Articles in Ted’s Talk

Thanksgiving is on my mind a lot, more as a practice than a holiday, although it is a pretty awesome holiday. I enjoy all of the observances that have come to be associated with Thanksgiving except Black Friday…

Author Daniel Pink, who has written some really compelling books about human growth and motivation, does a two-minute podcast called The Pink Cast, which he distributes free of charge. In one of these Pink Casts, Daniel Pink offered…

As we approach the start of the traditional school year, I have high hopes for a tremendous school year. These hopes are based on what I have seen here in Indianola the last five years: outstanding students, tremendously…

Secrets to Success   I take the title of this “Art of Learning” blog entry from a quote I shared on Facebook, not from any special insight. In fact, there are any number of ingredients for success, and…

Do All the Good You Can I am using the occasion of Spring Break to write my first blog in quite a while, and I am remembering a suggestion from Anita Westlake that came a couple of months…

Thankfulness—What’s the Point?   Those who know me will understand that I’m not posing a snarky, rhetorical question with this blog title. I definitely appreciate a little wit and sarcasm, but this is not a Mark Twain, “No…

Gradually, Then Suddenly   I was meeting with a student for a book study of Good to Great recently, and we were talking about what Jim Collins calls “the Flywheel Effect.” Collins does an effective job of explaining…

Don’t Let the Storms Get In   It feels a little surreal to be writing about storms as I look at the brown grass outside my window. Indianola has hardly had a drop of rain since the big…

From “Too” to “To”   This might be the first time a blog title has been comprised completely of prepositions and adverbs. (That opening is my English teacher past making an appearance.) The idea for this post came…

Community   This weekend my wife and I were vendors, or exhibitors, at the What Cheer Flea Market. Either one of those words, vendors or exhibitors, seems a little fancy to describe the 450 plus people who brought…

Connect   This morning I had the opportunity to go and speak to a cohort of ISU graduate students on a variety of education leadership topics. I enjoyed the opportunity to connect and answer questions, and I had…