A season of renewal

Welcome to March and the invigorating energy that accompanies Spring :) 

In this edition, you will find a number of resources: the latest book from Charles Fadel, Education for the Age of AI, a new report on Improving the K-12 Teacher Experience from the Gallup organization, and an exciting upcoming conference from Next Generation Assessment.

May this be a season of renewal and a re-energizer for the change you are leading or hope to lead in your school or district. This beautiful poem by Ada Limón is both magnificent and galvanizing:

Instructions on Not Giving Up
More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

Copyright © 2017 by Ada Limón. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 15, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.

Great resources for Superintendents

In addition to this edition's below resources, I also wanted to highlight a number of great resources for superintendents from the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA). I have had the joy and privilege of working with WASA over the past year and noticed recently that they generously provide a 'Resource Hub' available to all website visitors (not just members). Resources include entry plan templates (along with samples from existing superintendents), examples of school strategic plans, suggested reading, and school board resources. Even if you're not a Washington state superintendent, I encourage you to check it out :)

Yours in learning,

Julie

Three Truths for the Future of Education

Summer has really flown by and with the new school year fast approaching, I am thrilled to share our latest white paper with you.

Three Truths for the Future of Education provides change makers with a succinct and clear way to think through the enormous challenges that education faces today and a lens to design and build a new way forward. Join me in exploring these questions and charting a course toward an educational future that thrives. Please share :)

Welcome to summer!

This month's resources include a pragmatic and inspirational conversation with Dylan Wiliam "On Knowledge and the Curriculum" and a promising program addressing educator burnout where "participants who completed the program reported greater improvements in resilience and reductions in levels of burnout, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms when compared with educators in the control group who did not participate in the program".  Finally, what if you kicked off the 2023/2024 academic year with "Radical Dreaming, Pedagogy & Joy"? :)

Leading Change

It has been a fun month of travel and getting out of the office. I was inspired by an incredible group of female leaders and aspiring leaders as we explored Authentic Leadership together in Lake Chelan, WA, and by the ingenuity and talent at the 2023 Harvard President's Innovation Challenge Awards Ceremony in Boston - my favorite presentation was Kianjai Huggan's, founder of Webquity. 

This month's resources include two professional development opportunities (the sixth annual Science of Teaching & School Leadership Academy virtual and hybrid in July and the Mastery Transcript Consortium Symposium in Boston in October) and an invitation to identify what you might STOP doing in the year ahead.

As we wind down the 2022/2023 academic year, I hope you have carved out time for fun and rest this summer. It feels like the first summer since 2019 when that might be possible :)

Transformation and Community Conversations

I hope this finds you well amidst the end of year sprint that is upon us :)

This month’s resources feature a soon-to-be published book and call to action for school and community leaders from Landon Mascareñaz and Doannie Tran, entitled The Open System: Redesigning Education & Reigniting Democracy, a story of deep transformation as told by the principal of the VIDA school via NGLC, and Conversations with Kids: Insights from a Year of Listening from Transcend, which includes reflection and conversation guides to facilitate your own community conversations.

I also learned a new term from Annie Murphy Paul this past week: Creative Abrasion :)

Welcome to Spring!

This month's resources include research-based advice from Annie Murphy Paul on The Alternative to Perfectionism ("Don't worry—you don't have to give up your high standards") and a must read from Jal Mehta on Unlearning Supremacy Culture. As many of you know, I believe the industrial model of education will not fundamentally change unless and until we overhaul the assessment of learning for all - Rethinking Assessment's Blueprint for Change provides a map and inspirational guide on how we might do it.

P.S. GOA is hosting a webinar on "Rethinking Assessment in the Era of Artificial Intelligence" on March 22nd - featuring the diverse perspectives of students, teachers, education leaders, and technologists about how AI is impacting the design of learning experiences and assessments. Register here.

Hello from a very chilly Ireland

This month’s blog is dedicated to my Dad. He had a severe heart attack this past Thursday and thanks to the incredible staff at the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast and Lagan Valley Hospital Lisburn, he is now home with a stent successfully fitted and looking forward to Christmas.

Dad left school at 14 to work the family farm. Throughout my childhood, he always stressed the importance of education, encouraging me to go to university and to “take the learning as far as you can”.  He said that education provides choices and choices provide freedom.

Take it easy, Dad. Get lots of rest.

This months resources:

  • Join Rethinking Assessment to hear from leading educationalists, thought leaders and panelists about their vision for the future of assessment.

  • Want real change in schools? Start by subtracting things. Learn more with The Power of Doing Less in Schools by Justin Reich.

  • Learn about Authenticity in the Superintendency from The Real Deal by Corey Whaley, where he shares a few things to keep top of mind as you explore your own approach to authentic leadership.

New Learning Models

This month's highlighted resources feature new learning models, integrating self-actualization and organizational development, and a winter learning opportunity to connect the science of learning and belonging.

A massive shout out to Julie Stern and her partnership on getting the '3 Truths for the Future of Education' message out there at researchED and the EARCOS Leadership Conference last month! If you haven't bought Julie's book already, 'Learning That Transfers', I encourage you to gift yourself a copy this holiday season :)

CARLA

I hope this finds you well now that the fall semester is well underway. The leaves are about to hit their peak color here in Massachusetts - it's my favorite time of year :)

This month's newsletter features Allison Ohle's reflections on building Communities for Anti-Racist Learning and Action (CARLA). I met Allison in 2014 during a visit to High Tech High in San Diego where she worked as Administrative Dean - her thinking pushed my thinking back then and continues to do so. Her work is rooted in the recognition that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. Please contact Allison directly if you would like to bring the power of CARLA to your school or district.

October is proving to be a busy travel month - if you plan to be at ResearchEd in Maryland, or the EARCOS Leadership Conference in Bangkok, please let me know. Julie Stern and I will be delivering keynotes and workshops on the 3 Truths for the Future of Education - it would be great to meet up and connect in person!

Hello Fall, and a New Academic Year

Welcome to the start of a new academic year! I hope this finds you having had some well-deserved rest this summer.

This month's resources focus on evidence and assessment. The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) shares the learning from their fifteen year (and counting) professional development journey and the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA) provides compelling examples of how six Massachusetts communities are imagining life beyond MCAS. The article on Badges Instead of Grades provides insights as Danielle Allen and David Kidd seek to answer the question, "...can we build a pilot that really supports educator use and embraces badging as a way of communicating about student learning?".

Fall is proving to be a busy travel month - if you plan to be at ResearchEd in Maryland, or the EARCOS Leadership Conference in Bangkok, please let me know. Julie Stern and I will be delivering keynotes and workshops on the 3 Truths for the Future of Education - it would be great to meet up and connect in person!

Wishing you a great start to fall in the meantime.

Thought Provoking Resources

Greetings from tropical Massachusetts! I hope this finds you enjoying some rest and renewal this summer.

This month's resources include thought provoking resources from Rethinking Assessment and how now is the time for change, Tiago Forte's book summary of 'Free to Learn' by Dr. Peter Gray, and an invitation to contribute to the Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation fundraising campaign to support the construction of a new elementary school campus.

In recent conversations with colleagues, I am hearing more and more people share the need for school communities and teams to unpack the last two-three years of Covid. It has been an extraordinarily difficult time and in a well-intentioned desire to move forward with renewed vision, too often we do not take the time to reflect and learn from that which we have experienced - especially that which was difficult.

Here is a Learning History resource: graphic and facilitation guidelines excerpted from The Human Side of Changing Education, that can serve as a helpful framework to unpack and distill the learning. Historically I have used the Learning History activity with longer time frames in mind, but it can be easily framed as a Learning History of the past 2-3 years.

Summer Reading List

Welcome to summer! Hopefully a summer of much needed rest and renewal.

This month's newsletter highlights a few suggested additions to your summer reading list:

Teaching Life, by Todd Shy. A beautifully written book that describes great teaching as the art form it is "determined to inspire and wake students up, because vitality is the first thing, and, until it fills a school maybe the only thing that matters." - and goes on to describe the "how to" in anti-checklist, evocative prose. Inspiration and non-panglossian guidance grounded in over two decades of practice.

Speaking of checklists, be sure to check out Building a Second Brain, by Tiago Forte, the best book I have read in 15 years on time management - although time management is a very poor descriptor, it's 'Personal Knowledge Management' mastery - a new term I learned reading the book. Tiago describes how to master the current day overwhelm of input and to-do's - additional resources here.

Finally, I have been learning first hand "the crucial role that the vagus nerve plays in determining our psychological and emotional states" as I start to take better care of my health. As I read, Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve, by Stanley Rosenberg, I couldn't help but think about the implications for the education system and the potential of a system of learning grounded in the wellbeing and resilience of everyone with it.

Possibility

This month's resources speak to possibility - and to the practical reality of funding that possibility.

Bobbi Macdonald invites us to tell a new story (more on EducationReimagined's Big Idea here), Rethinking Assessment invites us to get involved in future action research projects, and Cassie Robinson invites philanthropists "to see the value in investing their money in this ‘riskier,’ more unknown territory" - using the International Futures Forum 3 Horizons model as a roadmap.

The New Map of Life

According to the Stanford Center of Longevity, "as many as half of today’s 5-year-olds can expect to live to the age of 100, and this once unattainable milestone may become the norm for newborns by 2050". My son, Teddy, will be 5 this year - what might Teddy's Map of Life look like, and what if his map were supported by a 60-Year Curriculum? What might the implications be for a K-16 (K-100?) system of education?

On a more immediate note, be sure to read NGLC's latest report, What Made Them So Prepared? The authors set out to identify what we can learn from the public schools and districts whose learning models and cultures made them prepared for the challenges of COVID. "Their stories paint a picture of organizational “humaneness” that is a compelling version of the future."

Your Support Matters

The bravery of the Ukrainian people and the morality of their leadership show us the best of humanity. Jon Alexander's latest book, Citizens, reminds us of our capacity to act and "why the key to fixing everything is all of us".

Your support matters.

$10 provides lifesaving support for children and their families in Ukraine.

$20+ goes directly to Ukrainian Airbnb hosts.

A donation of any amount to Save the Children’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund provides children and families with immediate aid, such as food, water, hygiene kits, psychosocial support and cash assistance.

Welcome to 2022

As we enter what will soon be the third year of the pandemic, the system of education that was already stretched pre-COVID has no more give left to give. The usual 'New Year, New Start' articles seem hollow and disjointed from our reality, a goal of 'getting through' the next few weeks until Omicron (hopefully) subsides is a pragmatic approach. I will offer what I am finding helpful this January 2022 - hope beyond our current state, grounding in what matters, and a reminder of what human beings are capable of. You will find all three in this month's resources:

Mark Milliron offers us hope and a path forward in his recent article, "A New Possible in Education", while Doug Stowe's beautifully written book, "The Wisdom of our Hands", grounds us in the power of meaningful, useful, beautiful work and how it provides a path to unleash the potential that lies within each of us. Also, this conversation between Peter Senge and Theo Dawson - I always find inspiration in Theo's work in learning and assessment.

WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN WAKING By David Whyte

From The House of Belonging, Many Rivers Press

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?