Head over to Google or Amazon and do a search for “difficult conversations” and you’ll quickly get the sense that people need a lot of help having them. Especially today when we are so fractured politically in the US and elsewhere. These days, it feels harder and harder to have an even somewhat congenial conversation […]
The Conditions for Difficult Conversations Read More »
Education is changing, and schools are still struggling to adapt. That’s the key takeaway from this interview with Rich Halverson, co-author of Rethinking Education in an Age of Technology which just came out in its second edition. First published in 2009, Halverson’s book is one on the most underlined and dog-eared of all of the
#58 – Author Rich Halverson on Rethinking Education Read More »
Our recently released 10 Principles for Schools of Modern Learning whitepaper provides a synthesis of the unique characteristics of schools from around the world that have taken on high-bar change initiatives responding to the new opportunities and challenges of learning in the modern age. Since its publication, the white paper has been downloaded by over
#57 – Announcing the Audit Read More »
Here’s my burning question for you in 2019: What are you going to do to change the experience that your students have in school to reflect more compellingly what you believe is the right thing to be doing for kids and learning? It’s a loaded question, I know. It suggests that as an educator,
2019 – Time to Choose Read More »
Given the opportunity to start a new community public school from scratch, what would you build? What process would you employ? And if you really wanted to create something really different, how would you convince parents that really different is not something their kids need but also something they should want? Those questions and more
#56 – Megan Power on Creating a New Experience of Learning Read More »
Why do so many students leave high school without the ability to write in compelling and interesting ways? According to John Warner, author of a new book titled “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities,” it’s because we’re teaching them to write to a test, not to real life audiences.
#55: Author John Warner on Rethinking Writing Instruction and Schools Read More »
Given how much I read, I wish I was more like my friend Rob who has the insane ability to remember just about everything he reads down to where it’s located on the paper or digital page he reads it on. Unfortunately for me, that’s not the case. It takes much longer for the patterns
The Most Important Skill for the Future: Being Human Read More »
Turns out, we who live in western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies are actually as WEIRD as the acronym for that group spells out. According to research by University of British Columbia professor Joe Henrich (now of Harvard,) “Members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could
Designing for Learning Read More »
The compelling case for reimagining schools is not difficult to make. It’s a combination of common sense and a clear understanding of how the changes in the world are creating new challenges and opportunities for learners both in and out of school. In other words, the compelling case is built on a sense of urgency
#54 Old Urgencies, New Urgencies for Change Read More »
Change School alumni Mark Heintz joins Bruce and me in another episode of the Modern Learners Podcast. You can join is in Change School. All the details are on the site! Mark is a Teaching and Learning Facilitator at Elk Grove High School in Illinois. Tired of viewing success only by a score. he and
#51: From Old School to Change School Read More »
Now that everyone is turning their focus to developing the skills and dispositions kids need to thrive in the future, many are starting to ask “Well, how do we assess those things?” As in how do we create a data point for curiosity or creativity or persistence? And what skills and dispositions should we be
#50: Measuring (Or Not) the Immeasurable Read More »
As I wrote about in last week’s column, this new book titled Timeless Learning by Ira Socol, Pam Moran, and Chad Ratliff may just be the best book I’ve read about how to change schools and bring all the things we know are important about progressive learning to traditional public and private schools. In this
#48: Timeless Learning With Pam Moran and Ira Socol Read More »
While it’s hard to count the number of profound thoughts and insights that frequent Timeless Learning, the absolutely powerful new book from Ira Socol, Pam Moran, and Chad Ratliff that’s coming out next week, this one particular passage had my inner and outer edu-activist pumping his fist: Adults may argue about this – they do
Choosing Progressive Education for Modern Learning Read More »
I’m pretty sure I’ve written this before in this space, but one of my favorite essays relevant to the whole conversation around school change is Margaret Wheatley’s “Willing to be Disturbed.” It was first published 16 years ago as a commentary on how confusing the world seemed to be post 9/11, and I’ve always found
Willing to be Affirmed Read More »
Could it be that one of the biggest barriers to change is that we rarely have any real shared understanding of the language we use around learning? That’s one of the many interesting conclusions that Dr. Beth Holland arrived at while doing her recently published dissertation from Johns Hopkins University. And it’s one of the
#47: Dr. Beth Holland discusses Learning, Language, and Leading Read More »
