I have never visited an educational institution more steeped in tradition than the US Military Academy at West Point. The Academy is a keeper of traditions of which all of us would be proud, and that many of us would do well to emulate. But, over the several years that I have worked and visited [...]
I arrived on the grounds of USMA West Point in the late afternoon and found my room in the Distinguished Visitor’s Quarters, a renovated three-story Victorian near the parade grounds and overlooking the mighty Hudson River. Cadets walked home in pairs, trios, and small groups, or jogged down the road in full gear or shorts [...]
School change is messy and often uncomfortable (those who have watched my TEDx talk or worked with me know that I resist over-using the term “hard” to describe school change). Each school is different, and the challenges and opportunities of innovative, value-driven change are greater for schools that are resource limited. At different schools the [...]
The great thing about traveling across time zones is that you lie awake at night and think about stuff. Last week Melinda Kolk of Tech4Learning interviewed me for an article she is going to write about my new book, #EdJourney. She told me about a teacher in a school she works with; I think it [...]
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 [...]
I am so happy to announce that my new book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, will be published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand, in early September. It has received some wonderfully generous comments from a range of educational thought leaders. Since completing my solo 89-day, nationwide tour of 64 schools, I [...]
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 [...]
Check out blog by Thomas Steele-Malley on development of interdisciplinary programs; very rich in links to those schools who are leading the way. In particular, this video about a group of schools in Wisconsin, Interdisciplinary Learning Collaborative, is a treat. It reminded me of my visit to Meridian Academy in Boston. What a great idea: [...]
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 [...]
I was a latecomer to the formal theories of education and learning; in my formative years I never read Dewey, Piaget, or Bloom. I am still convinced that I coined the term “problem-finding” one afternoon in 1985 as I ran our two dogs on a sage-covered hillside; certainly I had never heard it used before [...]