Yesterday I spoke with an independent school head who emailed me on my views about strategic planning, how I might help, and who else they should reach out to. Here is what I shared: As I have written and spoken about for almost five years, the traditional independent school strategic plan is ineffective for a [...]
My big takeaways from observing the Catlin Gabel middle school J-Week: Fun, energizing engaging, rich, fast-paced, student-centered, real-life. Tiring, maybe a bit too full. An incredible pilot that the school can use to drive a deeper learning model across the division. What is next? Gather feedback from all stakeholders. Synthesize and filter the feedback; find [...]
Prototypes in just one of five 7th grade rooms where prototyping of the future is going on: Overall Theme: "Art in the Future" Active prototypes: The intersection of clothing, fashion and architecture. The art of what the world will look like in map form after a decade of sea level rise. Clothing that reflects war, [...]
In one morning, can students learn about how food is cooked, the value of money, and how to take care of their own basic food needs? This is a start. This morning the 8th graders were given the ingredients and a recipe for how to make dough; the room is a bit of a mess [...]
I have NO idea what is going to happen with a bunch of 6th graders start cold-calling business to solicit donations in support of a refugee family in a couple of hours. Look at the list they kids brainstormed. Will they even get through to a real person? Will that person believe the pitch that [...]
8th graders starting to map out a day on public transportation with no help or advice from teachers. For the next two days I am at Catlin Gabel School in Portland where the middle school is in a pilot week of "re-imagining" school. I set out their agenda for the week in my [...]
If you or your school is re-thinking what learning can look like in the future, I URGE you to follow along as grades 6-8 at Catlin Gabel School pilot a week that they have been co-designing with their students all fall. Follow on Twitter at #Edlabcgs, and, later in the week on my blog as [...]
Sometimes numbers speak for themselves, so I am not going to write much commentary. In the most recent issue of Net Assets, the National Business Officer Association shared these tidbits, artifacts of our time. I don't have the original source citations, but I very much trust our colleagues at NBOA, as well as these authoritative [...]
One powerful indication of just how fast the world is moving: students in K-12 today may be VERY different than those of just 10-15 years ago. In her book iGen, Jean Twenge (HT to Andrea Fanjoy who is going to do a deeper review of this book, which I will share when she publishes it) [...]
A dozen years ago just a tiny fraction of schools had started to transform in response to the realities of a rapidly changing world. Five years ago, we started to see powerful conversations and intentional, significant change at a much wider range of schools. Today we may be approaching the tipping point, at least in [...]
