Three Critical Steps for School Change Leaders (+ Bonus Woodstock Question!)
June 4, 2013I have been remiss in my blog posts for several days; I am deep into writing, re-writing, and re-re-writing chapters of my book. I wrote a summary of my chapter on leadership, and though I am not a “cookbook” kind of person, I do believe the following to be true: When it comes to paradigm-level…
District, Vendor/Partners Meet to Brainstorm Collaboration on Adaptive Learning Model
May 31, 2013According to one large vendor in the room, “Poway is in the leading 1% of districts nationwide who are looking at this.” According to several others, “90% of the bits and pieces are there; no one has put it all together.” According to almost all the vendors, “We can’t make this kind of investment with…
Building an Adaptive/Differentiated Learning Model, Poway Unified School District
May 30, 2013I came up with a set of professional goals before I graduated college, and they have never left me: work with smart people to tackle difficult problems, create elegant solutions, for something of value. This week has been another link in that chain! All this week I have been able to sit in with a dynamic team…
A School By Any Other Name…?
May 29, 2013What if we named a public school “We Imagine” or “We Change the World”? I am working informally with a crack team at the large Poway Unified School District on two tracks: program design for a new K-8 to open in 2014, and an adaptive learning model to be piloted at the new school and…
A Vision in Words
May 28, 2013A month or so ago I had my feet up thinking of draft language for a new vision statement for The Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence. The broad mission of the Martin is professional development for educators, which is really just about learning. The challenges to how we will learn in a rapidly changing…
“Missioning”: the Activity of Bringing Your Mission to Life
May 24, 2013I think I just made up a new term: “missioning”. It is the activity of bringing your organization’s mission to life. This spring I have been focusing with school leaders on the relationship between three critical aspects of institutional sustainability: vision, systems, and value. Creating a vision is actually pretty easy. Developing systems-wide alignment between…
Kind Comments, Links via Jack Hassard
May 24, 2013I had to post this; one of the nicer things anyone has ever written about my work to date. It is from a long and very thoughtful blog post by Jack Hassard, a writer, former high school science teacher and Professor Emeritus of Science Education, Georgia State University. The post also includes extensive connections with Narcis…
“Let’s Build an Adaptive Learning System”, Poway USD
May 24, 2013This is the future. No platform exists. Blank slate. Smart people. Tough task. Big, worthwhile goals. “Let’s build it”. I love it! Yesterday I got to spend three hours with a tremendous team at Poway (Ca) Unified School District imagining the future of differentiated and adaptive learning systems. Poway is a 35,000-student district, and visionary…
Hangout/Webinar Interview via Whipple Hill
May 23, 2013This is a bit late, but as promised, the video of my Google Hangout webinar two weeks ago with our friends at Whipple Hill. It is about a 20 minute conversation about change in schools based on my trip last fall and many workshop interactions this spring. Thanks to Whipple Hill for co-sponsoring my work.…
Project Zero, $100K Fund for Teachers, Coming to Memphis
May 22, 2013One of the reasons I agreed to work closely with The Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence in the future is that they really know how to swing a bat. And here is a great example. The Martin and Presbyterian Day School have agreed to bring the widely-acclaimed Project Zero of Harvard, in conjunction with the Center…
Stack O’ Books!
May 21, 2013Am I a little excited/stoked by this photo? Yes! Faculty at Trinity School in Atlanta were given five book titles to choose from for their summer reading. Theme: the Art of Questioning. Not gonna disclose the other titles, but you can see a couple of them. My book, The Falconer, was selected by more than…
Into My Future
May 18, 2013As many of you know, I formally resigned my position at Francis Parker School this spring after almost a decade and a half in a variety of leadership positions. I hope to continue my association with Parker, which my great aunt and uncle founded 100 years ago, in informal ways. For now, and following on…
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