Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Innovation does not happen when you copy successful models.

“Seek to understand as much as you seek to be understood.” These are the wisest words I heard today.

“Art at its best can a add dimension to our perceptions.” -Stephen Jay Gould

Interpretation of observation/ information/ data is the most important aspect of any “data-driven” leader. No... evaluation of one’s interpretation of one’s observation/ information/ data is most important. #Leadership #school #education #DataDriven

“This does not seem to be working.” If #educators had the insight and resilience to make that observation.

Can we all *try* to use “less” and “fewer” properly? If you can count ‘em you have fewer. If you can’t you have less. “That aquarium has less water, so it can support fewer fish.” Thanks for listening to my rant.

Despite rhetoric, leaders don’t want critical, creative, insightful members of their organizations, especially If they work in education.

If your “research” does not seek to answer a question, then it isn’t research.

I’m starting a list of “things leaders did to make me start job searches.”

“You can just read a book” when declining my request to attend a conference to learn about an innovative new practice is on top of the list.

“But I’ll be dammed if nature can validate, or even address, such cultural hopes and preferences.” -Stephen Jay Gould

OK, so I remember events that I know happened during the year covered in the “50 years ago” column in Scientific American. How did that happen?

Design it the way they are going to use it. Of course, they are going to do with it what they want, but design away.

Hey students... don’t set goals you are not in 100% in control of it. Your goal “improve my grade in math” for example is controlled by your teacher. Sure you can affect it by studying, but the grade is determined by your teachers’ judgement (and bias).

If you have one solution (e. g. Chromebook, think-pair-share), you are solving a small portion of your problems and making many others worse.

“I’m a ‘big idea’ type of leader” is not something one need announce... we can tell by how you get distracted by new ideas. And, by the way, those of us whose ideas are rationale and reasonable and innovative are implementing our own.

Yeah... when I first heard “accountability” enter the #education jargon in the 1990’s, I knew we had taken a step in the wrong direction. It is one of the most distracting of the red herrings in the field.

Turning it off and on again fixes most technology things.

Even the greatest scientific achievements are rooted in their cultural contexts. - Gould and Eldredge

Just because we use it in a certain way does not mean the inventor intended that use.

Teaching about your subject isn’t really teaching... if we assume teaching should correlate with learning.