Yes, I know that we are a little behind on our weekly bootleg technology discussion. But in my defense, there were some time sensitive posts that had to go first.  Better late than never.

This past week, the power of bootleg technology shaved hours off of a task that I am already good at and that I do regularly.  I conducted an assessment of campus operations. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the assignment. But this time my phone directed me to the campus.  I observed 30+ classrooms and collected all the data on my phone. I interviewed staff members and took notes on my phone. And then I sent this information to my laptop computer where I was able to cut and paste my findings into the appropriate places so I could then complete my analysis of what I observed.  This saved me at least two hours of development time.

So what did I do with that extra time?  I was able to spend more time with the campus principal debriefing, problem solving and coaching. Which is true power of the assessment process.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter.  If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us.  To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of October 28, 2012.

1. Booyahhh! Over 100 Fundamental 5 observations so far in October & still two days left! Thanks ‪@LYSNation for the inspiration! (By @tra_hall) 2. “Great job!” doesn’t tell kids what they did right or what needs improvement. Use neutral and specific praise instead. (By @anniemurphypaul) 3. Want to improve the quality of student writing? Let them talk about the prompt or topic with a peer first. Frequent Small Group Purposeful Talk is the bomb! 4. Having student write down the question first is a self-inflicted waste of instruction time that is seemingly invisible to teachers. Stop doing it. 5. In the United States we spend $40,000 a year to incarcerate each prison inmate and $8,000 a year to educate each elementary school student. (By @tgrierhisd) 6. This doesn’t apply to anyone reading this: If you are an educator who can’t navigate a PC or Mac, what have you been doing for the last 20 years? 7. When did planning for instruction become an optional activity? 8. If your students can’t talk it, do they actually know it? 9. I was talking with an ACP teacher coach who has interns on a Fundamental 5 campus. Her comment, “That school’s lucky, it got my 4 best trainees.” It’s not luck. 10. The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) just passed 22,000 copies sold! Thank you, LYS Nation!!!! Think. Work. Achieve. Your turn…

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation