The pandemic has disrupted a lot, right? A lot in the workplace, and a lot in schools. And, when things get stirred up, we notice status quo features of life, school, or work we had not seen before. They were always there, but once we see them in the light, we realize—that’s not a feature, that’s a…
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I have always appreciated the cool head and heart in a hot room. You know the person: something happens that others react emotionally to in fear and alarm, and the cool, calm, collected person brings confidence, peace, and hope to those around him or her. I appreciate the coolness, because that kind of calm creates…
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If we’re honest, the college application process over the last ten years has seemed to get worse for students without improving the outcomes. Higher stakes for tests, grades, and resumes to feed a more competitive application process (partially because students apply to twice as many colleges as they once did). Add to that a pandemic,…
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“I used to think…” “I used to think…” It is such a great way to be able to start a sentence, isn’t it? To start a sentence that way requires change and growth. It implies learning new things and letting go of perspectives. I used to think it meant admitting I was wrong, which, in…
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In his New York Times bestseller Love Does, Bob Goff proposes that “the language of love is laced with whimsy. It sometimes borders on the irrational. Like I’ve been saying, though, love is a do thing. It’s an energy that has to be dissipated.” “Whimsical” is not how most of us would think about love,…
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Making School for Kids, not Kids in Schools ’21st Century Skills’ is a buzz word in education right now. In fact, it has been for…a few decades. Yes, we are twenty years into the century, but it is a buzz, because educators feel painfully that the 20th century way we do education is disconnected from…
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Building a new school has two distinct elements. The first: defining the academic program, creating the policies, procedures, and administrative backbone to lead an effective, efficient school. Here Waterloo leans heavily on educational and institutional ‘best practices’—from governance policies, financial practices, and research-based pedagogies and programs. It is why we are using CESA standards and NBOA to ground our…
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At the end of January, we were thrilled to take part in the GCSLS conference in San Antonio, a conversation among educators worldwide about the future of schooling in a world that is changing more rapidly every day. The theme of the conference was one near and dear to our Waterloo hearts: education must meet…
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Question: How does a school that hasn’t opened yet let students shadow school and learn what it will be like? Answer: Waterloo Experience Days! Through the winter we are holding Experience Days where students can experience a half day of school (one class), not as an observer, but as a student. Core to Waterloo is…
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I learned to cook at a Young Life camp in Canada from a dear friend who is an artist by personality, outlook, and talent, and who ran the kitchen accordingly. It was never dull and the food was amazing. One of her hallmark questions to us volunteers in the course of feeding 500 was ‘Do…
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