| | | from the Headmaster As strange as this may sound, education can be a pretty lonely, even isolated, profession. Despite the fact that teachers are surrounded by their students from 8:00-3:00 each day, their interactions with adults, particularly colleagues, can be perfunctory at best. Hurriedly passing in the hallway between classes hardly offers time for professional collaboration that educators who are charged with shaping the leaders of tomorrow truly deserve.
While we are preparing our students to live in the dynamic, shrinking world, we need to model for them how disciplines interconnect and how to communicate effectively with those whose focus is different from their own. We need to model collaboration and communication for our students so that they will feel comfortable doing the same thing.
What if there were a way to provide productive collaboration to busy teachers that produced the sort of innovation and excitement that characterizes great teaching? What if the ever-growing landscape of social media could serve as the arena in which educators could find transformative collaboration?
At PS, social media allows this collaboration. As we actively watch others implement new ideas, we are just as actively shaping our own as well. Far from isolated and lonely, don’t you think?
Our social media outlets (primarily Facebook, Twitter, Faculty blogs, and Pinterest) are fast becoming the places where we share ideas. For example, Academic Dean, Janet Fox, has taken to Twitter almost daily to tweet about free and interesting apps for our students' (or parents') iPad use. EC/LS Head, Christy Heno, tweets links to articles with helpful tips such as How to Help Your Child Build Fine Motor Skills. Go to our Pinterest pages to find a recommended book to read, interactive websites for students, or even recommendations on what to do in Houston with your kids. We're also using social media to broadcast (as loudly as possible!) all of our current and former students' achievements.
Without a doubt, these are all avenues by which we as educators can connect with one another, but they are also the vehicles by which we are increasingly communicating with parents and other constituencies as well. In the “incredibly shrinking world,” we need to find the most authentic and efficient ways to give and get information—not only professionally but personally as well. It is with this additional connection to pertinent information in mind that I am pleased to announce that our newest tool for efficient communication with parents is available! Our Presbyterian School iPhone and iPad app is now available for download in the App Store.
It is our hope that this app will help you access our information with more ease and frequency. As always, I welcome your feedback on our collaborative efforts.
Dr. Mark Carleton Click here to view previous Headmaster Highlights. You may be prompted to login. | | | NEW iPhone & ipad app  
Go to the App Store and search pshouston to download our FREE app. The PS app will give you quick access to schoolwide announcements (taken from the Parent Portal), school calendars (including teacher calendars), athletic game dates, the school directory and more. For more information on the PS app, contact Andrea Lawless Director of Communications.
PS ON Pinterest  Pinterest is an online pinboard that allows you to collect and display ideas and images you find on the web. A highly visual tool, Pinterest is a place where you can get inspiration from others, discover new things and then "pin" those onto boards to keep. Follow our Presbyterian School PInterest Boards and be inspired by what inspires us!
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One option for quick and easy reading of our blogs is to subscribe to our blogs through our RSS feeds. If you subscribe to a blog, you will receive an email with every new entry posted. No need to visit our site to check for the latest blog updates. If your classroom teacher maintains a blog on their teacher web page, we encourage you to subscribe to that as well! Presbyterian School currently maintains these 4 public blogs: Wild Pitch by Dr. Mark Carleton
iPad Tips & Tools by Janet Fox
NEW! Teaching and Learning w/ the MFAH by PS Faculty
Alumni News by Lizzie Voss
Here's how to subscribe via our RSS Feeds.
Get our latest tweets Don't have time to read a lot? Want to get a short tweet on something interesting? Then follow us on Twitter! Our Headmaster and Division Heads are tweeting ideas to think about, websites to check out, videos to watch, great iPad apps and much more.  Dr. Mark Carleton (mkcarleton)
Philip Cannon (epcannon)
Christy Heno (teamheno)
NEW! iPad Tweets (jfoxtech)
find us on facebook www.facebook.com/PresbyterianSchool We're posting Facebook shout-outs in honor of our student achievements, special events and other PS things of interest.  us on Facebook to get our latest posts in your newsfeed.
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