arrange • compose • conduct
Easy questions have right answers. Hard questions have better answers, but not necessarily one right answer. In that context, educators need to make sure we aren’t making a false equivalency by always rewarding the quickest answers. Quick answers are great in multiplication problems, but for anything of lasting impact, the […]
The battles worth fighting can take a lifetime to complete. That means you’re going to be fighting the same battles the entire time, over and over again. Battles of advocacy, battles for emotional well-being, righteous battles, battles against complacency. None of these are easily solved in a month, a year, […]
I make a to do list every morning. It’s scrawled on a 3×5 card or the back of an envelope, and awaits crossing off as the day goes by. But would I be better off making a two-day to do list? Along with today’s to do, things I need to […]
There’s so much weight tied to the First Day of School. But the second day of school is just…a normal day. Actually, it’s the first normal day of the school year. I admit, I like the normal days a lot better. You aren’t as anxious for a normal day, you […]
Heading back to school? How many emotions will you admit to having? The first day of school is a jumble of emotions for everyone. For students, parents, teachers, school staff, and even pets! Apprehension, excitement, nervousness, dread, joy, love, disappointment, enthusiasm, and on and on. But we aren’t all excited […]
There are no hacks for the hard work. You can make easy work faster with a shortcut hack. You can make complex work less complex by streamlining it via a hack. None of those are the hard work of your job. The hard work is creative, or it’s interpersonal, or […]
How do you reconcile your knowledge of how long a project will take with others’ estimates? For me, it’s knowing you’re going to need one extra day – and secretly building it in. The more projects you work on, the more you are able to plan effectively, and a big […]
How do you define the First Day of School? It seems silly on the surface – the First Day of School is, you know, the first day of school. But listen: our first school day is next Monday. My first day with students, making music, will be today, when we […]
Temporary productivity paralysis is a normal part of the project process. There is a moment – usually about 80-90% of the way through the process, for me – when I feel completely incapable of finishing a project. It’s never easier to get distracted from my project than in that moment […]
I spent the morning singing backup for our brand-new Superintendent of Rockford Public Schools, Dr. Steve Matthews. Dr. Matthews is not a professional singer, but he’s a visionary leader and passionate believe in education. He wanted to introduce himself to 1,000+ staff in a powerful way, and enlisted Mandy and […]