Writings

A Manifesto Against Straight Rows. Written in September 2015, I wrote a little manifesto regarding the design of classrooms to support student-centered, deeper learning. It's a draft really of maybe something I will expand upon later.

Blogs. Both here on this website, and through work, I have had a presence online blogging about education and technology since 2003. My blogging started earlier with personal interests around food and music, in 1999. I later found blogging to be an easy and effective way to publish content online, and in 2005, I led an effort in Goochland to require all instructional staff to maintain a blog to both increase communication between the classroom and home, and also to serve as a positive model for the use of social media for students. Visit my VCU doctoral journey blog or my Goochland blog.

Senior Project Executive Summary. As an action research project in the second year of my doctoral program, I evaluated an instructional program at Goochland High School called the Senior Project, which was first implemented in 2001. This program evaluation collected data from teachers and and students and this summary presents the results of my findings.

Ubiquitous Computing in Schools. Published in August, 2014, this is the ebook adaptation of the dissertation in action completed with Angie Kim, Shawnya Tolliver, with Derrick Deloatch. We wanted other districts to benefit from our research into the best practices 5 different districts used to roll-out 1:1 computing initiatives.

Taking a Musical Debate Further. This was my first peer-reviewed article to be published in a journal. It appeared in the Spring, 1999 edition of the Philosophy of Music Education Review published by Indiana University.

Bach and the Harmonia Mundi. This is the closest thing I have to a master’s thesis. In addition to studying music education and conducting, I pursued graduate study in musicology while at CWRU.

Social Internet’s Impact on Educational Leadership. This paper written in November, 2011, was a class assignment in my VCU doctoral program. The course explored various traits of leadership.

iOS Device Best Practices and Tips. This whitepaper written in February, 2012, was later marketed by Jamf, Inc., the vendor who creates the Capser Mobile Device Management system.

A Reflection on Leadership Presence. This paper was written in response to leadership issues that come about in the movie The King’s Speech. It was written for a doctoral class in Summer, 2012.

Evaluation Project Design. In this paper from VCU’s doctoral program, I propose a methodology for carrying out a program evaluation on a senior project experience.

Future Information: A Call for Using Folksonomy in Schools. This is an early draft of an article that later appeared in Learning and Leading with Technology, ISTE’s magazine for educators. Written in late 2007, I make the case for teaching students to tag content both to help organize digital assets but also to build a capacity for learning and summarizing.

John’s Leadership Story. In anticipation of creating a technical report for our capstone project, EDLP 717 at VCU had us present data on our own leadership through a “professional looking brief.” The linked PDF is my version, with real data points about my leadership in education.

Whitepaper on OS X Security. I wrote a guide on how to secure data using Mac OS X 10.3, from 2005.

Plans and Presentations

STEM Advisory Talk on the Role of 21st Century Skills These are slide presentations from a Winter 2012 address to Goochland’s STEM Advisory Council.

2011 Goochland Convocation Keynote. I delivered a keynote address to all staff members in Goochland in August, 2011.

G21 Framework. This is the instructional framework I designed that’s been in use since 2008 in Goochland. I meet at the start of each school year with each teacher to develop a project-based lesson that focuses on targeting multiple subject areas and a variety of twenty-first century skills. These projects drive best practices in technology integration.

Goochland Technology Plan. I have worked on a team through three complete writes of our district technology plan, beginning around 2001. With each iteration, I have been given more oversight into leading the effort. Our latest plan called for the pilot of 1:1 computing which we have begun ahead of schedule with the support of our superintendent and school board.

Goochland County Public Schools 2014-2020 Strategic Plan. I worked closely with our superintendent, two assistant superintendents, and a consultant with professional experience in developing ideas over an 18-month period to develop this plan. The creation of our plan involved many stakeholder groups, presentations to our board, and individual presentations of the plan to each school faculty.

Seven Learning Hacks. Presentation presented at the 2009 annual VSTE conference based on a professional development session conducted for all teachers in Goochland County, referencing Dr. John Medina’s Brain Rules book and constructivist learning.

Creating a Digital Portfolio. Presentation notes from 2005 on creating digital portfolios on line using a variety of tools.

Stealing Images with Google. A digital citizenship lesson for teachers on not utilizing Google Image Search with students. Newsletter created for staff in Goochland.