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What We Really Want Our Students to Learn

One of my newfound PLN members from Hobsonville Point Secondary School in Auckland, New Zealand, Steve Mouldey, Tweeted a page from the introduction of my first book, The Falconer, the other day. It reminded me of a foundational assumption that I started constructing 30 years ago, and still believe in today: We are not teaching our [...]

Signals of Capacity and Comfort For Change

Painting a picture of future success is always a critical step in creating an innovation pathway.  In working with one of my client schools I suggested we outline some "signals of success" for August, 2015.  In re-reading them, I find that they likely apply to almost any school that is developing a more nimble, connected, [...]

Two Leads for Great Learning Beyond Our Borders

From my International Desk, which this afternoon is my window seat at home: I know, the time difference makes it really hard...but our kids are learning 24/7 anyway, so why not do this?  Here are some girls at a school in Kandahar, Afghanistan, learning English via Skype to the U.S. It is not an exaggeration that [...]

Follow Ground-Breaking Team of 11 Atlanta Schools Re-Designing How We “Do” School

For those who don't follow me on Twitter or are not on Twitter yet, I want to share a link to some powerful education transformation that took place yesterday and today in Atlanta.  A group of 11 public and private schools in Atlanta are gathering for a long-term design challenge on how they will meet [...]

What 9th Graders Can Teach Us About Learning and School

Last fall I visited All Saint's Episcopal School in Ft. Worth, hosted by director of the Tad Bird Honors College, Dave Ostroff (see full report from that remarkable day).He just shared with me this short snippet of the day. I asked this group of 9th graders to spend 15 minutes walking around their school observing [...]

In Learning, are Process and Product Indivisible?

Last night on the always provocative Twitter #DTK12Chat, thought leader/teacher/design thinker Mary Cantwell asked “In design thinking, does either process or product trump the other?”. Most responses favored process; a few championed product, for without a product are we not just spinning our wheels? I offered two thoughts and have been stewing over them. “In [...]

By | 2014-03-20T19:14:32+00:00 March 20th, 2014|21C Skills, Innovation in Education|3 Comments

“What Can I Leave Behind?”, and More via Design 39 Campus

If your faculty meetings feel a bit stale, repetitive, or formulaic, read on! The faculty team for the new public Design 39 Campus in Poway Unified is starting to grow, and I got to sit in yesterday on one of their weekly meetings as they build towards the August opening.  I wanted to share what I [...]

Link to My Article in Independent School Magazine

For those who do not follow me on Twitter or who may not have access to Independent School Magazine, I was tremendously honored to have my article included in the latest edition of this leading education publication.  I started writing this article in my mind about an hour after my remarkable visit with Shoshana Zuboff of [...]

What Is The Goal of Education? Guest Post by My Really Smart Brother

My 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 [...]

#EdJourney Continues: Curiosity and Creativity are Norms at Nueva School

“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 [...]