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Shifting Conversations
With over 200 posts, our Shifting Conversations blog is where we reflect on the work of teachers and leaders to create a new narrative for schooling and education. Add your voice to the conversation. And sign up today to receive the Modern Learners weekly newsletter with curated, relevant content along with our Shifting Conversations blog.
Shifting Conversations Blog
Wanted: Professional Learners
What if one primary goal we had in schools was to develop kids as “professional learners”? As in people who make money because they are learning. That’s the intriguing phrasing that one of my favorite workplace bloggers Jane Hart uses to describe what people formerly known as employees need to be to thrive today. In […]
Modern Learners Podcast #40 – Interview With Ted Dintersmith
If you haven’t heard (or seen) the movie “Most Likely to Succeed,” you may be in the educational minority today. The documentary highlights the problems of traditional schooling through the eyes of students, parents, and teachers who are seeking, and in some cases participating in a very different education, and it’s become one of the […]
Will Learner Voice Lead to the Learner’s Revolution?
Brodie is an interesting kid; not precocious or in any way insolent, but also not afraid to share his opinions. He’d been going to one of Melbourne’s leading schools when late last year he decided it was time he and the school parted company. It was about that time his father, Nicholas, a local realtor, […]
Modern Learners Podcast #39 – Using Adaptive Change Methods to Revolutionize Education
Do you know the difference between technical change and adaptive change? Most change in schools involves technical change, like “dressing up” the current situation, but not really addressing the underlying issues. Adaptive change, as defined by Harvard’s Ron Heifetz, is changing culture, worldview, and self-worth. These are the changes that are the hardest to make […]
Is it About Teaching? Or is it About Learning?
One of the most interesting online debates I’ve come across lately is this one from the NAIS blog about the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) which is trying to “reimagine the high school transcript.” (If this is your first introduction to the Mastery.org folks, you may want to spend some time digging into their site and […]
The Importance of Forgetting
You’ve had a full day shopping at the mall, and the last thing you thought about when you parked your car was where you parked your car. How often do you lose your car? Probably the worst place for me used to be airport car parks. I always had a lot on your mind, planes […]
Modern Learners Podcast #38 – The Costs of High Expectations
Why do we as parents and educators push our kids to do “whatever it takes” to get into the best college they can? We think we are helping our kids, but are we really setting them up for all kinds of challenges in which they cannot be successful? Do we tie our own self-worth into […]
Our Moral Imperative
There’s change, and then there’s change. We all know what I mean by that, right? I mean, in some schools, the changes are easy to see. Everyone has a device. Teachers meet in their PLCs. “Competency-based” is the approach du jour. Or “personalized learning.” Or “flipped.” It occurs to me that most change that really […]
Modern Learners Podcast #37 – Revolutionizing Education Through Student Empowerment
Templestowe College, or TC as we call it in Victoria, Australia, was built to accommodate 1,000 students. At the start of 2010, those numbers had dwindled down to just over 200. Peter Hutton took on the challenge of rebuilding the school, despite severe challenges. Today, you will get to hear the story of the past […]
Modern Learners Podcast #36 – Changing Educational Norms That No Longer Serve Us
It’s time to get a little existential. In this episode, my friend an colleague Bruce Dickson and I are discussing the profound artistry of teaching. Fueled by our mutual love of the works of Seymour Sarason, Bruce and I are going to weigh in on some of the topics mentioned in our last Shifting Conversations […]