TiTTS Bits

It's now official. The head of TiTTS has resigned from the Duchy. Supposedly the reason is that the Black Dot Queen was making it impossible for him to do his job. She really is sucking all of the oxygen out of the Duchy.
I'm still pissed off about the vision thing. Duke Phfffr recently issued a proclamation about world music and "intercultural proficiency" It's clear from the proclamation that the Duke feels strongly about this. The proclamation has lots of good verbage, heartfelt verbage, about making the world a better place through intercultural education. The White Queen's Monday Missives also frequently express the same 0bviously heartfelt feelings about education. And if you read any parent comments about what they want their children to learn in life and they will say they want them to "be happy and get along well with others". With both the Duke and the White Queen of the same mind as parents, WHY are we constantly harassing teachers and students about testing, grades and standards? Why doesn't the vision express the obviously core belief of the both leadership and the parents that the job of schools is to create a better world, one student at a time. Or is the whole district being led by the soulless like the Black Queen?

Vision (or not)

Today in professional development, the facilitator presented this nifty graphic which summarized what is required for change in an organization to occur. It looks like
Vision + Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = Change
With any of the pieces missing you get confusion, anxiety, frustration and other bad outcomes. When the facilitator asked us to relate this piece of information to our personal experience I realized just how bitter I have become. I don't think I'm alone either. The group had been interacting up to that point and then they became very silent. On of the participants asked for a show of hands for how many people know the Duchy's vision. There were no hands raised. I went to the web site and looked it up. Here it is
Tucson Unified School District is a professional learning community that ensures every student learns, exceeds all expected performance standards, graduates, and is able to compete and succeed in a global economy.
Aside from the fact the "professional learning community" is such a meaningless buzzword right now, it's not a bad vision statement, just kind of uninspired. Considering that a vision statement should be inspiring that's not good. A bigger problem is that NONE of the actions taken with respect to the Duchy library community relate to that vision in ANY WAY.
Going back to the effective change, the way it works is:
First you have the vision, then you need to determine the skills needed for that vision, the training needed, the incentives, and the resources that will be available. With that information, you can create an action plan. Is that anything like a strategic plan? Even with no information about resources, no control over skills and incentives, and no articulated vision, Dotland was asked to create a strategic plan. They did. It vanished into that black hole that exists around the Black Queen.
Possibly I would feel less bitter if the Duchy had ever provided ANY of the crucial parts. The closest to the vision anyone can get is "It's all about the kids." Yeah, right, that's helpful. Skills and training, that costs money and requires planning and takes people away from the school site. We can't have that. Incentives. We should be able to at least say if you learn this it will make your day to day job easier. It would be nice if we could say this. However, the Duchy does not have a good track record with making jobs easier. Chances are if you are trained in a procedure that will make your job easier, the Duchy will change the procedure immediately after training everyone. Resources. With a clearly articulated vision and a clear understanding of the skills, incentives and resources that will be available, it is possible to develop an action plan to implement anything over some time frame. Little skills, incentives and resources, looong time frames, lots of skills, incentives, and resources, short time frames. However, it's critical to know what resources will be made available. Have we EVER been told what resources can be used and how?
Bitter? You bet I am!

Destiny (again)

You've probably already heard that our Destiny might not be so destined after all. It seems the Lime Green Knight did such a good job of telling people how wonderful Destiny was that all of the villages want all of its bells and whistles and in order to get all of those bells and whistles there will have to be an RFP (Really Fat Paper). (Actually that means Request for Proposal. A request for proposal says "We want to buy something that does everything on this list (with a really long list attached) How much will you charge us?" And that RFP has to go to every vendor that might be interested. That means competition and choices. That should be interesting.) Silver is a little concerned about the RFP because the only person writing it seems to be the Lime Green Knight. Silver isn't sure that the Lime Green Knight remembers all of the different things a library program needs to be able to do. The Black Queen promised us committees to deal with things like that. What has happened to all of those committees?
In other news the head of TiTS has disappeared from the pigeon address book. What does this mean? Is there some good gossip there? Actually that's what we need to cheer up these winter days - some good gossip. Anyone know any? Maybe we'll have to start making some up!

Snow Day!

Yesterday was a SNOW DAY in Tucson, Arizona! Well, at least a snow half-day. The entire Duchy got the morning off due to an inch of snow on the ground. (Stop snickering, Buffalo!) And today Duke Phffer announced that no one would have to take personal time for that half-day. Whoa! Of course, then those hardy people who went in to work anyway wanted to know if they were going to be paid extra for working on a paid holiday. That question hasn't been ruled on yet. Silver spent the snow morning reading Wintersmith, a new book by Terry Pratchett. Everyone knows that Silver reads Sci-fi and fantasy and when asked what a book by Terry Pratchett is about, she says "Oh, it's fantasy" because Terry Pratchett is really hard to explain. In truth, Terry Pratchett is not fantasy at all. It's straightforward satire, which means that unlike fantasy it's about the REAL Real World. Wintersmith is about Tiffany Aching, a 13 year old apprentice witch who has unfortunately attracted the attention of the Wintersmith, the Winter Elemental responsible for bringing Winter to the world. (Anyone who doubts the existence of the Wintersmith in the Real World just needed to look out the window yesterday morning.) Tiffany has already learned the truth about witchcraft in the Real World. When she is home from her apprenticeship, her mother finds her scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees and says "I thought you could do that by just moving your hands about" Tiffany replied "That works, but only if you move your hands on the floor with a scrub brush in them." The truth about witchcraft is like nuclear weapons it's much too dangerous to use. The Wintersmith was of particular interest to Silver because it talks about the Librarians, a group like gypsies that travel from village to village in wagons full of books which they will lend for a penny. If you bring them a book you get three free loans. It is said that a Librarian can tell just what book you need just by looking at you. When the Wintersmith has dumped 6 feet of snow on them, they are in dire straits. They are running out of fuel to keep the lanterns burning so they can read. Of course, freezing to death is also a problem but that's a secondary consideration to not being able to read. (See, I told you it was about the Real World.) So that you won't worry about the Librarians when the story is really about Tiffany and the Wintersmith, I'll tell you that they are rescued by small blue men, the Nac Mac Feegles, who are the only people ever thrown out of the Underworld for singing on Charon's boat. Of course, there was also the destruction of Cerberus, the three-headed dog. I've looked for a good guide to Terry Pratchett, but there just isn't a definitive guide on the internet, so I guess I'll have to browbeat Silver into writing one to introduce people to the memorable characters like The Luggage which has feet and holds clean laundry when you open it and lots and lots of teeth when anyone else opens it. Never go into Iraq without The Luggage. That was clearly Emporer Shrub's mistake!

Dispatches from Dotland

Things have been quiet and productive in Dotland. The Dots are doing training and fixing and arranging and normal Dotly things that would have been happening all along if the Black Queen hadn't stopped them. The training is happening because IDEA arranged it first and mentioned it to the Black Queen later. The Black Queen did send a pigeon to the Dots congratulating them on the training. One wonders if perhaps there was a blind copy of that pigeon that went to someone else, say the White Queen? Certainly it is not in character for the Black Queen to congratulate someone on doing a job she has previously blocked. The Black Queen is also sometimes called the Technology Queen, sort of a legend in her own mind. However, some of the tech such as the Spectacularly Clever Boards don't seem to work. In other news, your faithful correspondent attended a meeting of the Duchy Board. Duke Phffr delivered the State of the Duchy address to the board using some of the Tech Queen's new tech. The Duke tried to show a video to the board but the Proxima didn't work. However, later, the Diva had a video of her own and that did work. I'm thinking that possibly the Tech Queen treats her electronic servants just like she treats the Dots. I'm thinking that if I were a Proxima I probably wouldn't want to work for her either.
Attending a Duchy Board meeting is always an adventure. Students from one of the villages keep escaping into the neighborhood and upsetting the neighbors. The Duke hopes to solve the problem by building a Parking Palace. The Duchy Board is doubtful. "The students live in the neighborhood and they'll still be walking home through the neighborhood" commented one board member. Of course, the Parking Palace will be built anyway. Maybe they can make the students all camp out in it all year.

Breaking News! Castle evacuated!

Duchy Castle, at XX E. X, stands silent, guarded by grim policemen, after today's threats of violence and terrorism. Authorities have not disclosed any details. According to some reports, men with guns were seen in the halls of the Castle during an important meeting of village headmen. Speculation was rampant. Terrorism, gunman, disgruntled teachers, and bombs were all mentioned. Details are very sketchy at this point but this conversation was overheard before the castle occupants fled for their lives... or an afternoon off.
First woman "My friend saw men with guns so we called 911 and got out of there. I was so scared!"
Friend "I said I saw a man with GUB! What were you calling 911 about? How come we get to go home early?"
First woman "She means GUNS! Of course I called 911."
Friend "I hab a code. I said GUB! He was chewing GUB!! It should be against the law.!"
First woman "Oh. Well, we got to leave early anyway. See you tomorrow!"
Occupants of the SNEAC building were jealous "Nothing ever happens here!" "That's because they can't find us since Homeland Security said that we couldn't have a map or a sign." "When are we going to get to go home early, huh? It's months before it's hot enough to break the air-conditioning so we can leave!"
In other news the SNEAC building is being painted a lovely shade of pink. Reaction of the occupants...."It didn't look pink in the sample."

All Quiet in Dotland

The Duchy is very quiet these days. The Black Dot Queen and her henchman are apparently on vacation. And when the Black Dot Queen is not making mischief and vandalizing library programs, the Dots aren't agitated. Some of the Dots are even Taking Time Off. Others are going about their Dotly duties, making sure thing run smoothly. The only niggling concern is whether the Black Queen is really on vacation or just plotting more mischief. What will the new year bring from Black Dot Castle?
In other news, the Dotland Quilts are now online at http://barbssewing.pbwiki.com/.