Dreaming is easy. Turning dreams into reality is hard. Turning really big dreams into reality is the hardest; this is the path of the warrior. Turning education from the industrial age to the future is one of those big dreams. Therefore, by the immutable rules of logic, we need warriors. The warrior is a parent, [...]
I have been working on presentations for the fall, and these two slides encapsulate so much of what K-12 needs to be worrying about; I wanted to share them. Programmatically we have to re-imagine what learning means; this will an ongoing, never-ending process that has to take place much more rapidly than it does now. [...]
I am preparing for two conferences in the fall that deal with leadership and change management as we recognize the importance of developing our innovation practices at school. In putting together a list of references, readings, and active learning opportunities for these conferences, I was happy to read a great piece by Mike Myatt today [...]
I am creating an active learning workshop for educational business leaders in the fall and found myself falling into a common trap that can kill innovative practices before they have a chance to sprout: creating before destroying. That sounds harsh, but wait a moment. How often have you and your colleagues said something like “we [...]
Dive in. It’s the 5th of July, tipping point of the summer for many U.S. schools, starting that long slide towards the start of the new school year just 6-7 weeks away. Schools live in this strange quantum of 10-12 month cycles; if we don’t plan and do something one school year it almost always [...]
I just realized we have been missing a "P". For years we have referred to the three key organizational elements at our school as the Three P's: people, program, and place. I imagine many others see their school in these same terms, as well as folks in other organizations. They reflect the main characteristics of [...]
Innovation is a word that we all now use: “schools must innovate in order to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world”. But before we start something, we should know WHY. Jeffery Phillips, writing on the Innovation Excellence blog site notes five key factors that are driving that need to innovate; my commentary is [...]
On the plane ride across country yesterday I closed my eyes and let the song list play. Bob Dylan is, of course, the iconic songwriter of our generation, and Joan Baez’ angelic voice is one I imagine listening to on the way into a peaceful afterlife. I guess I was in the spirit to listen [...]
Two blogs caught my attention in the past couple of days as they make critical comments on the role of leaders in evolving knowledge-based organizations. Both created in my mind the image of learner-leader as perfect for the future of educational leadership. NAIS President Pat Bassett asks the question: Do Leaders Matter? citing studies and [...]
Yesterday I reflected on the wisdom of four panelists at The Martin Institute, summer conference: John Hunter, Sandy Dawes, Bo Adams, and Clif Mims, as they described their vision of our learning future. Toward the end of their discussion they spoke of overcoming the need to assess in traditional ways, to “bend the knee” to [...]