In the aftermath of Paris, people of good will are wrestling with perhaps the existential question of our time: can we fight our way to peace, or does the solution lie in following those greatest teachers of our time—Gandhi and King—who argued that we can never “drive out darkness with darkness in kind, but only with [...]
Why does your school community still charge itself for expensive textbooks when fully accredited resources are available for free? For some schools the answer is simple: they are controlled by local and state requirements to use certain books. For other schools where these overly prescriptive regulations do not apply, news out of the Hewlett Foundation [...]
Let’s call her Jane. I met her last night. Jane is a white 9th grader from a well-to-do New York City family who attends what we all would call an “elite” independent high school. Her parents passionately believe in the power of a good education, as well as a well-rounded and balanced life. Jane has [...]
I love surprises in education and if you do, too, read on! Yesterday afternoon when I walked past the McGehee School in the heart of the New Orleans garden district, a neighborhood block clustered around an historic mansion, my first thought was “traditional girl’s school”. And when I got briefed this morning about the Regio-style [...]
This is HUGE for these kids. Ortiz Middle School (#ortizms) is a traditionally poorly performing school in Santa Fe, NM with almost 100% underserved students. Exactly one year ago, the overwhelmingly predominant learning style was "sit and get"; students lacked engagement and enthusiasm; they politely did their worksheets and listened to their teachers. The teachers decided to take [...]
If you are one of the nearly 500 people who already read my blog on Hobsonville Point Secondary School in New Zealand, you might want to follow this link to Claire Amos' blog that offers a great deal of detail about the boundary conditions of the school. It is a great guidepost and example of what [...]
Last week in New Zealand I visited a high school that may well be the exemplar for global high schools of the future. Hobsonville Point Secondary School (HPSS) on the outskirts of Auckland is just two years old, and only has about 20% of its build-out student population. It has been designed, physically and pedagogically to break [...]
This is what PD should look all the time! We had some very active, noisy, collaborative workshops at ULearnNZ this week...and then there was the best conference workshop I have ever contributed to, and possibly attended. Students from Hobsonville Point Secondary School gave up a day of vacation per the request of my co-presenters, Steve [...]
I have sadly ignored my blogging duties with a week holiday in New Zealand, and now a frantic @UlearnNZ conference. But here is the visual recording of my keynote yesterday in front of my largest audience ever, 2,000 wonderful educators from across New Zealand and nearby countries:
How might we integrate innovation practices across our school culture, breaking down myopic silos of "that's not my job"? This is one of the true challenges of innovation in any organization, and particularly in schools where teachers, administrators, students, and parents frequently and strongly identify with their respective "tribe" more than with an organizational imperative. At [...]