As a district, we now have a membership to Syfrspace.net, an online professional learning
community for educational leaders. We will use this space as a network to advance our
conversations around leadership and 21st century learning.
To save us the effort, Syfr is going to do the registrations for us. When this is done, you will
receive several emails from invitations@syfrspace.net confirming your registration and
access to various groups. Once you receive the confirmation emails, you are
encouraged to log in to SyfrSpace and collaborate. Your user name is your district
email address, and your temporary password is harlingen. If you are concerned
about privacy, you may change the password to something unique to you, and make any
updates to your profile that you feel necessary (the birth date field will be filled in with a
default date). If you have already joined SyfrSpace, you can join whatever groups you like
in Intersections and SyfrCafe.
If you have any questions or problems signing in, you can email Shannon Stepan at
sstepan@syfrcorp.com.
The main page of SyfrSpace gives you some tips for getting started. Of special interest for
the summer are the book study groups forming in the SyfrCafe. In addition to podcasts and
discussions on the Texas Visioning Document, book studies include The Death and Life of
the Great American School System, by Diane Ravitch, Teach Like a Champion, but Doug
Lemov, and Drive, by Daniel Pink.
What happens in SyfrSpace™?
SyfrSpace™ was conceived as an outgrowth of Syfr's work with the Texas
Association of School Administrators (TASA), while working with them to Share the
Vision of The Visioning Institute. The Visioning Institute's mission is to Create a
New Vision for Public Education in Texas. Syfr's mission is to help school districts
use ideas outside of education to transform themselves into 21st century
organizations. This professional development network is a collaborative venture to
engage educators in this work. If you are a visitor in SyfrSpace™, you may click on
the Story tab to learn about our work. If you are a subscriber, once your
membership has been confirmed by the network Administrator, there are three
SIMPLE ways to connect with the SyfrSpace™ Network:
1.
2.
3.
Go to the Story tab and watch or listen to interviews with school leaders, or join the
conversations around the Pressures, Processes, or Policies and Practices for Change.
Go to the Intersections tab and browse the podcast libraries in BookNotes™,
Connections, or ArtWalk. These podcasts discuss the Intersections of current topics in
disciplines outside of education that connect with Syfr's 21st century topics. You can
listen, read or join a forum in the SyfrCafe™ from here.
Click on the SyfrCafe™ tab and join a BookNotes Study Forum. In the Cafe, you
can listen to a podcast, or read the transcripts, organized by topic, and respond to
others who are interested in creating a new vision for public education, wherever we
may be.
Looking forward to seeing you in SyfrSpace!