Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Can we agree that "what you will learn" statements are really annoying and do nothing to help?

Some success comes despite the systems designed to promote it not because of them.

One thing I learned during 35 years working in schools: many teachers see a wide disconnect between teaching and learning in classrooms and the initiatives imposed by administrators. This is especially acute among those students recognize as the best teachers.

It seems being a data-driven leader means:
Leader: “The data says this.”
Other: Shows multiple data sources supporting the opposite.
Leader: “OK, but the data says this,” louder and slower.

“Look, this is simple….”
If you start with this phrase, you are wrong.

One reason I left k-12 education: I looked at the difference between my early retirement pension and my full retirement pension and realized I had no choice but to take the early retirement and get vested in another pension while I had time.

One of the primary qualifications for being a school leader seems to be the ability to look at reality and deny it.

Hey IT users… if you have been told to follow certain procedures, but you don’t, then it’s your fault it doesn’t work.

Do innovations come from Google/ Microsoft/ Apple and simulate behemoth companies?

Hey IT… if you fix it, but don’t tell anyone you haven’t really done your job.

Teachers who “focus on academics” ignore what makes this approach possible.

“This is going to be a paradigm shift” is not true (for education) if it still includes students, teachers, and curriculum in its current organization.

Yeah… natural selection is not a goal-oriented process. Things vary. Some variation benefits the organism in a time and place, some variation doesn’t. What’s left appears designed but it wasn’t.

Go ahead and build your organization with people who look and think like you do. The DEI crowd will pick up the pieces of your failures.

Schools are not like businesses: Business has a clear bottom line. Education does not (don’t confuse test scores with learning).

“We are a PC/ Mac/ Chromebook shop” is a sure sign your IT folks make decisions for their own needs, not users’ needs.

Writers, mathematicians, scientists, etc. see beauty and detail in the world that others do not.

Schools are not like businesses: If business doesn’t like what their suppliers provide, they have options. Schools have no choice but to teach the children who live in the area.

Maybe all of these technologies really could transform education, but we don’t let them.

I’ve been in education long enough to state with confidence that “the next big thing” isn’t.