Learning Posted on:

What If Our Students Were Designing the Future?

Have you heard about what Chick-fil-A is doing to innovate now? The company is reimagining the drive-thru experience with an elevated design that addresses customer demand in a whole new way. This speculative design approach allows them to think beyond current limitations and create solutions for tomorrow. It’s more than just efficiency—it’s about envisioning a future that isn’t here yet and bringing it to life. Now imagine if our students were the ones leading this kind of future-focused innovation. What if they were designing solutions that could reshape industries, solve global problems, and impact lives for Christ? That’s where speculative […]

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Learning Posted on:

Snorkel or Scuba Dive? Balancing Breadth and Depth in Learning


In the vast ocean of education, teachers and administrators are constantly navigating the challenging decision of whether to “snorkel” or “scuba dive” in their approach to teaching. Should we prioritize covering as much content as possible, skimming across the surface to expose students to a wide range of topics? Or should we dive deep into specific areas, allowing students to explore and understand key concepts thoroughly?
The Snorkeling Approach: Broad ExposureSnorkeling in education refers to a breadth-first approach, where educators aim to cover a wide range of topics, offering students a broad understanding of many subjects. This method can be particularly […]

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Design Thinking Posted on:

FUSE 2014: Design Thinking and Badges

See related post: Hacking Badges Have you heard of design thinking yet? People centered problem solving? I spent the last two days participating in the FUSE 2014 Conference hosted by the Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation (@MVIFI) at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School. I earned a badge for being a Facilitator in the 101 track (participants engaged in an introductory design thinking challenge related to the topic of “student centered learning“). There were 140 educators and non-educators from around the nation (some international, too). Our Middle School sent a small team of our own teachers to the 201 track where they arrived […]

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Book Review / Innovation / Leadership / Professional Learning Posted on:

Scaling Up Excellence – Notes from Chapter 1

It’s a ground war, not just an air war. (Going slower to scale faster – and better – later.) The Problem of More = Executives can point to pockets in their organization where people are doing a great job of uncovering and meeting customer needs. There was always some excellence – there just wasn’t enough of it. How do you spread that excellence to more people and more places? We’ve identified 7 reliable signs that scaling is going well or badly… 1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint. Distributing your banner and logo far and wide vs. having a […]

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Performance Tasks / UbD - Understanding by Design Posted on:

Historical Performance Tasks

Historical Performance Tasks A performance task is any learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks yield a tangible product and/or performance that serve as evidence of learning. It is an alternative assessment to the traditional, multiple choice test. Recently, our team created our own performance tasks in a shared Google Doc. Each of us created and uploaded samples we could use with our students using the GRASPS model. See characteristics of a performance task by Jay McTighe. We were able to write comments and give constructive feedback to one another about […]

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Communication / Professional Learning Posted on:

How Might We Create Irresistible Faculty Meetings?

I’ll be honest – I don’t know the answer to this question yet. However, I am intrigued by it. And committed to the ideal. Our family is full of educators. I love it because we get to “talk shop” and compare notes. Yesterday, a close family member recounted the tale of her first faculty meeting this week that consisted of a principal reading the emergency crisis plan for two hours. We’ve all sat through some doozies. Tomorrow we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s famous speech. To borrow the iconic and powerful phrase, and in no way whatsoever drawing […]

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Inspiration / Reflective Practice Posted on:

#7 What is the #60Challenge?

I’m feeling good about my new blog and recent posts. I want to take a minute to clarify a few housekeeping items… 1. I have started several blogs over the years, but most didn’t last longer than a few posts. So far, I feel like this new blog is a win. Thanks for those who have retweeted or given enthusiastic feedback. It keeps me going. Really. 2. I was intending, and even in the process of planning, a relaunch of this blog when Bo Adams (@boadams1) shared the idea of the 60-60-60 Challenge with me. From his own blog, here […]

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