Feeling queasy? Cautious, uncertain, even a bit of fear? Many of us have been shouting that we are living in a rapidly changing world, and last week American found out what that really means. For several decades we have myopically believed that "rapidly changing" had something to do with technology, and Moore's Law; that the [...]
If there is a silver lining to Covid-19 (and we won't know either the trajectory of the virus or the potential for a silver lining for quite some time) it might be a smack-in-the-face wake-up call that science is more important than political ideology when it comes to really important things. This is not a [...]
If you have not already done so, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt is a must read for all educators and parents of children between the ages of pregnant and 25. It is a powerful review, with significant quantitative and qualitative data in support, of the realization that the [...]
Never underestimate the power of a group of people with vision, passion, and energy! Those are the terms I would use to describe the growing group of edu-leaders from Hamilton Southeastern Schools near Indianapolis who focused a book group read and discussions around my book, Thrive. (Short video and free intro download on my website.) [...]
When great design works, it is a beautiful thing. Most of us think about design as sketches that lead to a product. Designers know that it is really a process of identifying the best solution for an important challenge, which is exactly, in my humble opinion, why the newly announced Senior School of Kingsway College [...]
I was thrilled that a group of about 40 educators, organized by the Early Learning Alliance Network got together for the first of three book club discussions based on my book Thrive! Just think about it: 40 educators, with many different titles, from multiple schools, getting together to just share ideas, language, and experiences around [...]
A year or so ago, my good friend and wonderful high school English teacher Chris Harrington started collecting short blog posts from past graduates, reflecting on key lessons from their school days that they wish they could share with their former selves. It turned into a unique and powerful stream of thinking and writing, and [...]
Creating a shared "North Star" vision of where you want to go is one of the first and most critical steps of changing your school. Each school with which I have worked has fashioned their own unique North Star, and I discuss these steps at length in Thrive. These North Stars have taken varied forms [...]
Here is a very simple way to start your school's new year and decade. Jean Case, in her book Be Fearless, distills five common elements of people and organizations that are effective change makers. There is really nothing new here; we have been shouting this for well over the last decade in K-12 education. But [...]
Why do some schools change and others do not? Why do some schools change quickly, while others take decades? Having visited and worked with more than 200 schools and districts in the last seven years, I am convinced it is not a function of demographics, school type, geography, or socio-economics. The key, I have found, [...]
