Ideas and thoughts collide at times creating incredible dissonance in the mind as it makes sense of the information in a more coherent and understandable way. It could take minutes, days, weeks, or even years for this to occur and it’s uncomfortable and necessary to grow personally and professionally. The outcomes, or insights that result from this mindful discomfort impact the direction schools and organizations move. There are many initiatives a school has on its radar at any given time and information regarding how schools are managing them is accessible 24/7 through the many social media tools educators, businesses, and consultants are using to communicate content to the world.  When peering down at the relationships between and within the initiatives like scheduling, project based learning, assessment, technology integration, professional development, parent education, curriculum design, and personnel, it becomes crystal clear that they are intricately related to one another. The goals identified to improve one without considering how it is related to the other can have a crippling effect on the system. That is where the mission of the organization has to be carefully examined. Do the goals for each initiative support the school’s mission? Is the mission even clear? Is it so wordy that one can’t extrapolate what it really means because it has to cover everything as not to leave something out that “might” matter?

As I make sense of things I am often left with questions to reflect on, talk with my colleagues about, and construct meaning from. This week there were many of these occasions and the content that has been streaming through Twitter and ISED indicates I am not alone in contemplating such issues. @GrantLicthman has been sharing his journey through over 60 schools where he’s examining how they are tackling innovation to meet the challenges facing today’s schools. There are broad themes that emanate from his travels, and right now, the ones that are colliding in my mind include pedagogy, scheduling, personnel, and technology.  Block scheduling means the examination of pedagogical practices. Can technology enhance course offerings through blended-learning and online offerings? How can that impact the schedule positively without diminishing the amazing relationships teachers have with their students? Clearly, additional research and reflection are needed and everyone needs to be part of that process because it is bound so deeply in the mission of the school and the pedagogy that has made it such a success. It is time to begin this journey, and I have never been more excited to work with my colleagues on making sense of this web of intricately related initiatives.