Wayfinder Learning Lab – Stephen Taylor

Category: Educational Philosophy

  • The Buoyant Force: L2 Talk & FOEN Workshop

    The Buoyant Force: L2 Talk & FOEN Workshop

    This was a great challenge during the Learning2 Conference last week in Nanjing. It was my first time at the conference and I was looking for an experience that would push me and provide something to think about. I presented this short talk, and an extended session on Global Ignorance, Factfulness and Data-Informed Inquiry. You…

  • Clear is Kind.

    I love this post from Brené Brown, adapted from her book Dare to Lead: “Clear is Kind. Unclear is Unkind.” In leadership roles in spaces with many moving parts and challenges, I’ve learned that unnecessary ambiguity can lead to unnecessary conflict. As a coordinator we can often predict where some of these conflicts might arise.…

  • Middle Leadership: The Sponge

    A rough metaphor for leading from the middle, the Middle Leader Sponge often has to clean up spills and messes and absorb the stresses or worries of others so that they can go about their own job without passing on that stress. Sometimes an approach needs the soft side. At other times a little more…

  • Make It Easier To Do Better Things

    A simple mantra, but one I hold onto as a learning/tech coach, leaned on as PK-12 Director of Learning and will cling to next year as MYP Coordinator. It was the “key concept” of my #HackTheMYP IBAP Conference session in 2017 and over the two years since I’ve been thinking about it a lot. When…

  • Creating Cultures of Thinking: Summary Cards

    I love Creating Cultures of Thinking by Ron Ritchhart of Project Zero at HGSE so much, and refer to it so often, that I made these aide-mémoire cards and chapter summaries, and I carry them with me for planning, coaching and collaboration meetings. The front side has a visual and chapter line, and the reverse…

  • Making Learning Visible in Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences

    “Children grow into the intellectual life around them.”  (Vygotsky, quoted by Ron Ritchhart) I really enjoy parent-student-teacher conferences. (I’d rather do more of these and less report writing, but that’s a different post.) Even with a limited time-slot (my last couple of schools have been 10mins), we have an opportunity to strengthen a home-school connection,…

  • Wayfinders: Respecting The Journey

    After a decade acting in coordination/leadership/HOD/coaching-type roles, I think one of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned – and want to encourage in others – is to respect the journey. This generates more questions in my head than most topics, as it is so nebulous and complex, yet so important. Where I like to think…

  • The Buoyant Force of Continuum Learning

    If you’re new to this blog – welcome! Ideas on here often build on previous posts or conversations, so I hope this make sense. To find out more, please visit my about page, with posts by topic. ……….o0O0o………. As I work on curriculum development across the subjects, I reflect on how easy it is for…

  • Bold Moves for Schools

    This is a quick-and-dirty review of a book that ticks all the boxes for a curriculum nerd like me: Bold Moves for Schools, by Heidi Hayes Jacobs & Marie Alcock, from the ASCD (2017, 207 pages). It’s a practical and comprehensive, yet concise and quotable handbook of where to take curriculum, learning and leadership for modern learners.…

  • Live Fully Now

    A quick post on an Alan Watts quote that drew healthy discussion (and some tears) at a recent presentation.