I will make several reports from Presbyterian Day School and the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence in Memphis; I visited for a day yesterday and will be back the week after Thanksgiving. We talk about revolutionary changes and evolutionary changes and sometimes those terms take on the meaning of time: rapid vs tepid. This is [...]
It is always tempting to say that we can’t afford to do what other schools can because we don’t have their resources, and you will have that temptation today. The Baylor School sits on more than 600 acres, high above the Tennessee River, and even on a day when rain made it tough to stroll [...]
Retiring Head Stephen Kennedy could have just watched the year go by at the Trinity School in Atlanta, but he chose to keep his foot on the innovation pedal. Among other things, he hired Jill Gough, one of the regions leaders in classroom innovation to make sure the school increases its arc of forward-leaning innovation, [...]
I am about to leave Atlanta and turn west on the final leg of my EdJourney, and just wanted to thank all the folks here who have shown such great interest and hospitality. The Atlanta area is a real hotbed of school innovation, and I don't think it is just serendipity. There are a number [...]
Two indicators that a school visit was overwhelming in terms of important lessons to share: 1) in going back over the camera roll I realized I was so busy I forgot to take but a couple of photos; I really apologize, since the Lovett School campus is gorgeous; 2) I almost got tired just reading [...]
History drips from Porter Gaud School like Spanish moss from the trees. Fort Sumter lies just across the salt marsh and a short stretch of the harbor. An old cannon from the Civil War era Federal armory sits on a pedestal. A visitor hears the story of how Dr. Porter, a Confederate, saved the life [...]
A week or so ago I posted on my visit with Pam Moran and the senior admin team of Albermarle County Public Schools. I mentioned a very clear figure they showed me that they use to articulate the "sweet spot" we are aiming for when we use the (dreaded) term 21C skills. With thanks, their [...]
I had less than three hours to visit Charlotte Latin School, not enough time to tour the beautiful campus and take great photos, poke into classrooms, or talk to students. That’s OK; sometimes we learn best by just sitting and listening, and the stream of educators that was fired at me in the Head’s conference [...]
When I planned this journey I envisioned visiting schools with a range of attitudes and ideas about educational innovation. Not all schools believe that change is needed in order to enhance their value proposition, at least in the short term. That is not bad; markets, demographics, and local attitudes regarding both public and private education [...]
One of the emerging threads of this journey that defines schools that are making progress along the path of change is trimming away what is not critical and focusing on a core set of values. This post is about a great process of building change capability in the faculty and success with a new technology [...]