Impact on Learning

4 Steps to Obliterate Obstacles

Whether it’s a thorn or a dam, an obstacle can stop progress. As a leader, it falls on your shoulders to remove obstacles. Here are 4...

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John Dewey and Thinking

“We only think when we are confronted with problems.” – John Dewey Yes and no. Yes, our thinking is pushed into strategic cognition when confronted with...

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Literacy Program Macro Red Flag

You don’t need test scores to evaluate the effectiveness of your k-12 literacy programs. Simply look at your middle schools. Do they need to double block...

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Persist in Doing

Yesterday’s post focused on the permission to struggle, but why is that important to learning? Ralph Waldo Emerson gave an explanation some time ago: “That which...

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Permission to Struggle

For teams, it’s the fringe of conflict where creativity is found. For individuals, it’s in the struggle where learning occurs. However, no one wants to be...

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Goal-Setting with Students

We know goal-setting is linked to higher achievement in students. Yet many schools I talk to have no structures in place to facilitate systemic goal-setting among...

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Results and Decisions

School A: We bought xyz math program, and our scores went up 18% compared to last year! School B: We also bought xyz math program, but...

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Collaboration and Co-Learning

Collaboration is the co-laboring toward a common end result. Yet, part of the work in schools is learning work. The work of learning together can unite...

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Questions that Build Instructional Systems

Managing the curriculum and instruction is different than leading curricular development or leading instructional change. Listen to these 18 Questions in 8 Minutes Consider these questions...

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Example of a Data Dashboard

I speak often of smart data, AB testing, and data dashboards. Here’s one example from a school I work with. You’ll notice the data is neither...

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Improve, Not Prove

There’s a secret to continuous innovation cycles. Instead of seeking to prove, seek to improve. It’s a tempting trap to seek data that proves what you’re...

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When You Know The Impact…

You might just try a little harder. In 2007, researchers published a study of the work patterns of hotel maids. They were interested in seeing the...

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Education, Teachers, Skinner

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. – BF Skinner Sometimes it’s a great way to show appreciation to teachers by...

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What Type of Feedback Do Teachers Want?

In my research, which included 3,500 walk-throughs across three school districts, I learned there are four main types of feedback to give to teachers: Descriptive Feedback...

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What do kids like?

A friend of mine was hosting a Twitter chat this weekend and asked, “Kids don’t learn from teachers they don’t like – what are some ways...

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