By Dr. Joel Hazard This past summer, I arranged for my middle school son, Elijah, to serve as an assistant camp counselor at one of my school’s most popular day camps for elementary school children. This camp is highly coveted by high schoolers and even former students who return home for the summer. The hours are reasonable, the compensation is fair, and the responsibilities are straightforward. While most people took the camp job because it’s […]
Welcome to Wonderland: The Power of Holy Nonsense
By Kevin M. Taylor, PhD Yes, we have a pet rubber chicken! His name? JumbleRumbleKins! Reader of this article, my hope is that someday you may share in one of life’s most meaningful relationships. For to know JumbleRumbleKins (Jumble, for short) is to love him—and to love him is to belong to a family who shares in the utter hilarity of his squeaks and squawks. Ha! Seriously (or maybe not), to be present with young […]
Welcome Back to School!
By The BCSL Team As the 2024-2025 school year kicks off, we’re eager to continue the good work at Baylor’s Center for School Leadership (BCSL). There’s something special about the start of a new academic year—fresh faces, new challenges, and the opportunity to grow alongside our incredible community of educators. This summer, Dr. Jon Eckert, Co-Executive Director of the BCSL and Professor of Educational Leadership, has spoken at a number of convocations centered around the […]
The Middle Season: Thriving All the Way Through Change
By Anna Bryan This summer, we have reposted Anna Bryan’s articles on Adaptive Change as reminders that change is hard, important, messy, necessary, and can be managed. In this last post, The Middle Season: Thriving All the Way through Change she reminds us of the energy we have for change at the beginning of the school year, but how in November and December the momentum dissipates, or we can find ourselves lost in the mess. […]
Maximizing Commitment in a Season of Change
By Anna H. Bryan Over the summer, we have been reposting articles from Anna Bryan on her experiences with Adaptive Change in schools. This blog, “Maximizing Commitment in a Season of Change,” is particularly timely as we prepare for the return of teachers to our buildings for the start of the 2024-25 school year. The article is especially helpful in thinking about how to create genuine engagement for change rather than simply convincing skeptics to […]