Those of you who have been following my blog remember posts on The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning at St. Andrew's Episcopal Academy in Potomac. MD. They have created a partnership with the Neuro-Education Initiative at Johns Hopkins and have really committed to integrating the latest research on how the brain works into their [...]
Hopefully those of you who followed my EdJourney around the country this fall are also following Tom Little, Head of Park Day School in Oakland, CA on his tour of the country as he visits progressive schools. I found his blog via a tweet from Jonathan Martin, and just had a chance to catch up [...]
If you are a thought leader in education, or want to help your team to become better thought leaders, this post is rich, free, easy professional development for all! Send it along to team members and suggest they start following the blogs and tweets of people in this post and they will immediately be linked [...]
Spontaneous dance party on the beach of Apo Island, last night of trip. Our trip to the Philippines ended with two glorious days on Apo Island, highlighted by a dance party on the beach between our students and most of the village youth. How often does this happen on Apo, a small fishing [...]
Pancakes cooking Hard rain at night. Still coming down in the morning and radar shows a tropical depressions blowing up west of Palau. Climb into the old jeepney which blew a flat two days ago on the same road up to the hill village where some of our students are staying but we [...]
Here is a thought experiment that can inform the leading education question of our time. Take a random group of students from three countries: China, the U.S., and the Philippines. All three groups spend long hours in school and take objective exams which will, to a large extent, determine their access to higher education. Replay [...]
Parker boys ready to settle in to their home stay in Boloc-Boloc, a rural farming village The homes are small, the villages poor. They will sleep on bamboo beds or mats on the floor. Showers will be a bucket of water. For five days our students will stay with host families in and [...]
What is the value of $2? Is it 1/3rd of a fancy cup of Starbucks coffee? Half a Big Mac in Los Angeles or 1/5th of a Big Mac in Zurich? Is it 200 pennies that one person will step over from time to time or 200 pennies that others will fight to find and [...]
Effecting change is a skill just like teaching history, playing a piano, or throwing a football. Being good at it is a combination of inherent ability and learning. Why should it be otherwise? Some people are naturally more comfortable with change, with things like risk and creativity and flexibility. Others are less comfortable. And just [...]
A theme from my many school visits this last fall was that both students and teachers realize we should take or make more time for reflection. We know that authentic reflection starts with being focused on the moment, taking in what lessons we can when we can, be it in a classroom, on the ball [...]