Books I read in February 2023
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in February 2023…
- An Ethic of Excellence, Ron Berger (education)
- How Children Fail, John Holt (education)
- The Practice, Seth Godin (marketing)
- The Redemption of Maribeth-5, Chloe Garner (sci fi)
- Beware the Dog, Dominique Mondesir (sci fi)
- The Hunt, Faye Kellerman (thriller)
Hope you’re reading something fun too!
The International Schools Podcast
John Mikton and Dan Taylor were kind enough to invite me on the International Schools Podcast. John and Dan do a fantastic job of highlighting interesting things that are happening in the international schools space and they always have awesome guests on the podcast. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out!
I was incredibly honored to be on the show for Episode 89. We talked about deeper learning, technology integration, leadership, and lots of other fun stuff…
Happy listening!
![ChatGPT in education [WEBINAR]](https://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/EdTechTeacher-ChatGPT-webinar-1080x675.jpeg)
ChatGPT in education [WEBINAR]
I had the pleasure of being a panelist last night for the EdTechTeacher webinar on ChatGPT in education, which was moderated by Tom Driscoll. I was joined by Matt Miller of Ditch That Textbook and Jane Rosenzweig of Harvard College. The video is below or you can watch on YouTube.
Happy viewing!
LeaderTalk Episode 002: Kelly Tenkely
Anastasis Academy is an incredibly-inspiring microschool serving grades K through 8 in Centennial, Colorado (USA). In Episode 002 of LeaderTalk, Kelly Tenkely describes the powerful trust that she has in educators and students. She also shares how the school leans heavily into relationships and inquiry to drive powerful student learning.
During the podcast, Kelly mentions the Learning Genome Project, which is an attempt to truly personalize student learning. She is supporting multiple schools around the world through that work. Kelly also shares her thoughts on learning, teaching, and innovation at Dreams of Education.
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LeaderTalk is a podcast that elevates the voices of building-level leaders in inquiry- and project-based learning schools. The goal is to unpack their concrete, specific leadership behaviors and support structures that enable deeper learning experiences by their students and educators.
Episodes are available at leadertalk.org and on all major podcast platforms. Thanks for listening, and please let me know what suggestions you have for improvement. I want this to be useful to folks. Please also send me guest suggestions!
Redesigning for Deeper Learning Episode 002: Elementary School Writing
Episode 002 of the Redesigning for Deeper Learning podcast is now available. Lori and I redesigned an elementary school writing lesson that aims to help students learn about natural disasters.
Redesigning for Deeper Learning is a podcast in which we redesign lessons and units for deeper learning LIVE. Our goal is to model how we can start shifting our day-to-day instruction toward student agency, voice, and choice; critical thinking, problem solving, and depth of understanding; more real-world authentic work; and rich technology infusion. We believe that this might be the first podcast that actually redesigns lessons ON AIR.
After our first four episodes we are inviting teachers, coaches, and other instructional leaders to bring us lessons or units and redesign them with us on the show! If you are a classroom educator, coach, or curriculum designer, please use our guest sign-up form or contact one of the hosts if you are interested in joining us. We promise to treat you kindly and look forward to brainstorming some learning shifts with you!
Episodes are available at redesigningfordeeperlearning.org and on all major podcast platforms. Thanks for listening, and please let us know what suggestions you have for improvement. We want this to be useful to folks!
Changing your subscription to daily or weekly
No one wants to get multiple notifications a day from my blog. Not even me!
You can change your Dangerously Irrelevant subscription to Daily or Weekly. Here’s how:
- Scroll to the bottom of any email that you receive from ‘Dangerously Irrelevant | @mcleod’
- Click on the ‘manage subscriptions’ link
- Change to your desired settings as shown in the image below. I chose Daily.
Stay in touch as you have questions or concerns. Thanks for being a loyal reader!
NEW PODCAST: Redesigning for Deeper Learning
I am pleased to announce the launch of my second new podcast, Redesigning for Deeper Learning (R4DL), co-hosted with Lori McEwen and Julie Graber.
Redesigning for Deeper Learning is a podcast in which we redesign lessons and units for deeper learning LIVE. Our goal is to model how we can start shifting our day-to-day instruction toward student agency, voice, and choice; critical thinking, problem solving, and depth of understanding; more real-world authentic work; and rich technology infusion. We believe that this might be the first podcast that actually redesigns lessons ON AIR.
Episode 001 is now available. We redesigned a high school English Language Arts lesson on annotation. Episode 002 will drop soon. We focused on an elementary school writing lesson about natural disasters. Episodes 003 and 004 are on elementary math (place value) and middle school social studies (The Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution), respectively.
After these first four episodes, we are inviting teachers, coaches, and other school leaders to bring us lessons or units and redesign them with us on the show! If you are a classroom educator, coach, or curriculum designer, please use our guest sign-up form or contact one of the hosts if you are interested in joining us. We promise to treat you kindly and look forward to brainstorming some learning shifts with you!
Episodes are available at redesigningfordeeperlearning.org and on all major podcast platforms. Thanks for listening, and please let us know what suggestions you have for improvement. We want this to be useful to folks!
The best books I read in 2022
[I should have written this post a month ago but better late than never…]
I read some great (and not so great) books in 2022! Here are my top few (and why)…
My top book for 2022 was Changing the Subject: Twenty Years of Projects from High Tech High, by Jean Kluver and Jeff Robin.The book is an incredible gift to everyone who cares about deeper learning. Changing the Subject is a coffee table-style book that profiles 50 projects done by students and faculty over the past 20 years across the various schools in the High Tech High system. Each project in the book includes a description, learning outcomes, and vibrant photos of students at work and their learning artifacts. The book captures the enthusiasm of the students as well as the depth, breadth, and rigor of their inquiry- and project-based learning. Changing the Subject is incredibly inspiring because it shows us what young people are capable of if we unleash their creativity and scaffold and structure their learning toward critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and community contribution. I have shown the projects in this book to a large number of educators. Their inevitable reaction is “WOW, that’s amazing. Kids that age did that?!” This book is a must-own if you are trying to transform schools and facilitate deeper learning experiences by children and adolescents. (FYI, there’s also an online version)
The book that was a strong second for me last year was Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education by Alex Shevrin Venet. I learned a LOT. The book is both thought-provoking and practical as it describes the impacts of structural inequities, how educators respond to struggling children, and what we can do better. I highly recommend this book to anyone who cares about fixing educational systems so that they better serve the young people in their care.
On the fiction front, I picked up The Blacktongue Thief at a random bookstore in Lake Oswego, Oregon. I knew nothing about it, but it was a rollicking, quirky, thrilling read from start to finish. If you like fantasy books, you’ll love this one.
Hope you’re reading something fun too!
Books I read in January 2023
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in January 2023…
- Righteous Prey, John Sandford (thriller)
- Marple, Agatha Christie and others (mystery)
- The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake (fantasy)
- Silverthorn, Raymond Feist (fantasy)
- The Flight of the Kingfisher, Chloe Garner (sci fi)
- The Journey to Verona, Chloe Garner (sci fi)
- The Battle of Allion Fall, Chloe Garner (sci fi)
- Earth Song, Nick Cook (sci fi)
Hope you’re reading something fun too!
NEW PODCAST: LeaderTalk
I am pleased to announce the launch of a new podcast, LeaderTalk.
Some of you may remember all the way back to 2007, when my university center, CASTLE, launched LeaderTalk, which was the first-ever global group blog for school leaders by school leaders. The LeaderTalk blog featured daily contributions from school administrators around the world and was hosted for many years at the Tech & Learning website. When George Couros’ Connected Principals initiative launched in 2010 (also CASTLE-sponsored!), we decided to sunset the LeaderTalk blog.
I held on to the domain name and now am reviving LeaderTalk, this time as a podcast that features boots-on-the-ground leaders in innovative schools. I only am talking to principals at inquiry- and project-based deeper learning schools. The plan is to do a couple of episodes per month. I’m basically just expanding on the work that we did for my recent book, Leadership for Deeper Learning, but in podcast form. There are a number of podcasts that feature international- and high-level thinkers, authors, and consultants around deeper learning. The goal of this new podcast is a bit different. The revived LeaderTalk will elevate the voices of building-level leaders and unpack their concrete, specific leadership behaviors and support structures that enable deeper learning experiences by their students and educators. Hopefully the podcast’s focus on front-line leadership will be unique, practical, helpful, and inspiring!
Episode 001 with Chris Lehmann at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) is now available. More conversations to follow. I hope that you will subscribe and also give me some feedback about how to make the podcast better. Suggestions for future podcast guests are always welcome!
Happy listening!