I want to circle back to a post I wrote in this space a couple of months ago regarding the “Pedagogic Creed” of John Dewey and the model that he presents for clearly articulating your beliefs about learning. I’ve begun asking the leaders at the schools I’m visiting if they’ve ever written down what they believe
This New School Year, What Do You Believe About Learning? Read More »
If you don’t believe phonics is the answer to kids learning to read and spell, then ask anyone who was educated in the 1950s. It is no accident that we can all read and spell with little trouble, compared with the kids from the decades since ~The Australian, August 17, 2015 As hard as it
Who Owns Advocacy? Read More »
I’ve been thinking a lot about learning over the last couple of years, more so than at any other point in my life. While I spent 22 years teaching and administrating in a public school, I can’t say that I spent a lot of time thinking about learning during my career, specifically how kids learn.
Discovering Learning or Delivering an Education Read More »
School starts for me tomorrow morning. Over the course of the day, 100 brand new sixth graders will roll through my classroom door. They will be quiet at first. Finding your way around a new building with new teachers and trying to figure out new sets of rules can make any eleven-year old more than
What I Need from My Principal to Make School Different Read More »
I was talking recently with a prominent Regional Director (aka Superintendent) who said currently her biggest challenge across her 85 schools (75k students) was variability. She said that while parents and the media focused on outputs such as test scores and ‘league tables’, her attention was on inputs, namely the consistency of the quality of
Variability and Inequity Read More »
I’m not sure if you read Nicholas Negroponte’s seminal book Being Digital, but going back to it recently some 20 years after it was first published made me realize just how much foresight he had at that time. While I’m not necessarily a fan of everything Negroponte has said or done, least of all the
Being Digital: Finally. Read More »
If you had asked me just a few years ago who Seymour Papert was, I would have stared blankly and had no answer. Not surprisingly, today when I ask others in my workshops if they know of Papert, most do not. Because of my own lack of exposure to Papert’s ideas, I’m not surprised. Yet,
The “One Really Competitive Skill” Read More »
The concept of “improvement” is an interesting one. It’s one of those words that gets thrown around when we talk about “school improvement,” “improving test scores” and the like, but it’s also a word that can carry many hidden meanings. Improving test scores inevitably means higher scores, but it can also be used in reference
In recent issues we’ve shared stories from writers who have talked at length about the unprecedented changes that are taking place in the world around us, and from last week we shared excerpts of posts that were focused on the impact those changes are likely have on the world of work that our young people
I took a few days off to go camping in the Adirondacks with my son Tucker last week. It was a much needed respite, and despite that fact that we officially need a bigger tent (he’s 6′ 2″ now), we had a great time hiking, fishing, and tree adventuring (highly recommended.) I’m surprised, in fact,
The WTF Economy? (As in “What’s the Future?”) Read More »
Last week was ISTE, the largest gathering of technology educators annually in the United States. This was my eighth ISTE “experience,” and it’s hard for me to ignore the love/hate feeling I have for it. The best parts are, as always, the people. It’s a time to reconnect with friends from the early days of
If you want to keep abreast of what is happening with technology in education across developing countries, Mike Trucano from the World Bank writes an interesting blog which focuses on the policy aspects across many regions. The Bank’s reach means he is across a lot more than most, and while his focus is around national
1 to 1 Is Not The Answer Read More »
We may talk about the importance of learning, but for the most part we do not practice it. Let’s start with schools. Schools tend to focus on weaknesses instead of strengths. They also focus too much on content dissemination. Our institutions have failed to foster the love of learning, and do not motivate students to
Barriers to Social Learning Read More »
If you asked my students, they would probably tell you that my classroom has been a seriously miserable place over the past week. We are currently grinding through a unit on ecosystems – and while studying the natural world should be interesting and exciting, our required curriculum is loaded with trivia. Students are expected to
Tacit Expertise vs. Explicit Knowledge Read More »
Recently I was speaking with the superintendent of a small rural district in the US about her frustration with moving real changes forward in her district. “My biggest problem,” she said midway through the conversation, “is that I have a staff that doesn’t read. They’re not really paying attention to what’s happening in the world.”
“Reading” the World Read More »
