Innovation and Outcomes

A truism of entrepreneurship: You will wear a lot of hats. It’s the start of the year and I want to kick things off with a reflection on titles. I have a new one.

Using Open Badges at Hamilton

We’re exploring a new way of tracking professional development and learning. The internet has quite profoundly changed the way we learn. Skills and questions are really one Google (or Bing, or Pinterest, or Instructable, or Tweet) search away. Learning happens. Constantly. But how do you quantify and demonstrate that learning? If you say you know […]

The communication spectrum

From HBR: To effectively share information that is complex or personal, you often need to observe body language, hear tone and inflection, and be able to see what you’re talking about. For those purposes videoconferencing is the next best thing to talking face-to-face. At the other end of the spectrum, small, non-urgent requests are best […]

Trying to be helpful, but…

Truly, I love the staff I work with and I’m often incredibly impressed by their professionalism and skills. We’re a big district with lots of moving parts and lots of variables to juggle (that’s education in a nutshell). So I try not to read too much into these types of pleas for help. “My computer […]

Do what you love

I grew up Dutch Reformed which, besides being its own particular flavor of Christianity, is also a culture. Lots of strong families, strong work ethics, and strong community support. The food runs bland, the faith runs studious, and on Sundays you made sure not to mow the yard for fear that the neighbors might think […]

New Year Goals: 2013

Because it’s always a good thing to write down. 1. Write More Always number one on the list. To be honest, 2012 wasn’t too bad of a year, especially given the fact that I started a new job. That said, I want to write (blogging or otherwise) 5 times a week. By the end of […]