A Resilient Learning Ecosystem or Fractured Learning Landscape?
At ASCD's Leader to Leader conference in July, I had the pleasure of sharing KnowledgeWorks' latest ten-year forecast on the future of learning, Recombinant Education: Regenerating the Learning Ecosystem (PDF), as a prelude to participants' exploring how they might improve the ways in which we support learning through the whole child. The very title of this forecast emphasizes the need for the ent
Reframing Resiliency: Let’s Make It an Outcome
The whole child movement, in my view, is weighed down by society's current inability to conceive of children as whole beings. Instead, we dissect them. Academic learning is distinguished from social-emotional learning, as if brain and heart operate in isolation. The brain itself gets divided into forebrain, hindbrain, mammalian brain, limbic system, and so on, furthering the mistaken assumption th
ED Pulse Poll Results: What Is the Best Way to Communicate with Parents About the Common Core?
ASCD continually seeks to provide solutions to the challenges that face educators of all levels. Recently the ASCD SmartBrief ED Pulse poll addressed methods of educating parents about the Common Core State Standards. A recent PDK/Gallup poll (PDF), the latest in its yearly education polls conducted with the American public, included several questions about the public's knowledge and attitude tow
Is Your School Doing Everything It Can to Support and Include Students with Emotional and Behavioral Challenges?
My son Samuel is a Red Sox and NASCAR fan, an avid bird watcher, an honor roll student and a gregarious 13-year-old who also experiences cerebral palsy. I began making my first film—a documentary called Including Samuel—for selfish reasons. I wanted to try and make the world a more welcoming place for kids with disabilities like Samuel. As I screened my documentary nationwide, however, I notice
Is Your School Doing Everything It Can to Support and Include Students with Emotional and Behavioral Challenges?
My son Samuel is a Red Sox and NASCAR fan, an avid bird watcher, an honor roll student and a gregarious 13-year old who also experiences cerebral palsy. I began making my first film, Including Samuel, for selfish reasons. I wanted to try and make the world a more welcoming place for kids with disabilities like Samuel. As I took Including Samuel documentary nationwide, however, I noticed a trend: a
Consciously Dial Down Reaction
Read the first, second, third, and fourth posts in this series. "Children should be taught to use their emotions and to be aware of them rather than control them." —Mary Helen Immordino-Yang Succeeding "despite the odds" or overcoming adversity has a lot more to do with resource capacity than luck. We may have little control over what happens in our students' lives outside
Improving Motivation and Achievement Through a Growth Mindset
What turns kids off to learning? Carol Dweck, Stanford researcher and author of the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, says how students think of themselves as learners creates mental environments that nurture or stifle effort when approaching different tasks. These psychological environments, or mindsets, are shaped by messages students receive from adults, peers, and themselves. Throu
Consciously Dial Down Reaction
Read the first, second, third, and fourth posts in this series. "Children should be taught to use their emotions and to be aware of them rather than control them." —Mary Helen Immordino-Yang Succeeding "despite the odds" or overcoming adversity has a lot more to do with resource capacity than luck. We may have little control over what happens in our students' lives outside
Observe to Stop “Beliefing”
Read the first, second, and third posts in this series. "The basis of all good human behavior is kindness." —Eleanor Roosevelt It's a curiously human trait to cling to beliefs based on assumptions and preconceived notions. What we tell ourselves about what's going on with a student's behavior matters greatly and sometimes gravely. Negative beliefs and attributions are known drama en