Furman_6399In his 8th year as principal at South Park Elementary, Rob has served as an educator for 19 years and as a principal for 11 of those years. He is the author of Instructional Technology Tools: A Professional Development Plan and Motivating the Reluctant Reader Through Technology. Robert’s research interests include parental self-efficacy in student academic achievement and the use of technology to increase administrative efficiency and to help reluctant readers. Rob is also a technology and principal consultant for Scholastic Book Fairs. He is the writer of Reader Leader’s Login 4 Leaders column through Scholastic and is an educational blogger for The Huffington Post. Rob was honored as a “20 To Watch” in the field of educational technology by the National School Board Association and was recently named a Tribune Review Newsmaker of the Year 2013 for the City of Pittsburgh.

 

Spotlight: Back to the Future is Not Mission Impossible for the Young and the Restless.

First we will take a trip Back to the Future via the one-room schoolhouse. Visualize the one-room schoolhouse—no walls, multiple skill levels, multiple grade levels, blended subject matter and one teacher. Sound familiar? Today we call it differentiated instruction, but futuristic thinkers will call it creative-critical teaching.
Teaching requires an endless stream of new ideas. Sometimes the challenge seems overwhelming, but it is not Mission Impossible because you are the Young and the Restless. You are up for the challenge. I believe in you. I believe that our students’ inventions, hobbies, careers and ultimately their lives lie at the nexus of creativity and critical thinking and you must foster both by reaching beyond the expected and into the imaginative unknown.
This message today will focus on You– The Restless, and what it is that you must do to carry us into the future and meet the demands of this new technological generation.

Thanks to Street & Company for their support of Rob’s appearance.