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"When students tell me about some of the things that they deal with, even at such an early age, I think about how strong they are to show up to school every single day, and how privileged we are to be able to serve them.  Not only should we have high expectations for our students, but we need to also have high beliefs in what they can accomplish.  Innovation does not happen in schools if a child does not feel loved.  This can't be the job of some teachers; it has to be all.  I will take a teacher that loves and believes in their students over one that is extremely innovative yet lacks the aforementioned qualities."

"To be honest with you, professional learning in many cases needs an overhaul.  If the best thing that professional learning has to offer is lunch, we need to think different.  But how many educators are really excited about the types of professional learning opportunities that are offered in their school?  Like, "wake-up-in-the-morning-and-can't-wait-to-get-to-work" excited? What is promising though, is that many schools are moving away from the traditional types of professional learning that weren't working for staff, and trying some new ideas."

…there are two places that are making efforts to ban social media in the world; China and schools.

Gr8 blog post by George Couros

"Social Media for Administrators"

"I have been thinking a lot about the "traditional" model of school and how people actually learn. If done the wrong way, school can actually go against what is needed for learning.  There are a lot of schools and classrooms that are doing amazing jobs at really promoting there students become learners as opposed to learning stuff.   Here are some of the ways where school and learning can become divergent."

" "Why are we okay that management hasn't seen innovation in a 100 or 50 years, but we demand innovation in every other aspect of our lives?" Jamie Notter As we continue to look at teachers, students, and learning becoming more "innovative", it is important that leadership changes. As administrators often set the tone for their district or their building, if they are saying the same, it is not likely that things are going to change in the classroom. Leadership needs to not only "think" different, but they need to "act" different. For leaders to be effective in changing a school or an organization, they need to change themselves first. It is way too easy to go a leadership conference and get ideas of things that you are going to do with your staff. What is important is changing your own practice first. So along the lines of what is happening within "pockets" of classrooms around the world, leaders must embody the characteristics that they seek. As my good friend Jimmy Casas says, "what we model is what we get.""

"Rationale: The opportunities for learning in our world today are immense and we need to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us.  We not only have access to all of the information in our world today, but we have access to one another.  This has a major impact in our learning today. What I have started to notice is that you can see some major benefits of being connected in the classroom for the learning environment of our students. Access to one another can accelerate and amplify powerful learning opportunities."

"One of the hottest new education books is The Innovator's Mindset by my friend George Couros, a division principal of Teaching and Learning with Parkland School Division, located in Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada. He's also a highly-sought-after teaching, learning, and leadership consultant. I caught up with George recently to talk about his book"