I am going to write twice about St. Anne’s Episcopal in Denver, one today to review a truly fascinating class that I sat in on, and one later this week or this weekend. I need time to reflect on the very thoughtful discussions I had with Head of School Alan Smiley and others about how [...]
Julie Bragdon, Assistant Head at Montessori School of Denver sums up how she views their school: “We are a wave, not a museum”. MSD prides itself on a rich heritage of the Montessori method and culture, but also in continuing to innovate in ways that would make Maria Montessori proud. My main takeaway from my [...]
Wow, what a way to start my three-month journey. If you want to know how a school has made real progress at the process of re-inventing themselves to meet the challenges of the future, visit with the folks at Colorado Academy (CA). In this post I will try to summarize two main areas I learned [...]
Day 2: Crossing Utah and Colorado There will be a learning lesson here, but first please permit me a Sabbath reflection. Sunrise, five miles west of Salina, open road but for a few early morning long-haul truckers, bottom land rich in ripe alfalfa bounded by rising buttes of banded red and white, Neil Young “Helpless” [...]
Day 1; Richfield, UT From a very experienced science teacher, old school, but passionate about his students, as he wished me a safe journey yesterday: “Get out there. We won’t know what we need to do unless we know what is possible”. Thanks, Dave! If you feel cramped in classrooms, cubicles, or just [...]
LOOK AHEAD: Visits during week of September 10 Denver: Colorado Academy, Denver Montessori, St. Anne’s Episcopal, Denver Green School Kansas City: Barstow, Pembroke Hill The nature of comfort and risk are skewed to our life experience. I try, utterly unsuccessfully of course, to empathize with those who have experienced war, devastating personal loss, or just [...]
Schools are in the knowledge business. We need to be in the wisdom business. Let’s find the fusion of those two. Great educators know this is true. We look back on our own lives and know that our moments of success come more from clarity and experience that lead us to make wise decisions than [...]
T-minus three days! As you know, over the next three months I will be meeting with hundreds of educators at more than 50 leading independent, charter, and public schools around the country, each with a unique story to tell about how they are evolving their organizations to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world. [...]
This time next week I will be on the downhill ride to Denver to start my 3-month Journey of Learning with visits to a quartet of outstanding schools: Colorado Academy, St. Anne’s Episcopal, Denver Montessori, and the Denver Green School. Each are embracing innovative programs to help their students succeed in the challenges of their [...]
Thanks Bo Adams for Tweeting me a link to the Harvard Business Review Idea Cast interview with management professor and jazz musician Frank Barrett, talking about his book “Yes to the Mess”. It is a great 20-minute piece and I encourage you to listen to it. I won’t repeat all of his wonderful images and [...]