• At end of school year, what makes you beautiful? – Design Movement

  This is my new school team. And I could not be more proud to join them. Truly. Beautiful.

  tags: #mvpschool #MustRead leadership EQ

• Talentism: My Son Won’t Do His Homework

  tags: homework learning motivation #MustRead #CIStudy parenting

• Seeds | Thomas Steele-Maley

  “A wondrous learning environment is often one that emerges, with our care as adults. Our care in letting go of our worry and will to control, our importance in knowing what “works”, or what history says will work “always”…. For just as those seeds will grow wild, they will grow because a gentle bravery bucked all of horticulture and believed in the ability of seeds and freedom at one moment in time.”

  tags: learning environment natural #MustRead

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

• Bassett Blog 2013/05: On Great by Choice – Bassett Blog

  In a recent talk at SAIS, I referred to Pat Bassett’s emphasis on being a school of the future or risk not being a school in the future. It seems clear that Bassett advises innovation and transformation. I wonder why more Indy schools don’t seem to be responding more deliberately.

  tags: bassett School Change innovation transformation Collins #MustRead

• The Nature Cure: The Surprising Health Benefits of the Great Outdoors | Wellness | OutsideOnline.com

  How might we structure school to integrate more of the essentials of nature and the outdoors? Do we mean what we say about health, wellness, balance, “what’s best for the children,” etc.?

  tags: nature health outdoors wellness #MustRead curriculum

• On Mutation in Education | Thomas Steele-Maley

  In this blog post, the design conjures a “lab experiment” page from a manual. This experiment is one very much worth discussing in a school admin team, faculty R&D group, etc. 

  tags: mutation education innovation #MustRead

• What a Good Moonshot Is Really For – Scott D. Anthony and Mark Johnson – Harvard Business Review

  What are our moonshots in education?

  tags: Moonshot strategic planning ubd #MustRead

• Ramsey Musallam: 3 rules to spark learning | Video on TED.com

  “It took a life-threatening condition to jolt chemistry teacher Ramsey Musallam out of ten years of “pseudo-teaching” to understand the true role of the educator: to cultivate curiosity. In a fun and personal talk, Musallam gives 3 rules to spark imagination and learning, and get students excited about how the world works.”

  tags: ted learning #MustRead #MustSee curiosity questions

• “School Time” in New Zealand | Edutopia

  “Can you explain how the school day is structured, and why?”

  tags: school time schedule day edutopia #MustRead

• 5 Ways To Innovate By Cross-Pollinating Ideas | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

  Ways to bust silos! Connect ideas.

  tags: innovation design combinatorial #MustRead problem solving ideation silos

• 1 | Sweating The Details: This Workstation Doubles As A Personal Gym | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

  I can imagine a classroom full of this workstation gear. Students could use their kinetics to enhance learning rather than sitting in desks that try to minimize movement.

  tags: workstation innovation design #MustRead health

• 1 | What The WSJ’s Portrait Artist Can Teach You About Innovation | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

  tags: innovation design transformation #MustRead

• The Unexpected Antidote to Procrastination – Peter Bregman – Harvard Business Review

  Feeling our way into, and through, ed transformation.

  tags: feeling learningbydoing #MustRead

• Students Ponder the Economics of Everyday Life – NYTimes.com

  “grappling with questions that students care about appears to be a far more effective learning strategy”

  Great piece about economics with large insights about engagement, intrinsic motivation, and learning.

  tags: inquiry-based #MustRead questions Synergy

  • The assignment is my response to the distressing finding that six months after having completed a standard introductory economics course, students are no better able to answer questions about basic economic principles than others who have never even taken economics.
  • grappling with questions that students care about appears to be a far more effective learning strategy
  • Between midterm and term’s end, their brains have somehow become rewired to see the world differently.

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

• Unpacking “Academic Excellence” | Connected Principals

  “What are the distinguishing features of academically excellent schools or classrooms?  Are the only valid features of “academically excellent” schools those that are common to all to schools?  Can we or should we personalize our understanding of “academically excellent” schools?”

  tags: academic excellence connected principals #MustRead

• La vida es bella : On Pupils and Masters

  “My reflection leapt to the classroom:  What defines us as teachers: our titles, our resumes, our PLN’s and social network presence? Our words?  Or is it the choices we make in the presence of our students day in and day out?”

  tags: #MustRead control

• In a Big Data World, Don’t Forget Experimentation – Thomas C. Redman – Harvard Business Review

  “In the unfolding data revolution, companies must develop the capabilities to experiment.” An important consideration for schools that want to innovate. Schools can and should have R&D work blended into the fabric of their structure and purpose. After all, schools are organizations and institutions of learning.

  tags: research research-practice divide professional learning experimentation PLC #MustRead

• The Future of Tablets in Education: Potential Vs. Reality of Consuming Media | MindShift

  Love this idea of balancing “Someday/Monday” for professional development. 

  “The Someday/Monday dichotomy captures one of the core challenges in teacher professional development around education technology. One the one hand, deep integration of new learning technologies into classrooms requires substantially rethinking pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and teacher practice (someday). For technology to make a real difference in student learning, it can’t just be an add-on. On the other hand, teachers need to start somewhere (Monday), and one of the easiest ways for teachers to get experience with emerging tools is to play and experiment in lightweight ways: to use technology as an add-on. Teachers need to imagine a new future—to build towards Someday—and teachers also need new activities and strategies to try out on Monday. Both pathways are important to teacher growth and meaningful, sustained changes in teaching and learning.”

  tags: technology professional development someday monday #MustRead

• Enstitute, an Alternative to College for a Digital Elite – NYTimes.com

  A great piece of brain food for considering possibilities for Education 3.0. Certain paragraphs are full of blended-learning ideas and practices.

  tags: alternative college nytimes com apprenticeship school model Education3pt0 #MustRead

• Seth’s Blog: Urgency and accountability are two sides of the innovation coin

  Really important piece on innovation in successful organizations.

  tags: seth accountability innovation #MustRead

• Sesame Street Meets the App Age: How to Nurture Creative Learning | MindShift

  The article is about the app market for children’s learning. However, the section headers – LESSONS – seem much more universal to me.

  tags: sesame street #MustRead

• Pedagogy vs. Andragogy | My Island View

  “Maybe as adult learners we need to take a look in the mirror before we resume our role as teachers for kids. In the final analysis, I do not think that there are differences in the way we learn as adults, or kids, but rather the differences lie in the opportunities afforded to learn. If we respected kids more as learners, they might be more self-directed and motivated in their learning. If they are allowed to participate in their learning, they might take more ownership. What learner wants to own something that is not in his, or her interest to own? If we can understand better how we learn best, maybe we can alter how we teach to be the best.”

  tags: pedagogy #MustRead

• The Abstraction Method of Problem Solving – 99U

  Zooming in and out – on spectra of abstract and specific – to enhance problem solving.

  tags: Problem-solving problem solving #MustRead

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

• In an Era of Global Competition, What Exactly Are We Testing For? | MindShift

  “The new education needs to start with the child. Not with the prescribed content,” Zhao

  tags: education assessment Zhao curriculum #MustRead

• The Coming Revolution in Public Education – John Tierney – The Atlantic

  A compelling overview of the educational landscape, the reform effort(s), and the impending revolution in public education. Full of links to explore to learn more deeply about the crossroads we face as a nation trying to school our children.

  tags: education revolution reform policy edreform public education #MustRead School Change

• The Agility Factor

  I could imagine that more than a few regular readers of #MustRead Shares – mostly educators – might initially bristle with the early paragraphs in this article about strategic agility. The idea of “profit” in schools might turn people off, as I try to explore the lessons schools can learn from business. However, if one can get past that, there is much to learn from this piece. How are we agile in school administrations, curriculum, instruction, etc.? There is a chart on p. 3 that is well worth contemplating as a school leader!

  tags: agility strategy change #MustRead

• Young Movers, With a Passion for Change – NYTimes.com

  “Given this extraordinary education, it makes you wonder if our schools should focus far more on peacemaking than test taking.”

  tags: school model PBL real-life service learning #MustRead

• 10 Ideas Driving The Future Of Social Entrepreneurship | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

  …and not just the future of “social entrepreneurship,” but the future of most fields.

  tags: social entrepreneurship innovation future transformation #MustRead

• Finland: The Lighthouse of Progressive Education and Divergent Learning « Penn-Finn Learnings 2013

  HT @CurtisCFEE
  @boadams1 @GrantLichtman @pgow Don’t miss @KavanYee on “The Lighthouse of Progressive Ed & Divergent Learning” http://t.co/7LY8tPq7MB

  tags: Finland progressive education #MustRead

• What Matters More in Decisions: Analysis or Process?

  “Looking at how organizations make decisions is a good place to start if we’re trying to improve the quality of decisions and remove cognitive biases.”

  “So what matters more, process or analysis? After comparing the results they determined that “process mattered more than analysis—by a factor of six.””

  HT @HappyGoth and her comment – this also applies to schools!

  tags: decisions analysis process #MustRead

• 10 Ways to Teach Innovation | MindShift

  “The burden of reinvention, of course, falls on today’s generation of students. So it follows that education should focus on fostering innovation by putting curiosity, critical thinking, deep understanding, the rules and tools of inquiry, and creative brainstorming at the center of the curriculum.”

  tags: innovation PBL #MustRead creativity

• The 6 Key Drivers of Student Engagement — THE Journal

  “We believe that relevant, personalized, collaborative, and connected learning experiences enhance student engagement, which in turn drives student achievement. Although these learning experiences were available in a more limited way before the advent of technology, digital conversion has taken them to an entirely new level.” [HT @CenterTeach]

  tags: engagement relevance collaboration connected #MustRead

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

• Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Reflections on Storytelling

  “Good storytelling is particularly important when introducing a complex and potentially disruptive offering in the marketplace whose value is not well understood.” [new school models!]

  “There are still people who believe that design is just about making things, people and places pretty.  In truth, design has spread like gas to almost all facets of human activity, from science and education to politics and policymaking.  For a simple reason: one of design’s most fundamental tasks is to help people deal with change.”

  “Designers stand between revolutions and everyday life.”

  tags: storytelling #MustRead narrative design

• Amazing Things Are Happening Here | NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

  This grab for the #MustRead shares is more of a “mood board” entry – an inspiration. I’d love to see a school take this approach to its website. Imagine the faces on the NYP site as student learners, faculty, parents, alumni, etc. There’s a tease to their story. Then, a deeper click reveals a short about their learning experience in this community. 

  tags: storytelling design #MustRead #MustSee

• La vida es bella : What Does Your Ideal School Look Like?

  “the schools of today are a reflection of the nation of tomorrow”

  This is one of the most beautiful and thought-provoking pieces that I have read all year. To me, among other things, it challenges us and charges us to envision the nation we want and to design the schools that will help us achieve that vision. We should be DOING this!

  tags: #MustRead School Change schoolreform schooldesign

• “The Root, Stem, Leaves, & Fruit of American Education” [Part 2] | chris.thinnes.me

  “Creating the lives they lead tomorrow, and the society in which they will lead them, should be foremost among the goals for students that we promote. Thankfully, the most forward thinking educators already recognize that students’ imaginations are more valuable than their ambitions; their decision-making processes are more valuable than their products; their collaboration is more valuable than their competition; and their engagement is more valuable than their achievement.”

  tags: Thinnes progressive education Dewey edreform #MustRead WhySchool

• Super-Awesome Sylvia in the Not So Awesome Land of Schooling : Stager-to-Go

  (HT @occam98)

  “Don’t you dare tell me that the demands of the curriculum preclude time for such classroom projects. Kids like Sylvia remind us of the authentic nature of learning and the efficiency of project-based learning. Several years worth of lectures on physics, electronics, engineering, computer science and video production would not result in the understanding demonstrated by Sylvia; that is if elementary schools bothered to teach such subjects at all.”

  tags: constructivism maker student centered #MustRead

• Why We Need Principals | Connected Principals

  tags: principals leadership learnIng #MustRead

• “How Do I Teach This?” vs. “What Did We Learn?” | Edutopia

  “We’re writing standards in an attempt to raise the bar — well-intentioned, to be sure — but in the end, students and teachers can only jump as high as their curiosity will let them. For all their digital elegance, the NGSS divert attention away from the much larger issue: we have millions of children in schools learning things on narrative arcs that they had no part in authoring.”

  tags: studentengagement designthinking Student Voice #MustRead

• University of Chicago Laboratory Schools: About Lab » Director Search » Director Search Statement

  An interesting way to explore Dewey and progressive education – study the position statement for University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools’ new director.

  tags: progressive education Dewey #MustRead

• Is ROI the Right Way to Judge a College Education? – Administration – The Chronicle of Higher Education

  “The conversation about college and its returns gets down to a question that has dogged academe for decades, if not centuries: What is higher education for: Personal growth? A golden ticket? Or some of both?”

  Set in the context of college education, the article contains powerful glances into the purposes of education, too.

  tags: college higher education chronicle #MustRead

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