Author Archives: boadams1

About boadams1

Learner. Husband. Dad. Chief Learning and Innovation Officer at The Mount Vernon School in Atlanta, GA. Have worked in transformation design, educational innovation, and school leadership for 20+ years.

Making Time

Posted on January 10, 2015 by boadams1

How do you plan for your strategic use of time? In a culture that seems to take some kind of pride in talking about how busy we all are, it seems even more important that we purposefully plan for our … Continue reading →

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PROCESS POST: Curiosity is the tap root of innovation and deep learning.

Posted on June 6, 2014 by boadams1

So you never know where curiosity-based research will lead…. Robert Full: The secrets of nature’s grossest creatures channeled into robots. Observe. Question. Experiment. Associate. Network. (from Innovator’s DNA) Is your school interested, even peripherally, in nurturing innovators? If so, then have you studied … Continue reading →

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Could there actually be one “C” to rule them all?!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by boadams1

Some describe four “Cs” of essential skills for this 21st century – traits such as: Critical thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity. Some list five or six “Cs.” Five: Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Character. Six: the list above plus cultural competency. Other people and organizations talk about seven “Cs.” Here is one version of seven … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Bringing Innovation to School @SuzieBoss @SolutionTree

Posted on November 29, 2012 by boadams1

There has been an explosion of interest in and writing about innovation. By no means have I read all of the latest works on innovation, but I have read quite a bit – books and articles by Tony Wagner, Clayton … Continue reading →

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Making reality a school. #IDreamASchool

Posted on September 28, 2012 by boadams1

If school is meant to prepare students for real life, then why doesn’t school look more like real life? This is the primary question that has kept me research-busy for the past seven to ten years, at varying degrees. Of … Continue reading →

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CHANGEd: What if we teachers had to enroll in our own classes…and at least one more? 60-60-60 #59

Posted on September 14, 2012 by boadams1

I’ve written before about teachers and students swapping roles, and so has my amazing 60-60-60 mirror, @mmhoward. But what if we teachers simply had to enroll in our own classes? Would we ourselves enjoy the structure we employ, the instructional practice, the … Continue reading →

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Dreaming #PBL: Whatever It Is I Think I See Becomes a PBL to Me!

Posted on September 3, 2012 by boadams1

Whatever it is I think I see becomes a PBL to me! [sung to the tune of 1977 Tootsie Roll commercial embedded below] If you were alive and watching TV in the mid to late 1970s, then perhaps you remember this … Continue reading →

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A piece of “what”: questions are wind in the sails on open seas, not speed bumps on “coverage road”

Posted on August 16, 2012 by boadams1

Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom. – Grant Lichtman, The Falconer The difference between grappling and other forms of learning is that when the questions become the students’ own, so do the answers. – Sizer and Sizer, The Students Are … Continue reading →

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