PISA Panic?

The latest PISA results are about to be released to the public. How will the media spin the latest results? What outrage will surface? What drastic policy shifts will happen as a result? What pressure will be put on front line educators because of how their jurisdiction fares in the rankings? Why are we obsessed […]

What are you Not Doing?

Educators are the busiest people I know. It’s easy to fall into the trap of being busy all the time. There is no end to activities we could be doing. But if we really ask ourselves what we are trying to achieve, and if we really think about whether what we are doing is leading […]

The Power of Networks for School Improvement: Learning with Steven Katz (4)

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 […]

The Power of Networks for School Improvement: Learning with Steven Katz (3)

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: Learning with Steven Katz (2)

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 […]

The Power of Networks for School Improvement: Learning with Steven Katz (1)

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 […]