Working At The Edge

Make School Different: Digital leadership & Transformation

Leading a Learner-Centered School: It’s Not What You Think

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This post was co-authored with Lynn Fuini-Hetten, Assistant Superintendent, Salisbury Township School District, and first appeared on EdCircuit. In a previous article, we shared the beginning of our journey with shiftyourparadigm.org, reviewing Episodes 1-5. In Episodes 6-10, we continued to learn valuable lessons from learner-centered practitioners in the field.  Leaders and learners from across the country are […]

Are You Ready to Shift Your Paradigm of Learning and Leadership?

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This post was co-authored with Lynn Fuini-Hetten, Assistant Superintendent, Salisbury Township School District, and first appeared on EdCircuit. What happens when school leaders understand the idea of learner agency? What happens when school leaders release student voice? What happens when leaders create an audacious vision for learning by including all community stakeholders in the design of that […]

Creating conditions for curiosity

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We know that agency is at the core of the concept of learner-centered, and to release agency we must create the conditions for that to happen. A disposition such as curiosity – the desire to know – cannot be forced or commanded. As leaders, how do we create the desire to know? How do we release […]

The power of greater agency…

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Recently, a friend shared this story of an influential 19-year old entrepreneur in the UK: Getting around rules to start a business in my teens. In the article, we learn the story of Ben Towers. Aged 11, I was challenged by a family friend to build her a website. This was then the start of […]

Which are the #learnercentered #edtech companies?

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An article in the New York times re-surfaced some thoughts and questions I’ve written about in connection with a 2016 trip to Silicon Valley – #PennSV16. While the focus of the article is on the ethics of Silicon Valley courting “brand-name” teachers to promote their wares, I wonder if it’s more about “what’s missing” from the […]

Exercising Agency in Leadership

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One of the things I’ve come to believe over the past year is that agency is at the heart of powerful learning. It is the defining element of what we describe as learner-centered. Agency distinguishes learner-centered environments from school-centered. Out of this belief has developed a natural curiosity about agency and formal leadership. If we […]

Enrolling Others in the Learner-Centered Paradigm Shift

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The past month has been a time filled with lots of opportunities to learn and reflect on the work we are doing in Salisbury Township School District. I’ve not only been kindling my curiosity through reading, but have attended Education Reimagined’s Pioneer Lab Training, the AASA Legislative Advocacy Conference, the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program, […]

Learner-centered leaders create culture grounded in the community’s vision, mission and beliefs about learning [#ShiftYourParadigm]

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This post is part of a series connected to the podcast Shift Your Paradigm: from school-centered to learner-centered. Lynn and I will be sharing our learning and thinking along the way and cross-posting to the Shift Your Paradigm site. Lynn Fuini-Hetten & Randy Ziegenfuss In Episode 8, we had a conversation with Dr. Suzanne Freeman, Superintendent […]

Transforming with an Eye to the Future

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As we think about transformation of the education system, it’s important that we scan the current landscape but also “patrol the border between now and next” to best understand the changes that will ultimately disrupt our world as we know it, including the way we educate and learn. While I’ve previously written (and even put […]