by Donna Miller Fry (@fryed)
Do you know the difference between a Least Sandpiper and a Spotted Sandpiper? I don’t. I’m sitting here with hundreds of pictures of living things in my natural world, and I don’t know what they are. Over the last four days, I have been participating in the Nature Conservancy of Canada Big Backyard Blitz, an […]
It’s far too late to be up, but sleep won’t come for awhile yet. Tuesday nights, after board meetings, are always like this. As a Superintendent, you have to be “on” for the whole meeting, ready to answer any questions. Meetings are long. Reports are presented. Topics that come up can be surprising, seemingly out […]
There is no doubt that March 14, 2020 has all of us in a world that is very different from the one we anticipated. The escalation of the national and provincial responses, in a time when everyone has a voice online and facts don’t always rise to the top, creates challenges we have yet to […]
Creating the Conditions for Focused Professional Learning (Part 2): The Learning Focus When you are in a classroom, and something isn’t working, you only have 2 choices: Change the kids, or change the teaching practice! Creating the conditions for focused professional learning is the FUNCTION of the network. How do we enable the kind of […]
Creating the Conditions for Focused Professional Learning (Part 1) How do we create a learning organization when there is a power differential? If we want to create a learning organization, so it must be safe for everyone to talk. [Does your school district/division demand compliance? Is rank switched on or off?] This creates the challenge. […]
The Power of Networks for School Improvement Just because we work in groups doesn’t mean good things will happen. Not all group work is good work. What are some of the potential PERILS of learning networks and learning communities? Quality Control – Anything spreads. [We see this in our online Professional Learning Networks]. A bad […]
Creating Networks for School Improvement We want to move from VERTICAL to HORIZONTAL capacity building so we can learn in at least three ways: Learn FROM one another [when I need information I don’t have] Learn WITH one another [when we all want to know] Learn ON BEHALF OF others [when we learn something we […]
We struggle to make sense of the world. We swim in a sea of notifications, podcasts, new books to read, white papers, comments. My head hurts sometimes, just trying to make sense of what we are learning, and how it can be organized, documented, and shared with others. I used my learning time this morning […]
Recently, Stephen Hurley recorded a podcast in conversation with Dr. Michael Fullan where they explored some of the ideas from his latest book, “Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail” Please listen to this VoicEd Radio On Demand Podcast here. In this podcast, Stephen and Michael take us back to the 1960’s when innovation […]
Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Gerry Costa, Director, Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, Montclair State University. Dr. Costa was a guest on EdLine Canada, the open line education show I co-host with Stephen Hurley on VoicEd Radio each Sunday afternoon. Dr. Costa was previously interviewed by Stephen Hurley […]
