Creating and Using Blogs for Educational Leadership

          I am excited on the many possible leadership uses for Blogs in the education field.  Leaders can use Blogs as a quick way to model their thinking through reflective journaling- not only on issues that are important to the goals and vision of the district, but also for building leadership capacity inside a district.  In large districts, the job of many district leaders is massive.  Blogs would be a quick way to share thoughts and reinforce the vision in a very short time.
     Leaders can also use blogging to collect feedback from employees or stakeholders. This can assist them in setting direction, assessing needs, monitoring understanding of initiatives, and on keeping a finger on the pulse of the district and the community.   In my district, I have started a new middle school reading initiative this year where authentic, multi-cultural literature will be used to teach thinking through genre and at the same time to address the various reading levels of students.  It has been an exciting challenge for our middle school teachers who have enthusiastically embraced the concept.  I think that creating a Blog for this group would be a great way to answer implementation questions and concerns.  It would also be a great way for the 5 middle schools to share their success stories and solutions with each other.  I plan to put this new knowledge into action next week.