questioning, or
struggling with a shift to a Response to Intervention (RTI)
model. Jennifer Allen highlights some of her district's
questions about RTI, as well as the shared understanding staff has
achieved about what RTI
is. . .and is not:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/923.cfm
Students need to understand perspective (or point of view) if they want
to comprehend what motivates a character. In her new
booklist, Franki Sibberson highlights some terrific children's
literature for helping students grasp the concept of perspective:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/922.cfm
This week's video is from a 6th grade classroom, and focuses on a word
sorting lesson. If you're wondering when and why word sorts
might be appropriate for older students, watching board-certified
teacher Pam Pogson instruct her students might be helpful in
understanding how these activities build literacy. The
six-minute video shows how important the teacher's role is in guiding
and structuring word sorts so that students make plenty of connections
between the activity and their own reading and writing:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/563.cfm
Are teachers ever really on vacation? In "Restless Wanderer"
Shelly Archer ponders moments on a holiay that aren't much fun, and
can't help but connect them to teaching struggles:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/924.cfm
That's all for this week!
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Jennifer Allen
