Inspire Lifelong Learners: Modeling the Novice Mindset

By Sierra Downs The First Year “Genghis Khan was a pretty good guy, actually.”  This concluding remark to a student essay written during my first year of teaching has haunted me for years.  I had just begun teaching history at the middle school level and had high expectations for my classroom–I wanted to encourage my students to ask big questions, consider lofty ideas, and allow the subject to shape the way that they saw themselves […]

The Middle Season: Thriving All the Way Through Change

By Anna Surratt The Middle Season In my last post, I offered encouragement to school leaders endeavoring on change initiatives at the beginning of the school year. While I hope that the encouragement from that post inspired a strong start to the school year, I know very personally that we are in a much different season as we head into the second semester of school. In this Harvard Business Review article, Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls […]