What if teachers learned to teach and learners learned to learn like explorers, scientists, empaths, inventors, poets, artists, and entrepreneurs? What if we started over in our construct of education, dialed it back to pre-1850 and extracted the pedagogy of apprenticeship, experience, observation, synthesis, and practice that underlay the wondrous mind explosions of the Renaissance, [...]
Strategic design is the term I have coined for an inclusive, transparent, imaginative, and transformative process that builds real capacity for innovation and change in schools. Have another glance, this time at The Bolles School in Florida. Sure, the video is a bit of a sales pitch for the school, but imagine this kind of [...]
I was honored to guest host the very popular #SatChatWC this morning (Saturday mornings, 7:30 am Pacific Time; hosted by Shelley Burgess and Dave Burgess of Teach Like a Pirate fame). It is a "west coast" chat, but always seems to have great representation from educators from pretty much every US and Canadian time zone. My [...]
Does your school have the courage to invest in the extraordinary? That was the thesis question posed by independent thought and practice leader, Tim Fish of McDonogh School last week at the NAIS conference. I have known Tim for more than ten years, but had never seen him present. It was so succinct, so precise, and [...]
In my ongoing conversation with Canadian schools on how they can best change to meet the needs of the future, here is my second weekly vodcast with Garth Nichols and Justin Medved. We talked about how schools view "time", and how they can re-imagine use of time to better meet their learning goals. Follow along [...]
For educators, this might be one of those moments you remember for many years to come: when you heard that we are going to radically change and improve how we break down the dam to school innovation that we call the college admissions process. You heard it here first! Yesterday at the NAIS annual conference, Scott [...]
What if one of the most important pillars supporting how and what we teach is wrong? What if you knew that most of our systems of grading, assessment, and promotion are based on faulty assumptions and bad math? What if the emperor had no clothes? This is what Todd Rose sets out to prove in [...]
I am really excited to have connected with colleagues in Canadian schools who are taking a truly hard, sustainable, and determined look at the future of schools. The Canadian Association of Independent Schools new Project2051, brings together many educators and thinkers from outside of education to wipe the board clean, imagine what schools might look like in [...]
How can a school leader invite faculty and staff who want to align to the vision to stay, and "dis-invite" others to leave? This is one of the thorniest, least comfortable parts of transforming a school, and many leaders avoid the discomfort and potential disruption until retirements make it moot. But that is not what is needed. [...]
I REALLY hate to quote Donald Rumsfeld, but he was right when he said we don't know what we don't know. Over the last two years I have held workshops with well over 5,000 K-12 educators. The schools and districts these people represent cross the spectrum from wealthy, autonomous, and successful, to poor, girdled by [...]