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Death by Syllabus
It’s that time of year … back to school! Teachers are excited to meet students, and students are excited to meet their teachers. Back to school also means a lot of discussion about how best to establish relationships and culture when students walk in the door. I’ve seen tweets suggesting teachers hold off on “doing
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The Power of the Master Schedule
A learning organization is a place “where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.” The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization,
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I am a Recovering Super Chicken.
“Hi, my name is Laura and I’m a recovering Super Chicken…” “Hi Laura…” the room of ordinary chickens respond acceptingly… (Trust me, it all makes sense within a minute or so of watching the video!) Huffernan suggests, “For years, we’ve thought that leaders were heroic soloists who were expected, all by themselves, to solve
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Sharing the Power of Vulnerability
Something to reflect on as we welcome students and their families into our classrooms, our schools, our lives. “Our job is to look and say, ‘You know what? You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.’ That’s our job. Show me a generation of kids raised like that, and we’ll end
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Pickle Hives and Design Thinking
“Babe, I was eating a pickle and it made my feet break out in hives!” Not quite the greeting I was looking for after an exhausting 14 hour day of work, evening teaching, and traffic, but that’s what welcomed me at home. And sure enough there were giant welts all over his feet. “Pickles did
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Relationships. Culture. Twitter. OY!
I was at a Women in Educational Leadership the other day, and one of the sessions presented by a local superintendent was on culture. She shared four essentials for creating a positive culture. They are: Energize and Encourage People Foster Connected Relationships and Teams Provide Opportunities for People to Do Their Best Work Empower and
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Teachers Are Tired of Robert Marzano – Teacher Habits Blog
Marzano deserves our anger. But at this point, what he really deserves is to be ignored. — Read on teacherhabits.com/marzano/ Sometimes it’s best just to share the words of others without adding any commentary. Enjoy the read.
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Preparing for Life, or Preparing for School?
Being as my role includes the words “innovation” and “design,” I often talk to parents about shifts in educational practice, and why they are happening. Our district is elementary only, so some parents naturally worry about what will happen to their children after they leave an innovative elementary experience. The question usually goes something like
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My Boyfriend Is Smarter Than Me…
I have five degrees. Five! An Associate degree, a Bachelor’s degree with a double major, a Master of Arts degree, a Master of Science degree, and a Doctorate in Education. I love school. And yet, even with all those fancy certificates, my boyfriend is smarter than me. He’s a welder. No fancy college degrees. But
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Has It Only Been a Year?
To culminate the school year, my Innovation and Design team published a blog post reflecting on all that we accomplished, and more importantly, all that we LEARNED, this past school year. It’s crazy to think we’ve only been working together for one school year, and yet in that time, we co-planned with classroom teachers to
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A Message to Our Young Design Thinkers
Today I was honored to give a speech at a 6th grade promotion ceremony. I will admit, I was scared to give a speech. I mean, I give presentations all the time. I consider myself really good at it (like, really!). But a speech? I don’t do speeches. So I struggled for about a week
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Transforming Learning, One Experience at a Time
In August, Dr. McClurg challenged all of us to begin a journey from the tame to the wild, and as evidenced by some of the data Sarah, Paula, and I put together about our year, the DMUSD staff did just that. This year for us has been a monumental year of learning, creativity, and celebration,
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Laura K Spencer, Ed.D. 