Change is always hard. It is human nature to do what’s comfortable. As teachers, we put a lot of energy into our work and once we find something that works, we aren’t likely to scrap it and do something else. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes we make in education. Instead of building […]
Getting buy-in for radical school changes is a common complaint of school leaders. It is important to remember how you got to the point of believing a certain change was necessary. There was probably a learning process; you read books, heard podcasts, saw a compelling keynote speaker or heard something from a student that convinced you. […]
The education community has frequently been accused of a swinging pendulum effect; implementing one initiative after another and then swinging back to the original. This has caused an inordinate amount of skepticism and apathy amongst long time teachers who don’t believe any innovation is worth implementing since it will just go by the wayside eventually, […]
Communicating About School Change I have been thinking about marketing a lot these days. We want to communicate with stakeholders about school change projects but the language can be a huge barrier and can increase fear because it is so unfamiliar. I have been playing around with messaging and documents. I have been focusing on […]
I was recently in Texas for South by Southwest Edu and I spoke with some teachers who are bound by some very strict instructional limitations because of what they identify as testing requirements. At a recent conference in Baltimore, we heard from someone who was actually docked pay because of test scores. These people always […]
Embracing Change I’m excited to take part in #IMMOOC, another brilliant and innovative idea by George Couros! This blog post is in response to the blog prompt “How are you embracing change to spur innovation in your own context?” Two years ago Vermont enacted legislation requiring high schools to use proficiency-based graduation requirements rather than […]
As I work with teachers to rethink their classrooms considering proficiency-based instruction, it has become clear that instruction will naturally become more explicit. As people question how a transition to proficiency-based learning might impact students receiving special education services or less self-directed students, I am becoming more confident that because teachers are being so much […]
Many people get nervous when, in a proficiency-based system, the grade becomes less valuable. How will students stand out? How will they compete for college admissions? When we start looking at opportunities in proficiency-based systems more closely, it becomes apparent that there are many opportunities to stand out. One of the hallmarks of an effective […]
If I could go back, what would I do differently? While I am certain that there are many paths to school transformation, I have been reflective recently about what we could have done differently in order to create a smoother transition. The number one foundational idea that I think needed more attention is that relationships […]
