I’ve been a resident of Northeast Ohio and diehard Cleveland sports fan all my life. Since birth, I’ve followed all our teams blindly and believed; because that’s what we were taught to do. I can not remember a time when life did not revolve around teams like the Browns, the Cavs, the Force, the Rockers, the Lumberjacks, and of course, the Indians. With my family and friends, I have witnessed “The Drive,” and “The Fumble,” and “The Shot,” and “Game 7 vs the Marlins.”

My pride in our teams, our region and our state is great, however, even as someone who was indoctrinated into #Believeland, I feel that we have a moral imperative as a community to stand united and address the elephant in the room that follows our beloved ball club.

To Mr. Lawrence J. Dolan, please consider the following leadership actions as a way to usher in a new era of #Believeland:

Once our @Indians beat the Cubs to win a #WorldSeries, the immediate next move from the ownership should be to drop Chief Wahoo as a mascot, rename our ball club and treat all people with dignity and respect. As fans, as a community, as role models for future generations of Cleveland fans, we have to recognize the relevance and need for this action at this time, on this stage, and place importance on it over money and nostalgia. 

To all the fans like me, please join me in urging the Cleveland Indians ownership to take this important step and lead the way for other professional sporting teams to follow suit; because that is the #Believeland that I know and that is the #Believeland I want to be a part of. I hope you want to be a part of it too.

Respectfully,

Jeremy S. Brueck

P.S. Winning and losing a ball game shouldn’t matter here. Please do what’s right.

2014 OSBA Capital Conference

Session Handout

It’s About Learning, Not Shiny Tech Tools

Tuesday, November 11, 2014 | 2:00 PM

Districts are investing lots of money in digital technologies. But if it’s about the learning, not the tools, what does that mean for students? What does it mean for teachers and administrators? What does it mean for the role of the board? This highly-interactive discussion will focus on student agency and empowerment, global connection and collaboration, and deeper, more cognitively-complex thinking tasks. Within those areas, what should board members be looking for? What questions should they be asking? How can they help support innovative efforts? We’ll hit all of this and more.

2014 OSBA Capital Conference

Session Handout

Modernizing Education for Student Success

Monday, November 10, 2014 | 9:00 AM

In this day and age, it feels like education is not in the hands of the true stakeholders: the students.  Let’s discuss ways as educators, administrators, school board members, etc. that we can get education back to where it belongs. We will discuss ways that we can move away from the Industrial Age of education and take education and modernize it for our the benefit of our students and communities.

We are less than a week away from ISTE 2010 in Denver, Colorado! If you are not currently pre-registered to participate in the BYOL session #tweet. #learn. #lead. with Jon Becker, Jeremy Brueck and Christopher Craft, we’d recommend you add our session using the ISTE conference planner. About two weeks ago, we contacted registered participants and asked them to complete a pre-session evaluation. Thank you to those individuals who completed the short survey! The data you provided were analyzed and used to help inform the design of our BYOL session. In order to make our 60 minutes with you the most rewarding professional learning experience possible, we have a few requests for you prior to ISTE 2010.

1. We have developed a self-paced online module to compliment this BYOL session. Prior to ISTE 2010, please take a few minutes to log in to Moodle and review the material. Pay close attention to the items in the BUILD BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE section of the course. By completing this portion online, we hope to provide participants with a basic understanding of Twitter and how educators can use Twitter for personal and professional learning. Materials in the RESOURCES section will also support those of you who are brand new to Twitter. Log-in information for the online module is below.

URL: http://brueckei.org/moodle/
USER: beiguest
PASS: iste10

To access the online module, paste the URL in your browser and navigate to the Moodle main page. Click on the #tweet. #learn. #lead. course. Enter username and password credentials when prompted.

2. The data indicate that most participants already have a Twitter account. If you do not currently have a free Twitter account, please sign up for one prior to attending #tweet. #learn. #lead. Video tutorials that demonstrate account creation and set-up are available in the RESOURCES section of the online course.

3. Prepare yourself for an exciting, collaborative and engaging professional learning experience.

While honoring these requests is in no way required to participate in #tweet. #learn. #lead., we hope these items will help set the stage for an exciting day of professional learning and enable us to meet the learning needs of all our participants. We are looking forward to our time together at ISTE 2010. See you in Denver!

Regards,
Jon, Jeremy & Chris

eTech Ohio is hosting the 2010 Ohio Educational Technology Conference — an idea factory for P-20 education — from February 1-3, 2010 in Columbus, Ohio. On Tuesday, February 2, 2010 from 3:45 PM – 4:30 PM, Ohio educators Toby Fischer (@futureofedu) and Jeremy Brueck (@brueckj23) will be leading a panel discussion titled “Leading for 21st Century Learning: What Every Ohio Adminstrator Needs to Know.”

Panelists we hope to include:

• Dr. Dwight McElfresh, Director of Professional Development Services, Ashland University
• Dr. Wade Lucas, Superintendent, Olentangy Local School District
• Dr. Paul Kulik, Director of School Study Council of Ohio

Description from online conference planner:

As Ohio becomes the 14th state to join the Partnership for 21st century skills, what does this mean for district leaders? This interactive session will showcase promising practices, stories, and behaviors linked to 21st Century leadership success. Topics include ethical leadership, sustaining a culture of learning, professional development, and promoting instructional and curriculum excellence.

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Sexting and School Law from Jeremy Brueck on Vimeo.

“Sexting” (sex + texting) is the act of sending sexually provocative or explicit photos electronically, most often between mobile devices such as cell phones. While college age young students are most likely the largest demographic to engage in “sexting”, teens between the ages of 13 -18 may be the fastest growing demographic. This rather recent emergence of sexting by adolescents has caught most school administrators off guard, and across the country, school boards and their legal counsel are scrambling to craft appropriate policy responses.

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Ohio-based attorney Gregg C. Single, Esq. from Pepple & Waggoner, Ltd. Attorneys at Law about the sexting phenomena and how it impacts students, parents, teachers and administrators.

Mr. Single presently focuses his practice on general school law representation. Mr. Single is a member of the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Cuyahoga County Bar Association, Cleveland Bar Association, and the Ohio Council of School Board Attorneys.

Pepple & Waggoner Ltd., is a Cleveland based law firm which handles a broad assortment of school law matters for Ohio’s school boards.

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Today an email landed in my Inbox from the good folks at eTech Ohio that I thought I should share. “Free PD to Go from eTech Ohio,” was the advertisement in the Subject line of the communication. Formerly Ohio SchoolNet, eTech Ohio is the organization that serves as the main hub of all things educational technology in Ohio. From the eTech About Us page:

As a state agency, eTech Ohio is dedicated to enhancing learning by developing programs and using best practices to serve learning organizations while acquiring, integrating and sustaining educational technology.

It is our mission to provide the leadership and support that promotes access to and use of all forms of educational technology needed to advance the education and accelerate the learning of the citizens of Ohio.

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This just in…how would you like to earn a FREE doctorate from Harvard University? Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not. News of a tuition-free doctoral program in educational leadership spread quickly over Twitter this morning around 11:00 A.M. EST following this tweet.

Here’s some more information on the programs from the official Harvard news release:

Harvard University today announced the launch of a new, practice-based doctoral program to prepare graduates for senior leadership roles in school districts, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector.

The new tuition-free Doctor of Education Leadership Program (Ed.L.D.) will be taught by faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), the Harvard Business School (HBS), and the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). The program offers an unprecedented approach to preparing leaders equipped to transform the American education system in order to enable all students to succeed in a 21st-century world. The three-year program will begin in August 2010 and initially enroll 25 students per year.

It’s July 12, 2009 and Leadership Day 2009 is here. As I set out write this post in response to Dr. McLeod’s call to arms, I found myself going back to review a School Leadership eLearning module that was developed by many talented individuals from e-Read Ohio at The University of Akron, where I serve as the Web Services Manager. One part of the module focuses specifically on the Role of the Principal and a number of quotes from that section seem particularly relevant today as I am pondering what technology leadership should look like and what role technology plays in a school vision.

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