I hear a lot about "transformation" in schools. I know there are many well-meaning people that want ...

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​In a previous newsletter, I highlighted the problems I saw developing with the concept of "learner-centered leadership." ...

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A teacher just starts their lesson when a student gets up from their seat, swears at the ...

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Learner-centered leadership, learner-centered instruction, or learner-centered anything is not a bad concept. In fact, school leaders that ...

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Three years into my career as a teacher, a couple moved into our community to teach at ...

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As you know, I travel through a lot of school buildings in my job as an Executive ...

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Have you ever had a situation when you said something or did something and then discovered that ...

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Public school educators are facing a monumental challenge in today’s world. There is a major political party ...

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According to a study published by the Hoover Institute titled The Economic Cost of the Pandemic, (Eric ...

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On July 2nd, 1881, Charles Guiteau, a man who was upset he did not get a political ...

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I welcome you to imagine a school where this chart drives all decisions. Imagine a world where we ...

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How many times have you heard someone say, "You just have to get out of your own ...

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Blur words are words that are so vague in meaning that they are not useful in trying ...

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Those of us engaged in public education must constantly adjust, reflect, and react to what is happening ...

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First of all, my headline is slightly bullshittish. How do we define "success?" Our job as educators ...

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Okay, we know we live in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. A statement of fact: ...

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Your purpose lies beyond your work. It is the reason you think you exist. Most leaders do ...

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Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi developed the concept of a "flow state." Have you ever been working on a ...

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Last week I had in-depth conversations with three outstanding educators. Two of them are teachers, and one ...

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I recently heard a school administrator say that they were looking for "rigor" in how learners are ...

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I created the New learning Ecosystem chart seven years ago. It was my attempt to try to make ...

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 I want to share two conversations I had this week that will form the basis for the ...

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Walking to the front door was not an easy chore. I had to navigate around broken toys, ...

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I want to thank Gregg Behr, the Executive Director of The Grable Foundation, for inspiring this post. Although ...

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As I reflect on the potential impact of web 3.0 I keep coming back to the idea ...

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In my perfect world, schools are based on the diagram above. The learner is at the center ...

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Recently, I have sat through a few meetings of educators where the topic involved "the learning gap" ...

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As we emerge bleary eyed from the pandemic, let's take some time to reflect on what will ...

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This week I met over 100 educators in different events. I talked to everyone from a superintendent ...

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Early in my career, I faced three tough decisions in a six-year period. My wife and I had ...

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The following is post from my weekly newsletter, The Learner-Centered Leader. To subscribe to the newsletter you ...

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Last week I talked about two terrible, horrible, no good, very bad questions. This week I am ...

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(This is written as a letter to my two college-aged daughters.) (It is also the foundation of ...

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Raise your hand if you feel as if you are the hamster running on that wheel...working hard ...

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3 Drivers For Transforming Education Systems One of my "go-to" newsletters is The Learn Letter by Eva Keiffenheim. As ...

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The Iceberg Model Of Systems Change We have all heard of the saying "that's the tip of ...

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What a great blog post I ran across last week. The author, Carey Nieuwof, makes a great ...

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Post Traumatic Growth...Can You Help Your Staff and Learners "Get" It? I am in the process of ...

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I know I promised a simple explanation of two things in last week's blog: a crypto digital ...

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The promise of Web 3.0, which I introduced earlier, depends to a large extent on the blockchain. ...

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I believe it is imperative that learner-centered leaders are always peering beyond the headlights into the future. ...

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I bet some of you reading this newsletter have danced around the feeling of being “burnt out”. ...

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I don’t know about you, but when I see kids having a blast in school while they ...

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When our kids were young, we took them to the Outer Banks In North Carolina for beach ...

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We all love to have problems facing us all day at work, right? Well, if you do ...

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I worked with Dr. Coiner when I was the superintendent at Penn-Trafford School District. Dr. Coiner was ...

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I was thinking of statistics the other day. Here is something that I find interesting. The chance ...

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When I was a teacher, a group of my teacher friends and I organized 2 field trips ...

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  l     "Remember, the act of schooling is an inherently political act." --Dr. Bill Boyd ...

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Here is something to think about. In all of my experience and all of my reading on ...

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​Do you have a book in your life that you continually go back to and read again ...

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I am going to get right to it in this post. This post is not meant to ...

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There are things in life that are simple, and there are things in life that are complicated. ...

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Title of Book: Top of Mind Author of Book: John Hall Year Published: 2017 What is unique ...

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Today’s blog post in an exert from my book School Leadership: Learner-Centered Leadership In Times Of Crisis. ...

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Outlook on LIfe What is your outlook life? Are you a “glass is half full” or a ...

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Questions to consider. How much time do you spend in quadrant #4? Actually, track your time for a ...

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Title of Book: Win Art Work & Succeed At Life: 5 Principles To Free Yourself From The ...

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The Board President of IU8, Tom Bullington, and I have a great working relationship. I consider him ...

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Title of Book: The Expansion Sale: Four Must Win Conversations To Keep and Grow Your Customers Author of ...

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Learner-centered leaders want to get things done. Creating the conditions in which the school system starts to ...

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Those of us involved in trying to change schools to become learner-centered know how difficult that change ...

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What does it mean to be “leadershipped out”? Here are some signs that you might be suffering ...

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The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome ...

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My Brother and Critical Thinking My brother works as a foreman for a pipe-laying crew. He mostly ...

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Ripping the Band-Aid Off This post builds off an earlier post entitled “The Old and New Story ...

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Here are some comments I hear all of the time from teachers, principals, superintendents, and anyone else ...

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A Story This week I had the honor of participating in a dissertation defense (congratulations Dr. Jim ...

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A Story Is "leadership" something that you are born with or a skill that you can develop? ...

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In my last post, I discussed the importance of developing your leadership philosophy and the first four ...

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Building your leadership philosophy My new book talks a lot about learner-centered leaders developing a leadership philosophy. ...

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Let’s start thinking… This post is “Part Two” to last week’s blog post about a moral imperative ...

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Michael Fullan’s book, The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, has been a foundational text for my career. ...

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I had the pleasure to sit down with a group of OUTSTANDING elementary teachers last week. I ...

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I have never been too keen on doing “New Year’s Resolutions”. Besides the fact that I have ...

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Data without theory is like jigsaw pieces not put together yet We live in a world of ...

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Today’s uncomfortable truths lead to tomorrow’s solutions Let the handwringing begin. I read today about the shock ...

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School Leaders are Writing a New Story for Education Today’s Reality Our society is in the middle ...

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Kids are the reason I have hope for America I know that the pandemic is grinding us ...

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America at it’s best The political world today is filled with two political parties that are in ...

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As many of you know, I have been working on a book about school leadership for over ...

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How does your personal mission become a beacon for your school? The following blog post comes from ...

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America and the idea of Freedom in Schools Freedom versus obligation. I was in a discussion on ...

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The following are my thoughts on the effects of COVID-19 on our education system. This comes from ...

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The view in my backyard There sure is a lot to get stressed about these days…and I’m ...

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Does your life feel like this? Is Busy a Badge of Honor? Let’s face it, the last ...

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“Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I have listened to ...

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