One of the pleasures of research is to observe longitudinal change; revisiting a school from time to time provides that window. It was my pleasure to visit the campus of Colorado Academy for the third time in just over a year, and to see evidence of some of the courageous decisions they have made about [...]
I am so happy, honored, and to announce that I have signed a contract to publish my manuscript covering my travels and work of the last year with Jossey-Bass Publishers! To be honest, I had never given a lot of thought to who publishes the books I read. But when I started to reach out [...]
Bo Adams and I kicked off the NYSAIS Assistant Heads and Division Heads meeting today with a talk; we have about 7 hours of active learning sessions over the next two days based around the theme of Time, Space, and Curriculum. We have about 190 attendees, so just think of the ideas and new perspectives [...]
Did a 9th grader just solve one of the most intransigent obstacles to school innovation? I think so! It is a simple, elegant, easy way to create large blocks of time for faculty to collaborate on their own professional development and growth. Read on and send comments; is there a hidden thorn in this rose [...]
Ending a POWERFUL two weeks of interactions with roughly 700 students, teachers, school administrators, and parents. I was at schools and conferences where educators gather to grow as professionals. What did these events have in common? We asked questions that many had not asked before. We included voices that are often not included in planning [...]
What can a small school for students with learning differences teach the rest of us about differentiated, student-owned learning? Perhaps a lot. I visited Noble Academy in Greensboro, N.C. today, a K-12 school with about 175 students, all of whom have one or a combination of learning differences. I did not even realize their specialization [...]
Exactly one year ago I was in my Prius driving through the Carolinas visiting schools and blogging from the road. This morning I am in Greensboro, N.C. and this time the Prius is back home in California. But I get to report on another school, Miami Valley School in Dayton, Ohio, that is taking some [...]
Is there a place for student-centered school innovation at the crossroads of poverty, test scores, and growth mindset? What does that look like? Many others are tackling this question, but I had the opportunity to see a piece of it today when Laura Dearman of the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence and I visited Holy [...]
The team from Design 39 Campus in Poway Unified is in the SF Bay Area this week visiting schools, Google, and IDEO. I will be with them tomorrow when we gather with teams from Los Altos and Milpitas School Districts to share forward leaning innovations at all three districts. I will post several blogs this [...]
Last September I reported on my visit to the second-year Design Lab school in inner city Cleveland. (I urge you to review that post.) Principal Eric Juli and Design Lab are front and center in the introduction to the book I am writing about my trip last fall because of the long odds and [...]