Schools are full of myths; we create and perpetuate them all the time, which adds to the inertia that resists needed change. I have been fighting against the "small class sizes are always better" myth, and the "we can't ged rid of our AP's" myths for many years. Multiple studies have busted myths about the [...]
Several weeks ago I was visiting and working with an independent high school in New England that is fortunate to be blessed with wonderful new classrooms, some wooded acreage, and small class sizes. As I wandered on my traditional observational tour, I noticed that students seemed to be spending most of their time at their [...]
Do you see real-world learning as a disruptive challenge at your school or district? You want to provide those potentially life-changing, highly relevant experiences that break the artificial boundary between "school" and "world", but just can't see how to re-imagine time, space, and required subject patterns? The great news is that you don't have to [...]
I met a young woman this weekend. Her neighborhood high school is considered quite good. It is in a largely white, middle and upper-middle class section of southern California. Largely on her own, with the support of her parents, she has "hacked together" a completely personalized high school learning experience. She takes online courses at [...]
I have visited a LOT of schools in the last decade. It takes something special to shorten my breath, to stop me dead in my tracks, so full of wonder and questions that I just want to sit down, boil a pot of tea, and shut up and listen for a few hours or a [...]
High school students gather in cross-grade teams to ideate ways to advance one of four big themes for the future. Strategic plans should reflect the vision of a school community. Most do not. Most plans are the result of relatively shallow input from some school stakeholders, followed by a rapid synthesis by a [...]
Breakout space Last week was packed with learning and sharing for me, so I am going to do a set of very short blogs. First up is the INCREDIBLE new high school building at Mt. Vernon School in Atlanta. Followers will know that I have viewed Mt. Vernon as an exemplar, leading-edge school [...]
If you need any more of a boost to order my new book, Thrive, here is a podcast I did with TL TalkRadio a week ago. It summarizes some of the major themes in about a 20 minute interview. On my home page, you can download the book introduction for free, and link to order [...]
Last week I posted Part 1 of the evolving role of a school or district admin leadership team. I want to dig deeper into this: How might we really amplify the power of this team of leaders? Think about your admin leadership team and your team meetings. Like any group within an organization, your admin [...]
What does your administration leadership team actually DO? That is not a rhetorical question. What are the actual tasks of the team that gathers around the conference room table every week or month for an hour or two? Are these meetings just an aggregation of pieces, or is there something that is greater than the [...]
