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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Book Review: Think Again (A. Grant)

We listen to views that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard (Grant, 4) What a great read – accessible, humorous, and important. Think Again, by Adam Grant is a great read that provides compelling reasons why we need to think in different ways, and how to do so. The…
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Book Review: Deep Diversity by Shakil Choudhury

This book offers an outstanding approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It tackles the issue of racism at the neuro-psychology level, and offers strategies and a practice for how to breakdown and rebuild our unconscious, implicit biases. Shakil Choudhury began his consulting career focussing on anti-indigenous racism, and this echoes throughout the book, and the…
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Book Review: The Second Mountain by David Brooks

From the author or “The Road to Character” this is his follow up non-fiction book about the Quest for a Moral Life. This book was recommended to me by a professional colleague, and as I was reading it, I kept wondering about the connections to the role of an educator. This is not a book…
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Book Review: Permission to Feel M. Brackett, Ph.D.

It is a happy coincidence that I read this book Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett as I was also researching student agency. Emotions and agency are inextricably link through the cognitive processes, such that: “The three most important aspects of learning – attention, focus, and memory – are all controlled by our emotions, not…
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Book Review: Doughnut Economics

The school where I work is an incredible place to be, especially this time of year. The capacity of giving and thoughtfulness know no bounds, as does their holiday spirit! Our sustainability initiatives are extending and being integrated into long-standing programming: something as simple as hot chocolate mornings requiring students to bring their own mugs,…
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Book Review: Trust, by David Johnston

The role of an educator is grounded in trust. Trust is the foundation of learning in our homes, classrooms, travel experiences, and in our schools as a whole. You would be interested in this book if… … you enjoyed politics and wanted to know more about the role of the GG … you wanted to…
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Reframing XR & AI for the Future of Education

Are you afraid of Artificial Intelligence? Does it conjure up a scary version of “The Singularity”, mass unemployment, or worse: The Terminator?!   I’ve blogged before about the acronym VUCA and the present and future (that theworld is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) and AI  and XR play a role in making the future and…
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Book Review: Are you teaching a Dark Horse?

The latest book from Todd Rose, co-authored with Ogi Ogas, entitled Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment, captured my imagination. It is not only about how individuality leads to fulfillment, and ultimately why fullfillment can lead to success, it outlines – more significantly for educators – the paradigm shift as the world…
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What My Puppy is Teaching My Family…

About three weeks ago, my family of four grew to five. We got a puppy!  Her name is Penny, and she is a mini-French Bassett Hound. I’m in love. She has so much energy, curiosity and so much to learn! She’s brought a lot to our family so far, but not without a disruption to…
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