Thoughts and reflections on teaching and learning – Cohort 21 Member Blog
Written by Garth Nichols
Reading this book is simultaneously inspiring, knowledge-building, frustrating and enlighting. Grant Lichtman’s latest book builds off of his previous #EdJourney, which I have reviewed here before; however, where #EdJourney is focused on examples and the “what” of lighthouse schools, Moving the Rock focuses on action. In fact. Young Zhao (read more HERE) reviewed this book […]
Written by Garth Nichols
The Monday versus Someday dilemma: If we plan for a great, ambitious goal to happen in two, maybe three, or even five years, we can forget about getting started. If we implement new initiatives every Monday without a vision for what it will look like in two, maybe three, or even five years, we lose […]
Written by Garth Nichols
If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world of new questions. ~ Susanne K. Langer The world’s citizens need to think and act differently. In many ways, this begins with our education system. In a recent blog by Grant Lichtman, entitled “The Problem is Not Climate Change; the Problem is Irrational […]
Written by Garth Nichols
Clayton Christensen, in his latest book “Competing Against Luck”, puts innovation under the microscope. Like all things under a microscope, minutiae is revealed, studied and made clearer. He frames his book as an answer to below: Is innovation truly a crapshoot? Or is innovation difficult because we don’t know what causes it to succeed? You […]
Written by Garth Nichols
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. […]
Written by Garth Nichols
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 […]
Written by Garth Nichols
Last week, 8 Havergal students and some 4 faculty took part in the 6 Degrees Toronto Conference. This conference was put together by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship to answer the challenge put forth by Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson: This was a three-day experience to explore the greatest social and political issues of our time: climate […]
Written by Garth Nichols
I’ve done a lot of reading over the last month and few days, and I’ve compiled a healthy catalogue of book reviews. I felt it was time to synthesize them into something more ‘whole’: what is the thread that runs through these books? I’m going to connect this with my new role at Havergal as […]
Written by Garth Nichols
Many of us have already been exposed to the concepts behind Creating Cultures of Thinking; with my new start at Havergal, it has served as a great reminder of the moral imperative of education. Creating Cultures of Thinking, by Ron Ritchhart outlines the 8 forces “we must master to truly transform our schools”. These are: […]
Written by Garth Nichols
How Might We…make innovation a routine in our school, for our student and for our faculty? This is a question that I’ve tried to tackle in my work with The Teacher’s Guild. And it is a burning question that this book picks up on in a very concrete way. You would read this book to: […]
