Tag: leadership
-
Professional Development and Identity
The best professional development experiences are wonderful because they remind us of who we are: They affirm and support our evolving senses of identity in a complex world filled with mixed messages and lots of noise. In this post, I’d like to reflect briefly on professional development and identity. “The October 2019 #CUDenverLSI Design team…
-
Your “Normal” is Not Mine
This past summer, my wife had the opportunity to attend the “Project Zero Conference” at Harvard with nine other teachers from our school. One of the biggest pedagogical themes of the conference was “visible thinking.” This involves thinking strategies that enable teachers as well as students to make their thinking literally visible in the classroom…
-
Teachers as Prophets: The Power to “PROF-a-sigh” Into Students’ Futures
As a teacher, you may have not considered yourself to be a “prophet.” When we recognize, call out, and encourage special and unique giftedness in our students, however, I believe we can act as prophets in their lives. The verb “prophesy” (pronounced “PROF-a-sigh”) means “to predict something.” Have you ever recognized one of your students…
-
Essential Technology Support Staff Skills and Characteristics
What are the most important skills and characteristics of the technology support staff members at your school or other organization? As the 2018-19 school year winds down, I’m wrapping up my fourth year to serve as the Director of Technology for Casady School in Oklahoma City. As I’ve been making preparations for a job transition…
-
Bernie Sanders Explains Progressivism in the new Democratic Party
The United States under the leadership of President Donald Trump is politically headed in the wrong direction. Rather than confronting potentially overwhelming and devastating issues like costly health care, climate change, and corruption in federal elections, our nation is poised to make bad situations even worse with misguided policies. I am hopeful the inquiry of…
-
Design Thinking Takeaways from Our #k12onlineconf Panel
Last Friday after school I had an opportunity to facilitate a 60 minute panel discussion about “design thinking” with Brad Ovenell-Carter (@Braddo) in Vancouver, BC, Canada and Brian Lockwood (@BrianLockwood) in Copenhagen, Denmark for the K12 Online Conference (@k12online). In this post, I’ll share some of my learning points and takeaways from the panel discussion.
-
Changing Mindsets: STEM Is NOT Content Areas in Isolation
As this fall semester has started, I’ve heard several stories about STEM classes and STEM teachers in other schools that have troubled me deeply. Some paraphrased quotations from new, full-time STEM teachers, have included: I’m going to teach some math lessons, and then we are going to do some hands-on science experiments. Later in the semester we…
-
TEDx Video Conversation Night
Sunday nights at 8 pm is now #OklaEd Twitter chat time, and this past Sunday an idea for a new kind of educator gathering was hatched. It started with Tyler Bridges’ suggestion of an excellent TED talk to watch, “How to Fix a Broken School” by Linda Cliatt-Wayman. Her TED presentation video isn’t one I’ve seen…
-
#WhatIf My Ideas on School Reform Become Reality?
Thanks to Valerie Strauss’ post today on the #whatif Twitter meme responses to Arne Duncan, I realized something surprising and was encouraged to tweet some of the ideas for CONSTRUCTIVE education/school reform that have been marinating in my mind for many months. by stevegarfield First of all, when viewing the lively #whatif twitter stream, I saw…
-
What Makes an Effective Technology Committee in Education (v.2)
I have been ask about a post I did awhile back “What Makes an Effective Technology Committee in Education” as much as any I have ever done. Getting the chance write for Wes a little this week seemed a good time to come back to this topic. I have always meant to do a edit…