Probing Questions Even when I ask for advice sometimes, I don’t always really want it. I find myself sabotaging every idea that gets thrown my way right after I asked for help. I guess this happens because I already have some idea of what I want in my head and I just haven’t quite articulated […]
Beowulf and Hemingway? I have encountered a similar conversation this year amongst many staff, in my own building as well as throughout the state, as we discuss the implications of proficiency based graduation standards. Even those in favor of radical changes are concerned about students leaving school without a foundational knowledge. If they don’t know […]
Resistance to change I have been thinking a lot about resistance lately after a rather lengthy conversation with several colleagues. I may have dragged this conversation on longer than necessary because I was trying to avoid the resistance that is inevitable in this change process. There is a natural inclination to try and change people. […]
Social Emotional Learning Concepts Foster Change Over the last few weeks, our school has been grappling with the issue of grades as Vermont moves to a proficiency based system. I’ll save that blog post for down the road but during these conversations one thing has become abundantly clear to me. Any teacher who has been […]
Student Involvement in School Transformation If you haven’t read my previous post on the 1st steps I took with regard to student involvement in the school change process, you may want to before continuing. During this second meeting with students, I asked them to consider all the ideas that they had brainstormed and categorize them; […]
Envisioning the Ideal School Introduction and context: As the first task of my fellowship, I created a steering committee to help me with the work I would be undertaking next year. I chose several teachers and an administrator and asked each one of those people to invite two students to participate. Because my project is […]
No gifts for teacher appreciation week I have a simple (or maybe not so simple) request for teacher appreciation week. I would like to be trusted. I was recently awarded a fellowship that offers both time and quite a lot of money for my school. At a recent dinner they planned to honor new and […]
How Self-Directed Can Students Really Be? If I said that students should be in charge of their own learning, I wonder how many would tell me that, while that was a nice thought, students wouldn’t be able to handle it? I know I certainly considered that myself. As we planned our first self-directed learning unit […]
As I have been engaging in research, collaboration and learning regarding personal learning and school transformation for the past year, I have continually encountered an irony that keeps nudging at me. We have discussed all the shifts in mindset that these changes will require. We have talked a lot about what will change for student […]
Starting the Conversation About Education Transformation If you have been around the education world for a while, you know that most change happens in the following way. Your principal or administrator makes a decision to go forward with an initiative. An inservice is provided and you are expected to implement the initiative. It’s no surprise […]
