Category: Learnings

This is a Best of the Best article, originally posted by The Education Game back in 2021. The topic is a good one, especially since our kids are headed back to school this month. Enjoy! In most traditional schools, academic work begins the first day of instruction. Teachers are seen as “on task” if they…

I’ve written about the personalized learning lab school we launched while I served as the executive director of a Houston-based educational non-profit. In 2015, our lab school partnered with a Houston area school district to apply for a XQ Super School grant. The hope was to take what we were learning in our lab school…

A few weeks ago, I participated in an online conference hosted by The Smithsonian, their National Education Summit. It was two days of deep, exploratory learning for both young and adult learners. When I reviewed some of the session titles, it became apparent to me that these learning sessions were a bit different than most…

Yesterday I wrote about a Stanford University’s Center on Longevity report titled The New Map for Life: 100 Years to Thrive. A copy of yesterday’s article can be found here. Today, let’s discuss the implications this report might have for our country’s public education system and the probable need for a new system of learning.…

Back in November of 2021, Stanford University’s Center on Longevity issued a report that caught my eye. The report, titled The New Map of Life: 100 Years to Thrive, details what we can expect moving forward as our human longevity continues to increase. The report begins with a startling statement: “In the United States, demographers…

Former elementary teacher and current freelance write Paul Veracka writes in a recent EducationWeek article “It was these three major education forces – too much standardized testing, too much punitive discipline, and too little funding – that pushed me to leaving the profession, a profession I excelled in and even loved.” Veracka shares a story…

When I was a middle school and high school principal, I paid more attention to the students than their parents or teachers when it came to school culture issues. I always told adults that they would be smarter if they convinced students to come speak with me about something they wanted changed than the adults…

Before I rode across Iowa on a bike last week, I had a chance to read an interesting article in EducationWeek. Written by Jeff Frank, an associate education professor at St. Lawrence University, the title of the article was “Want to Value Every Student? Stop Pretending Schools Don’t Pick Winners and Losers.” Frank writes “There…

I’m back f,rom my great bike ride across Iowa. One week, 468 miles, several pulled pork sandwiches, slices of strawberry-rhubarb pie, too many biscuit and gravy breakfasts to mention, and a wonderful time with 18,000 other bike riders. For those of you unfamiliar, this ride is called RAGBRAI, an acronym for the Register’s (as in…

I’ve been critical of Will Richardson in the past while writing this column, but I really like some of the issues he addresses in his on-line articles. Richardson, for those of you not familiar with him, is an author, teacher, and blogger. He focuses on what learning could and should look like for kids, so…