Ed Tech Digest recently interviewed Sure Score’s Roy Nieto.The interview focuses on the passion that the Sure Score team has for getting students the prep that they need for the SAT and ACT. Check out the full interview on the Ed Tech Digest website, or click here for a direct link to the full interview.

Ed Tech Digest recently interviewed Sublime Learning’s Jonathan Mann. The interview focuses on Sublime Learning and the way they integrate technology into the classroom. Check out the full interview at the Ed Tech digest website, or click here for a direct link to the interview.

Minnetonka schools have an awesome High Potential program. Ali Alowonle (seen on the right with students and Superintendent Dennis Peterson) is one of the teachers for these exceptionally gifted students.

In 2007, Minnetonka enhanced High Potential—an exceptional learning program for kids with academic, cognitive and creative skills higher than their classmates—by bolstering its elementary staffing. High Potential had been the district’s only exceptional learning program; adding Navigator released resources for even higher-level learners by moving them into a unique learning space of their own where they could further flourish.

Student eligibility for Navigator requires an IQ of 145 and is also determined by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, which identifies key cognitive strengths and weaknesses related to a student’s learning disabilities, executive function, attention disorders, traumatic brain injuries or intellectual disability, as well as giftedness.

I love a good story. I love the voice and fiber of a good story.

I love to tell stories, I love to listen to stories, I love to watch stories but most of all I love a good story because if the storyteller is good…the story comes alive for me!

How well do you understand and tell your company’s story? It sounds overly simplistic. Still, identifying and staying true to your company’s story creates the foundation for a strong and healthy business.

Consider the following tips that Business Week shared:

1. Determine your MIT (most important thing). Clarity of purpose is critical in the first months and years of developing a business. This approach provides the structure for how you make decisions and adopt strategies. You must be able to tell your company story in one sentence or less.

2. Live your story. Take your MIT and build a story around it that explains, as briefly as possible, who you are, what you are doing, and why it matters. People make decisions on products and services based on enlightened self-interest. They will weigh the dollar cost of the product with the story they want to tell about their own lives and how the product you are selling contributes to, or detracts from, their life story. Ultimately, if your product story is compelling enough to that customer—if it contributes to the story they want to tell about themselves—you win.

3. Write the Next Chapter. Last, live the story you tell and allow it to evolve. Like a good book, your story will have unexpected turns and twists but be sure to embrace them and allow them to be part of your company history.

Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?

“Sometime reality is too complex. Stories give it form.” Jean Luc Godard – French Filmmaker

Positive Results!

My goal is to create Positive Results with Panache! for companies and brands that see the change in communications that I see and want help navigating it.

PR has always meant “Positive Results” in my mind…but I know that traditionally it also means a promotion intended to create goodwill.

I take that promotion very seriously and combine many components while creating goodwill and growth for my clients!

The right components for Positive Results: Understanding the education marketplace, integrated communication and marketing plans that include social and traditional media strategies, the development of strategic partnerships, opening the right doors to make the right things happen, special events, and other great items of value that improve client brands, to help their companies continue to grow.

When a client or prospective client is ready to share their story and ready to talk, really talk with their customers, I will find the right way to do it.

The game has changed, the tools have changed and the ways you can talk to customers has changed. I love to work with companies and brands that see the change I see and want help navigating it.

I love Positive Results…and why not make them happen with Panache!

Last week I was surrounded by hundreds of passionate, enthusiastic education leaders when I attended the ALAS (Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents) conference in Washington DC.

This fabulous group provides a voice for Latino children in our schools.

ALAS members reported that by the year 2025, Latino children will make up 25 percent of the school-age population. In the nation’s largest states – California, Texas, Florida, and New York – Latinos already have reached that level.

ALAS is addressing the needs of the fastest growing minority in the United States – the Latino community. Latinos have become the new “America’s largest minority.”

I found that ALAS is doing a super job serving as a voice for Latinos in the United States. It was a pleasure to be among such great leaders!

I believe in the power of story telling…I tell my client’s stories across the world and I know first hand the incredible impact these stories have on the people we are reaching.

I just read an interesting blog written by Johnny B. Truant posted on www.problogger.net where he is talking about story telling as story selling. He agrees with the premise that stories are the way to go to get the word out…he just calls it story selling. I have not decided if I like the term or not…I am going to mull it over for a bit and see where I land…do I like the term or don’t I like the term…that is the question!

Investor’s Circle, one of the oldest and largest angel investor networks in the country focuses on providing capital to companies that address social and environmental issues.

They are unique that they recognize the contributions that companies in the education market make while educating our youth.

I applaud them for recognizing Scholar Centric as one of the top most influential companies in the nation because they are committed to creating ready-to-learn classrooms where students are empowered to succeed in school and in life.

ScholarCentric’s flagship product, Success Highways, provides university researched assessment, curriculum, and professional development to K-12 schools to assist them in reducing the dropout rate by increasing the academic resiliency of their students.

Please go check out both of these groups and this great honor!

ScholarCentric’s Website

Investor’s Circle Website

“Not only do I notice more fabulous, but it sure seems as though the creators of it are more engaged, dedicated and yes, joyful, than I can remember. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it…”

Fabulous is one of my favorite words and Seth Godin is one of my favorite marketing gurus.

He did a blog post on Fabulous and I love it! I believe in his statement: the amount of fabulous in the world continues to rise exponentially.

Are we all doing our part to create new “Fabulous?”

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/11/fabulous.html

The Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) 24th Annual 2009 CODiE Award finalists have been announced!!!! Established by the Software & Information Industry Association, the CODiE Awards are among the most prestigious in the software industry, showcasing the finest software and digital content products and services across a wide variety of categories. Award winners will be announced May 4, 2009 at the 24th Annual CODiE Awards Gala in San Francisco, Calif.

I have to let everyone know that 4 of my fabulous clients are finalists for 2009!

Hats off to them! And hat’s off to the entire great group of finalists that are making a difference in education every day!

Spectrum K12 School Solutions, Inc.
Not only did Spectrum K12 School Solutions win the 2008 SIIA CODiE award for “Best Education Solution” last year, they are back as a finalist in 2009!
Spectrum K12’s EXCEED™ has been named a “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” finalist for the Software & Information Industry Association’s 24th Annual CODiE Awards. Spectrum K12 School Solutions is the leading provider of response to intervention (RTI), special education, and IEP software and management tools. http://www.spectrumk12.com

Psychological Software Solutions, Inc.
Psychological Software Solutions’ flagship product, Review360 has been named a 2009 finalist as the “Best Classroom Management Solution.”
Psychological Software Solutions, the industry leader in behavioral improvement solutions for schools was developed by a team of psychologists and behavioral experts and implemented in both regular and special education settings.  Review360™ is the only web-based, positive behavioral management solution to incorporate all five steps essential to helping school districts improve student behavior, achieve associated academic improvement and implement Response to Intervention (RtI) for behavior. http://www.psiwaresolutions.com/pss/home

Quantum Learning Technologies
www.skatekidsonline.com, Quantum Learning Technologies is a 2009 Codie finalist in the “Best Education Game or Simulation” category.
Skatekids Online and Ramps to Reading are a unique contribution to literacy acceleration and intervention. They are presented in a novel gaming environment that looks and feels like the games that most learners love to play- thus increasing time on task. Both programs are science/theory based on cognitive learning processes and appropriate for all learners in elementary grades. http://www.skatekidsonline.com

Educate Online
Educate Online has been named finalist in 2 categories for its individualized product, Academic Intervention. “Best Education Solution” and “Best K-12 Instructional Solution”

Individualized Academic Intervention accelerates student achievement by delivering comprehensive and engaging instruction designed specifically for remediation or advancement via a mastery model. Delivered online – at home or in school – by state certified instructors the one-on-one intervention supports schools to address the rigorous demands of AYP. http://www.educate-online-tutoring.com/
For more information and a for a list of finalists, visit http://www.siia.net/codies/2009/finalist_list.asp