Assumption of Excellence?

This morning, I read a great blog post  by Michael Smith entitled “Believing You Are Great Leaves Very Little Room for Improvement.”  In it, Smith asserts that teachers’ unwillingness to change may in fact be due to a belief in the excellence of their methods, lessons, colleagues, and the school program/curriculum  itself.  I thought this [...]

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The Wisdom of Students

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to some former students who are now seniors in high school.   After the ceremony honoring them (that’s another story), the young men came into the library to talk to me, and a simple conversation about school evolved into an educational policy discussion. First, they told me about their [...]

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The Importance of Conversation

Attendance at Educon 2.2 this weekend has only reinforced the idea that conversation between educators is perhaps the most important professional development tool.  Of course, it was wonderful to listen to the great minds in education present, but the most invigorating and productive sessions seemed to be those in which the group took an issue and began [...]

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Timing is Everything

Sometimes just when you’re at your lowest energy level and discouragement and frustration have snuck in, events coincide to turn everything around.  Yesterday, after pleading with faculty members to take advantage of our faculty wiki to share information and resources, one member inadvertently deleted the entire page.  This I discovered after a long day of helping [...]

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