future of learning
Personalized Learning
What Guides Your Work? And, Why Do You Teach What You Teach?
In my last post, Why do you teach? And, why do you stay?, I hoped to start a conversation about teaching -- why in the world are we here, and what keeps us here? I now want to look at what guides our work, and why we teach what we teach. For most of my teaching career, I did not know why I taught what I taught, or I thought I knew, but didn’t.
Personalized Learning
Reynoldsburg Schools Attracting Rave Reviews
Yesterday I visited the Reynoldsburg Schools in Columbus, Ohio and had a chance to see the great work being done in the schools that is drawing attention not only statewide but nationally. In this piece by the Columbus Dispatch the schools’ efforts at innovating around STEM and career and college readiness was highlighted with a visit from U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Deb Delisle to tour the innovative programs.
Leadership
Smart Cities: San Diego
Running the San Diego County Office of Education seems pretty tame after tours of duty as state administrator in Oakland and Compton, but Randy Ward argues that county offices are more relevant than ever. With half a million kids and 42 districts there’s plenty to worry about.
Personalized Learning
Free Choice Learning: What Teachers Can Learn From Museums
What does a public school classroom have in common with a museum exhibition hall? The answer has nothing to do with oversized models or informative laminated labels - and everything to do with the joy of learning.
Personalized Learning
Changing How We Think About Student Choice in Learning: Recombinant Education
An explosion of innovation has been transforming how we think about learning, and how we organize talent and resources to support learning experiences. School as we once knew it has become ‘unbundled.’ While Ohio has been debating charter schools, vouchers, and e-schools for years, emerging digital and blended learning models have created additional opportunities and new paradigms for thinking about student choice, and with them some demands for navigating this new learning ecosystem.
Ed Policy
7 Ways States & Districts Can Use Authorizing to Boost Quality & Innovation
Performance contracting is a services agreement with clear outcomes. States and districts have been using performance contracts for public charter schools, private school special education placements, information and business services, and for energy efficiency partnerships.
Personalized Learning
Making Room for Innovation
Despite steady progress on achievement and graduation rates, big gaps remain. Earlier this month Ted Kolderie, Education Evolving, addressed state charter school leaders. He made six important points addressed in this blog.
Personalized Learning
Every State Should Run A Next-Gen Learning Challenge
Last month, I ran a three part series about the Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) outlining how they took on the turnaround challenge, leveraged higher education partnerships, and improved the performance and sustainability of school networks (as outlined in part one of this three-part series); illustrated how blended learning supports and extends experiential…
Personalized Learning
Smart Cities: Twin Cities is no Wobegon but on the Rise
A Literacy Specialist in the Eden Prairie School District said, “I am thinking about the thousands of iPads being handed out to kids right now in districts around the Twin Cities and I’m curious to see what we will be able to do with them and to what degree we will be able to differentiate for our students.”
Personalized Learning
Encouraging Innovation in Curriculum: Strategies for Support and Implementation
Educators strive to equip students with the tools necessary for enlightenment, self-empowerment, and success. Once students begin their college experience, it becomes the responsibility of that institution’s professors and administration to prepare those students for future endeavors.