By far the most common complaint in a school is that there is not enough time. While I don’t have a specific study to cite here, I am fairly certain that this would be identified as the number one constraint in education by most teachers. Time has become even more of a constraint since the […]
As we started this year, our leadership team acknowledged that doing something that nobody had ever done before could be pretty scary. We also acknowledged our strengths as we tried to start out in a proactive and positive note. Recognition In order to recognize the hard work that people had already done and the work […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
This year we lost an English teacher because our student numbers are down. Part of the reason that this is happening is that students have the opportunity to take English classes during the summer and online. They are taking advantage of early college and dual enrollment in order to get college credits during high school. […]
Many people are discussing the changes that are happening in education toward a more relevant, personal learning system. Some believe that this push to make learning more interesting and engaging for students will stunt their ability to persist when they have to do more rote boring tasks that are inevitable in the realities of the […]
The “Selfie” Mindset If you have ever seen yourself on video, you know how uncomfortable it can be. This discomfort is a very efficient way to make change. All the behaviors, gestures, tones, words that were never noticeable to you all of a sudden become clearer than a freshly washed window. In his book Focus […]
