What are schools for?

Training? Preparation? Umm, learning? Learning, in my experience, is rarely discussed in schools. If brought up in conversation it is almost immediately morphed into “student achievement” or some other term that dodges a close and sincere examination of what constitutes learning. Learning is a process – not a thing. It is fluid and nonlinear – […]

Purpose of Teacher Evaluation?

This post is inspired by a training workshop designed to introduce folks to a new teacher evaluation rubric. In this training we were asked to write words that represent the purpose of teacher evaluation onto sticky notes to discuss and use to create a statement describing the purpose of teacher evaluation. Many notes were created […]

Change That Rethinks: Different or Better?

A few days ago I was asked to respond to this prompt, … interested in change that rethinks or reinvents and ultimately replaces old practice, that’s built on the more fundamental understandings that we have about how kids learn in ways that stay with them way past the assessment (assuming there is one.) So here’s the […]

Words and Things (and Assumptions)

An excerpt from the book “And What Do YOU Mean by Learning?” by Seymour Sarason: Two people may say they are patriotic [or any other concept] only to find that when they pursue what they mean – what the concept includes or excludes, what actions it supports or indicts – they come to a parting of ways. […]

The Day The Bells Stopped

September 28, 2015: One year, one month, twenty one days, three hours, and twenty minutes after the launch of our Mosaic program. It was a Monday. And it was the day and date of one of the most profound moments of my career as an educator. For on this day, at approximately 11:00am MST, the bells […]