We wear many hats. We depend on these hats for our perspectives. We wear learning hats, teaching hats, and even hats that help us see out into the future. I know each hat I have ever worn, having broken each one in the best I could before trading it in. …
The whole picture to little bit hard to see sometimes. There are those of us, though, who see it much better than others. For them, the picture is clear. They have this natural feeling of what should come next and how the pieces fit together. And best of all, they …
School Leadership is not a singular thing. It is not simply having lines under you on an org chart. It is not just making proclamations or laying out an agenda for others to accomplish. It is not only having more responsibilities or feeling accountable for other’s actions. No, Leadership exists as …
It is unique experience to hear words like Differentiation and Direct Instruction from 14 year olds. There is a strange cognitive dissonance that happens when children are using your “invented” language for their own ends, advocating for themselves in ways that you hadn’t even considered. What do you do when they own …
It is hard to find a story of good when the story playing over and over in your head is one of explosions and disregard for human life. It is hard to find the goodness in people falling to the ground, disrupted from their lifelong goal of crossing a Boston …
I remember when snow days weren’t quite so productive, when the blanket of snow didn’t mean that I was going to be able to get to inbox 0 more easily. It wasn’t my first snow day, but it was my first snow day as a part of DPS. It wasn’t …
Technology is not for escape and isolation. It is not for creating walls around yourself in a virtual learning cubicle. It is not for individualizing learning so much that you are the only one taking part in your growth. No, technology is for connection and creation. It is for coming …
A Portal. A One Stop Shop. A Digital Door. These are the things we dream of when we are at our most optimistic. We see a student, teacher, or administrator going to a single online location to get data or to make decisions about schedules. We see them grabbing content …
We are prepared for the future by what currently surrounds us. If what surrounds us is upheaval and chaos, low expectations and mistrust, then our future will be built upon that. But, if what surrounds us is calm within a storm, unwavering support, and high expectations for what is possible, then the future will …
Most of the time when we talk about inclusion, we are talking about students with special and specific needs. We are referring to the ability for our classrooms to accomodate the wide array of possibilities that children with Special Education designations both require and deserve. It is good and powerful …