Events like the massacre in Paris yesterday make discussions of moral relativism easy. There are two cultures of people in the world: those that leap to stop Ebola from killing millions, even when most of those people are different, poor and far away; and those that want to kill other people out of a twisted sense [...]
What if school was primarily a place where students and teachers co-searched for surprises? We often find the best ideas, the most creative solutions, the profitable surprises, not in the expected, the well-trodden, the known, but in the outliers, the untested, and the unusual. Maybe they have been passed over by others because they are partially [...]
I have had the unique privilege of visiting more than 100 K-12 schools in the last two years, and in virtually every one I found a spark of what the school leaders called “innovation”. A principal or head of school says “you just have to see what Ms. Jones is doing in her classroom; it [...]
From a roiling, fast #satchatwc Twitter chat this morning: Many of the responses to "what one word describes your goals for 2015?" are better than the word "grit". Surely words like joy, sparkle, passion, intent, courage, risk, unbounded, ask, voice, compassion, stretch, iterate, fearless, empathy, uncertainty, reflective, moment, authentic, yet, create, enthusiastic, awesome, overcome, finish, empower, [...]
What are we going to do with Anya? And why are we not teaching her what she needs and wants to learn? Anya Smith is a high school student in the inaugural year of the iDiploma program at Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School designed and operated by Meghan Cureton and Bo Adams. Anya latched on to [...]
Social media is the clothing of a new Goddess of Connectivity...until one realizes just how many people they are connected with and how important each of them are, as an individual within and beyond the collective. Last night flying home from Texas from my last school-team visit of what has been both an extremely busy [...]
Quick report: Texas public schools are organized around large regions. Today I spent a day with the professional development support staff of ESC Region One, a huge area along the Texas-Mexico border representing about 40 districts and 450,000 students. There is a strong sense that education can really make a difference in the lives of [...]
Quick report: Design 39 Campus in Poway has done some incredible work already in this, their first year. Teachers have created processes that allow students to select areas of interest within which to pursue theme-based content; every day might be a bit different in terms of where students go and what they do...and both children [...]
How can high school students contribute to our understanding of great learning and teaching? Take a look. Students at The Pomfret School take the period between Thanksgiving and Winter Break for a three-week inter-session focusing on areas of passion. One group is interested in teaching, and they learn by doing, with elementary school students. This [...]
We kicked off a district-wide Innovation Design Challenge in Poway Unified School District yesterday. Here is a first report; I will continue to report on progress until we set up a #PUSDIDC web page for tracking and resources. Poway Unified is a 35,000 student district just north of San Diego. Superintendent John Collins has set [...]