Tag: students

Our oldest son would be categorized as a late blooming basketball player. When he was a high school freshman, he was one of the smallest on the court. As a high school senior, he was ignored by universities and only attended the University of Houston as a walk-on through the good graces of then new…

When we opened a personalized learning lab school back in 2014, a large portion of the 50-middle school-aged kids who enrolled came from homeschool backgrounds. One of the first differences I saw between those kids and kids coming from the traditional K-12 public system was the homeschoolers’ ability to take risks with their learning. They…

I ran across a TED Radio Hour program from 2021 titled “The Public Commons.” The hour was all about how we can create public places that feel welcoming and safe for everyone, including young learners. Here’s some of what I learned: Shari Davis is a community organizer and youth advocate in Boston. While working for…

Back in March, I participated in an online town hall meeting, sponsored by Tom Vander Ark’s organization Getting Smart. The town hall’s title was “What Will it Take to Make Learner-centered Ecosystems a Public Education Reality?” A large portion of the meeting addressed the why and the what of making learner-centered ecosystems more prevalent inside…

The Big Questions Institute shared an article recently written by the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria in Canada. The title of the article is “Intergenerational Responsibilities in Difficult Times: The Story of the Faculty of Education’s ‘Generational Bowl’.” Excerpts from that article follow: “A ‘nexus event’ represents a critical juncture where multiple…

Today is Juneteenth, a celebration of what many consider to be a “second independence day” for black Americans. And their independence started with President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. The National Museum of African American History and Culture describes Juneteenth this way: “On ‘Freedom’s Eve,’ or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first…

Part of being a life-long learner is inviting and embracing feedback, even if it is negative. In other words, if you are going to be a life-long learner, then you better be ready to accept criticism intended to make you smarter and stronger. Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor and a contributing writer for The…

Let’s face it, most homework is busy work. In my 15 years as a school and district leader, and then another 10 years as an educational non-profit leader, I saw very little homework assigned that made any difference in whether a student was going to become a smarter and stronger learner. I’ve written about the…