Author Archives: boadams1

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About boadams1

Learner. Husband. Dad. Mountaineer. Head of School at Mackintosh Academy - Boulder, in Boulder, Colorado. Have worked in transformation design, educational innovation, and school leadership for 30+ years.

What narrative do we hope school-age students share about “school?” #WhatIfWeekly

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Summer is the time of adventures, exploring what is out in the world that you really enjoy. Then you come back to the fall with a good basic foundation to start the school year ready for action. It is almost like the true beginning of the year is the summer because it is when you really start learning and preparing for the next year. – High School (Rising) Sophomore, from her blog

It’s an interesting narrative, isn’t it? Worthy of much reflection and inquiry. Is it the narrative we educators really want school students to have? That summer is the time of adventures – the seasonal time in our annual cycle to explore in the world that which “you really enjoy?”

What if school-age students perceived school to be the time of adventures and the time to explore that which we really enjoy? What if we reverse engineered from that desired outcome? What if we backwards designed from that narrative? What if the content, competencies, and motivations (HT @DrTonyWagner) that we know to constitute deeper, lifelong learning and citizenship formed the bedrock of formalized schooling? What if play, passion, and purpose (HT #2 to @DrTonyWagner) were more deliberately woven into the tapestry of what we call the academic year? What if summer were not the sole domain of adventure and exploring “the world that you really enjoy?”

Creativity as disobedient thought. HMW nurture curiosity over compliance?

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Creativity as “disobedient thought” — wonder sparked from our human drive to question.

Questioning is the very source of creative thought. When we get into a cul-de-sac where ritual and formula do not give us the answer, then we begin to question. This beautiful, beautiful human ability. Probably the most precious thing to nurture. — Welby Ings

In his TEDxAuckland talk, “Disobedient Thinking,” Welby Ings examines a bit of the nature of typical schooling — systems biasing compliance over creativity. What is the record of time that school students are able to explore the questions that originate from within them, rather than from the initiation of an adult? How are we nurturing the nature of creativity which is disobedient thought? How are we nurturing citizens who believe questioning is actually at the heart and core of deep citizenship?

HT @TJEdwards62

#MustRead Shares (weekly)

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  • Anchor Points | Steve Mouldey

    Steve writes about his own temporary frustrations while being a co-learner with his students rather than the traditional ed “resident expert.” I so appreciate Steve’s honest reflection and encouragement to the Growth Mindset as we shift our paradigm about what it might mean to be “teacher” in different pedagogical postures.

    tags: mindset #MustRead

  • How to Build a Faculty Culture of Change – NEXT: The Future of Higher Education – The Chronicle of Higher Education

    Fascinating “checklist for change:” 1) relearn the importance of collective action, 2) put an end to rhetorical excess, 3) empower a different kind of faculty leader, 4) recast the faculty-staffing table, 5) make the academic department the unit of instructional production.

    HT @meghancureton

    tags: culture change innovation #MustRead

    • Changing that last condition—in essence, rebuilding a faculty culture of change and innovation—will require forceful and, more important, collective action on our part as members of the faculty. As individuals we will have to abandon that sense of ourselves as independent actors and agents.

  • On Vulnerability | Dani Shapiro

    In looking more deeply at “reflective practice,” I am re-examining a body of work under the umbrella of vulnerability. Interestingly, while doing so, a colleague in Baltimore sent an inquiry about reflective practice and Brene Brown. Also, this morning’s walk and podcast was Debbie Milman, of Design Matters, interviewing Dani Shapiro. They mention this post.

    tags: vulnerability #MustRead

  • Collective Genius – Harvard Business Review

    “In the way they behave and structure the organizations where talented people work, leaders can draw out the slices of genius in each individual and assemble them into innovations that represent collective genius. The question is not “How do I make innovation happen?” but, rather, “How do I set the stage for it to happen?””

    HT @MeghanCureton, @CenterTeach

    tags: innovation leadership teamwork culture #MustRead

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Design for Social Impact Exhibit 5.25.14-8.03.14 @modatl

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The Design for Social Impact exhibit at MODA is open!

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How can design solve real world problems? Our new exhibition, Design for Social Impact, shows how the design process is being used to tackle some of the 21st century’s most difficult problems.

Based on the idea that design is a way of looking at the world with an eye for changing it, Design for Social Impact looks at how designers, engineers, students, professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs are using design to solve problems in the areas of shelter, community, education, healthcare, energy, and food & water.

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.