The Real Roots of Problem Solving
April 24, 2013So many models of problem solving start at the end! The creators of this thinking have never looked at the roots of the issue. Solid buildings require foundations; sure they are not pretty and no one sees them and they are hard to dig, but it is the foundation that supports all else. Problem solving…
The Art of Systems
April 21, 2013Sun Tzu says: Act after having made assessments. The one who first knows the measures of far and near wins—this is the rule of armed struggle. Yesterday I shared some of Bo Adam’s wisdom about the importance of systems in school transformation. It is so easy to check the box, to say “let’s go through…
Planning Pedagogy as a System, via Bo Adams
April 20, 2013Yesterday I virtually attended a talk by Bo Adams of Atlanta-based transformational design thinking firm Unboundary, hosted by the Southern Association of Independent Schools. Bo was talking about his visionary Pedagogical Master Planning template that they are starting to beta test at schools. Here are some kernels I Tweeted out during the session; most of…
Don’t Fly With Me
April 18, 2013First moral of this story: don’t book your travel with me. If I were a sailor, the crew would have thrown me overboard by now. Last Sunday: watched Denzel Washington crash land a plane in “Flight”. Last Wednesday, Dallas to Richmond. Emergency landing in Nashville, no real explanation. Fly to Atlanta with a connection to…
Flip 2.0: BackFlipped Learning
April 13, 2013“Flipping” a classroom is wonderful slang; as soon as we learn what it means, the image sticks. Flipping 1.0 is about having students do work outside the classroom that they can do without a teacher present to free class time for personal interaction, questions, discussion, and the kind of face-to-face help that teachers can provide.…
Educators at the Water Cooler
April 12, 2013I was happy and honored to get many responses via Twitter and on this blog about my two-part comments on the Common Core Standards. Here are some thoughtful conversations in my reading of the last few days. These are not talking-head pundits; they are all educators just like you. Is your school or district creating…
Common Core: Flat Solution to a 3D Problem? (Part 2)
April 9, 2013Yesterday I wrote a post prompted by comments from Bob Gallagher on the long-term goals of the Common Core Standards. I argued that CCS may be a step in the right direction, but that it is constrained to the same plane of thinking and learning that has defined the industrial age model. It is the…
Common Core: Flat Solution to a 3D Problem? (Part 1)
April 8, 2013Yesterday I found this blog post by Bob Gallagher, a retired Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, arguing that we have to give the Common Core Standards time to work, that the impatience of Americans often sacrifices long-term vision on the alter of short term results. I have never met Bob, but my bet is that he…
Twitter: I Know…But Just Do It
April 6, 2013Almost exactly one year ago I told my friends Bo Adams (@boadams1) and Jill Gough (@jgough) that Twitter was for people with nothing better to do than broadcast their latest coffee venue. They told me to get over myself and get in the game. They were right. If you are an educational administrator and not…
John Hunter Shares the World Peace Game
April 3, 2013Do you want to capture all of the skills for a successful lifetime of learning in one place? Can we teach collaboration, communication, questioning, synthesis, and all the rest, all at once and even to very young students? Sure. Just be John Hunter. John was on CBS this morning talking about his book “World Peace…
Listen to the Students
April 2, 2013I was just watching a video of a talk by Tony Wagner at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta. Dr. Wagner is one of our most often-cited experts on the changing field of education, and rightly so. He has written a number of books on the subject, which help to translate the critical need for changing…
Students to Beta Google Glasses; Teacher Will Bring Them to Martin Conference
March 30, 2013How fast is the world changing? What might education look like next week or next year? Check out this hot-off-the-press news release from Don Wettrick and his Innovations class at Franklin High in Indianapolis: This is just the first year for the Innovations class. This is a public school. Students are meeting Common Core…
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