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Very powerful read about how VTR and design thinking can empower learners as agents of change. HT @Deacs84

"There's been a lot of talk lately about resilience (bouncing back from adversity) and grit (persevering through challenges), including the skills associated with these processes and their importance for student well-being and academic success. Edutopia has created this curated list of resources to help educators and parents follow the discussion and create home and school environments that provide supports and opportunities to help students thrive."

"Cultivating a deep well of stimuli from which to cull insights and apply them to your work is one of the most effective methods I've encountered for setting yourself up to thrive in the create on demand world." Provides some pointers for developing a "daily study," or what I call my personal learning plan (the morning part)... http://itsaboutlearning.wordpress.com/plp/ [HT @tara_supersub - a former student who quickly became one of my teachers.]

I love the intentionality of study, apply, and share. I also like your map. What did you use it create it?

""Modern learning is about the ability to self-organize your education, to create meaning for things that have value in the world and not answer to this institution," Richardson said."

I hear you, but I don't know how to do that much less lead an effort to do that school-wide.

"We're always hearing about how education is so messed up -- so often, the conversation focuses on all the negatives. But there are also plenty of "EduWins," too -- awesome ideas, videos, people, programs, practices, products, Tweeters, teachers, and technologies that are making a difference and changing the lives of real students on a global scale. Indeed, as technology continues to quietly revolutionize learning, and models like project-based learning become more broadly accepted, and neuroscience deepens our understanding of how our miraculous brains actually work, it is no surprise that so much is changing in education. And -- as with any change -- there is the good and the bad. So we asked our intrepid team of bloggers to reflect on this year's biggest eduwins, and here are their thoughts."

"While the projects had wildly different end products, they both had a similar starting point: focusing on how to ease people's lives. And that is a central lesson at the school, which is pushing students to rethink the boundaries for many industries. At the heart of the school's courses is developing what David Kelley, one of the school's founders, calls an empathy muscle. Inside the school's cavernous space - which seems like a nod to the Silicon Valley garages of lore - the students are taught to forgo computer screens and spreadsheets and focus on people."

First of all, I'm typing this comment from my new iPad! Secondly, here is my favorite line: one emphasis is to get students to leave campus and observe how people deal w life's messy problems. Finally, I think we could write this article about MVPS I design lab.

"What Is Visible Thinking? Six key principles anchor Visible Thinking and characterize our approach in schools."

My favorite part: Good thinking is not just a matter of skill but also of disposition - open-mindedness, curiosity, attention to evidence, skepticism, imaginitiveness. Also love the paragraph on the effects.

"The Capulets and Montagues of early childhood have long battled over their vision for a perfect preschool education.  Should young children be immersed in a core curriculum replete with numbers and letters or in a playful context that stimulates creative discovery?  The 'preschool war' leaves educators torn and embattled politicians in deadlock.  Playful learning offers one way to reframe the debate by nesting a rich core curriculum within a playful pedagogy." HT @kellyBKelly2001

Important new pilot @altschool of differentiated learning? via @Kschwart http://t.co/S5nS0yLmAx @Design39Campus @boadams1 HT @grantlichtman

HT @TNSatlanta

"Learning to listen doesn't mean that we stop all other work. It doesn't mean that the principal ceases to lead from a collaboratively built, living vision; it doesn't mean that teachers stop offering challenging texts or allow their classrooms to become unruly. It would mean that we'd pay much more attention to how we communicate with each other, to how we listen to each other. Authentic dialogue could lead to stronger communities, to deeper understandings across difference, and to finding creative solutions to the problems that exist in our schools and country. That's my hope for 2014: that we learn how to slow down, listen, and effectively communicate with each other."

We need to remember this when we create parent questionnaires in August. This is a great read for Eileen and my Project Zero presentation too. Listen!!

"Our kids learn within a system of education devised for a world that increasingly does not exist." HT @MeghanCureton & Greg Todd Jones (two colleagues in significantly different worlds who sent me the link at exactly the same time.)

HT @eijunkie