Cheating is a plague upon schools across our nation, and it appears to be on the rise. During my time visiting schools, 21 in all, private and public, during my 2008 good high school blogging project, I saw often observed cheating– sometimes blatant, “public,” shameless cheating in front of me. But as severe...
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,...
“Dad, there’s your favorite word again,” my son calls out, a tad cynically, when we are driving to school listening to NPR and a reporter uses the word innovation. I am aware that my son, and others, believe this word has become too much of a buzz-word and perhaps a fad, too often...
At the opening Junior High School faculty meeting, I shared that I would be referring to us (internally) as “JH 2.11.” Like version software, such as OS 10.6 or Windows 7, the Junior High School is adopting an internal nomenclature that will help us remember that we are striving to improve and grow. The...
Back in February, Larry Fliegelman posted here a fine piece entitled the OODA loop: Do you Do it? In that post, he wrote I would bet that Jonathan Martin, like John Carver and me, keeps his school’s or his personal vision on the wall of his office. At my last principal position, I kept...
Jen ratio: the total positive interactions among people in a shared environment divided by the negative interactions; a measurement of the social well being of any shared environment. (Dacher Keltner, What’s your Jen ratio?). Promoting positive and supportive school cultures and environments is among the very highest of our priorities as principals and school...
Many principals deliver remarks at graduation; some principals, heads of schools, and superintendents may find themselves needing to deliver not one but several addresses over the space of just a few weeks. For many, surely, these opportunities are nothing but a delight; for others, perhaps, they can be the source of stress. I have...
Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether...
Step aside Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere. For an up-close and analytical film about building a world-class education which thoroughly prepares all students for careers and citizenship in the 21st century, take the 62 minutes to view the new film from Tony Wagner and Bob Compton: The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising...
Does our community follow us on Twitter? Do tweeting and blogging serve as valuable school leadership vehicles? A lovely conversation is happening this month about the question of principals and other school-leaders blogging and tweeting. Does this really add value to school community and to our students’ learning? Or is this just a...
If you are planning to use the ‘flipped classroom’, then you might want to think about a few key ideas. Background: Here, on Connected Principals, Jonathan Martin has written a couple posts on the Flipped Classroom. In his first one, Reverse Instruction: Dan Pink and Karl’s “Fisch Flip”, he says: Increasingly, education’s value-add is...
At a conference recently, I was approached and asked for advice about resources for using skype in the classroom to connect with schools in other countries. I started to answer the question with a specific suggestion (the Cool Cat Teacher’s Flat Classroom) when I stopped myself and took another tack in my advice-giving. Instead,...
According to a College Board webinar I participated in last week via EdLeader21, as part of its promised “revamp” of the AP toward depth over breadth and better integration of the skills and content, the College Board/ Advanced Placement program is developing a new online platform called “the AP Lifeline.” It is intended to be a...
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...
“Shouldn’t we test it now? Shouldn’t we? I want to try; let me put it on top now.” The boy circled the table, holding the marshmallow, being a bit of a pest. Perhaps a tad hyper, even, he kept asking, testing the patience of his team-mates who very responsibly maintained their focus on the...
Standing in the back, I watched the screens. The students had seen me come in, and a few clearly clicked away from the screen they had open as I entered. I am, after all, their principal. Our excellent teacher was lecturing. Our excellent students were note-taking, almost all of them typing notes into...
“Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and nearly everyone is enjoying the lovely feeling of spring-time in the air; nearly everyone, that is, except for educational administrators, for whom spring is the most miserable time of the year.” John Pedicone, Ph.D. Dr. John Pedicone is the new Superintendent of Tucson Unified School District, where...
The New York Times published Sunday a fascinating article about research at Google on effective management qualities, and it seems worthwhile for those of us who are Principals (and aspiring Principals) to consider the list’s applicability to our leadership practice. The piece makes clear that this is not just advice from Google’s leadership, but...
Ten days ago I had the extraordinary good fortune to see and hear Salman Khan speak to an audience of 3000; I will say it was genuinely a “heartthrob” moments in the field of education, as if seeing the Beatles at the Ed Sullivan show. I think Khan is a true transformer, a visionary,...
Steven B. Johnson writes in Where Good Ideas Come From about the revolutionary power of social media such as Twitter to advance ideas and innovation in a myriad of fields, and it has been fascinating to see this concept in action in the swift spread over the past six months of the practice of flipping...
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