When we talk about innovation and change in schools, are we overly focused on the rate of change? We talk about the need to fail fast and fail forward. Does that breed myopia on speed, pace, and the frequency of innovative ideation? What about magnitude? I shared a fascinating dialogue on Twitter yesterday with JoAnn [...]
If we truly believe that all educators can and should be leaders, we need to develop those skills that bake “leadership ownership” into the dough of the whole organization. In my ongoing work with the leadership team at Pacific Ridge School, we got to do just that today, while testing some new tools I have [...]
If you think social media is a gimmick for kids to waste time, here is my (heavily biased) argument otherwise. My daughter wrote the following blog for USA Volleyball yesterday. This is Twitter at its best. And the match starts in 15 minutes...GO USA/Team Toy! Aug. 10: Cassidy Lichtman (@CassidyLichtman), U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team [...]
Been too busy to blog, so have been Tweeting out thoughts and connection resources, but for those of you still not active on Twitter (just do it), quick connections: Go to Twitter and search #MVPsubd. Make sure you click "All" so you see the full feed. Skim the feed for yesterday and today. Now, ask [...]
Last evening I happened onto #ISEDchat on Twitter because Josie Holford a and a few others who are on my most closely watched comments list were participating. The discussion was about use of time in schools, particularly class schedules. Josie asked "Is there any school out there still stuck in the 45 or 55 minute [...]
Katrina Schwartz (@kschwart) on Mindshift reports on the annual Software and Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) 2013 Vision K-20 survey of use of technology in education. I always look for the dissonance as the place to start solving problems, so this bit shouted out to me: Almost half of all secondary schools allow students to bring their own devices now and [...]
A couple of wonderful Tweets you might want to share on opening faculty day in the coming weeks: Many people commented on my post the other day about "Unleashing Jack", but I have to pass these two priceless comments along. First from Jon Bluestein, Director of Middle School Teaching and Learning at Randolph School in [...]
School should be about unleashing, not leashing. Our future is in the synergy where wildly creative teachers meet student superstar Jack Andraka. Read on! #DTk12chat, a group of teachers and administrators who recognize the remarkable learning value embedded in the design thinking process. (The group meets remotely every week; feel free to join in.) It [...]
This map and work by Harvard's Raj Chetty and others has received massive attention, as it should. There is a lot to mine from this work. The big takeaways of the authors: 1. Mobility is heavily tied to the proximity of poor and wealthier people; in other words, where population remains segregated along economic lines, [...]
Once again, I have found a way to visit a remarkable school, share the details with all of you, and NOT pack my Prius and drive around the country. EdJourney continues, this time with a charter school that is pioneering and sharing a remarkable arc of student-owned, differentiated, competency-based learning, and doing it with a [...]