Working At The Edge

Make School Different: Digital leadership & Transformation

4 steps to deeper conversation

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Last month I shared a post on the lack of deep conversation, primarily on social media – mindlessly retweeting content and reading blog posts without connecting to the writer or ideas. At the time, I shared the hunch that a lot of surface level conversation is driven by a lack of focus, but I didn’t […]

The Culture of “School”

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I’m revisiting my highlights in Ron Richhart’s Creating Culture of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools. A revisit to any great text surfaces new questions. One of my biggest questions drawn from the text is What kind of intellectual life are we surrounding our children with at home, school and in the classroom? You’d […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“Everybody blogs, nobody reads.”

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The quote in the title of this post from this blog post got me thinking… How do we approach our consumption of information from blogs and Twitter? Is it more like “everyone shares, nobody reads”? How many people actually read – in a thoughtful way – the blogs they subscribe to and the tweets they retweet? […]

ADE Application Video

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Earlier this year, I created a video as part of the Apple Distinguished Educator application process. While it wasn’t accepted – you can’t apply as a superintendent – it was a good learning experience and I like the final product. So I thought I’d share it here. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dNMrg2CWtg]  

Graduation Talk 2015

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As Superintendent, I had the opportunity to speak at graduation and share some thoughts with the Salisbury High School Class of 2015. Board President Mr.  Giordano; Board members; Ms. Morningstar, Mr. Muschlitz; A stellar staff – teachers, administrators and support staff; Dedicated and supportive family and friends;  and to each of the graduates of the […]

Don’t wait for things to be perfect…

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Over the past few weeks I’ve been reflecting on my work in my new role as Superintendent. The greatest challenge I’ve experienced is to not be consumed by the day-to-day work and find time to slow it all down, making space for both reflection and professional reading. It’s analogous to the person who doesn’t find […]