"Every day is a workshop." -- Will Richardson

Innovate 2013, hosted by Graded School in São Paulo, ended last Sunday, and now hundreds of freshly-charged innovators are heading back to their schools from as close as Sampa itself to as far away as Mumbai. Reactions to the conference were overwhelmingly positive and the sessions I attended were first class.

Many of the deeper learning blogs in this series have addressed what teachers can do within the classroom in order to guide their students into rigorous, meaningful, deep learning experiences. Teacher practice is a core area to focus on, but without naming and valuing the structural conditions which support teachers to develop these pedagogical skills, the promise of deeper learning can't be realized.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and he has spent a lot of time thinking about how to inspire both. He has some ideas about how we can inspire our students by helping them find their hidden strengths and passions.

For schools, what is our pearl of great price? Last week, I had the opportunity to learn at the feet of a great man, Jeffrey R. Holland. He was the president of BYU while I attended there, so I also feel some sort of connection. Actually, I was translating from English to Spanish for about a thousand people in the audience. And even though I was busy translating, a few things stuck in my mind during the process; I suppose you could call that learning.

Last month I reflected on team development and how we can work more effectively together in schools. It's impossible to explore these ideas without considering conflict -- an inevitable part of working together. Conflict can be challenging and destructive, or it can lead to deeper understandings between people and perhaps higher quality work from a team.

It is the New Year, and it is time to start making promises to yourself that you know you will not keep. In that spirit, I'm going to make some New Year's Anti-Resolutions that I look forward to failing at keeping.