Learning Forward Blog
Giving thanks: Learning Forward Foundation awardees share their stories
By Heather Lageman |
In this season of gratitude, the Learning Forward Foundation would like to celebrate by sharing our thanks with you. We thank these Foundation awardees for making the lives of students and educators brighter with their gifts of passion, creativity, and empathy. This is just a few of the stories from our fearless lead learners. We…
Learning leaders share responsibility for all students
By Stephanie Hirsh |
What does it look like to create a compelling teacher leadership agenda at the school or district level? This is a question I’ve been hearing a lot lately, and I’m glad. It shows that school systems and schools are recognizing the importance of sharing responsibility for all students and leadership among all education professionals. Learning…
Celebrating principals and their powerful leadership practices
By Frederick Brown |
Having been an assistant principal and principal, I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t remember much about the principals I had in school. I literally had to look back at my class pictures and yearbooks just to remember their names. But one person I will never forget is the principal who recruited me 30 years ago…
The space to learn: Growing and learning together
By Heather Lageman |
Last month we pondered our professional learning legacies and the people and the stories that have shone a light on our journeys. The learning is about the journey, not the destination – the destination changes. This month we are exploring the Learning Forward Foundation’s reflective learning process, Touchpoint, a one-hour facilitated learning conversation between foundation members and awardees. Learning…
Crises demand never-fail support for educators
By Stephanie Hirsh |
Yesterday I was horrified to wake to the news of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. We mourn for the loss of so many lives. When I hear about this on top of the ongoing recovery efforts from the hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas, I think always about how we can best support…
Implementing learning teams? You have options
By Tracy Crow |
“Should we be rolling out our new learning teams with every teacher across the school or start with just one or two teams?” This question led to an interesting conversation at Learning Forward’s Summer Institutes in Denver, Colorado. The educator who asked had spent the previous two days studying Becoming a Learning Team (Learning Forward, 2017), a book we…
An advocate’s resume: What qualifies you to talk to members of Congress
By Melinda George |
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGiRTC5CDrE[/embedyt] In March 2017, the education community woke to a daunting professional learning crisis: The Trump Administration’s 2018 budget proposed elimination of the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants Program (Title II, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act). As educators face increasingly higher demands for student outcomes in a more diverse population, it’s…
Principals, here’s how to have hard conversations with younger teachers
By Jennifer Abrams |
Teachers, to get advice on having hard conversations with your veteran administrator, read this previous blog post. Principals often tell me their entire workday is filled with fires to extinguish, a few challenging parent interactions, and a load of hard conversations. Some feel those communications are routine and don’t find them too difficult: “I don’t have…
The real power of collaboration
By Keri Launius |
Galveston County Learning Leaders is a collaborative group of administrators in Galveston County, Texas, that includes Clear Creek ISD, Friendswood ISD, Galveston ISD, and Santa Fe ISD. The group’s primary goal is to learn from each other and work with Learning Forward consultants to enhance their learning to build the capacity of all leaders. This…
Honesty takes time, but it’s worth it
By Frederick Brown |
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRE64ZUAySM[/embedyt] An August 13 Washington Post column carried this headline: “Why principals lie to ineffective teachers: Honesty takes too long.” In it, the author discusses two recent studies that revealed principals’ struggles in telling ineffective teachers they need to improve. The studies, performed by researchers at Vanderbilt, Stanford, and Education Researcher, compared principals’ formal evaluations of…
