Month: April 2014

What Students Really Need to Hear

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Chase Mielke

It’s 4 a.m.  I’ve struggled for the last hour to go to sleep.  But, I can’t.  Yet again, I am tossing and turning, unable to shut down my brain.  Why?  Because I am stressed about my students.  Really stressed.  I’m so stressed that I can only think to write down what I really want to say — the real truth I’ve been needing to say — and vow to myself that I will let my students hear what I really think tomorrow.

This is what students really need to hear:

First, you need to know right now that I care about you. In fact, I care about you more than you may care about yourself.  And I care not just about your grades or your test scores, but about you as a person. And, because I care, I need to be honest with you. Do I have permission to be…

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The Power of ‘Third Places’

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DCulberhouse

Creativity is unleashed not only through the mindset we engage…but the environments we create.

Creativity is not always an individual sport. It is often the result of collaborative clashes and conversational hit-and-runs. Our ongoing flow of ideas and creativity is often as much an accidental occurrence as it is from our focused efforts. Consider how many chance encounters and run-ins which have led to powerful conversations that spurred new ideas, new ways of thinking, and new ways of seeing and doing.

But for this to happen, we have to create and design an environment where these creative clashes and conversational hit-and-runs can occur. Settings that author Ray Oldenburg refer to as our ‘Third Places’.

In his work Imagine, Jonah Lehrer describes Oldenburg’s vision of these ‘third places’ as…”any interactive environment that is neither the home (first place) nor the office (the second place).” “The virtue of these…

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21 Lessons From My Mentors

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Fearless Teacher

leader Lessons From My Mentors

I didn’t grow up with a plethora of mentors. I grew up the only child of a single parent; I struggled in school and received the message early on that I was limited in what I might end up doing.   I am a first generation college graduate. I’m the first one in my family to have even attended college.  For whatever reason, I stumbled  upon Zig Ziglar in my early days and he became my  own little life coach. So I’ve always had the belief that with the right leadership, guidance, hard work and personal commitment, anyone can achieve success. I’ve held on to that as a person and as a teacher, and I’ve always tried to learn from those around me.

Like many of you, I have had the privilege of learning from some amazing administrators over the past 15 years. They’ve taught me (and…

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