By Emma Whitford, Forbes (from March 25, 2023)
Diego Marin used to work late into the night at the end of each trimester submitting grades and comments for his 70 eighth grade math students at a Chicago public school. No more. Now he has a virtual assistant, ChatGPT, that cuts the time he spends on report card comments to an hour, by rapidly putting his individualized comments on each student into smooth, clean prose.
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By Michael Nachbar, Global Online Academy (from March 21, 2023)
As the world continues to evolve and technology permeates every aspect of our lives, the field of education is no exception. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly important tool in teaching and learning, providing new opportunities for educators and students alike. But what does AI mean for students, educators, and the learning experience as a whole? In this blog post, I'll explore the ABCs of AI in education and how it's changing the way we think about teaching and learning.
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By Eric Shuman, Eric Knowles & Amit Goldenberg, Harvard Business Review
(from March 1, 2023)
In recent years, we've seen tremendous growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Many people have eagerly embraced these efforts, but some have criticized and resisted them, including Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, who recently announced plans to block state colleges from having DEI programs at all.
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By Hans Mundahl, Enrollment Management Association
At the start of our recent online anti-bias training for admission file readers, a question came into the chat. It was deceptively simple, yet remarkably complex. The attendee was curious about the words and acronyms we use to describe diversity work. Should we be saying diversity, equity, and inclusion? Should we add belonging? What about justice? Dr. Derrick Gay teaches us that even the word "diversity" can be a double-edged sword: often used to unite, sometimes used to divide.
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Center for Creative Leadership (from March 1, 2023)
When faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, we count on good leaders to take actions that pave a way forward for us all.  But better leaders know that success is about more than just their own personal competencies. Leadership is a social process, and to create shared direction, alignment, and commitment — the outcomes of leadership — they need a team of people who are able to function at their best.
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By Penelope Colston, The New York Times (from April 1, 2023)
On March 20, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its annual World Happiness Report, which rates well-being in countries around the world. For the sixth year in a row, Finland was ranked at the very top.
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By Peter Gow, One Schoolhouse (from December 7, 2022)
Hiring season" in many schools will commence just after the Holiday Season comes to an end. We offer here a dozen maxims on teacher hiring and care, derived from An Admirable Faculty: Recruiting, Hiring, Training, and Retaining Teachers in Independent Schools by Peter Gow.
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By Carla Silver, Leadership+Design
The hockey great Wayne Gretzky infamously reflected upon his uncanny and intuitive ability to imagine where the puck would go, even before it had been hit, and to skate in that direction. Most schools, except some very rare examples, tend to skate to where the puck has been going – over and over and over again – and this has mostly worked for a very long time. We call this "status quo bias." "Of course it is going to work," we think – it always has.
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By Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft (from February 7, 2023)
To empower people to unlock the joy of discovery, feel the wonder of creation and better harness the world's knowledge, today we're improving how the world benefits from the web by reinventing the tools billions of people use every day, the search engine and the browser.
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By Eray Eliaçık, DataConomy (from February 14, 2023)
The long-awaited debut of Google Bard AI finally happened. We previously shared with you that the tech giant is working on Google Apprentice Bard AI. Just days after the news, Google Code Red alarm seems to be paying off with a little name change. The Google Bard AI chatbot is the company's latest advancement in conversational artificial intelligence. This cutting-edge AI technology aims to revolutionize the information-gathering process and how we use search engines.
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By Eva Surovell, The Chronicle of Higher Education (from February 8, 2023)
ChatGPT has been around for less than three months, and professors are already sharing stories about students who have used the language-generating tool to cheat on exams or assignments. Many faculty members are debating what ChatGPT might mean for the future of teaching and academic integrity.
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By Tim Fish, Independent School Magazine (from Winter 2023)
It's safe to say that there's never been a more important time for schools to be visionary and strategic. The past three years have been unlike anything we have experienced in the past 100 years. The adaptive challenges we face are complex, and the pace of change unfolding around us is accelerating. Independent school students and their families have never needed our communities and teachers more than they do today. And to make progress on their behalf, schools need to have the courage and capability to shape their own future. They need a compelling vision and a real strategy. But an increasing number of school leaders feel the traditional strategic planning process they've been using will not serve them in the future—five-year, five-pillar plans with 20-plus objectives are holding them back from true progress.
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By EAB
Successful schools require one resource above all others: great teachers. But increasing demands, challenging working conditions, low pay, and lack of public appreciation have led to historically low levels of teacher morale in districts nationwide. The result? More teachers leaving mid-year, and those who remain feel unable to do their best work. EAB research found that current approaches to raising employee morale can be described with three archetypes, but only one consistently delivers results. Which best describes your district today?
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By Shawna Kay Williams-Pinnock, Edutopia (from February 7, 2023)
Mindfulness is about being present and engaged in the moment—paying attention to your thoughts and feelings in a nonreactive and nonjudgmental way. Certainly, it's not a cure-all for stress or burnout, but it can be quite effective when you consistently practice it. For example, for eight weeks, Kitty Ka Yee Tsang and her colleagues engaged teachers in varied mindfulness activities—body scanning, cognitive exercises, self-reflection, and mindful eating. At the end, participants reported higher levels of life satisfaction, positive emotion, and general health and lower levels of insomnia, stress, and negative emotion.
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By Fisher Phillips (from February 2, 2023)
Have you heard about ChatGPT? Your students definitely have, and they are probably already using it. ChatGPT is a new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI. This new technology has the potential to revolutionize education – both by providing opportunities and presenting you with new challenges to overcome. On the positive side, it can provide innovative ways for schools to personalize learning, improve student engagement, and streamline administrative tasks. And as AI becomes more accessible to schools of all sizes and budgets, it can be a viable option for just about any educational institution looking to improve their programs and services. From implementing AI-powered learning management systems to using chatbots that provide real-time feedback, the possibilities are endless. On the flipside, you may be concerned about students using this technology as a shortcut in violation of your policies and protocols. Thus, schools should consider addressing how they plan to deal with ChatGPT. Here are some key points you should think about before you decide whether to ban it – or embrace it – in the classroom.
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By Charlie Britton, Carney Sandoe & Associates (from January 12, 2023)
One rarely sees a head of school job posting without the desire for a "collaborative leader." Since joining Carney, Sandoe & Associates as a Senior Consultant, I've heard the familiar refrain repeatedly while visiting schools. Nearly everyone interviewed desires a leader with a collaborative mindset and a willingness to engage with faculty and staff, administrators, students, parents, trustees, and alumni.
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By Kevin Roose, The New York Times (from January 12, 2023)
Recently, I gave a talk to a group of K-12 teachers and public school administrators in New York. The topic was artificial intelligence, and how schools would need to adapt to prepare students for a future filled with all kinds of capable A.I. tools.
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By Stephanie Saul, The New York Times (from January 15, 2023)
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — In 1964, hoping to erase its image as a privileged cloister for white rich families, Wesleyan University contacted 400 Black high school students from around the country to persuade them to apply.
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Center for Creative Leadership
If recent years have shown us anything, it's that we cannot predict what's on the horizon. But as we look back on the past year and ahead to the next, it's a safe bet that change and uncertainty will continue to be major themes — along with the growing challenges of the hybrid workplace and the ongoing need for more equitable, diverse, and inclusive organizations.
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By Luyen Chou, LinkedIn (from January 9, 2023)
Like many other educators I've been spending a lot of time in recent weeks learning about and playing with new AI technologies like ChatGPT and DALL-E. As an edtech veteran and an early AI developer, I've also been asked by a lot of friends and colleagues for my thoughts about the implications of these technologies for teaching and learning.
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By Tim Elmore, Growing Leaders (from January 17, 2023)
One of the best decisions my parents made was during the summer of my eleventh year. I begged them to let me go to Bobby Leonard's Sports Camp, one state over, and three hours away. I pestered them long enough to convince them it was a good idea.
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By Kalley Huang, The New York Times (from January 16, 2023)
While grading essays for his world religions course last month, Antony Aumann, a professor of philosophy at Northern Michigan University, read what he said was easily "the best paper in the class." It explored the morality of burqa bans with clean paragraphs, fitting examples and rigorous arguments.
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By Margaret Anne Rowe, NAIS
"The pandemic era's unfathomable number of deaths, pervasive sense of fear, economic instability, and forced physical distancing from loved ones, friends, and communities have exacerbated the unprecedented stresses young people already faced," wrote U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy in December 2021 in a remarkable advisory on the youth mental health crisis in the United States. "It would be a tragedy if we beat back one public health crisis only to allow another to grow in its place."
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By Jeff Shields, NetAssets (from January 9, 2023)
Inflation: that vexing itch, that dull pain that doesn't seem to go away these days. In my last Projections column, I wrote about inflation and tuition setting, and I'm writing about inflation again in this issue because it's making an impact on so many aspects of business officers' work – not least of which is the budget's largest line item: faculty and staff compensation and benefits.
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By Joshua Dolezal, The Chronicle of Higher Education (from January 4, 2023)
Sarah Trocchio recalls a moment during her mid-tenure review when she could no longer ignore the contradiction between her research as a scholar of inequity and the ways that her contributions to the academy were being measured. After a dispiriting meeting about her research productivity, she took out a Post-it note and wrote "I am done."
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