Working At The Edge

Make School Different: Digital leadership & Transformation

Busting myths of creativity in education

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Education isn’t the most creative or innovative sector of society. Sure, we have classrooms within our system and schools around the country known for innovative practices. Generally, though, the field of education is firmly rooted in an industrial model and not too willing to change. As a superintendent, I work with those in my district […]

Make School Different @ #KTI2015

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This past week, I had the pleasure of speaking to this year’s class of Keystone Technology Innovators (#kti2015). It was a pleasure to speak with such a group of dynamic and dedicated educators! A bonus: three teachers from Salisbury Township School District were present – Jen Brinson (@jbrinson21), a KTI Lead Learner; Linda Helfrich (@LindaHelfrich), […]

Work of significance – What’s your superpower?

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Earlier this summer, I crafted a post titled What’s your leadership focus?  In the post, I challenged us as leaders to not be driven solely by the urgent and the important, but to make room for the significant – work that will have a long-lasting impact, beyond that which is just urgent or important. This past […]

Are we developing leaders for the 21st century?

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Do we have an educational leadership crisis? Are we developing educational leaders – in our schools and in our universities – for a world that was? Or for a world that is to be? In her TED talk, Roselinde Torres shares her research around the questions – What makes a great leader in the 21st […]

Growing Success to Positively Impact Culture

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Who doesn’t love Sylvia Duckworth‘s sketchnotes (check them all out on Fickr)? Her latest is The Iceberg Illusion, with “success” being the iceberg. While our stakeholders (teachers, students, parents, community and fellow administrators) may be able to identify “success,” they don’t necessarily understand all the factors “behind the scenes” — dedication, hard work and good habits; disappointment, […]

Curious about innovation in K12

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For a few weeks, much of my curiosity has centered on this idea of innovation (whatever that is!) in schools and the leadership required to bring it about. An earlier post, Leading Innovation for Systemic Change, represents the early stages of my curiosity. Over the past few days I’ve generated some inquiry questions on innovation in […]

#edcampldr 2015 – Philadelphia

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It was a great day at EdcampLDR yesterday in Philadelphia. Sessions at any conference/unconference can be hit or miss – either engaging, well-facilitated, edgy conversations that push attendees to think about ideas they wouldn’t consider in a normal day, or more traditional stand/deliver conference sessions where an “expert” seems to be pushing their brand. At […]

The crumbling status quo…

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In K12 we have the staunch defenders of two symbols of the educational landscape status quo – “rigorous” final exams and lecture-hall style seating/teaching. Responding to progressive education models, we’ll often hear these defenders of the status quo shout, “But we need to prepare them for college!” A recent article indicates there may be cracks in […]

The missing hat?

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From the perspective of educational leadership, ideas in business books can often be applied to our own practice. In fact, the fun of reading books such as Good to Great, Leadership Vertigo and Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less is finding nuggets of ideas to transfer to educational leadership. It’s almost always possible and not all that […]