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Don’t Buy Me Flowers
My boyfriend and I have very different communication styles, especially when it comes to sharing our feelings. He’s just not the kind of guy who will bring me flowers, or leave me notes or proclaim his love for the world to hear. So when we decided to pull weeds at about 7pm last night, the
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Excel at Everything! Do it RIGHT NOW!
Last week, I asked a teacher I admire if she wanted to share some of her passions with my blog readers. Her answer made me sad. She said she didn’t feel like she had done anything worth sharing this year – new grade level, new school, etc. had all left her feeling like she was
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Slow Down
Three school site primary teacher teams have been spending the past two months digging into agency and personalization. What is it? Why is it important? And what do I need to do to provide it for students? Each group was tasked with presenting an overview of what they had learned, using the Zoom Panel guidelines
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Students Are Changing the World NOW
Last night, my district received the Innovate Award for its District Design 2022 initiative. This initiative is focused on providing an extraordinary school experience for all students. Using the Design Thinking mindset, curiosity is promoted as students seek out real world problems and formulate innovative solutions. Students connect with contemporary and historical issues, and with
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The Power of Empathy
When we talk design thinking, we talk empathy. But it seems that empathy is struggling to keep its place in society. In the article “The End of Empathy,” a study was shared that showed a serious decline in empathy starting in 2000. Per the article: More students say it’s not their problem to help people
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Guest Blog Post: A Teacher’s Changing Mindset on Student Agency
By Emily Mackie, 5th grade teacher As mentioned in my Exploring Agency and Personalization blog on December 15th, I’ve been working with teachers to to better understand the principles of agency and personalization. As these are key elements of our district’s vision and mission, it is important to be able to articulate what those principles
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What is the Role of Mobile Devices in Your School?
A colleague in her Master’s program asked me to answer a few questions for a class project she is completing. My responses are below. I’d love to hear how others would answer these questions. What are the instructional goals that we are aiming to accomplish with mobile learning? Our goal is to provide students with
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The Future of Work is Emotionally Intelligent … Are We Preparing Students?
I recently participated in a webinar by Singularity University titled, “The Future of Work is Emotionally Intelligent.” Below are some key takeaways I discovered from the discussion. Participants: Melissa Extein, PsyD, Principal Consultant & Part-time Faculty @Extein Consulting & Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment, The New SchoolNichol Bradford, Exec Director and Co-Founder, Transformative
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Powering Personalization
For the next two months, I get the honor to spend time, like serious, dedicated, reflective time, with three groups of teachers as we dive deep into the concepts of personalization and agency. Our goal is to define how these terms are demonstrated in an elementary classroom: What teacher moves are present? What are our
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How Strategic is Your Strategic Plan?
I’ve been wondering about strategic plans lately… during the course of my career I have been part of many strategic planning teams, both writing and executing. Some plans looked like a football play, with lots of arrows and lines designating who was doing what and when and for how long. Some strategic plans were gorgeous
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Imagining Joyful Learning Spaces
This past month our innovation team has been fortunate to work with a school staff that is looking to reimagine their library space. Currently a traditional space with plain walls, a large circulation desk, and giant book shelves, the staff is wanting to build a space that reflects the joy of learning they want students
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Empathy Can Sneak Up On You!
“If we want people to fully show up, to bring their whole selves including their unarmored, whole hearts—so that we can innovate, solve problems, and serve people—we have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.” ― Brené Brown, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. A
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Laura K Spencer, Ed.D. 