Years ago, I remembered walking into this redesigned library that was seemingly the stuff of dreams in education. It was more like a media center and had spaces that were created for collaborative learning as well as spaces to work your own. Flexible seating accommodated the learning needs of many different learners, and it was … [Read more…]
Tag: innovative leadership
In my post, “Invest in the People that Invest in the Students,” discussing the importance of focusing more “on people” than initiatives and programs, a comment from Catherine Quanstrom stuck out to me: Our teachers are caring professionals who are increasingly stymied when it comes to meeting the learning needs of their students in today’s … [Read more…]
Read More “Tell me what you need to ensure that every student is your class can learn.”
In a workshop this past week, I discussed how it is essential to create conditions for students where students and adults find ways to learn for themselves. I believe that we can get caught into the trap of “spoon-feeding” where learners think something is not necessary to learn unless it is explicitly taught in a … [Read more…]
I received an email from a teacher the other day that was quite frustrated. They had shared (paraphrasing), that although they were encouraged to be “innovative” in their practice and each had received a copy of my book to promote this from their administrators, they felt that the leadership practice in their organization was more … [Read more…]
Read More 3 Questions to Promote Innovative Leadership in Education
The notion of “embracing failure” has become one that has become very popular in education over the last few years. To me, the semantics matter. “Embracing” is not the right term and does say something to the public outside of education. Learning and growing from failure is something very different. We can hate failure AND be open … [Read more…]
I was pleased to read this quote from a recent article, “Google spent years studying effective teams — and one trait stood out,” which stated what was most important to the success of teams: What mattered most: Trust. So what was the most important factor contributing to a team’s effectiveness? It was psychological safety. Simply put, … [Read more…]
If you are teacher reading this right now, here is a question for you… Do you like to be micromanaged? Of course, I know the answer which is why I asked the question. Nobody wants to feel that they aren’t trusted to do their job. But here is something to think about…Can micromanaging happen upward … [Read more…]
In Kim Scott’s book, “Radical Candor”, she states the following: In an effort to create a positive, stress-free environment, I sidestepped the difficult but necessary part of being a boss: telling people clearly and directly when their work wasn’t good enough. I failed to create a climate in which people who weren’t getting the job … [Read more…]
We talk often about the importance of “collaboration”, but talking about the impact of an individual is often taboo. Effective collaboration is made up of bringing unique talents of individuals to move a group ahead. It is not about all thinking the same thing, but the strengths of individuals coming together. Collaboration is talked about … [Read more…]