What Gets Measured

"Evaluate what you want -- because what gets measured, gets produced." -James A. Belasco

Jeff Utecht has compiled a list of essential questions for administrators to pose when conducting interviews for potential teaching candidates.

This list might also serve as a useful self-evaluation tool for educators who wonder how they compare to their peers when it comes to knowledge of essential 21st century literacies.

Never one to pass on a challenge, I've decided to "interview" myself and try to determine whether I'm International School material.

Skill set: average to advanced; some gaps, but motivated and a quick learner

E-mail: use Outlook at school; have gmail and hotmail accounts; comfortable with communicating electronically as well as face to face

Searching online: since I'm a school librarian, doing research and verifying information is part of my daily routine; very familiar with copyright, plagiarism, bias, point of view; practice and preach cyber safety and digital citizenship

Filtering: aware of CIPA regulations but do not feel that they adequately "protect" students; instruction and guided practice, a strict AUP with consistent and appropriate consequences for infractions, would be the course I'd advocate

Blogs: I feel that the blogs I read, in tandem with the Twitter conversations I track, are my best Professional Development activity; started with David Warlick, Will Richardson, Joyce Valenza, and Doug Johnson; now follow over 160 edubloggers. I have my own professional/personal blog which gives me immense satisfaction.

RSS Feeder: without my Google Reader, of course, I could never track so many blogs

Online Communities: Twitter, various nings, a few wikis, Facebook, Pownce, Skype (just beginning)

Learned from my Network: I've begun to experiment with Skype, am getting better at listening to conversations while "chatting" (thanks to WOW); first heard about Animoto & VoiceThread via blogs & Twitter; have bookmarked many graphics sites; added numerous links, videos and podcasts to my del.ici.ous account because of online recommendations from my PLN. I learned that I have many colleagues around the world who are happy to share their knowledge with a fellow learner.

How will the world be different for our students: Change will be the constant; tolerance and willingness to collaborate with people from other nations and cultures is essential; skills are not enough...the ability to continuously "reinvent" themselves will be key; those who are inflexible or incurious will be doomed to lower level, dead end careers and unsatisfying lives

Last new technology learned: just got a new MacBook to explore; love to play with my digital camera; will use both in teaching and blogging

Technology leader: emerging role: I keep mentioning tools to teachers and some have stopped in for further discussion; was given a current events class to teach this year because administrators knew I wanted to share some of my new expertise with students

What I didn't learn in a classroom: I was curious about a "news aggregator" that I had access to from an online course I took; went online and found Google Reader; began reading blogs and felt compelled to start my own. Added Twitter to my repertoire when bloggers kept mentioning it. Now I have continuously updated professional information, a global community of friends and colleagues, and a very satisfying creative venue.

Thank you, Jeff, for giving me the chance to reflect on these questions. I can see my strengths and weaknesses, areas for improvement and key selling points.

It's been a valuable New Year's exercise. All things considered, I think I would hire me.

"Measuring time" by aussiegall