We have, of course, been monitoring the media for information, and trying to be as prepared as possible. I learned a lot from reading The Black Swan: life is not as predictable as we like to think it is, and so prediction about what might happen is not a good strategy. Preparation for every eventuality, [...]
After my posting about Malcolm Gladwell’s article, Michael Clow shared some additional material from Bob Pianta, Dean of the Curry School of Education at UVA, one of the subjects of Gladwell’s piece. (You can also check out one of his PowerPoint presentations, or a transcript of a different presentation on a similar topic). Thank you, [...]
I have often thought of writing about Gordon Ramsay, but didn’t know what angle to take. He is now very famous as the brutally frank but utterly brilliant superstar chef and restaurateur. And then this week there was an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about… well, not about Gordon Ramsay, exactly, but using [...]
This district is growing fast, and will need an increasing number of great leaders. I believe part of my role is to help to develop those leaders, and to that end I work with principals and APs on a regular basis. I also try to reach out to people who are thinking about being school [...]
There’s a lot already written on this ten year anniversary of the Columbine tragedy, and I don’t have anything more insightful than anyone else to add.
What I do have is personal recollection of being a first year principal when the shootings happened. It was a mind-boggling event, unbelievably sad and moving.
We held an assembly in [...]
Since Day Three of the classroom formative assessment training, we’ve had several opportunities to process and discuss with different groups. (Kelly even ran a session at 6:30 a.m., which is not the most insane thing I’ve ever heard of, but a close second. And lots of people showed up! There’s dedication for you.)
One of the [...]
I don’t get as much time as I need to write about all the cool stuff that I get to be part of in my job. There are great discussions among teachers and administrators going on all over the place and I love them all. Tonight, though, I got to see students talk about their [...]
I would just like to say a few words about my dad. He took computer classes and bought a computer after he retired, and now is well plugged in, as they say. He emails me (and others) several times a day, has a facebook page, and reads my blog. After the last post, he emailed [...]
We’ve been getting detailed with feedback, looking at:
what makes feedback feedback?
what distinguishes helpful from unhelpful feedback?
what is the difference between descriptive and evaluative feedback?
Before you keep reading, you may want to think about whether you could answer those questions. The answers are not in this post.
We read part of Susan Brookhart’s book on descriptive feedback, [...]
