Grant Lichtman…author, speaker, educator, facilitator, innovation partner, “Chief Provocateur”…will be in New Zealand for ULearn 2015. Might we connect at your school during October 13-16? Grant keynotes, consults with, and facilitates workshops for both private and public schools and school groups interested in building a capacity for innovation and change. Grant is the author of [...]
Doing is SO much harder than saying, pointing, or quoting. Inspired by the prompts in another great #satchatwc, guest hosted by Jay Billy, I ask us to consider the gap between the posters on our wall, the quotes we love to share, the heroes we seek to emulate...and what we do each day. If you [...]
Have we been asking the right questions? What if we have been approaching the transformation of learning from "north" on the compass rose when we should have been approaching from "west" or "east"? I am going to mix the heck out of some metaphors here, but stick with me for a moment. Computing metaphor: the [...]
“What classroom (pedagogical) practices have no place in today’s classroom?” This was a question T. J. Locke, the ever-thoughtful Head of School at Episcopal Academy just outside of Philadelphia, posed a few days ago to a list of colleagues. He is going to compile the results, but I thought I would share my quick brain dump [...]
5th graders share and record their ideas about peak learning, deep learning, and student engagement I tried something completely new today, maybe even something that no one has tried before? Could we train and engage 140 5th graders as ambassadors to their school community to gather input for a school-wide innovation design challenge? In [...]
What does deeper, richer learning look like? How might we shift to a more student-centered, student-owned school day? Is this possible only in private schools, or also in public schools that are adjusting to new standards and struggling with larger class sizes? Here are some pics from a quick stop at Design 39 Campus yesterday. [...]
Spoiler alert and "huge surprise": the NY Times did NOT choose to print the following as a guest editorial. Well, let's show 'em how K-12 educators can weigh in on big ideas without the popular press! Amidst the seemingly endless list of polarizing arguments tearing at the American landscape, American K-12 education has high billing. [...]
Do you want to understand disruptive innovation? Fill your car's gas tank. And if you think the price of gas has nothing to do with the future of schools, read on! In the 1970's (I know this stuff because I was a geologist at Stanford and with the US Geological Survey back then), the official reports [...]
I have had the unique privilege of visiting more than 100 K-12 schools in the last two years, and in virtually every one I found a spark of what the school leaders called “innovation”. A principal or head of school says “you just have to see what Ms. Jones is doing in her classroom; it [...]
Quick report: Texas public schools are organized around large regions. Today I spent a day with the professional development support staff of ESC Region One, a huge area along the Texas-Mexico border representing about 40 districts and 450,000 students. There is a strong sense that education can really make a difference in the lives of [...]