The Harried Head of School's Best Friend

What it has already done for me is help to bring a bit more order to my chaotic days. As Head of a school, I attend too many meetings each day and need to keep track of action items and decisions made at each one. So far, the IPad feels like a great help.  IPad allows me to type shorthand notes at the meetings (a blessing since my horrendous left handed writing seems to get even worse as the years go by) and email them right then and there without hiding behind a laptop.

I try to do a lot of work-related reading. IPad organizes this large volume of articles, blogs, and book excerpts and allows me to take it with me wherever I go, and to quickly share this interesting content with colleagues. The IPad’s  Flipboard app arranges it all into a slick and attractive package. It is like carrying a customized, dynamic, and endlessly interesting magazine with me at all times.

For now, I think I will keep my precious novels on an actual bookshelf in my dining room or piled high on my bedside table, and not on the virtual wood bookshelf in the IBooks app. I do think, though, that the IPad’s reader works well for longer-form nonfiction reading. I downloaded Daniel Pink’s Drive to test out the reader. It is a good and relevant book, and the type of reading that is perfect for the IPad.