This week, I read my friend Meghan Lawson’s blog, “A Note About First Days.” Her reflection on the importance of intentionally designing a meaningful first day and her mention of The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath reminded me of how much that book has influenced the way I think about learning, …
This week, I struggled to write. I tried to find inspiration in the usual places. A book. A podcast. An experience. A moment from the week that would spark something. Usually, that works like a charm. I listen to a podcast, read a few pages from a book, think about something that happened in a …
Continue reading I See That You’re Trying: What Writer’s Block Reminded Me About Learning
A couple of weeks ago, I rushed into a local retail store because I needed an outfit for an event that evening. I glanced at my watch as I walked through the door. It was 6:30 p.m. The store closed at 7:00 p.m. Plenty of time, I thought. Within ten minutes, I had found an …
Last week, I wrote a retirement speech for a special person. When I sat down to write it, it wasn’t hard. The words flowed straight from my heart and onto the page. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that when you are writing about people who have made you better, people …
This is my 20th year in education, and before I stepped into my first leadership role, I kept returning to a question that I share in my book The Leader Inside: "Lauren, what type of leader do you want to be?" My answer was simple: "The type of leader I always needed." When I think …
Continue reading Turning Classroom Observation into Dynamic Hubs Where Learning Comes Alive
My husband has been coaching our boys in sports for years. He loves baseball. He loved it as a child, played Little League and throughout high school. Like many kids growing up in New York, he idolized Don Mattingly and spent countless hours watching the Yankees. But perhaps what shaped him most wasn’t what happened …
For much of my time as a student, learning often felt like the consumption of information. Read the chapter. Listen to the lesson. Take notes. Study for the test. Repeat. Can you relate? To be clear, knowledge matters. Learners need background knowledge. They need vocabulary. They need the foundational literacy skills of reading, writing, speaking, …
Have you ever felt like your days are moving from one item to the next? Meeting to meeting. Task to task. Conversation to conversation. I am going to assume that no matter what field you are in, this happens. There are times when I feel fully present, savoring the moments and appreciating what is unfolding …
As the end of my 20th year in education approaches quickly, I have been reflecting on how extremely grateful I am for all of the moments and people who have contributed to my path and what has led me to this time. When I reflect on the journey, I don’t only think about the big …
“The right conversation, at the right moment, can change everything.” — Charles Duhigg, Supercommunicators Recently, I started reading Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg. It’s been sitting in my “to be read” pile for a few months. In some cases, I consider myself a “slow reader.” What I mean by that is I can read several books …
Empower. Collaborate. Connect. 