In my metaphor of educator-leader as "farmer", the principal/superintendent/head of school farmer's job is to nurture and grow a strong learning organization. The teacher farmer's job is to nurture and grow strong students. This interview with Roger Martin, Dean of the Business School at the University of Toronto is a great nine minutes. Translate his [...]
Last week I reviewed the visioning and strategic planning documents for a school with whom I may work in the fall. Taking out the specifics for that school, I thought I would share my reflections on “how might we improve the path from forward leaning vision to sustainable, system-wide implementation of our strategic goals?” I [...]
As I coordinate speaking events related to the release of my new book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, with my work with schools and school associations around the country, I am trying to make my travel as efficient as possible. Am I coming near you? Right now my fall-spring calendar looks something [...]
This is the kind of response that will jumpstart a new kind of design-based collaborative thinking at your school...and sure makes my day! From one of the 28 school teams engaged in our 9-month NBOA/OSG hybrid collaboration on imagining and building a more sustainable future. (If we run the program again next year, I think we [...]
A short reminder today prompted by a @NAISNetwork question via Twitter: Are there any school assets that simply cannot be assigned a value? Several responses suggest that as soon as we use the word "value" people default to assigning a closely associated dollar amount. That is understandable...and wrong. In all of my work with school teams [...]
Got up early this morning to join Jeff Shields, President of the National Business Officer Association as we were interviewed by Larry Jacobs for BlogTalk Radio on the future of independent schools and the 28-school collaboration we are piloting this year. Larry was also kind enough to invite me back to talk about my upcoming [...]
Last fall my EdJourney took me to 64 schools via 10,000 miles in my Prius. This fall it was six cross country round trip flights in seven weeks, with many stops along the way, to work and learn with something like 1,500 teachers, students, administrators, and parents who care deeply about the future of our [...]
Did a 9th grader just solve one of the most intransigent obstacles to school innovation? I think so! It is a simple, elegant, easy way to create large blocks of time for faculty to collaborate on their own professional development and growth. Read on and send comments; is there a hidden thorn in this rose [...]
Breaking silos is key to a new era of strategic thinking. That is exactly the leverage offered by a unique collaboration I am honored to lead in partnership with the National Business Officers Association and the Online School for Girls. Strange group? No! I won't reprise the whole program offering here: you can read about [...]
Could we create a valuable college BA degree for $10K? And what might that mean for K-12 education? Anya Kamenetz has written an important article that argues we can create that vastly more affordable experience in college. (Thanks Will Richardson for Tweeting it out.) I have skimmed it and now am going back to review [...]