Blogs on Teacher Leadership

Recently, a nationally recognized expert in classroom management visited the campuses of Envision Schools to help coach our teachers. Though he had plenty of advice about how we can make our learning environments more structured so student learning is accelerated, he was also effusive about the sense of respect he witnessed between students, between students and teachers, and between adults in the schools.

I'm in the middle of reading to my seventh-grade class the book Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli. Our overarching theme this year is Stories of Home, and this book seems a perfect fit.

I recently bought a Garmin nüvi 360, one of those global-positioning-system (GPS) devices for your car that plots the best route to your destination and then vocally guides you along. It's really an amazing device, and one of many that has the ability to get you where you want to go no matter where you start. Add Bluetooth capabilities to this device so that your phone is fully hands free, and you're really doing great.

Today, Envision Schools kicked off its fifth school year by opening a new school in Hayward, California, called Impact Academy. Our three other California schools -- City Arts and Tech and Metropolitan Arts and Tech, in San Francisco, and Oakland's Envision Academy -- started the school year, too.