I was happy and honored to get many responses via Twitter and on this blog about my two-part comments on the Common Core Standards. Here are some thoughtful conversations in my reading of the last few days. These are not talking-head pundits; they are all educators just like you. Is your school or district creating [...]
Yesterday I wrote a post prompted by comments from Bob Gallagher on the long-term goals of the Common Core Standards. I argued that CCS may be a step in the right direction, but that it is constrained to the same plane of thinking and learning that has defined the industrial age model. It is the [...]
Yesterday I found this blog post by Bob Gallagher, a retired Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, arguing that we have to give the Common Core Standards time to work, that the impatience of Americans often sacrifices long-term vision on the alter of short term results. I have never met Bob, but my bet is that he [...]
Almost exactly one year ago I told my friends Bo Adams (@boadams1) and Jill Gough (@jgough) that Twitter was for people with nothing better to do than broadcast their latest coffee venue. They told me to get over myself and get in the game. They were right. If you are an educational administrator and not [...]
Do you want to capture all of the skills for a successful lifetime of learning in one place? Can we teach collaboration, communication, questioning, synthesis, and all the rest, all at once and even to very young students? Sure. Just be John Hunter. John was on CBS this morning talking about his book “World Peace [...]
I was just watching a video of a talk by Tony Wagner at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta. Dr. Wagner is one of our most often-cited experts on the changing field of education, and rightly so. He has written a number of books on the subject, which help to translate the critical need for changing [...]
How fast is the world changing? What might education look like next week or next year? Check out this hot-off-the-press news release from Don Wettrick and his Innovations class at Franklin High in Indianapolis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAkrfqkcNAA This is just the first year for the Innovations class. This is a public school. Students are meeting Common [...]
Schools, like all organizations, reach tipping-point moments. For many of us that moment is here or on the horizon. Will we keep teaching what and how we have been teaching for decades, or will be respond to the real, inevitable, and irreversible changes in the world around us? We don't weigh these questions and make [...]
St. Christopher’s School is a K12 boys school in Richmond, VA. They celebrated their centennial last year, have strong admissions demand, and are considered in the top tier of schools in the Richmond market. So why does a school like St. Christopher’s embark on a path of innovation to change what and how they teach? [...]
If the group of presenters lined up for the Martin Institute Summer Conference (June 12-13) were a March Madness team, the opposing players would take one look, give up, and run screaming back to the locker room. In the common tongue, this team is ridiculous. And they are going to do what great educators do [...]