What is Important: Visibility and availability are very important to me. When we hire administrators, one of the questions I always ask is how the candidate plans to get everything done AND be visible and available to parents, students, staff, and their own family.
As you know, I like to be present in buildings, at events, and just “around” in general. I do this for a variety of reasons. I am not looking for a mental “check mark” from someone that I was at an event or in a classroom. I am visible and available because that is how you see the magic that happens between students and staff, understand culture, climate, and build relationships with EVERYONE in the school community. Trust is developed when you are visible and available. 
If you follow me on Twitter (@cbrownwgcsd) you know that I like to spend a large part of my time interacting with students. Children are the most important gifts that parents have, and I am responsible for those gifts each day. This includes making sure every day they come to school is a worthwhile day.
Last week I had some wonderful interactions that were not staged or scripted. Throughout this blog post are a few of the pictures taken last week that demonstrate what is on the minds of our students and your children so you can extend learning and have conversations at home.
Periscope: With this in mind, I want to extend my visibility to you in another format that is relatively new to the Internet. There is an application (app) called Periscope that you can download to your smart phone from your “App Store”. It is a free app (for now). When you launch the application you will log in using your Twitter account. It allows the server (that will be me) to play real time video of events that others can type comments about or “like” by tapping their phone screen. 
I hope to experiment with Periscope at some events in the near future. For now, if you like what I am able to post and cover, just download the app. Then down the road I will announce some events on Twitter. I will be giving professional development to my administrators so they can serve live feeds as well. I am excited to expand our visibility and availability in this direction.
It looks like we are going to have a spectacular week. I am sure I will see you around. Enjoy!
Take care-
Chris
