Eleven years ago, Edutopia.com published a blog post titled “Energy and Calm: Brain Breaks and Focused-Attention Practices.  If you’d like to access it, visit this link:  https://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-breaks-focused-attention-practices-lori-desautels Think about the schedule when you and I were in school.  Students always had a break – and still do today! It’s called, “changing classes.” After 45 minutes…

With all the controversies surrounding education today, we seem to be having trouble finding where to place blame. Certainly teachers are an easy scapegoat, since if children aren’t achieving properly, then there must be something wrong with what they’re doing (or not doing). Administrators also get their share of the blame, since their salaries are…

It seems that everyone is experiencing a shortage today. In our culture of abundance, we focus on what we don’t have. Recently, young parents were lamenting a shortage of a particular type of formula for their babies.  Soon, there will come to light a shortage of albuterol for children with asthma. Ironically, there seems to…

The modern public school in this nation was created to establish an informed electorate, so they could vote for qualified individuals to lead the nation. You can be the judge as to whether that goal has been achieved. Today’s post-modern education borrowed leadership models from the military so that students would be prepared to serve…

As public school leaders, administrators, staff and teachers continue to grapple with improving the achievement levels of students, preparing them to be able to succeed in an uncertain future, perhaps we should look to the past to be able to move forward, and revisit how learning was delivered in an earlier time.  Rather than simply…

Since this site contains a series of articles titled “Continuous Improvement ≠ Transformative Innovation,” here’s an example. This isn’t your typical music appreciation class. It’s an example of instructional excellence.  

In the January 26, 2017 edition of our local newspaper, a story appeared titled, “Chancellor says state-owned university system ‘unsustainable,’ orders sweeping review” (http://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/11835303-74/state-system-brogan).  Interestingly, the same finding was reported in the Fall of 2015, as the Commonwealth’s budget was not approved until December of that year, causing funding to be withheld from public school…

There’s lots of talk on the Internet, in the news media, and throughout those antiquated communication forms of magazines and newspapers about the Millennials, and how they’re unlike any generation that’s come before them. Actually, they’re a lot like the Great Generation…that wave of children of immigrants that were born between 1926 and 1946 and…

Here’s a note that every “Technology Instructor” should receive from their administrator: Dear Instructional Technology Specialists: Your job is to help the teachers…not implement the latest tech trend. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Principal The problem is that a school may not have an Instructional Technology Specialist.  They have a Technology Instructor…

This suggestion is not for your “run of the mill” administrative meeting where you’re explaining policies or implementing new directives.  This would be for those meetings where everyone’s input is important to generate new ideas, and to break down the silos between teachers, administration, and technology (which, interestingly, has gained a new importance in the…