A Lid to Learning

by | Sep 21, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

Earlier this week I had a chance to connect with a head of school I really respect in Shanghai.  We’re preparing for an upcoming presentation together at the EARCOS conference in Malaysia.  I asked him a few questions about his leadership philosophy and one thing that stood out to me was the statement that “a leader must constantly be learning and developing, otherwise they’ll stifle the learning of the others in the institution…or in other words, they’ll put a lid on learning” (paraphrase).  What do you think, is this true?  Does a learned leader become a greater catalyst for learning?  Or is it also true that a narrow minded leader can help spark a race for more knowledge?  What do you...

Do You Like Kids?

by | Sep 20, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

Have you ever wanted to ask this question of a teacher you’ve had, or maybe a teacher you work with?  It’s a very simple question, and should be obvious for anyone who works in education, but it seems in almost every school there is that person who you’re not quite sure whether they understand the simple principle that in order to work in a school you must like kids.  In my career I’ve seen a number of adults for whom you’d be forgiven for thinking they tolerate the children, but are more passionate about their content area.  Which, of course, is a funny concept, because how can you be passionate about middle school language arts, social studies, etc and dislike the most important component…the students.  It’s like being passionate about paintbrushes, but not painting, or passionate about the flute, but dislike hearing flute music. Yesterday, I had a chance to join a group of students for a class day trip to the beach (it’s a rough life, I know).  You learn a lot about teachers at a beach day.  Are they more concerned about their make up and hair, or what they look like in a swimsuit, more than they care about playing with their students?  I’m happy to say everyone was in the water, playing in the waves, goofing around, and showing the kids they can leave their books behind and let loose.  As a teacher and administrator, seeing everybody have fun is so good for the heart.  In fact in the future this might be a good recruitment test for prospective teachers, do they like kids enough...

Happy New Year

by | Sep 1, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

I’ve never been the kind of person to make new year’s resolution on January 1st.  I guess I’ve always figured “if I can’t do it today, what will make the first day of the year any different.”  It’s just recently that I realized I’ve been making resolutions all my life, they just start on September 1st…otherwise known as the beginning of the school year.  So now that it’s 9/1/2014 what are you resolving to do this...
Why Your Kid's Grades Won't Matter: Part One

Why Your Kid's Grades Won't Matter: Part One

by | Aug 12, 2014 | Blog

A few weeks back I received a grade for a class in which I was enrolled for my doctorate.  I received a B+ for 95%…that damn curve.  At first I was upset.  I thought “in what world is a 95% a B+” or “who curves grades anymore?, why is this happening to me?” or “why is the measurement of my learning affected by someone the grade of someone else?”  And then it occurred to me: Grades are Dead! Sure they might not look dead, but they’re gasping for their final breath of importance.  A hold over from a different time, like square school lunch pizza and overhead projectors, we will soon see the traditional A-F grading scale finally put out of its misery. I say good riddance.  There are few things in this world that make less sense than the traditional model of grading.  It’s really not surprising if you think about it, I mean how effective can any system be that is supposed to sum up weeks or months of learning into a symbol.  Do we do this in other places?  For example, later this month when the school year begins, the inevitable question will be asked “how was your summer?”  That’s a hard question to answer, the summer is three months, filled with some great days, a few ok afternoons, and an occasional grumpy morning.  Nowadays many of us seem to take a lot of photos with our phones, but I bet people would look at me kind of funny if I showed them a photo summarizing my summer. Now that you’ve viewed this picture do you feel like...

The Pain of Paying the Stupid Tax

by | Aug 8, 2014 | Blog

The Stupid Tax | tha st•oo•pi•d taks | noun Definition:  Money you end up paying because your inexperience, optimism, or naivety makes you really stupid. Have you ever paid the stupid tax before?  After living in a few foreign countries my wife Lisa and I have paid our fair share of the stupid tax around the world.  There was the time we booked tickets on two different airlines arriving and departing through Singapore with only a 30 minute layover only to learn on arrival that the airlines operated out of different airports…can you say “missed connection.”  Or the time we ended up paying for a 5 minute $50 cab ride in Kuala Lumpur (although it was in a Mercedes). My “favorite” stupid tax story happened when we lived in the Philippines.  After living in South Korea for a year without a car and only seeing a tiny bit of beautiful Jeju, the “honeymoon island” that we were living on, we made buying a car one of our first orders of business once we arrived in the Philippines.  When looking around at other foreigners it seemed that everybody owned horrifically beaten down and expensive used cars, and we figured it must just be common to own a crappy car.  One day when discussing where to get a car, a funny looking American with a broad-brimmed hat came over and introduced himself to us after over hearing our conversation (stupid tax red flag).  Sensing our lack of wisdom, the next day he stopped by with what looked like the van the Libyan terrorists used from the original Back to the Future,...