I have been thinking a lot about how to manage the needed change process in education. Looks like a lot of folks have been playing with that idea as well. ISTE released their new NETS for ADMIN framing it as having the potential for - Transforming Education- Administrators play a pivotal role in determining how well technology is used in our schools. The NETS for Administrators enable us to define what administrators need to know and be able to do in order to discharge their responsibility as leaders in the effective use of technology in ou...

“Things do not change; we change.”  Thoreau “It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t. It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not.”  James Gordon, M.D. “Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.” King Whitney ...

This was posted on the NSDC Website- felt you might find it s interesting as I do. The Department of Education has outlined initial guidelines for three components of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding: the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Title I, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). You can find detailed information about the guidelines and the distribution of funds through www.ed.gov. In addition to distributing monies quickly to avert layoffs and stimulate job creation, a key principle that will gu...

Will and I are excited to announce the inaugural Powerful Learning Practice Visioning Boot Camp for Educational Leaders to be held at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia this summer. You can get all of the details here, but the bottom line is we’ve put together a three-day event for a limited number (25) of participants that we think will help school principals and superintendents get a deep understanding of how the world is shifting, identify and articulate the challenges that we face, begin some serious conversations about lon...

My daughter Grace (pictured above wearing the “optical Illusion” threadless) loves Threadless T-shirts. She always asks for them for Christmas. I recently got this email and thought I would share. Hi There, I wanted to let you know about a new program that is being hosted by Threadless which is a community-centered tee-shirt company based out of Chicago, IL called Threadless 101. The idea is this: students are given an assignment to create an original design for a tee-shirt-any and all specifications are up to the teacher!...

It has become apparent to me that I have raised a family with strong geek tendencies and I find it quite endearing. Don’t get me wrong, we are all cultured and our interests range from the arts to medicine but deep down we are way techno-geek and nerdy about our passions. Case in point- my son’s recent letter to me. Mom, I have created a spreadsheet of To Do’s for me for the new house along with description and tentative due dates. Hopefully this will help expedite the situation and get the work done. Let me know if any of this ...

The following is a repost from Jenny Luca one of our PLP Fellows from Australia. Bottom line- Get your students involved. Join the Working together Site, raise some money, and donate to help rebuild schools and help Australia’s students. (left hand column of the site has a PayPal button for donations. Yesterday I posted here about the fires affecting Victoria, the State I, and other members of our cohort, live in here in Australia. Here is what I posted on my blog and the Working together 2 make a difference site tonight. Join us to ...

In a family or community when some of us hurt- we all hurt. When some of us succeed we all celebrate. Many of those in  our community from Australia are hurting. We need to stand with them in this time of crisis. I got this letter today. I have stripped the identifiers to protect privacy. I simply wanted to share to create an awareness that will inspire us to some collective action. Hi all, Just need to share this …  for those overseas -  more than 130 people died in a bushfire on Saturday and the death toll is still rising. On Sat...

I had the opportunity recently to facilitate a group of business, education, political and community leaders in a discussion about developing a workforce ready group of graduates in the 21st Century. I was given the task of relaying the experience. I have decided to share with you to see if you agree or disagree with these leaders’ ideas and action steps and why. I encourage you to read and weigh in in the comment section below. I look forward to your responses. Executive Summary Newport News Public Schools is moving quickly to address...

Received this today and believe in the work. Thought I would share with you. I am writing on behalf of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, co-founder of 826 National Nínive Calegari, and writer Dave Eggers. They are the Director and Co-Producers of the feature-length documentary The Teacher Salary Project. We wanted to reach out to you in the hopes that you may be interested in getting involved in our production. The Teacher Salary Project will be a documentary film, a national outreach campaign, and the only digital archive of the...