The Covid-19 crisis is shining a huge new spotlight on inequities in K-12 education. Every school and district in America, and many around the world, are racing to figure out how to educate children and prepare adults during long-term closures. The range of problems is enormous, from access to technology, support for students with learning [...]
I have visited a LOT of schools in the last decade. It takes something special to shorten my breath, to stop me dead in my tracks, so full of wonder and questions that I just want to sit down, boil a pot of tea, and shut up and listen for a few hours or a [...]
How important is group diversity? If a group is NOT diverse, should we discount the group outcomes? How serious are we as educators about promoting diversity, and why? Adding to this discussion (this one happens to be about gender diversity only) is a study on the impact of gender diversity to group performance published in [...]
The Hero's Journey lies at the heart of human storytelling. From the Bhagavad Gita to the Old and New Testaments; from Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology to the creational stories of indigenous peoples; from the life stories of comic book superheroes to the modern sagas like Star Wars and Game of Thrones, the Hero's Journey [...]
New learning modalities continue to explode across America. 20 years ago, 90% of US students went to one of three kinds of school: neighborhood, parochial, or private. Now, innovative hybrids are rising faster than we can keep track. Check out this win-win-win partnership amongst companies, schools, and students in Colorado, reported last week on the [...]
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 [...]
Rhetorical question for all educators: do you have or wish you had a really well-scaffolded curriculum? To be honest, I would have thought by now most schools could answer that integrated curriculum maps and tight alignment amongst subjects and grade levels were well in our rearview mirrors; that faculty who work in the same school [...]
