Nothing will overcome the inertia opposing organizational change faster than shifting the gene pool of the organization. How might we do this with virtually no discomfort? How can we raise the level of "innovator DNA" amongst our teachers and administrators? Tired of reading stacks of resumes and interviewing dozens of job applicants who cannot raise the [...]
What one word describes your vision of the highest goals of learning? What do you hope to exude as an educator? Of what do you want your school to "reek"? In a January #satchatwc a prompt along those lines started a list, and I have continued to informally gather those words at #onewordK12. So far [...]
“What classroom (pedagogical) practices have no place in today’s classroom?” This was a question T. J. Locke, the ever-thoughtful Head of School at Episcopal Academy just outside of Philadelphia, posed a few days ago to a list of colleagues. He is going to compile the results, but I thought I would share my quick brain dump [...]
5th graders share and record their ideas about peak learning, deep learning, and student engagement I tried something completely new today, maybe even something that no one has tried before? Could we train and engage 140 5th graders as ambassadors to their school community to gather input for a school-wide innovation design challenge? In [...]
What does deeper, richer learning look like? How might we shift to a more student-centered, student-owned school day? Is this possible only in private schools, or also in public schools that are adjusting to new standards and struggling with larger class sizes? Here are some pics from a quick stop at Design 39 Campus yesterday. [...]
Spoiler alert and "huge surprise": the NY Times did NOT choose to print the following as a guest editorial. Well, let's show 'em how K-12 educators can weigh in on big ideas without the popular press! Amidst the seemingly endless list of polarizing arguments tearing at the American landscape, American K-12 education has high billing. [...]
I have started to write for Edutopia; see my current article "Teacher as Farmer" on their site.
There are times when personal and professional interests directly cross, and this is one of them. Those who follow this blog know that I almost exclusively write about education, but have upon occasion shared something from or about our rock-star daughter, Cassidy in her role as incredible scholar athlete and big thinker. Today it is [...]
Could your faculty (with maybe a bit of input from students) prototype an experiential learning unit in 14 minutes that meets the following specs?: Student ownership of the project Multidisciplinary content Observation Reflection Synthesis Action that impacts others Outside the classroom but within walking distance That is one of the fast activities we ran through [...]
Do you want to understand disruptive innovation? Fill your car's gas tank. And if you think the price of gas has nothing to do with the future of schools, read on! In the 1970's (I know this stuff because I was a geologist at Stanford and with the US Geological Survey back then), the official reports [...]