Winning: Luck? Strategy? Reaction? Birthright? Hmmm…
January 2, 2019Over a relaxing holiday break I had plenty of un-scheduled time to just hang out with family. As I get older, hopefully a bit more reflective and a smidgen wiser, I know how sacred are these times when we set aside our devices and “things we have to do”, and just be together. And play…
Doubling Down on Real Strategy
December 11, 2018I am doubling down on the critical role of real strategy for schools. I have read a lot of school strategic plans, and most share one thing in common: they are not strategic at all. They are almost all tactical. Strategy is, simply, about making choices that gives your school or district the best opportunity…
Consider Joining Year Two of the Strategic Change Accelerator!
November 8, 2018Is your school contemplating a significant change in the year ahead? Is your team prepared with the skills and processes to make sure that change is well-designed? That your community stakeholders have had input and are on board? That you have the knowledge base to move forward with a set of first prototypes and pilots,…
Harrisburg Schools Pt. 3: Personalized Learning in the Middle and High Schools
October 31, 2018In the last week I have posted two blogs about Harrisburg School District in South Dakota, where they are implementing a remarkable program of personalized learning. Here is the final of three posts; focusing here on the evolving program in the middle and high schools. For more details, look at Travis Lape’s blog: Students in…
Personalized Learning Harrisburg, S. Dakota, Pt 2: The Elementary Schools
October 29, 2018As I posted in my last blog, the personalized learning tracks in Harrisburg School District south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, REALLY opened my eyes. Here is part two of my report: the elementary schools. The personalized learning cohorts in Harrisburg elementary schools combine all student in grades 2-5. In the areas of math and…
Harrisburg School Pt. 1: Setting a New High Bar
October 26, 2018“I have been teaching for 14 years”, veteran elementary teacher Dana Honner told me yesterday, “and I always thought I really knew my students as individual learners. I was totally wrong. In the few months that I have been teaching in this system of truly personalized learning, I finally actually know each of my students…
#EdJourney Pine Ridge, Pt. 3: Listening
October 25, 2018I have spent several days asking questions and listening, but mostly trying really hard to listen. It is not my natural mode of human interaction; I have always been opinionated and quick to find and solve a problem. Spending time in a place where problems lie in all directions, my natural tendency is to propose…
Special Challenges of Small Districts in Rural America
October 23, 2018What does education innovation mean in a small, rural town in the vast ranch and farm lands of western North America? What are the goals and objectives of families in these areas? Are they the same or different from families in urban and suburban America? Specifically, if the reason we should be transforming school is…
#EdJourney Pine Ridge, Pt. 3: The Power of Storytellers
October 22, 2018After a long drive today, I stopped to pay my respects at the Wounded Knee Memorial. I was the only visitor there, so immediately gathered several locals selling crafts. I suggested I was actually interested in what had happened here, and one young man offered to take me across to the cemetery and tell me…
#EdJourney Pine Ridge Pt 2: Native Youth On the Move
October 22, 2018Yes, Pine Ridge is the poorest zip code in America; for the rest of the week I will focus on the remarkable work being done here to turn that around! On Friday I visited with the team at the Thunder Valley Community Development Corp., a group that started with three people in 2012, and has…
#EdJourney Pine Ridge, Pt. 1: The American Genocide
October 20, 2018If you are reading this, are of European descent, and your ancestors arrived on this continent more than three or four generations ago, it is almost a certainty that they perpetrated, were complicit in, or turned a blind eye on, one of the great genocides in human history. Pretty much right at the time of…
Follow My Mini-EdJourney in South Dakota
October 16, 2018Can we call ourselves Americans if we either don’t know, or forget about, the original Americans? Are we the most we can be if we neglect those with the least? Follow and share over the next week or so, as I go to South Dakota and spend time with the educators, leaders, and (hopefully) students…
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