Book Review: “Girls on the Brink” Donna J. Nakazawa

Girls on the Brink brings together personal stories of young women, neuroscience and social science to bring an understanding of the biological, societal and personal forces acting on girls. Her thesis is this: I don’t present this research to amplify fear, but rather as a clarion call to change the landscape in which girls come…
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Book Review: “Stolen Focus” (Johann Hari)

Stolen Focus, Why you Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari, is a game-changer for me. It captures the tension, the friction, the challenge, opportunity and hope that faces education in the face of diminishing ability to think deeply, pay mindful attention, and to learn deeply. This book explores…
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Book Review: New Power (Heimans & Timms)

In organizations such as Independent Schools rich in history, precedent, tradition and long-standing community members (faculty and families), there is a lot of inertia to move these schools into position of agility, responsiveness and ‘new’. “New Power: How anyone can persuade, mobilize and succeed in our chaotic connected age”, by Heimans and Timms, offers a…
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Analog answers to Digital Learning

Many of us struggle with the role of technology in the lives of our students and within the culture of our organizations, and even in our own lives. I’ve been thinking about this throughout this year, and was able to capture some of my earlier thinking in this BLOG POSTĀ of an Email conversation with @edaigle….
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A Conversation about Social Media

I read @edaigle’s post on Google+ about social media, and this started a very generative conversation – one that I hope keeps going! – that I am now taking back to my the hallways and offices on my own school. It centers around Rousseau Lake College’s Social Media policy. Rousseau is a smaller school than…
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Book Review: The Innovator’s Mindset ~ Couros

George Couros is a Canadian educational leader, who is also prolific social media contributor. He espouses innovation in education, and through his posts has created a sea change in the way people are talking about education, and its future. This is a book that coalesces these thoughts, and adds in some excellent examples of innovation….
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Book Review: Quiet

Quiet is the Sound of Leadership… Quiet, by Susan Cain, is expertly researched, and written with a very digestible, intimate voice such that any educator would be hard pressed to not recognize themselves, a student, parent or administrator in her stories and recounting of people’s experiences. Full disclosure, on took the QUIET TEST and found…
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The Joy of Community

As I’ve written about before, I took part in the first installment of The Teachers’ Guild, run by IDEO. Its mission is to build collaboration amongst teachers to solve challenges in education. This particular iteration had this challenge prompt: “How might we create rituals and routines that establish a culture of innovation in our classrooms…
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What is a Technology Coach?

How can I help? What do you need? Where do your students need support? These are the questions I ask my teachers, and myself, everyday. A technology coach is part leader, part follower, part IT, part EdT, but certainly all “learner”. In a recent White Paper, entitled “Technology, Coaching & Community”, the issue of awareness…
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Can Twitter Change School Culture? It is for me!

How did my school go from almost ZERO twitter connections, to being part of a CIS Ontario-wide movement to connect on Twitter with other schools across disciplines and grades? What started as zero twitter chatter within my school, grew quickly to over 15 teachers, either starting new with Twitter or repositioning their Tweets to connect…
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