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Connect With Others, Your Environments, Your Learning, and the World. As humans, we can form connections with the people we know and interact with, the animals and environments around us, what we learn in our lives, and the whole of humanity. When we do, our lives are more meaningful and fulfilling because we’re making others’ […]
What happens when leaders ask educators to connect with students? Turns out, it’s a lot like asking students to do work they haven’t learned––to expect deeper connections without new learning is futile. I honestly don’t believe that educators are withholding a capacity to build deeper connections. I believe that we are all doing our best […]
As we all face the challenge of a global pandemic––as we separate from others but still look to connect, and as we feel its effects on our own lives and others’––perhaps we could all take a moment to pause, to consider who we are and who we want to become, as individuals, communities, and humanity […]
This post is part of a continuing series by Ellen Perconti, superintendent of Goldendale School District in Washington State. Students’ success stems from system capability. Over the years, our education system has been built for low engagement, one-right-answer questions, a focus on completion, and compliance. These are the system values that breed “success” on […]
My one hope for schools is contributive learning––that students will all develop self-understanding, knowledge, competency, and lasting connections and, in so doing, add to the world. I’ve been on its trail throughout my career, and I’ve never met anyone opposed to its outcomes. We all want our kids to feel meaning and fulfillment. But I […]
Speaking with an early-ed teacher in Hawaii, he shared what his keiki (children) would carry on from his school, no matter what schools they moved on to from there. “We set them up to be leaders at their new school,” he said. “They make it a better place.” I wonder, what could be better than […]
This is the third post in a continuing series by Ellen Perconti, Superintendent of Goldendale School District in Washington State. What is success? Over the last few months I’ve realized that this question is much more complex than it first appears. In education, we have children’s lives in our hands. As a system, how we define […]
This post by The Learner First’s Joanne McEachen and Matthew Kane was originally published by Getting Smart. Educational equity bears tremendous importance in traditional systems of learning. Everywhere, we dedicate significant time and resources, and in some cases even professional roles, to creating an equitable academic experience. Ideology cries out, “School should be fair!” […]
I recently came across an article from STAT that discusses the moral injury experienced by physicians – injury commonly misclassified as “burnout.” It argues that burnout is a wrongful diagnosis that speaks to a lack of resilience or resourcefulness, while in reality there’s a far deeper source of their struggles: the health system’s failure to […]