School has begun and Summer is finally at our backs. If you’re a leader, however you spent the Summer months—at conferences, attending workshops, reading, relaxing, and so on—we have no doubt that you spent a good deal of time planning for the new school year
Every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results it produces. Think about it – if a system is designed to produce great watches and 10 out of every 100 are defective, then the system as currently constituted is designed to produce great watches 90
This is the third in a series of three posts. Check out Teams—Don’t Go It Alone and Teams—Build a Team to see the latest in the series! Teams, in many ways, are like performance automobiles. It takes time to build one. There is great care and
It is vitally important that we integrate deep learning strategies that keep the focus on analyzing student work and the impact of our teaching while using the time we have for co-learning in flexible ways. In Leading Collaborative Learning: Empowering Excellence (Corwin Press, 2016), we
As teachers we give a lot: We invest our time and energy in our work, and we give something personal of ourselves to our students. This may often feel stimulating and rewarding, but over time we may also be in danger of burnout. Teaching can be both nourishing
At Challenging Learning, we believe that for many schools the Learning Challenge can be a useful concept around which leaders and teachers cultivate their values, attitudes, and ethos towards learning. By having the Learning Challenge upfront and center, schools are putting the language for learning right
Can you imagine a school district in-service that teachers look forward to attending? Is it possible that PD days can include engaging personalized sessions, food and music, hands-on relevant learning—and some fun? Yes! We’ve all been there—Sitting in an auditorium full of educators listening to a
A couple of years ago, I decided to focus on educational writing in my areas of expertise. I spent a year learning how to watercolor, journal, and decompress after retiring from an incredible career in public education. After several months into retirement, I discovered that
This is a question that I have been exploring since last August when I returned to school for my own personal development and since last October when I assumed a new professional role in my district as a coordinator for educator effectiveness. To say that
What is something teachers around the globe have in common? A list of problems wider and deeper than the ocean itself. We share them over our coffees while supervising morning entry, dismissal and in the rare occasions we have time to each lunch together. We