What is Sacred in Education
|Originally posted on Dreams of Education on March 25, 2016| There’s nothing sacred about spelling tests as a way to learn spelling, flash cards to learn math facts, curriculum as a way to teach, testing as a way to collect data. There’s nothing sacred about most of what we do every day in education, and yet we hold tightly to these institutions as we make decisions about what school will look like. These constructs have been put into place to accomplish certain goals; namely
School is so much more than learning all the right thing
|Originally posted on Dreams of Education on October 26, 2015| The first question that I get asked when people find out that I’ve started a school: what makes Anastasis Academy different? And this is a tricky one to answer, because the truth is EVERYTHING makes us different. It’s hard to describe something that no one has seen before, so you begin to relate it with ideas and concepts that people are familiar with. The more I’ve talked about Anastasis, the more I’ve begun to r
Transforming Education Through Great Accidents
|Originally posted on Dreams of Education on October 6, 2015| In 2009, I left teaching. I didn’t do it because I was fed up with the system, or because I didn’t like my job. Quite the opposite. I really loved being a computer teacher. I loved the freedom of writing my own curriculum every day, and getting to know my students. I had a great time helping other teachers learn how to use technology, and coming up with ideas for how they could integrate it into their classrooms. I

Hanging a Question Mark on the Things We Take for Granted
|Originally posted on Dreams of Education on July 22, 2015| “In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and again to hang a question mark on the things you take for granted.” -Bertrand Russell This. This quote is one of my new very favorite quotes ever! This is where innovation lives. In the question marks. Too often in education, we talk about innovation as if it is something that we’ve created and something that can be owned. We talk about innovation in steps and processes and
Starting a School in the Age of Open and Freely Shared
|Originally Posted on Dreams of Education on November 18, 2013| So often in education we hear the excuse: it’s too expensive to implement. There just isn’t any money. Budgets are tight. That’s not an excuse I’m willing to accept. I know what is possible when you start with NO money. I know that lives are changed as a result of followed dreams and passion. I know that real success has nothing to do with a bank account. While money is helpful, it isn’t what is holding you back.
Operation Customized Learning: The Learning Genome Project
|Posted originally on Dreams of Education on February 19, 2011| “We have organized schools not by how kids learn, they have been organized by an easy way to teach.” -Daggett In September I mentioned a “hunch” I was having about education and learning. Since September I have fleshed out that hunch into a business model, prototype, and wireframe and am currently working with a team of programmers to make it a reality. Last night I presented this idea at the House of Genius an