Do You Have a Tribe?

Shift happens when change agents connect with like-minded individuals to create a movement. Even if you have yet to read or listen to Seth Godin's book "Tribes", the presentation that Seth recently gave at TED, may well inspire you to connect with, inspire, and lead your own tribe...

Go ahead, be a heretic!

What Else is Broken?

Seth Godin recently reposted "This is Broken", a talk from a few years ago, that has me wondering why we don't do more about fixing an education system that so many of us realize is broken...



What's broken in school?

Why do high schools begin classes before teens are awake?
Why do we rely on written tests for students to demonstrate their learning?
Why do students have to sit in such uncomfortable chairs?
Why do we prevent useful technologies like cell phones from entering the classroom?
Why do 5 year olds have to carry backpacks to school?
Why does chalk still exist in classrooms?
Why does so much 'learning' take place with students sitting down and listening?
Why do the best teachers often feel like they have to teach with their doors closed?


What broken things would you like to add to the list?
How can we being to fix some of these broken things?

The Classrooms of the Future are Already Here

I don't relish long car rides, but they are a fact of life in my current teaching position. As an educator working to assist school boards in leveraging a variety of e-learning tools, I often find myself in my car, many kilometers from home. With podcasts and audio books to keep my mind humming, I'm able to engage in conversations inside my head, with authors and independent broadcasters from around the world.

My most recent brain food, was Seth Godin's nutrient-packed "Tribes: We Need You to Lead" which fit perfectly in a recent two way trip to the extreme southwest part of Ontario. The book is very much an invitation to listeners to stop waiting and to start leading.

While anyone's tribe can be characterized as a group of like-minded people, getting these similarly motivated individuals to pull in a common direction, can be a challenging task.

Grab onto the rope...
The toughest test facing educators passionate for change, is to envision the schools we'd like our children to attend.

The classrooms of the future already exist! It's just that they're widely scattered and remain unknown to the majority.

In order to publicize what's happening through the daily efforts of highly engaged educators like you, I'm making plans to tell your stories. If you have ever thought "I should just start my own school", you probably have at least one story to contribute to our tribe's vision for the future of education.

While each of us has a limited sphere of influence, the sharing of our stories cannot help but lead others to envision what is possible. My hope is that classrooms like yours will become the norm, rather than the exception, but for that to happen, your story must be told.

Our tribe's first story, "Going Mobile!" tells the story of how cell phones have been leveraged for learning on an Australian field trip. I hope that your story will follow...

Photo Credit: Dan Maudsley