This past week I listened to two podcasts that got me quite energized: Taken for Granted: Brené Brown on what vulnerability isn’t – conversation with Adam Grant and Brene Brown Brene with Adam Grant on the Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know Yes…they interviewed each other on their podcasts. And it is well worth […]
Archives for February 2021
#27 of 60: Can students flourish if their teachers aren’t? 🤔
Let’s move the spotlight to teachers, certainly one of our greatest assets! When we talk about human flourishing, we’re talking about everyone in the system. We can’t have student flourishing if our teachers aren’t also flourishing. But what might that look like? 🤔 Teacher flourishing. Using Martin Seligman’s PERMA framework, Zachary Herrmann shares some thoughts […]
#26 of 60: What have we learned from schooling during the pandemic, and how can we use those learnings to design better for the future? 🤔
Peter Gray, psychology researcher and scholar, has published a thought-provoking piece in Psychology Today: A Pandemic Lesson: Family Togetherness Makes Children Happy. He reviews some recent research from Let Grow and the Institute for Family Studies. And here is his suggestion: “So here is a lesson from the pandemic that I hope will stick: Prior […]
#25 of 60: How can our education systems and operating habits best enable next generation learning, rather than obstruct and diminish it? 🤔
That’s the question at the foundation of a new research-based framework released by Next Generation Learning Challenges earlier this month. I love the way they have approached this inquiry, and the framework outcome (with its accompanying literature review) has the potential to move us more rapidly toward a tipping point in school transformation. The text […]
#24 of 60: How can information from newsletters accelerate our learning?🤔
The power of the newsletter. Yes…it can be another email, but a good newsletter can scale your learning. What are some of the best newsletters with content to support the work of school transformation? Here are just five that I find very helpful. Sign up for the ones you find interesting! (if you aren’t already […]
#23 of 60: Does the idea of strategic foresight seem overwhelming considering your current role in education?🤔
So far in this challenge we have shared several posts on taking the longview — thinking about the future and taking action to create that future, not simply have it happen to You’re a teacher. You’re a leader. Do you have to become a futurist as wel Fortunate for us, there are people and organizations […]
#22 of 60: Are we asking the right kinds of questions?🤔
In my pursuit of the idea of flourishing in education, I ran across a recent book (2020) written by educational philosopher Kristján Kristjánsson (Flourishing as the Aim of Education). It seems quite relevant for our work here, so I will be sure to share more in the near future. At the very outset…in the Preface….Kristjánsson […]
#21 of 60: How are we challenging our assumptions?🤔🤔🤔
Just a quote on an image today… I think a good quote can jog our thinking, and this one will. (You can also click on the image to make it larger….) “Collecting data on human learning based on children’s learning in school is like collecting data on killer whales based on their behavior at Sea […]
#20 of 60: If you’re not doing these two things you’re not really transforming…you’re just reforming.
We’ll make this short today. But while short, lots to think about… This article resonated with me: Why does it take programmatic shifts to implement CBE? A school & vendor partnership Why? ..you ask. Because they understand that transforming a system requires changing structures and changing mindsets. Here’s what they did…you can see how these […]
#19 of 60: What’s the 80/20 of school transformation? 🤔🤔🤔
The Pareto Principle states that a small amount of some phenomenon causes a disproportionately large effect. It’s sometimes referred to as the 80/20 rule. From our work and conversations with school leaders on the Shift Your Paradigm podcast, we’ve learned that understanding agency is one of the key leverage points. One we shift our thinking […]