I recently watched the breakfast club again. Man, I love that movie! Lately, however, I have been seeing things through a different lens. As I was watching Alison, Claire, Bender, Brian, and Andrew painfully sacrificing their Saturday for detention, I began thinking about expectations. Specifically, lowered expectations. Of course, this theme is reinforced at the end of the movie when Brian agrees to write the essay that the school’s disciplinary principal, Mr. Vernon, Mr....
I love this video blog (vlog) post about having a seemingly impossible idea, and then working to make it happen. The best part of having a Moonshot idea is not in the fulfillment of the idea, although that would be amazing!), but in the process of working toward something challenging. Innovating against the tide of conformity and complacency. The company Solve for X has embedded this philosophy into their company: We’re a moonshot...
I recently read The Zax by Dr. Seuss with my 5-year old daughter. I’ve probably read this story, as well as many other Seuss classics, dozens of times with my older boys. For some reason, when revisited The Zax, I was struck by the metaphor for change and innovation. If you are not familiar with this story, read it now before continuing on. Don’t have a handy copy? No worries! You can watch the video...
NOUN A change agent is a person from inside or outside the organization who helps an organization transform itself by focusing on such matters as organizational effectiveness, improvement, and development. Whenever anyone wants to find information, especially to “What is” questions, they Google it. When you Google “change agent” or “what is a change agent”, you get a ridiculous amount of entries. There are a lot of good definitions out there regarding agents of...
Dear Students: What do you know about the world you are going to enter when you finish school? What challenges and problems will we face? What jobs will be out there? What skills and learning will graduates need? We don’t actually know all the answers to those questions, but one thing we do know: businesses and industry are already experiencing shortages in STEM workers – the workers who know how to tackle the tough problems...
What is a DBQ? A Document-Based Question is an essay question, which requires students to use historical documents (both primary and secondary sources) to develop a thesis, requiring them to synthesize these sources. Sound difficult? It is. But I believe that all students can and need to develop high-level critical thinking skills. Students should learn history through investigating primary and secondary source documents from a variety of perspectives. The DBQ Project The DBQ Project provides units that...
44 percent of 2013 U.S. high school graduates are ready for college-level math 36 percent of 2013 U.S. high school students are ready for college-level science 26 percent of 2009 U.S. students took Algebra I before high school. (Up from 20 percent in 2005.) Only 12 percent of black students and 17 percent of Hispanic students took Algebra I before high school in 2009. But, 48 percent of Asian students took Algebra I before high...
When students can access classroom content from anywhere, mobile learning is one way teachers are engaging learners. “Mobile devices & apps are increasingly valued as important learning tools in K-12. Once banned from the classroom, mobile devices & apps have become such compelling tools that schools are beginning to rethink standing policies, and some are even beginning to implement ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) programs” (Johnson, 2012, pg. 4). As we consider how m-Learning helps students...
The game-based learning movement in education seeks to integrate the active and critical learning required for effective instructional design, with the active and critical intellectual and emotional engagement seen in effective game design. If teachers can combine the entertainment value of well-designed games with the rich content of lessons, then the hope is that students will not only learn, but enjoy learning and enjoy applying their new knowledge in the 21st century. History Teachers have...
