Today I arrived in Indianapolis for the ISTE Leadership Forum 2012 Conference. After registering, I ran into my former Superintendent, David Britten, before heading to the keynote opening. It was great to see a familiar, friendly face.
The opening keynote speaker was Chris Lehman. Chris is the Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA, and he provided words of motivation and focus for the next two days. With sharing being a big component of the modern school, I thought I'd do just that with you... here are my notes:
Learning, Leading, and the Modern School --
* Change the way you talk:
"I teach math" vs. "I teach children math"
"Care for" means more then "Care about"
* Building systems and structures around what we believe:
Complexity is good; Seek out answers; Prepare children for the world, not the test
* Technology:
Technology should NEVER isolate us
Technology should allow us to optimize the time we spend together
* Talk and Learn:
Enable collaboration; Ideas are made better when shared
Unlock passion; School is real life
We need citizens more than workers ~ empower citizenship
* Dare our kids to do things that matter!
Build real stuff; School has to matter; Share things that matter
Never silence a students/childs voice
* Visioning ~ Developing the Ideas:
What do we believe? Does it mean anything? How can leaders publicly live their ideas?
* Sustaining:
A vision without a plan is a hallucination
* Core Values...
Inquiry; Research; Collaboration; Presentation; Reflection
* Servant Leadership!!
Top down support of bottom up ideas
* Leading:
How do we get everyone on the bus? Consensus vs. Majority
Start with what we do well - How does it happen? Why does it happen?
* Building Community:
People do care about your school
Share
BE ONE SCHOOL; DO NOT HAVE TWO SETS OF VALUES!
* Leverage the tools toward a human goal
