I recently read reports on two schools’ live event learning activities that triggered me to revisit this topic and hope that summer might be a great time for some readers to consider pushing additional live events into next year’s planning. Students at Maine East High School in Illinois studied angles, shapes and theorems in geometry […]

I found a study that examines non-cognitive factors that impact student academic progress. Teaching Adolescents To Become Learners :The Role of Non-cognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance: A Critical Literature Review .  The report parallels well with my work in backwards planning, identifying student and then teacher behaviors and actions. I believe school leaders would […]

Last week’s blog, explored using innovation to impact schools, teaching, and learning. I mentioned that being focused only on improvements can block transformational change and that leaders will like have difficulties to address in a school open to innovation. My reading took me further this week to examine transformations and what that would mean in […]

Dan Meyer’s blog is one of my favorites to follow. His thinking about learning and teaching math frequently provides concrete examples for my work with focusing on student learning behaviors.  In his recent blog, he links to the video of a keynote address that he delivered at the 2014 Computer-Using Educators annual conference in Palm Springs. In the keynote […]

I recently presented a keynote (Leading Teams) for the NJ Learningforward Conference. (Power point available here.  ) One topic I explored was supporting teams using elements I had pulled from Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. I chose to take his dysfunctions and present them as areas of concentration for team builders, […]

I had several requests recently to explore “what instructional coaches should spend their time doing”.  One district, where coaching is in its fourth year, asked me to facilitate a reflection conversation among coaches to help assess “what we have accomplished” and “what we have  learned”.  Another system in its second year wanted to examine, “How […]