Charts like these either get one of two reactions from me: an eye roll or a vigorous shake of the head in agreement. Well, this one received both of those reactions! The first time I looked at it, I eye-rolled. My immediate reaction was that there was a lot of hubris in trying to predict what future skills will be…
There are a couple of well-worn stories we like to tell ourselves in education. One of the most popular? The pendulum theory. You know it: education is just a giant grandfather clock. We swing from one extreme to the other, phonics to whole language, direct instruction to inquiry, rigor to relevance, and back again. We try one thing, push it too…
Michael Porter developed a framework for business strategy called the Five Forces. It is instructive for educators to adapt a framework for business into our world. Here is the framework: I asked AI to help me create a graphic that adopts the Five Forces for education. After some trial and error, here is what I came up with: Let’s analyze…
I’ll never forget my first day as a superintendent. It was July 2nd, 2007. I walked into the office, sat down at the desk, and looked around like I was waiting for someone to give me instructions. No one did. I checked the time. 8:00 a.m. sharp. Then I thought to myself: “What the hell do I do now?” I had…
Creating a leadership vision has two main benefits. First, it grounds you in your actions. In our hurly-burly world, we can slip into “management decision-making mode” very easily. When this happens, we sometimes slip, and a decision that should be made in a thoughtful, careful way is made in haste. A leadership vision (especially when it is posted in your…
I played sports in high school and college. Now, I was not the most reflective, thinking individual as a teenage boy. However, I did make a connection between whether I had “butterflies in my stomach” before I competed and how well I performed on the basketball court or baseball diamond. If I was not at least a little bit nervous,…
I came across the Hawaiian prayer Ho’oponopono last week. There are variations of the prayer for different circumstances, and it is very powerful. Consider using ho’oponopono as a mantra when facing a confrontational conversation or grief. The variation that I can’t get out of my brain is this version: “I love you” “Forgive me” “I forgive you” “Thank you” How can…
We are approaching that time of year when some of us will have to write “improvement plans” for some of our subordinates. Sitting down with an employee and having a conversation about improvement is never an easy conversation. You should read the next article in the newsletter to help prepare yourself for these conversations. Before getting into the meat of…