Book Reivew: The Future is Analog (David Sax)

“The Future is Analog” (2022) is David Sax’s follow up to “The Revenge of Analog” (2016). In this very readable, incredibly well researched, with a wide diversity of people referenced and interviewed, David Sax offers a welcome version of the future based on the tough lessons that we’ve learned through our experiences of the pandemic….
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Book Review: The Values-Driven Organization (Barrett)

As part of an upcoming PD experience, I am reading this book by Richard Barrett, and thought I would share some of the learnings. The subtitle of this book is “Cultural Health and Employee Well-Being as a Pathway to Sustainable Performance”. This alone makes this book compelling, as a resource to offer some answers /…
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Book Review: “Potlach as Pedagogy” (Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson)

“Potlatch as Pedagogy” was recommended to me by Mike Carlson, a teacher at Wandering Spirits school (TDSB) and an Indigenous educational consultant. This book strongly resonates with “The Nordic Secret” and “Ecological Learning“, in that the approaches are student-centred, holistic and reciprocal. What I really enjoyed about this book was the 9 Principles of “Sk’ad’a”,…
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Book Review: The Future of Learning (Guy Claxton)

“School is an institution that is deeply, systemically, designed for compliance. The whole apparatus of rules, punishments, timetables and bells, syllabuses and set texts, marking and examination requires and rewards the disposition of diligence, obedience, conscientiousness and correctness: of willingly doing what you are told regardless of whether it seems senseless or untimely. Student choice…
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Book Review: The Fearless Organization (Edmondson)

Written in 2019, this book is an excellent extension of Edmondson’s work that I reviewed HERE. I read The Fearless Organization through the lens of change leadership: What might I learn to inform a digital transformation?  This book delivers through its use of case studies, self-reflection tools and the Frequently Asked Questions section at the end…
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Book Review: Teaming (Amy Edmondson)

I really appreciate being directed to the work of Amy Edmondson and “Teaming”. Her work is well written, includes case studies, and reinforces that the way we worked is no longer going to get us where we need to be going. Teaming is not a natural leadership stance, or a natural cultural stance within organizations….
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Language to Guide Us…

Trying to make sense of our fluid circumstances is one thing; however, leading schools through change is a complete other endeavour. It requires empathy as we depart from the roles, habits and ways of being in our lived experiences of the past and chart a new direction. It requires asking challenging questions about the role…
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