All Things Learning

  The Idea: A lot of Assistive Technology for students that was designed for specialized purposes is now becoming mainstream. This means it is easier to afford, acquire, integrate into existing systems and transfer to out-of-school contexts. This leads to longer-term gains and more empowered learners. For this reason, it is ideal for educators to first check if mainstream tech solutions meet their needs before choosing more specialized options. While working with teams to support inclusive education in schools over the last 7 years, we spent some time exploring assistive technology and accommodations to provide access to learners with specific needs like reading or writing difficulties. I had a major ‘aha’ moment along the way. Here it is in brief: The Challenge Many learners may need supports to learn optimally. For example let’s look at reading accommodations. The font in a textbook might be too light or small for a few students to read. So traditionally, we needed to find ways to en

The idea: An individual's learning experience is impacted by several environmental, physiological and socio-emotional factors. As educators, we must be aware of the impact that they can have on learning if we are to achieve 'Neurodiversity as the norm'.  I spent 5 years working at a special education school. That wonderful experience and community has dramatically impacted my outlook on learning and life. This 3 Part blog is me taking stock of the important principles I have learned (1) About Beliefs (2) About Learning (3) About Teaching. Maybe some of them will be useful to others too!  This is Part 2 - On Learning Here is the link to Part 1 - On Beliefs  Here is the link to Part 3 - On Teaching (coming soon) My experiences in Special Education brought to light some very important fundamentals about learning. We had few students but with very diverse learning profiles. I learned so much about things in the environment or brain that can impact learning. It is important for

  The idea: The massive progress we have made as a society in the 21st century encourages us to re-evaluate our existing paradigms and redefine what we believe is possible. I believe social and technological advances today have readied us to embrace ‘Neurodiversity as the norm’ and thereafter ‘Universal Design’ Approaches. I spent 5 years working at a special education school. That wonderful experience and community has dramatically impacted my outlook on learning and life. This 3 Part blog is me taking stock of the important principles I have learned (1) About Beliefs (2) About Learning (3) About Teaching. Maybe some of them will be useful to others too!  This is Part 1 - On Beliefs Here is the link to Part 2 - On Learning   Here is the link to Part 3 - On Teaching (coming soon)

The idea: Distributed Leadership is a powerful tool for building learning organizations that continuously learn and innovate. But central to distributed leadership is also a balance of top-down and ground-up approaches : Shared vision driven by leaders but influenced by individuals; Autonomy balanced with individual responsibility; Psychologically safe environment for collaboration balanced with honest, open dialogue; Experimentation and risk-taking balanced with individual/ team competence and discipline. In my previous blogs I introduced the synergy of Distributed Leadership  and a Culture for Distributed leadership . In this blog, I will expand on key supporting features and the simple but important balancing forces needed to make Distributed Leadership approaches thrive. While I was discovering the importance of these balancing forces through my work, I came across an article in Harvard Business Review - The hard truth about innovative cultures that put words to my experiences and

The idea: As leaders we should be looking to propel our teams members forward much more than we police them. Sometimes, leaders with this intention of 'propelling', send too many messages of 'policing' through the everyday actions they take. Now you might read the title and think this idea is so basic, obviously leaders must propel their teams forward instead of policing them. In my experience, many leaders say this, but they do not always live it. And the culture of an organization is built possibly more on what we do and less on what we claim to do or say. Let’s look at 3 examples of how our actions can send a policing message instead of a propelling one. First, the difference.  ‘Policing’ refers to an old school management style that uses monitoring and maybe some fear to have employees or teams adhere to rules. It is top-down and based on the fundamental belief that your team is not capable/ cannot be trusted to be responsible without supervision.  ‘Propelling’ is u

The idea: Here are 4 simple analogies to illustrate 'the dance of distributed leadership' or the synergy between learning organizations and its individual team members - Biryani, A River, A Forest and A Band. ‘Learning Organizations’ (coined by Peter Senge) and Distributed Leadership are ideas that have had a strong influence on me as I have learned more about leading schools and building cultures of innovation. Complex organizations like educational institutions are impacted by many moving parts and are set in a fast evolving world. In order for them to thrive, they must be Learning Organizations. Learning Organizations are built on a Shared Vision with a Distributed Leadership structure and strong systems for team learning. You can read more about this powerful idea in Peter Senge’s book ‘The Fifth Discipline’. While I am still deepening my own understanding about Learning Organizations, I will share a few simple analogies that I have used in the past to help my teams underst