From My Bookshelf: The Art and Science of Getting Better

Deliberate Practice … key to getting better Three new books this month on getting better.  Each of these mini-reviews adds meaning to our theme of deliberate practice and communities of practice. Communities of Practice work.  A community of practice is a group of people who share an interest in getting better.  The concept, from Lave…

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Learning Improvement – Steps to Success

How Seattle Keeps Improving Learning In 2017 Seattle was ranked third among large urban districts for student growth. And they keep striving to get better.  Seattle’s improvement journey illustrates the three aspects of a “community of practice:” Domain:  Student-Focused Collaboration has been a steady focus. Community:  District teams keep working to get better as do school…

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Book Review:  You Can’t Be What You Can’t See

black and white polka dot pattern

Book Review:  You Can’t Be What You Can’t See .  By Milbrey W. McLaughlin http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/you-can-t-be-what-you-can-t-see Opening Eyes This book is well named.  Opportunity opens the eyes of young people to new futures.  Opportunity changes lives.  Milbrey McLaughlin, professor emeritus at Stanford University, shows how an Out of School Time (OST) program in Chicago’s Cabrini Green,…

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Growing Instructional Leadership

Growing Instructional Leadership. We have made incredible progress in the area of instructional leadership.  As I came up through the ranks, principals often earned their job for time served.  Keeping the doors open and the buses running was the expectation.  Then came the effective schools research and the idea that good teaching mattered.  Good schools…

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