This post is about a school were the first teacher of the day states “We approach everything with the view of children as powerful knowledge creators”. It is about a school where, unprompted, a 5th grade boy tells me that Bloom’s Taxonomy is incorrect, that you don’t need to learn basic information in order to [...]
*Thanks, followers of EdJourney...700+ views yesterday! Incredible interscholastic sharing going on, free to all followers! Pass the link to a friend or colleague.* This post is going to be simple; clarity breeds simplicity. It will be about remarkable leadership and management style. There will be those who say, “we can’t learn from a public school [...]
As I have mentioned before, some organizations innovate because they want to and some because they have to, and some a combination of both. I spent the afternoon at The Collegiate School in Richmond and confirmed what I have suspected for some time: my friends Head Keith Evans and Academic Dean David Colon and their [...]
One of the predominant themes of this journey has been that if a school wants to increase the rate of innovation, either out of desire or necessity (or both), they create a structure, name it, provide resources, and give it a charge. This post is about a school that is doing just that, out of [...]
I got to St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School latish in the afternoon; most of the students had left for meetings with college admissions reps, but I had a quiet chance to meet with long-time Head Joan Holden, long-time CFO Beth Chase, and two art teachers. Most schools don’t roll out the art teachers for me [...]
I had a pretty high opinion of Sidwell Friends School before I visited this week, and was not disappointed. Head Tom Farquhar freely admits they are not “the most progressive school”, but I brought away some important lessons regarding both process and product. I had put this school on my visit list not due to [...]
Holly Chesser at SAIS in Atlanta was kind enough to include a piece on my work in the latest newsletter. Here is the opening part with link to the rest. Thanks, Holly, and look forward to presenting and discussing with SAIS on Nov. 6. Again, for any in the area, contact Holly to attend. As [...]
I am pretty good at both thinking and seeing outside of boxes, but there was a time yesterday during my meeting at Flint Hill School outside of Washington, D.C. that I just wasn’t getting it. We are all burdened with perceptions based on experience, and I am not an exception. I got stuck on a [...]
The school I visited on Friday in Boston is the smallest I will see on this trip, just 43 students in grades 6-12 on the third floor of a brick building on Beacon Street. Many will be tempted to dismiss the lessons from such a school as not applicable to their own issues and opportunities. [...]
I am holed up in a small town in Connecticut for the weekend, getting caught on the blog, copying video files, making plane reservations for Thanksgiving week, confirming visits through early November, logging key take-aways, and creating a new and critical list of lessons: what obstacles to innovation have people cited in these visits. It [...]