Making kids WANT to do homework

Listen to Alan November's TEDxNYC video. About halfway through, you will get to a part where he talks about how students, actually everyone, need to have purpose in their lives.

Connections

I am so excited to have a connection across Texas with my colleague from the Principals' Institute, Charis. She gave us a great idea for helping kids explore their passions by creating a K-5 integrated experience with teachers and students having fun in "clubs" during the school day. We are excited to kick off on April 15. Lots more to do and plan, but I have a fabulous team with me!

Charis and I also discussed our teachers using Skype to have our teachers communicate. Yay!

Interesting Conversation

One of my teachers who is an administrative intern this year came to me today after school and lamented on the fact that after reading books like Disrupting Class, and Teaching Digital Natives and Outliers there is nothing he can do to fix the issues being just one teacher.

This is why we are striving to do things we have never done before. We are trying to connect with students in new ways and trying to make teaching so much more than standing in the front of the room.

You know, the issue he pointed out was a problem to me as well because you can't go back to the way things were before you learned about the way things could be. It makes you strive forward and try new things.

Systemic Change

We are on the journey of systemic change. It requires two groups of people. There's the group who are willing to confront what is wrong, put everything on the table, and consider solutions that are very different and sometimes way outside the box. Then there's the people who cannot see that there is an issue or cannot visualize that there should be a different way. It is very hard to be the former when there are many of the latter around you.

Nowadays, if you have done something one way for a long time, it is probably time to take a look at what you are doing. Things don't have to be bad to need a change. They can be pretty effective and still be tweaked to uncover the true potential.