Education

Student experience, not outcomes, matter most for school design.

Emma and the “outcome blinders”: How a hyper-focus on outcomes made us forget what matters

As a special education service provider, my colleagues and I spent a lot of time ensuring that the Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals we developed for our students…

Why I Left Teaching

Why asking the wrong questions in education can have negative impacts on both students and teachers. This post was…

Every Classroom (and Congress) Needs a Peace Circle

Reading is More Than Just Test Scores (duh, right?)

“As a former Kindergarten teacher, I worry that…

Education Needs Less Critique, More Vision

Without shared vision we don’t know what to create, only…

The Four Purposes of Schooling

Organizing school for possibility instead of efficiency…

From Critique to Vision: The Story of Two Teacher Lunch Rooms

You can tell a lot about the culture of a school from the way teachers engage with each other during lunch. The all-too-short lunch break is the eye of the storm — a moment to step back from the chaos of the classroom. In…

Symptoms to systems

Want to change student behavior? Stop treating symptoms and start shifting systems.

A few years ago, I was the behavior specialist called in to work with a child. Kyle was 9, in third grade, and he was academically inclined — already reading books meant for fifth…