• 10 Things Extraordinary Bosses Give Employees | Inc.com

  tags: leadership #MustRead

• Innovative Education: Make Room for “What Ifs” | Edutopia

  Project point of origin work. The more I dig into real-world PBL and innovation, the more I am struck by how the “big stories” begin with personal connection. Making space for learners to journey from a story of personal connection needs to be the next “big thing” in school design and scheduling.

  tags: real-world #MustRead

  • What if we invite students to solve real problems? What if the classroom doesn’t have walls? What if learning activities don’t always end with letter grades?
  • When Lehrer pitched the idea to students, he made it clear that they would be heading into uncharted territory.
  • Van As generously offered to fabricate a prosthetic hand for the child himself, but Lehrer decided to “keep that offer in my back pocket. I think he was surprised when I explained that I wanted to build this with my students.”
  • In hindsight, Lehrer can see how the club structure offered a range of benefits for this unusual project. He didn’t have to map the project to learning goals or think about grading. “I didn’t need to do assessments for these kids. Not that rubrics aren’t important,” he adds, “but there are times when you want kids to just take an idea and soar. What these students have learned is so clear to them. Their level of reflection is like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
  • “This wasn’t just an assignment. This is real life,”
  • If anyone’s thinking we can’t do real things with kids, I’m telling you you’re wrong.”

• Four Ways to Move from ‘School World’ to ‘Real World’ | MindShift

  “By shifting from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance, we can move from school world to real world.”

  tags: real-world learning #MustRead

  • When leaders exchange a scarcity mindset for one of abundance and innovation, they open the door to an empowering click-through curriculum.
  • it’s about self-direction, passion, interests, persistence, critical thinking, curation, and outcomes. There’s a greater focus on what they have done and will do with what you’ve learned, rather than how they learned it.

• The Benefits of Blue Sky Thinking – Explore Create Repeat – by 4ormat

  “We should embrace the challenge of trying to outdo ourselves in all forms.”

  tags: innovation creativity brainstorming ideation #MustRead leadership

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• How to Stimulate Curiosity | MindShift

  Three practical ways to use information gaps to stimulate curiosity:
  1. Start with the question
  2. Prime the pump
  3. Bring in communication.

  HT @MeghanCureton

  tags: curiosity #MustRead

  • uriosity is the engine of intellectual achievement—it’s what drives us to keep learning, keep trying, keep pushing forward
  • Curiosity arises, Loewenstein wrote, “when attention becomes focused on a gap in one’s knowledge. Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation labeled curiosity. The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce or eliminate the feeling of deprivation.”
  • Loewenstein’s theory helps explain why curiosity is such a potent motivator: it’s not only a mental state but also an emotion, a powerful feeling that impels us forward until we find the information that will fill in the gap in our knowledge.

• Strategy or Culture: Which Is More Important?

  Great piece on symbiotic nature of strategy AND culture. Really important for schools to pay attention to this “lesson” if they hope to successfully transform as modern learning organizations.

  tags: strategy culture #mustread

• What would help our faculty feel more energized, cared for, focused and inspired? | Center for Teaching

  HT @KristynGatesA
  What would help faculty feel more energized, cared for, focused, inspired? http://t.co/10g6vUsnlv via @centerteach @EmilyBreite @boadams1

  tags: faculty work_life_balance work environment #MustRead culture

  • If we intend to truly reform schools, we may have to put greater emphasis on the  importance of relationships between different members of the community.
  • Self-actualized people are: problem-focused; incorporate an ongoing appreciation for life; focus on personal growth; and are able to realize peak experiences.
  • Clearly, the strong connection between their models suggests that all school leaders should pay close attention to creating communities where their faculty’s core needs are met.

• Redesigning School to Graduate Capable, Confident Learners | MindShift

  Projects, Portfolios, Learning Outcomes, and Defenses (Pitches) woven together for deeper learning.

  Check this out via @MindShiftKQE -ideas & catalysts in developing iProject @KristynGatesA @EmilyBreite @boadams1 http://t.co/8WakA2Dzjp

  HT @MeghanCureton

  tags: eportfolios PBL learningoutcomes CapstoneProjects #MustRead

  • Students have to master academic content and skills, collaborate effectively, think critically, reflect on how they learn, and understand how they can have an impact on their own success.
  • The Portfolio Defense is the culminating assessment of these skills: four years of working to learn specific class content, and a steady progression towards proficiency in the deeper learning outcomes.
  • Tidwell explained her philosophy of education as falling until one learns how and where to stand.

• How We Make Progress « Annie Murphy Paul

  tags: progress learning #mustread

• How Young Engineers Will Mold the Future | Technology+Policy

  A collaboration among universities and a high school around engineering and entrepreneurship. I think this is great stuff, AND I wonder why we tend to offer “this kind” of learning more in the summer — why not in the academic year as much?

  http://www.kent-school.edu/academics/seek

  HT @emilybreite

  tags: engineering entrepreneurship PBL summer #MustRead

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

• 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

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

• how to be more productive—by doing less

  tags: work_life_balance innovation creativity #MustRead

• Why kids love Scratch: It lets them fail in a way their parents don’t – Quartz

  tags: coding failure failup problem solving #MustRead

• Authentic Challenges | Steve Mouldey

  tags: challenges inquiry school model #MustRead

• Design Is About Intent | Rampant Innovation

  HT @occam98

  tags: design innovation #mustread

  • And design is about intent.
  • Intent means purpose; something highly designed was crafted with intention in every creative decision.
  • Overarching intent is easy. The hard part is driving that conscious decision-making throughout every little choice in the creative process. Good designers have a clear sense of the overall purpose of their creation; great designers can say, “This is why we made that decision” about a thousand details.
  • Three Design Evasions
  • The first evasion: Preserving
  • The second evasion: Copying
  • The third evasion: Delegating

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