One of the things that I always try to be mindful of is the words we use in education and what they mean. Buzzwords (or “buzz” terms) become that way because we often say them without clearly articulating what they mean. For example, in writing “The Innovator’s Mindset,” one of my goals was to clearly define “innovation” in the book and share the following:     “Innovation is a common term in many educational circles today and has been used a number of times in this book already. But what does it actually mean—especially in the terms of education? For the purpose of this book, I’m d ..read more

I am writing this post as a way to process my thoughts. It is more of a “writing to learn” blog post rather than a post to share my learning. Here goes!     Nikola Jokić is probably one of the five best basketball players in the world right now.  He won the MVP of the NBA twice in the last three years and led his team, the Denver Nuggets, to their first NBA Championship in 2023. He also doesn’t seem to love basketball. I can’t read into another person’s mind, but he doesn’t seem to love it. After winning the championship, he was asked about the championship parade to be held in ..read more

In 2016, I wrote a piece titled “4 Ways to Lead Up” and came back to revisit it today after I was asked by a frustrated teacher how to help move their administrator forward (or have him at least stop her from feeling held back!). This is an essential conversation, and I think that no matter your position in an organization and whoever reports to whom, you can move people forward no matter where they are on the “ORG” chart. There are many narratives in education that there is a “teaching” problem, but if that is in any way accurate, that is ultimately a leadership problem. Not that teaching isn ..read more

I had a good friend ask me about applying for a new job. I am writing this to sort my thoughts out to help. (I am also using my 2024 quotes post and taking a quote to expand on it! I encourage you to do something similar to get your creative juices flowing!)     When trying something new, it is easy to think, “What is the worst that could happen?” If you envision that, it could actually be quite horrible. In fact, it could be so terrifying that you talk yourself out of trying something new. The challenge of when doing something new is asking. “What is the best thing that could happen ..read more

Over the holiday break, our family purchased an electric piano, and as I write you this, I hear my daughter Kallea playing on it outside my office. Typically, when I write, I try to find as quiet of a place and time to do it, but I am glad to make the exception. Although this purchase was primarily made in mind for my oldest daughter to start taking piano lessons, I will admit that there was a selfishness in the purchase as the piano has always been my favorite instrument. I often talk about the need to build on the strengths of our children and students in school, but that should also encompa ..read more

I saw the image below from the Instagram account @ThirdEyeThoughts:     I am getting better at this as an adult, and although it is often true, it is also essential to consider that the quote above is not always valid. For example, if you do something wrong to someone else, and your apology is to the effect, “I am sorry that I made you feel that way,” that is more about shifting the problem onto someone else than taking accountability. I appreciate the “most of the time” in the above phrase. When I first saw the image, I thought about a speaker who had come to my school district in ..read more

I can’t believe that I have been doing this since the beginning of 2017, but here is this list of quotes that I have collected to help start off 2024 on an inspirational note. The first year I did this, I was more focused on just Googling quotes, compiling them in a list, and sharing them. As the years have progressed, many of the quotes below are ones that I have either read in books from the past year (I read way more now than I did in 2017; yay me!) or just resonated with me in the past year.  The one that stood out most to me from the past year is this short poem I share below from Ra ..read more

It is fascinating to me that while we live in a time of “virality” and a ten-second TikTok can seemingly be known to the world within a week, yet so much wisdom has been shared over the years that I didn’t know even existed. The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. In one of the books I was reading this year,  I was exposed to Kent M. Keith’s “Paradoxical Commandments” (first written in 1968) and was instantly inspired by the words. Here they are below:     Powerful. This is directly from Kent M. Keith’s site regarding the thinking behind these words:   &nb ..read more

Marathon training has been fantastic for me, as pushing my physical limits has also challenged my mental capacity. One week, I was thinking, “Wow! Do I feel fantastic, and I might be in the best shape I have been in my life!”  And immediately after that moment, I thought, “Enjoy it while it lasts because you know a crash will eventually come.” It came the next week with an almost injury, decreased time, and feeling incredibly out of shape. And when that came, do you know what I thought? I will be better soon. So when I am up, I know a down is coming; when I am down, I know the up shall re ..read more

In this month’s blog revisit, I am looking back at a post I wrote originally in 2017 on using social media and mobile devices in the classroom. To be transparent, I am struggling with what I wrote in that original post today, not because I disagree with anything I said then, but because I wonder how much has changed in our world since it was written. But I want to embody this quote (Often attributed to Einstein but is from an unknown source) and share my own thinking struggles with you openly:     There are a lot of concerns about how students use social media and phones, but are ad ..read more