I do a lot of work with teachers. Most of it happens during their planning time as we plan, do (they teach), & reflect on the work. Sometimes, I have an opportunity to watch that middle piece..the actual teaching, which is really interesting for me. I love having the chance to see the work that… Read More #Sketchnotes On Class Visits

Early in the school year, I blogged here about Real Challenges we’d faced as we were working through Phase One of FCPSon, our transformation of teaching and learning.  I think it’s time to talk honestly about another round of challenges we’ve faced and how we’ve handled them. Probably one of the biggest challenges is the… Read More Another Round of Challenges

Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about this.  When we come to something we don’t know how to do, what do we do?  I can think of 4 or 5 ways people react that I’ve seen recently. Stop whatever you’re doing.  Not sure how to proceed puts a total stop to the work… Read More What do we do when we need help?

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the idea of Personalized Learning for our students. Saturday I devoured the latest issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine.  This presented a variety of different view points around personalized learning that really made me think!  I read the entire issue, cover to cover. Spending a quiet Saturday morning… Read More Personalized Learning

Y’all…I HAVE to take some time this morning to brag on my partner in EdTech, Margaret Sisler. As I was sipping my jasmine green tea this morning, I saw a video of her receiving a much-deserved award. Margaret was named the Outstanding School-Based Leader award which is a pretty big deal. I can’t think of… Read More Margaret Sisler: Generally Amazing…It’s Official.

Since the beginning of the FCPSon Journey for our school, we’ve shared that Learning Walks are one of the most transformative tools we’ve used.  Teachers visiting other teachers, regardless of the content area, leads to huge changes.  Our teachers have told us in survey after survey, meeting after meeting, that they want to learn from… Read More Learning From Each Other

We’ve been talking more and more about the classroom space and how it can be more student centered and flexible.   Last week at the mini faculty meeting, we shared how one of the budget discussions centered on raising class sizes (AGAIN! I don’t know why this is an “easy” fix to a tough budget… Read More Teacher Work Space

One contributing factor for successfully making significant change for us is open tw0-way communication.  This connects to transparency and honesty and strong & trusting relationships that I’ve talked about before. In addition to being available via email and for drop in conversations, our Principal (@chsprincipalJ), the Admin team and I try to have opportunities to… Read More Open Communication