One of the big obstacles to school innovation I have found is the "dam" of college admissions and college entrance exams that focus on lower-order knowledge acquisition and regurgitation. Anecdotal evidence points to the fact that if a good school de-emphasizes AP's and college test prep and emphasizes deep, rigorous, student-centered, project-focused learning, their students will be attractive [...]
Yesterday I posted some reflections on how schools can more effectively move from broad vision statements that sometimes sound formulaic or canned to a real pathway of strategic implementation. One critical step is to paint a picture of what success looks like in the future. Innovative organizations recognized two elements of painting this picture: The [...]
As I reported in Independent School Magazine in 2014 ("Zero-Based Strategic Thinking"), we are living through a rapid global shift in producer-consumer relationships across most industrial sectors. Companies that deliver generic, higher cost products and services are being replaced by lower cost competitors that can tailor products and services to individual consumer demands. According to people [...]
"Grit" is a buzz word; we have a hard time tying down exactly what we mean by it, or even if we share a common understanding. Earlier this year we had a lengthy discussion in this blog space about "grit". Check out this short piece from CBS Channel 9 LA yesterday; I think you will [...]
How are three school leaders and their respective schools staying at the leading edge of the innovation wave? How are they successfully transforming away from the assembly line model of "school"? I had a 90 minute video chat yesterday with Bo Adams of Mt. Vernon Presbyterian in Atlanta, Thomas Steele-Maley of the new GEMS World [...]
It's getting close! The official page for my new book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, is now up on the Jossey-Bass website! There are links to major US distributors, including Amazon, which has #EdJourney available now for a pre-order discount. I am discounting my normal facilitation/workshop/speaking fees by up to $750/day to encourage [...]
The conveners of #FUSE14 chose the perfect image as metaphor for the event: a swimming pool. I was a swimmer growing up; learned how to swim at age three and was competitive in all four strokes by age five. Am still at home in the water as I am on land. Like our students in [...]
Shameless plug? Yeah, a bit, but I cannot help but reflect on how much of the conversation amongst this group of educators at #fuse14 parallels the core elements of my first book, The Falconer. I guess it was inevitable at this venue: a key driver of #fuse14 is Bo Adams who was one of my [...]
As I blogged yesterday (really? at the pace of #fuse14, it seems longer than that), Mount Vernon Institute For Innovation (@MVIFI) has created a remarkable playbook for design thinking. It is available at this link. I know I am going to use some of these routines in my workshops and work with schools. Remember to [...]
What allows people to bare their closest held dreams and their personal pain in front of a group of 200 strangers? I think it is an overwhelming passion to make the world a better place, and that is what we heard in the brief MoVe talks to kick off #fuse14. (Won't try to make hyperlinks [...]