An inspiring story and a challenge . . .

I follow Vicki Davis on her The Cool Cat Teacher Blog and was influenced by a the story she shared in a recent post and the challenge that has me thinking. How can I be a "reacher" like John Baker? I encourage you to read the story and to give some thought about what being a reacher would look and sound like for you.

I'm going to continue to reflect on this and make a decision about where I should focus my attention. I don't know if I have ever given 100% effort on a goal; what does it feel like? How do I respond to challenges like the budget issues we face, do I find the "other side of the hill" or am I buried by the immensity of the issue? Where should I focus my potential goal; with teachers, with principals, with students, with some combination. I'll share my thinking on a later post.

As promised, here are the books that emerged from my table cleaning on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't get as far as I wanted to and still have some prioritizing before sharing the articles that emerge from the deep piles on the table.

• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
• Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
• That School in Tucson - This is a short book that chronicles the influence over time of a curriculum that focused on Senge's work with systems thinking. I believe that there is a need for sharing this model with students and would be interested in seeing it embedded in our curriculum, particularly in an integrated program. If you have an interest please let me know.
• Learning and leading With Habits of Mind - Nancy, Emilie, and Kristin contributed a chapter for this book.
• Influencer - I will be rereading this book becasue we are using it in our teacher leadership classes and becasue I want to influence change in our school system.
• Tribes