March 2010


1. Change is in the Air

Big kudos to NAIS for its continuing work to challenge us, its members schools, to embrace change, and along with that challenge, to give us advice, encouragement, and tactics for doing so.   As PatBassett is fond of saying, “if you are not a school of the future, you may not be a school in the future,” and I think he is right: Disruptive Change is coming, and coming on strongly, and we need to adapt to thrive.  But with the distribution of Switch (which I have read and I like,  and will review here soon), the publication of the new Change guide from Jim Tracy and NAIS, and the multiple sessions proclaiming a new era in learning, this was powerful and valuable: TIME to CHANGE schooling.

2. New Tech Network and Edutopia featured  in general session

The morning general sessions disappointed; the afternoon general sessions rocked (though it was disappointing that the afternoon sessions seemed to have much fewer in attendance).  Best was the Thursday afternoon session on Schools of the Future; I was enthralled by this conversation, and very delighted to see two of the most importance forces in educational reform today, New Tech Network and Edutopia, get this strong attention.  (more…)

The room was packed for Tony Wagner’s session at NAIS last Friday, and I saw afterwards on Twitter that many were asking about the presentation’s availability: here it is.

A few comments:

1. Regular readers know I view Tony’s work as very valuable to the movement so many of us are enthusiastic about:  to transform education to a place where we are serious about assessing the skills and habits of mind that really matter, serious about preparation for the 21st century workforce, and serious about deeply engaging our 21st century students in authentic, meaningful performance tasks.  I highly recommend Tony’s book to all interested in this project.

2. I really appreciate slides 7, 8, and 9, which make the point that it is not just reformist K-12 educators that care about this, it is the best universities and colleges that do also.

For instance, look at what is being said at Harvard: (more…)

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