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Change Leadership

 What does data driven really mean?

 For me, it means focusing on the kids first and always. And SMART goals with "zones" gives us a way to do this. Listen to the podcast on our home page from the webinar "Engaging Students in Change" and you'll hear some of the best examples of goal monitoring and adjustment involving kids and their teachers that we've ever seen.
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Adventures of a Women-owned Business
Anne and I had the extraordinary opportunity of participating as one of 24 women-owned companies (selected out of over 100) to present to investors in NYC. Springboard Enterprises https://www.springboardenterprises.org/about is the organizing group, and through them we've discovered a wonderful community of support. These are women who are passionate about making positive change in the world, whether through advanced traffic management systems, connecting women to "best of" brands, or like us, transforming American public education.
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How do we live in this Kairos moment?

We're in a Kairos moment right now, a moment between what was before and is no more, and the unknown future. 

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of an undetermined period of time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos
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It's Not a Meeting; It's a Way of Being

“It’s Not a Meeting; It’s a Way of Being!” ~ Brian Butler, Solution Tree PLC Associate

You’ve heard the joke, what are a teacher’s 3 favorite things? The answer, of course, is June, July and August. There is probably some truth to the joke, but . . .  

 

 
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"Begin with the end in mind." (Stephen Covey)

Each of us has our own way of thinking about this simple, but profound statement. Perhaps we have more than one interpretation. Surely there are as yet undiscovered interpretations. That is the beauty of the statement and a very small example of the inimitable nature of Stephen Covey’s brilliance.
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The Importance of Celebration, Norms and Effective Meetings in PLCs

As a result of my research on PLCs, and the work I’ve done with leadership teams, I’ve come to the conclusion that we shouldn’t expend too much energy on the unenthusiastic or reluctant. Instead, we should continue to encourage them to participate and hope that they will find their seat on the bus.
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Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning and The SMART Goals Process

At last we have a clear set of standards that put the definitive stamp of reform on educator professional learning: the new international Standards for Professional Learning from Learning Forward. These standards fill an important “knowing and doing” gap in education.
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Why Power Up Your PLCs with the SMART Goal Process?

“After several months of research and dialogue with practitioners throughout the nation, it became apparent that the hype was real. PLCs . . . are being used by schools and districts of all sizes and demographics to make significant impacts on student achievement."

                   ~ Evaluating Professional Learning Communities: Final Report
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Road Trip to Hudson School District Part 2 - Reflections

As I continue to reflect on the visit to the Hudson School District, as described in Part I of this post, the ABC’s of Accountability, Building leadership capacity, and Collaboration come to mind.
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Ethics Training for Teachers? Really?

The recent “cheating scandal” in the Atlanta Public Schools has policy-makers, administrators and media pundits awhirl with causal theories and stop-gap measures to get control of the situation. Swift action was taken by Atlanta's interim superintendent, Erroll Davis, to produce a "preliminary action plan to -- among other things -- scrutinize all suspicious test scores, review the academic records of some students and implement new ethics training for teachers.”
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