"Principal learner" at the Trinity School in Montgomery, Alabama Michael Zavada, has written a wonderful "first review" of my new book, #EdJourney. He says it is a first review because he is biting off the book in smallish chunks and thinking as he goes. What a great "novel" strategy for good learning! Here are a [...]
Six boxes showed up at my door late yesterday, 50 copies of my new book, #EdJourney. In 90,000 words I do my best to tell YOUR story of how schools are overcoming the enormous challenge of innovating to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. If you have followed my blog, hopefully you have [...]
Innovation in schools occurs when "regular, like-able people" can engage the process in a trusting, supportive environment. In her review on Amazon of #EdJourney, 4th grade teacher Lisa Goochee, now teaching in Brazil after global experiences from Philly to China, finds those common elements of successful innovation that are available to every educator-leader: ...showcases how regular, [...]
Thoughtful leaders. There is a mouthful: thoughtful, leader, thought leader; those who are all three are rare, not because we lack "thought-lead DNA", but often because we are consumed by busy lives and day jobs. I have frequently pointed Twitter followers to Mark Crotty, head of school at St. John's Episcopal in Dallas who takes the [...]
I have had a full spring/summer of reading, and thought I would pass along the following recommendations (most of which came to me through recommendations of others!): Some of these I have already blogged on, so have created the link to those reviews: A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger Creative Confidence by David and [...]
What schools in the San Francisco Bay Area are burning brightly with brushfires of innovation? Might I come visit, observe, reflect, and share with your faculty and/or students? I normally charge a daily consulting fee, but maybe we chalk this trip up to research? I am honored to be a featured speaker and have a [...]
Do you wish your professional development budget was larger? Great interactions, learning, and personal growth do not have to always include getting on an airplane. Here is another simple, great chance to expand your comfort and knowledge base with both design thinking and online collegial connections: There are more than 200 weekly Twitter chats hosted [...]
Yep, I am going to crow a bit over the wonderfully generous comments I have received on my new book from some of our true educational thought leaders! Yong Zhao...author, researcher, visionary...who many of us follow closely (and if you don't, you should), has written extensively on the sharp dissonance between test-focused learning and what we [...]
Is it the natural end of a somewhat off-the-grid vacation on tropical islands and rain forest pathways? Or is it that my friends around the world care deeply about education and that the themes of our times are universal and pressing? Some of both. In the last two days, as I wind down this wonderful [...]
I have never visited an educational institution more steeped in tradition than the US Military Academy at West Point. The Academy is a keeper of traditions of which all of us would be proud, and that many of us would do well to emulate. But, over the several years that I have worked and visited [...]