Category: leadership
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Wisdom from Heather Smith
Heather Smith is the 2024 North Carolina Teacher of the Year! She teaches 8th grade math teacher at Waynesville Middle School in Haywood County Schools. These are my notes from her presentation, “Teachers: The Ultimate Influencers“ at the March 24, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. In this…
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Road to Awesome
These are my notes from Darrin Peppard’s keynote at the March 24, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference. MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Darrin’s books include: “The Road to Awesome: The Journey of a Leader”: roadtoawesome.net and roadtoawesome.net/books Darrin’s most recent book with Katie Kinder is “Culture First Classrooms: Leadership, Relationships, and…
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Why Regulate AI?
Why should we regulate artificial intelligence? This was the question we tackled at the Thursday evening discussion group at Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 20, 2025. This presentation and conversation was shared by Wes Fryer of Charlotte, North Carolina, a 1988 graduate of Manhattan High School and current middle school and…
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Reading Wish List
Long form reading may be a relic of the past for younger generations in US society and culture for a variety of reasons, but I still believe in both the power of reading and its importance in our shared civic culture. For a number of years now, I’ve maintained a public aspirational reading list on…
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6 Things to Do
In today’s fast-paced world, it feels almost impossible to tune into any news—whether it’s from broadcast television or social media—without feeling overwhelmed. As of early February 2025, the sheer volume and intensity of current events have many people feeling either elated or deeply troubled. Regardless of where we fall on the political spectrum, navigating this…
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TIP Teachers: Jan 2025
This evening I was able to join the monthly evening Zoom meeting of TIP Teachers, which is “Teachers for an Informed Public” in the state of Washington. As usual, a wealth of helpful media literacy resources were shared in the session, and I’ll attempt to highlight several of them in this post. First of all,…
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Ending Christian Nationalism
These are my notes from Amanda Tyler’s presentation about her book, “How to End Christian Nationalism” on October 22, 2024, at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. This was a conversation facilitated by Jennifer Roberts, former mayor of Charlotte. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS…
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Preparing for “Peer War” with China
It is important for us, as citizens of the United States and our planet, to know of the growing hostilities which continue to build between China and the United States, and the likelihood of a “peer war” including both kinetic and cyber operations which could negatively impact all aspects of our lives. This conflict could…
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Dehumunization is Wrong
Dehumanizing other human beings: Denying the essential humanity of other people, is ethically wrong and immoral at a basic level. It is also dangerous, because people who view other human beings as sub-human or “inhuman” are capable of horrific atrocities. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights embodies the aspirational values of our founding documents in…
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Understanding Rising Populism, Warfare and Authoritarianism
We should not only be teaching “traditional courses” like history and social studies in our U.S. schools today, we should be explicitly studying warfare and the multitude of ways nation states as well as non-state actors wage war with each other across at least five dimensions: In extra-terrestrial space, in cyberspace, in the air, on…