I have been in several virtual chats over the last few days as edu-leaders think about managing their schools during the shut down, and about the lessons we need to learn for a new-normal long-term outlook. A couple of big takeaways: We are in a war; FINALLY even Washington is starting to "get it". This [...]
No use sugar coating it; most educators have been shoved out of their comfort zone like baby birds from the nest. Uncertainty is scary, and rightfully so. Many of you might not be back in session until the fall, and we have no idea how to answer most of the questions around a return to [...]
Feeling queasy? Cautious, uncertain, even a bit of fear? Many of us have been shouting that we are living in a rapidly changing world, and last week American found out what that really means. For several decades we have myopically believed that "rapidly changing" had something to do with technology, and Moore's Law; that the [...]
If there is a silver lining to Covid-19 (and we won't know either the trajectory of the virus or the potential for a silver lining for quite some time) it might be a smack-in-the-face wake-up call that science is more important than political ideology when it comes to really important things. This is not a [...]
If you have not already done so, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt is a must read for all educators and parents of children between the ages of pregnant and 25. It is a powerful review, with significant quantitative and qualitative data in support, of the realization that the [...]
Never underestimate the power of a group of people with vision, passion, and energy! Those are the terms I would use to describe the growing group of edu-leaders from Hamilton Southeastern Schools near Indianapolis who focused a book group read and discussions around my book, Thrive. (Short video and free intro download on my website.) [...]
When great design works, it is a beautiful thing. Most of us think about design as sketches that lead to a product. Designers know that it is really a process of identifying the best solution for an important challenge, which is exactly, in my humble opinion, why the newly announced Senior School of Kingsway College [...]
I was thrilled that a group of about 40 educators, organized by the Early Learning Alliance Network got together for the first of three book club discussions based on my book Thrive! Just think about it: 40 educators, with many different titles, from multiple schools, getting together to just share ideas, language, and experiences around [...]
A year or so ago, my good friend and wonderful high school English teacher Chris Harrington started collecting short blog posts from past graduates, reflecting on key lessons from their school days that they wish they could share with their former selves. It turned into a unique and powerful stream of thinking and writing, and [...]
Creating a shared "North Star" vision of where you want to go is one of the first and most critical steps of changing your school. Each school with which I have worked has fashioned their own unique North Star, and I discuss these steps at length in Thrive. These North Stars have taken varied forms [...]
