Writing at the Cooperative Catalyst:Week in Review 11/01-11/07

I’m going to let the posts speak for themselves this week. Every single one is worth checking out! Please do take a moment to add to the conversation! Every voice helps to deepen and add to the complexity of conversation!

-Cooperative Catalyst

Decanting Superman

Earlier this week I watched Waiting for Superman in a mostly empty theater. While it would have been great if the movie took a broader view of the diverse efforts and theories of reformers past and present, I did not leave upset at Guggenheim or any of the reformers in the film. I was crying… [Read more…]

What’s The Purpose of Education?

Last night I was part of a webinar designed to explore the purposes of education, sponsored by Nipissing University and Carlo Ricci.  At the heart of the webinar were the questions:  what do you think the purpose of education is, and are your ideas expressed in the work you are doing, or the learning setting… [Read more…]

Transformation Plan: Designing Backwards

Yesterday I had a great conversation about what it takes to move a big box store into a more community orientated store. The article that was referenced gave a gradual/step by step approach to change that evolved the big box store instead of just tearing it down and building up the new model all at… [Read more…]

Fiction

During my Fall Break, I spent three to four hours a day writing.  Although I wrote two non-fiction blog posts, I worked on a young adult novel, wrote some satirical posts about superheroes and spent some time writing about a fictional teacher in the nineteenth century facing an insurmountable battle to provide pencils for students.… [Read more…]

TEDxSchools?

On October 10, 2010, TEDxDirigo, Maine’s first TEDx event successfully launched. I had the honor of being at the rudder of this ship, steering it from inception to the after-party. The event was successful in its aims: inspire leaders and change-makers with the brilliance and innovation of Mainers through the TED Talk format. I learned a tremendous… [Read more…]

There is no boss.

I got to participate in some beautiful and difficult conversations in and around Albemarle County’s 2010 Making Connections conference today (#acpsmc2010). Each conversation, in its own way, was about the disjunct between what we’re asked to do and what we’re asked to do. Mary Beth asked, “Who’s the boss?” I suspect that there is no… [Read more…]