I read an excellent post on How To Create A Culture of Greatness from author Jon Gordon. I particularly liked how he emphasizes that shaping a great organization starts with the leader, no one else. “A culture of greatness creates an expectation that everyone in the organization be committed to excellence. It requires leaders and […]
Do educators make time to reflect?
I ask this question after reading Jacob Gorban’s recent Lifehacker post, “Why Your Schedule Should Have a Weekly Appointment Dedicated to “Thinking Time.” Education seems to be an inherently non-reflective profession. Personally, reflection is like breathing air. Do we reflect enough as educators?
Valuing Both Friendship-Driven and Interest-driven Spaces
This blog post was originally posted by me on the TL2014.org site, but I think it is relevant conversation for WorkingAtTheEdge.org. In 2008, a study was released by the MacArthur Foundation exploring the uses of digital media by youth. The study, published in the book Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out, is important because […]
Commitment and Passion in Artists
For much of my adult life I’ve had the opportunity to attend a lot of music, opera and theater living so close to New York City. I marvel at how the success of the ensemble art form – opera, musical theatre, theatre and orchestra – principally relies on two things: the passion of the leader […]
Technology for Learning: Add-on or Disruptor
Too often schools buy into “technology” with the expectation that teachers, students and leaders won’t have to change a thing – life can go on – business as usual. Not so fast. Technology is disruptive – not in a negative sense that it causes chaos with everyone and everything out of control; but in a […]
Change, Innovation and Leadership
It’s not often that I find resources that push the limits of our paradigm of school leadership, but Jonathan Martin shares some takeaways from a new book, The Innovator’s DNA, that offer an opportunity to reflect on our own leadership and that of the organizations we call schools. I haven’t read the book yet, but […]
Framework for 21st Century School Leadership
Reading through Google Reader, I encountered a post that really interested me. The post, by Chris Kennedy, proposes a framework for leadership today. I find that many of our current ideas of leadership are rooted almost exclusively in the past. As a result, we have a lot of status quo leaders in our schools. Chris […]
Changing Habits – In Work and Life
Where change is happening, we often hear that if we are wanting to do something differently, the change must involves giving something up, or stopping some unproductive behavior. In Necessary Endings, Dr. Henry Cloud refers to this as pruning. And we all need to do it – at work and in life. “You can’t prune […]
Simple definition of Leadership…
From Beyond Code by Rajesh Setty: “Leadership is not tied to a position. If you want to lead, look for the gaps in your organization and start trying to fill them. Leadership can be as simple as filling in the blanks.” (pg. 5)
How creative are educators?
The last time I blogged, I asked the question – How passionate are educators? It seems like I’m on a bit of a rant about educators, particularly educational leaders with the addition of today’s question – How creative are educators? Michael Hyatt recently suggested 7 Ways Successful Creatives Think Differently Than Unsuccessful Ones. As I […]