Zero-Based Strategy Part 5 of 7: Windows, Not Silos
March 13, 2014In the last week or so since my article in Independent School Magazine came out I have had calls with three leaders of reputable, successful independent schools. All three have developed a solid vision of learning that recognizes the changing demands our students will face in their futures. All three lead strong faculties who build…
What Is The Goal of Education? Guest Post by My Really Smart Brother
March 12, 2014My older brother, Brad, has just retired after a life-long career in secondary education. He was a legendary AP US History teacher, vice principal and principal of large public high schools in southern California, and retired as Asst. Superintendent of San Marcos School District. He and I have been discussing what we all now call…
Measuring What We Value?
March 11, 2014John Gulla, Executive Director of E.E. Ford Foundation, and Olaf Jorgenson, Head of Almaden Country School, California published an article in Independent School Magazine that summarizes and reviews our evolving capacity to gauge the value added by schools. While their direct focus is on independent schools, I find fewer differences than similarities in what public…
Visit to the Innovation Mothership: Stanford d.School
March 8, 2014Last fall, David Kelley was kind enough to participate in a fireside chat on the popular weekly #DTK12CHAT that links educators who are interested in how design thinking can be embedded more deeply and purposefully in K-12 education. If you don’t know, David was co-founder of global design thinking firm IDEO and a principal founder…
#EdJourney Continues: Curiosity and Creativity are Norms at Nueva School
March 8, 2014“We have a long history of not building walls.” I guess once host Kim Saxe, Director of Innovation at Nueva School told me that, I could have just driven to the airport, satisfied with a key lesson for the day. But of course I did not, and was privileged to spend a couple of hours…
The “Forever Young” Vision Statement
March 6, 2014More than a year ago I wrote a short post after listening deeply to Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” on an airplane. Heard it again this morning and every time I do I feel it has a set of wonderful messages for educators and our mission. It uplifts my spirit; it seems a more perfect school…
Bo Adams and @MVIFI Roll Out Cutting Edge Classroom Assessment Tools
March 4, 2014If any of you still don’t follow my friend and colleague Bo Adams, just do it. Bo and I presented a session at #NAISAC14, and for part of it I felt like the proud god-parent at a new child’s baptism. Bo introduced us to work he and others are doing at Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School…
Managing Maelstrom of Innovation, via Stephen Valentine
March 4, 2014On the plane rides to and from my workshop presentations at NAIS and NBOA in Florida I had a chance to read in detail the latest issue of Independent School Magazine. Yes, my own article on mutation and zero-based strategic thinking is in the issue, but I want to share some call-outs from several of…
It’s Not About the Nail
March 2, 2014Am sitting in on a workshop with Howard Teibel and business officers related to leading and managing change. He used this video; it totally cracked up the room and is SO appropriate in so many ways! Happy Sunday!
On Kiev, Connectivity, and the Nature of Change
February 22, 2014“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people…” American Declaration of Independence “You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’ George Bernard Shaw, and later, Robert Kennedy My musings today are just another…
Upcoming NAIS and NBOA Workshops
February 19, 2014If you are attending NAIS 2014 and/or NBOA in Orlando in the next two weeks, or members of your team plan to attend, I just wanted to pass along my schedule of workshops: NAIS: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 1 PM: “Why School?”, with Will Richardson, Susan Droke, and Cathy Kyle. Friday, Feb. 28, 8 AM “Mutation,…
Zero-Based Strategy Part 4 of 7: The Power of Strengths, Wishes, and Dreams
February 18, 2014Is your school special? Do you have a shared community passion that drives your teachers and students? Are there things you do better than other schools down the road or across town…or anywhere else in the country? Do have dreams, wishes, or aspirations for the future that can be realized with strong collective effort and…
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