Working At The Edge

Make School Different: Digital leadership & Transformation

Are educators ready for Common Core?

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Today I attended a very good professional development provided by Discovery Education – The ELA Common Core Academy. I left the session (another day tomorrow) feeling like I have a greater understanding of the Common Core Standards and the instructional shifts required of our teachers so that our students can meet these new standards. My […]

Seeking Excellence

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Good advice from George Couros to school leaders in a recent post (“People do not fail in life because they aim too high and miss…”) – “…if we were to take a look at a lot of the tasks that we do in school, do they lead to ‘great’ or are they something we just […]

Music Directing and Leadership

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Music Directing and Leadership. Two topics I have, at various stages of my life, given considerable time, thought and work. The other day I stumbled upon a podcast from the Art Works Podcast series from the National Endowment for the Arts. The interview featured Alan Gilbert, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. During the […]

Employers want people who…

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Catching up on some RSS feeds, I ran across this on the Personalized Learning blog, the post “Who controls the Learning?” I really like this list. Two questions: (1) Are we providing our learners with the opportunity to develop these qualities? (2) Better yet… Do educators personally engage these qualities in their work….everyday? I know […]

Servant Leadership and State Department’s of Education

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This past week I had an encounter with the concept of servant leadership. In a PIL course, ironically, delivered through the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the presenters shared the 10 characteristics of a servant leader for us to ponder. (Click through to learn more specifically how each characteristic is defined.) Listening Empathy Healing Awareness Persuasion […]

Are we educators literate for the 21st Century?

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This was one of my most memorable takeaways from the 2013 PETE & C conference held several weeks ago in Hershey, PA. It came from Rob Mancabelli’s presentation, “Learning in a networked world.” In the presentation, Rob referenced the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) position statement on the Definition of 21st Century Literacies. […]

Digital Age Parenting

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This post has been cross-posted to SalisburySD.US. A week ago, I shared a post asking parents and teachers how they manage digital distraction in the classroom and at home. We’ve had several replies in the comments section. Be sure to check them out and add yours if you haven’t already! Over the past week, I’ve […]