Students learn best when they are wrestling with problems in which they find relevance, in which the intrinsic motivation to learn outpaces the extrinsic motivation of a higher grade. What if we took them into a real-life disaster movie, one where the nerdy scientists predict the end of the world, politicians yell at each other, some [...]
If you ever had the inkling that Advanced Placement courses and exams just maybe don't represent the very best learning opportunity for some of our most enterprising young minds, this should really spur you on to grab your pitchfork, light your torch, gather your neighbors, and drive the AP monster out of your school forever. [...]
As I started to think about how to launch my new book, Moving the Rock, I came cross Thunderclap, a fascinating crowdsourcing site. It is not about raising money; it is about raising our collective voice. The idea is simple: propose an idea; set a target of gathering other people who share your idea; and [...]
You can watch the video below from Iolani School in Hawaii, and in the first 30 seconds your response might be: We are not a wealthy private school. We don't get to hand pick our students. We don't have millions of dollars for this kind of facility. We don't have alumni like Apple guru Guy [...]
Does your school value students who exhibit character, grit, and leadership? Is it in your mission to develop these traits in your students? Probably, and rightly so. But as I and others have urged educators to step back and think deeply about the meaning of the word “grit”, an important article by Susan Cain, writing in [...]
It’s one thing to hear a school boast that it is “innovative” or to see that word splashed across their website. It is quite another, and still rarer than we would like, to find a trove or artifacts at at school that, together, paint a real picture of sustained, intentional, innovation. The later is what [...]
The end of a school year is “tired time” for teachers and students alike. You are beat, and can’t wait for the much deserved summer break. I remember like it was yesterday, not decades ago, that visceral warmth of the last day of school, knowing the days ahead meant sun and swimming pools and unhinged time, despite [...]
Most students in school today have never played, and certainly never bought, a music CD. Within a few years after Apple launched the iTunes store a decade ago, sales of CD’s in America had dropped by something like 80%. A similar radical mutation is taking place right now in retail shopping, with widespread shuttering across America [...]
The end of a school year is "tired time" for teachers and students alike. You are beat, and can’t wait for the much deserved summer break. I remember like it was yesterday, not decades ago, that visceral warmth of the last day of school, knowing the days ahead meant sun and swimming pools and unhinged time, despite [...]
It's one thing to hear a school boast that it is "innovative" or to see that word splashed across their website. It is quite another, and still rarer than we would like, to find a trove or artifacts at at school that, together, paint a real picture of sustained, intentional, innovation. The later is what [...]
