Adequacy, Equity & Equality in Education

Addressing these three terms in education can often be extremely difficult due to the many different components involved in developing and sustaining successful learning environments and institutions. Adequacy can be viewed in terms of "what resources are adequate to make [individual competency] a possibility for every child?" (Shilling & Tomal, 2013, p.4). Considering this definition of adequacy, it can be determined that each and every school has a right to be provided necessary resources which can promote and provide educational opportunities for every learner. The primary obstacle then becomes what is considered "adequate" for each school and what is considered adequate for learners in those schools? 

Administrative Blogging For Communication

Working towards administrative licensure in educational leadership has provided me the opportunity to reflect on how school leaders can use blogging as a communication tool for their school communities. I've had a fairly broad experience with blogging over the past few years in a variety of contexts and am looking forward to spending more time back on my own blog. Finding the time to blog can be challenging given the amount of roles and responsibilities educators need to maintain on a daily basis. One of the most important components of successful blogging is finding a consistent time frame in which to construct and share thinking and learning regularly.

Shifting The Pedagogical Focus

In a recent article published on The Guardian "In an age of robots, schools are teaching our children to be redundant" by George Monbiot, I was especially impacted by the statement, "At present we are stuck with the social engineering of an industrial workforce in a post-industrial era." The significant impact on me here is the accuracy with which this statement is characterized in our schools on a daily basis. As technology and innovation continues to grow at unprecedented rates, I am consistently experiencing students being taught through 19th century methods and structures. Students continue to sit in rows, working on paper worksheets (or digital worksheets), all completing the exact same assignments, and turning them in for a teacher to grade/give feedback to prepare for testing of rote memorization and recall skills.

Fatherhood!

On February 29, 2016 I became a father for the first time.  It is such an amazing experience that it can be hard to find the right words to describe such a life-changing event.  I've had people ask me many questions about the experience, my new daughter, and how it has changed my life.  Every time someone asks me about it, I seem to find myself in the same position...struggling to find the words and wondering to myself exactly how it has or will change my life.  These are precisely the reasons I've chosen to write about it here.

Supporting Teachers with Creating Magic

Education has faced recent criticisms from all angles and stakeholders and for good reason. Students in many schools speak of boredom, disengagement, and lack of learning.  Parents have also chimed in expressing dissatisfaction about student preparedness for college and the 21st century workplace.  Why is the typical education for most students, and specifically those in public education, not meeting the needs? Why do schools continue to operate in a traditional sense regardless of changes to the world and its societies?