Most of our work is done with schools, school districts, intermediate service districts and state entities; however, we also have a number of conferences that we present at, as well. Here is a list of our upcoming conference presentations:
*October:
McGraw-Hill Intervention Summit, Chicago: October 4-5;
Illinois Principals Conference, Peoria;
*November:
National Quality in Education Conference, Rosemont (Chicago):
November 7-9;
*December:
Illinois State ACT Conference, Springfield, IL:
Dec.;
Illinois State ACT Conference, Naperville, IL: Dec.;
Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education, Lansing, MI: December 7;
Education Innovation - A terrific link that will help refine the work professional learning teams.
George Lucas Education Foudnation - GLEF offers a variety of resources, but has devoted a considerable amount of attention to Social Emotional Learning.
In some of our recently consultancy meetings, we have been asked to help PLT leaders deal with conflict that can arise while facilitating PLT meetings. Conflict can exist in these meetings for a lot of reasons. Sometimes its because some of the members are bristling at change, other times it can be personal, a member doesn’t want to be led by the leader. This morning, I found a link that I once found that presents a “mind frame” for leading when one doesn’t have formal authority. I’m going to post it now and try to come back to it later. Our model definitely addresses what the author is suggesting.
This may be one of the most important posts I’ve written on any of my blogs in a very long time. Howard and I have spent a great deal of time in our presentations preaching about the need for educators to adopt a problem-solving mentality. A scientific approach to scanning for problems, digging into them for root causes and then creating solutions with feedback loops for improvement. Our audiences seem very interested in this line of thinking.
Realizing that I might need some places to refer people for additional professional development, I did a Google Search. Quickly, I was overwhelmed. Then, by accident, I was reading an RSS feed from 800-CEO-READ and found a reference to Problem-Solving 101 by Ken Watanabe. I quickly ordered the book and began reading it upon arrival. It’s a must read! It is a great resource for training teams how to do problem-solving. Normally, I buy this sort of material from Harvard Business Press and then have to spend hours wrapping my brain around how I can translate it into educationese. This will not be necessary with the Problem-Solving 101. The content is quickly adaptable for teams and very straightforward. You will not overwhelm your team leaders with an overabundance of details.
Now, don’t miss his website. It’s awesome. He has a number of videos that you might want to preview before buying the book or use as teaching aides.
As we continue to refine the Empowered High Schools Model, we regularly reflect on the importance of leadership as a determinant of the model’s success. Throughout the model, there are demands for different types of leadership for different places in the process.
This morning, while reading about Moleskine notebooks, I came across this great interview with the CEO of Delta. As you’ll see, the reporter did a great job of eliciting some excellent answers.
If you’re a fan of leadership, I’m not sure that you’ll find anything earth shattering, but it may help solidify your leadership perspective. Besides, Richard Anderson’s life story is pretty compelling and worth reading about.
If you come across other great interviews of leaders, let us know. We would like to start putting them together to support the shared learning of the fans of the Empowered High Schools Model.
