How ironic right? So typical of leadership today (crazed with busy) that I am writing my leadership day post a day late. Indicative for sure of why we are not moving along faster in our leading of transformational change. We are so busy and overwhelmed with the work that who has time to change? For most of us it isn’t that we don’t want to challenge the status quo, it is simply we are so caught up in supporting the status quo that we do not have time to learn what we need to learn to lead change. Learning takes time. Time A friend ...

‘SO, DID THEY HAPPEN TO MENTION…?’ - A Poem about ‘Underperforming’ Schools, about Turning Around & Turning Out- They say that the tests scores are too low, Did they mention my students are hungry? that the school is underperforming and must be Did they say many have no fathers at home. “turned around,” that all the teachers must be that few parents will attend turned out, fired, or reapply, though Open School Night because of that only some will be rehired. Administrators second job, or no job, and that who ha...

Whenever two people meet there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is. - William James It is sometimes frightening to observe the success which comes even to the outlaw with a polished technique. - Phillip D. Reed If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. - Antoine de Saint Exupery One of the reasons education has become such a m...

Laura Varlas wrote an interesting piece in ASCD “Caught in the Middle” July 2010 | Volume 52 | Number 7 Called- Looking Within: Teachers Leading Their Own Learning She had me at her opening line, “The most powerful and ample resource for change in education is teachers’ own expertise. Yet, teachers are regularly overstepped when it comes to leading school improvement.” What’s not to love? Teachers developing expertise and leadership by using their voice in areas that impact them most, areas such as, profess...

A good friend told me that he heard another friend whining about how he wished educational bloggers would get back to blogging from the heart. It struck a cord with me. While I am anything but a Chicken Soup for the Soul kind of blogger– (more emotion than substance in posts) I do think there is a place for emotional intelligence when addressing educational reform and change. Michael Jansen, the first black person to serve as dean of the University of Pretoria in South Africa outlines seven themes that I think encompass leadership with a hear...

Yesterday was fun. I was asked to be one of the presenters at the TIE/ISTE Leadership Bootcamp. More importantly I was also allowed to be one of the learners. During the facilitated round table discussions we had a process activity that I participated in as a learner. It was a 4 step writing process.  Which I think is really important. One of the downfalls of ISTE is that there is so much experiencing and so little time to reflect. Most deep reflection happens after folks go home. Even now as I write this I am feeling like I am missing out on ...

Alec Couros and I were talking the other day and I was reminded of a post I have been wanting to do about deep thinking, sharing and action. We originally connected to talk about a new project PLP is sponsoring, a virtual Institute for Higher Education, which Alec will lead, but it took us awhile to get to that part of the conversation. Why? Because we were sharing strong ideas and passions about education, leadership, change, and human nature. Alec said something that got to me– I am paraphrasing here, but he said something to the effect...

While I am becoming more and more dissatisfied with Delta as my preferred airline because of treatment by most (not all) gate folks and flight attendants, I am finding that I am enjoying the networking opportunities with the folks I meet there more and more. I travel. A lot. Because of that I often get bumped up to First Class and in First Class you meet the most interesting people. People who really have a great deal of knowledge and are willing to share it if asked. The dynamics are interesting actually, networking in-flight has its own norm...

I am a big fan of my adult kids. I really am. If I wasn’t their parent I would surely want to be their friend as they turned out to be really fun, creative, decent people. (on a side note– I am really glad too since my mother constantly told me I would reap what I had sown as a kid when I had my own– it just wasn’t true). I guess I find myself taking stock once again in my life and my children’s lives because my youngest just graduated from college. I felt like whew… I made it; four well adjusted children Amb...

Powerful Learning Practice is expanding our offerings as we enter our fourth year of PLP. I can’t believe we’re finishing up our third year of this work already, and I can’t say enough about the amazing team of educators who have joined us in this work; we both feel very fortunate to work with all of them. In our conversations with our colleagues and our participants, we’ve identified some new areas of learning that we’re going to pursue. Aside from our “traditional” cohort model where we are putting together school teams of educa...