(This is a copy of a my guest blog post published this week for the World Innovation Summit for Education – WISE, Qatar – on re-designing spaces for learning: http://www.wise-qatar.org/content/stephen-harris-redesigning-spaces-around-collaborative-teaching and slide show: http://www.wise-qatar.org/node/16860 RE-DESIGNING SPACES FOR LEARNING There is a clear movement occurring in education globally right now – a movement that is seeking...
“Some organizations incubate companies – we incubate people. The mission of the Sandbox Network is to accelerate young leaders and help them have a global impact before they become 30.” http://www.sandbox-network.com/ “Imagine if a country’s assessment system measured the growing impact a young person has had on sustainability, environmental responsibility, equity or...
This interesting thought occurred during a conversation today. Are we living through a process whereby social media is finally breaking down some of the traditional divides that have kept education transformation suppressed? I suspect we are. What is twitter managing to do? Break down the barriers that have made it difficult for teachers...
Rwanda 2012 Reflection #4 – do you use your role for a higher purpose? As Principals, Superintendents or school leaders, do you use your position to try and ‘be the change’? It seems like a straightforward enough question – but probably one that bears a...
Isn’t Twitter amazing! I have been in schools since 1978. But nothing has been like 2011, a real game-changing year for me, because I decided to take Twitter seriously. What I have discovered is a world of like-minded people who daily provide inspiration and ideas. A tribe. My tribe. I have also worked...
My goal: Create a three minute video that tells its own story, using other videos. My hope is that this will invite further exploration, conversation and learning. Here is what I came up with: (Watch on YouTube) For ease of use here are the links. I hope that some rich conversations will emerge from...
The title for this particular blog had its origin as I listened to a number of presentations on ‘blended learning’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning) at the Virtual School Symposium. I have for some years liked the notion of blended learning and it seemed a generally suitable term describing a learning environment where students could transition from the...
I find leadership a fascinating topic. If something typifies our 21st century world for me, it is the lack of leadership where and when it is needed. This is evident in micro and macro contexts – in countries, communities and schools. The issue is possibly that the media focuses way too much on political...
2011 has been an amazing year for me professionally – a year of great change at NBCS and a year of outstanding opportunities, travel and thinking for me. It has also been a year of new connections. I am going to try and capture some of the main insights during 2011 gained in...
Preface “Birds of a feather flock together.” How is it that various flocks of birds fly together in non-linear formation? How exactly do they communicate with each other to cut and cross paths in synchronized patterns? Is there a captain or a conductor or a coordinator? Do zigzagging birds rotate those roles of captain,...
“Promise to yourself to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution.” Anthony J. D’Angelo There is always a great deal of debate around educational reform issues. The rationale behind a lot of what we do in education is decades and even centuries old. We continue to settle for...
Do you have 27 minutes to devote to both educational reform and world peace? Do you? Just 27 minutes of your life. Twenty minutes is for watching the TED talk below - John Hunter on the World Peace Game. Two minutes is for reading my words here, which I try to make brief and...
“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - men who are creative, inventive and discoverers” - Jean Piaget The accountability movement has created a generation of problem solvers who rely on the fact that they...
What’s in a grade? This is a question that I ask myself almost everyday, if not actually everyday. Recently, my learning partner, Synergy co-teacher, PLC co-director, and fellow faculty member – all one person…Jill Gough – posted this important system of inquiries about grades. The original post can be found at her primary blog...
My Open Educator Manifesto ‘We’ educate future citizens of the world Teaching is my professional practice I Share by default I am Open, Transparent, Collaborative, and Social My students own their own: (Learning) • learning process • learning environment • learning products • learning assessment My students belong to...
“The problem is that most schools don’t like great teachers. They’re organized to stamp them out, bore them, bureaucratize them, and make them average.” — Seth Godin How many educators do you know that try to change the system of education? How many educators do you know that just stick to the status quo?...
The above video does not exemplify distributed leadership. The manager in the video is delegating tasks. Delegating responsibilities is very different from distributing leadership. Distributed leadership is a powerful conceptual framework for thinking about and studying school leadership. The leader acts like more of a facilitator in this process. This parallels the shift...
“Anyone Who Has Never Made A Mistake Has Never Tried Anything New” Albert Einstein The movie “Groundhog Day” depicts the main character repeating the same day over and over until he learns from his mistakes. Many of our classrooms today have that “Groundhog Day” feel. They really don’t feel or look much different than...
New Comments