1st Day of School - Leading the Charge

Checking in...

The song "Welcome Back...Welcome Back...Welcome Back!" from Welcome Back Kotter! comes to mind as I reflect on the 1st day of school at Phillip O. Berry Academy.  This is my 2nd year teaching at my school and I have been given the opportunity to teach two classes this semester:  Digital Video Production and Web Design.  Both classes are fun to teach and I am looking forward to them. 

I met my students today and they seem to be very excited about returning back to school to see their friends and for the Senior Class of 2011: Graduation in Sights.  My homeroom is a senior homeroom and it was great to meet them.  They will be a great group and I will do my best to help them as much as possible to accomplish many of their goals this year.

On average, I have 23+ students per class and it will be interesting to make sure all students learn/master the materials that will be provided to my classes this year.  Most importantly, I want to continue to make my classes engaging and fun!

The highlight of the day happened in my 2nd period where I was going over my rules and procedures with my students to set the tone for the year.  During this time, I noticed that a student (a senior) had his cellphone out and he "secretly" tried to text someone during this time.  So, I had to get the phone from him and hold it for the remaining of the day.  I thanked him for serving as an example for things not to do for class for this year.  I guessed I was a bit shocked because it was the 1st day of school and this student tried to "test" me and you know I had to get him.  Otherwise, the students observing would have thought I would be a "push over" for the remainder of the year.  You know that is not the case and that won't fly! (smile)

Other than that, the 1st day of school was great and I'm looking forward to the next day to share knowledge and inspiring students to learn.

Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts.

Checking out...

Fine: It's Done and Official!!!

Hello all and I'm checking in!

"It's hard to say goodbye to yesterday..."  - Boyz II Men

It seems like yesterday when I reflected on the moment of thinking about applying to graduate school, flying to LA to attend VirtCamp, and going to through a condensed 1 year hybrid graduate program at Pepperdine University.  All I can say is, "I'm so glad I did!"  My classmates and I from Cadre 12 journeyed into another adventure and got along so well that other MALT Alumni and Faculty members thought this couldn't be real.  Pepperdine University MALT Cadre 12 is the Real Deal and I am so glad this is my Crew aka La Familia!  I miss them a bunch and it feels odd not being in classes/meetings Monday-Wednesday with them.  Trust me!  We had a bunch of fun!

I wrote this to say that I am grateful for Cadre 12 and those MALT/OMET Alumni who have paved the way!  Most importantly, thank you God for my wife and family who supported me during this challenging but rewarding journey!  I look forward to the many "Learning Adventures" that lie ahead for me as an educator and technology steward.

In closing, Cadre 13 is next on deck and I look forward to the great things that will come about from this group.  I ask that they lean and learn from each other to make it through.  Your journey will involve us all.

Take care and I'm checking out!

Peace and Blessings...

EDC 668 Portfolio Postings (May 10th - July 5th)

+Post a brief paragraph that summarizes who you are in the Edtech community and what you are passionate about.

In the EdTech community, I serve as an Information Technology Educator at Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology in Charlotte, NC. Within my distinguished career, I have worked for the Microsoft Corporation for about 16+ years before departing in 2008 to pursue my passion for educating and mentoring youth. As far as my previous roles with the Microsoft Corporation, I have served as a Content Project Manager (2002-2008), Technical Writer (2002), Partner Technical Lead & Training Specialist for Microsoft Windows XP (2001-2002), Lead Program Supportability Manager for Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 & Microsoft Office 2000 (1996-1999), and a Product Support Engineer (1992-1995 & 1999-2001). In my role as a Content Project Manager, I was responsible for the online content support strategy, readiness, and releases of technical documentation for key Microsoft products: Windows Internet Explorer, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Silverlight, and Windows Media Player which can be accessed via the Microsoft Help and Support Centers at http://support.microsoft.com. I have served as a key representative and speaker for Microsoft Corporation at numerous career fairs, national conferences, and workshops. Among my many accomplishments, I have been awarded the Carolina Computer Access Center (CCAC) Volunteer of the Year (2004), completed the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and Microsoft Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) Certifications (2002-current), and I co-founded the Juan J. Flowers and Marion E. Robinson Endowed Scholarship Fund at Johnson C. Smith University for Computer Science & Engineering students (1998 - current).

+Identify the key organizations you should participate in (or already are) and list in your portfolio. Each should have a brief, one sentence description and/or link to organization website.

National Society of Black Engineers - The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), with more than 33,000 members, is one of the largest student-governed organizations in the country.

Black Data Processors Association (BDPA) - BDPA (Black Data Processing Associates) was founded in 1975 by Earl A. Pace, Jr. and the late David Wimberly after the two met in Philadelphia to discuss their concerns about minorities in the data processing field.

Phi Delta Kappa Professional Educational Association - Phi Delta Kappa International is the premier professional association for educators.

+Post links to previous classwork that best exemplifies your interests, passions or skills.

EDC 633 - Educating Today's Learner

EDC 664 - Learning and Technology

EDC 665 - Curriculum and Technology

+Begin developing a resource section, with links to key resources, sites, etc you find useful to share with other. Post at least three resources.

Key Web Resources:

Free Technology For Teachers

Center of Collaborative Action Research

Wikipedia

Go2Web20.net

+Begin developing a favorite technologies section, with brief annotations. Post at least three resources.

Favorite Technologies:

Acrobat ConnectNow - Adobe® ConnectNow, one of the Acrobat.com services, is a great way to share ideas, discuss details, and complete work with others — all online. Reduce travel costs, save time, and increase productivity with a web conferencing solution that's easy to access and simple to use.

Diigo - Provides the best cloud-based information management service that enables users to collect, highlight, access and share a variety of information, on a variety of devices.

Prezi - The Zooming Presentation Editor: Create astonishing presentations live and on the web.

GreenPrint - GreenPrint makes it easy to print only the pages you want saving you around $100 a year on paper and ink, as well as helping to save millions of trees.

XtraNormal - If you can type, you can make movies. Xtranormal’s mission is to bring movie-making to the people.

+Post a link to your CV or resume, for public consumption

Resume of Juan J. Flowers

EDC 668 Blog Post - Week #9

Reflect on a successful experience you had managing someone else? What made this successful? What could you have done differently?

In my career, my roles didn't require me to manage another person.  I managed projects and made sure that each person involved with the project was on task and provided a status update of activities that were occurring per the milestones.  The key thing that was successful was that I made sure that a project charter (plan) was provided to each of the key stakeholders to help provide the strategic plans for the project from day 0 to completion.  In other words, the communication had to be clear and concise when I had to work with Vice-Presidents and General Managers who were sponsoring my projects.  

The only thing that I would have done differently is difficult to think about.  The reason why this is the case is that I had to make sure that I was on point because I was a key orchestrator of the project.  If I didn't know the resources, scope, or the time it was going to take, I would be out of the project.  So, I never wanted my sponsors and key stakeholders to not know what was going on.  Furthermore, I would provide enough feedback from my immediate teams to allow various points of view to be provided to show a more collaborative effort.  Again, I was not perfect but, I did strive for excellence in all that I did as a project manager.

EDC 668 Blog Post - Week #8

Reflect on a great manager- what made he/she great? What does this tell you about yourself?

One of the best managers that I can recall working for was John LaTour.  John was a straight-up, no-nonsense manager that was about empowering his team members to do there best in all they can do.

What made John great?

1. John supported me for advancing in the company and he allowed me to take any class to help my professional development.

2. John put his trust in me to make key decisions that were best for the team and not just for my own merit.

3. John would express his expectations up front so, there were no surprises that would blindside you when it came to review time or during 1-on-1 meetings to discuss performance.

4. Lastly, John was a true and genuine person who would look out for his team members when an issue would affect his team.

It made it really easy to work for John since he allowed me "free reign" to do what needed to be done to be successful and to allow our team to be great, too.  Again, John understood that he was successful when his team was successful.  Great managers are made when they allow their team to be great and not restricted "in a box."

At Microsoft, I had a pleasure to work for/with some of the brightest people in the world.  I have seen some great management and some challenging management that allowed me to focus on what great, successful managers are like.  Again, I am about business but, I realize that being compassionate about your people and empowering them to do their best is most rewarding as a manager beyond just getting paid monetarily.

EDC 668 Blog Post - Week #6 & Week #7

How can management be innovative? Does it then become leadership? Where do the lines intersect between management and leadership?

Management can be innovative when they allow their team members to be empowered to make changes and accomplish tasks towards creativity and improvements of processes.  Stirring away from managing it all has to go.  When you empower people, you can generally expect great results and the best creativity of work.

Empowerment ties into the fact that management choosing to allow this to happen demonstrates the flexibility and trust he/she has for their team.  The key thing that management needs to remember is that allowing your team to shine will allow them to shine, as well.  "TEAM - Together Each Accomplishes More"

Management and Leadership intersect when integrity and trust of the team are put in place to ensure that objectives and expected outcomes are accomplished.  Leadership is a trait that can be demonstrated by any member on the team to drive a project to completion and each member on the team reaps the reward.  Management is in place to serve as an entity for approval and sponsorship of a project.  You do have leaders in this group but, the driving force of success doesn't have to be driven from them.

EDC 668 Blog Post - Week #5

How does motivation translate into technology design and success? Think of an example successful technology, and share how motivation was a factor in its success.

Motivation can be translated into technology towards the design and success by witnessing a problem/flaw in a product and making significant changes to show mass improvements compared to a previous version.  One of the best, personal examples that I can give to describe how the technology and motivation were meshed to become successful was when I was a Lead Supportability Program Manager for Internet Explorer 5.0 back in the mid-90s. Imagine browsing on the Internet with only Netscape 3.0/4.0 and competing (playing catch-up to compete in the browser space).  Being on this team was great because I was able to obtain feedback from customers on a regular basis to provide this feedback to the product group (key developers) and make changes within a matter of hours/days ahead of our scheduled release dates announced to the public.  IE 4.0 was okay and it placed a small dent into the share of the browser wars with Netscape but it wasn't acceptable.  As the IE team, we realized that our user experience had to better and that we had to be able to browse at least 95 to 100% of the web pages that were available faster than Netscape without crashing as well as make sure that the browser setup was smaller than our previous version (IE 4.0).

To make a long story short, our reviews for IE 5.0 were very promising and positive compared to Netscape because we were motivated to fix the issues that we saw with the previous version that were just "not good" for our customers.  The key feature that was requested by many users was to incorporate Print Preview and WYSIWYG support for web pages to print as it appeared on the screen.  Once this was incorporated for IE 5.0, we were "golden" and our customers and investors showed us a lot of love.  Again, the IE 5.0 team was motivated by making our customers happy by providing a great product and not worrying too much about just putting something out there to compete.  We actually fixed 98.9 percent of the issues that were reported/duplicated by our customers and we had lesser phone calls than any previously released web browser.  The key to success is to provide clear communication and goals to motivate others to do their best work.  Hey, the general manager providing us dinner and snacks helped alot on those long days/nights helped to motivate us, too. (smile)