Klingbrief

A carefully-curated collection of reader-submitted books, articles, and resources for educators.

In 2009, the Klingenstein Center launched Klingbrief, a free monthly e-newsletter containing readings of particular relevance to independent and international school educators.

Current Issue: Vol. 123 - February 2024

Book

Of Note: Go Outside to Get Better Inside

The Drivers Transforming Learning for Students, Schools, and Systems by Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn
Corwin; 1st edition, October 30, 2023

Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn argue that “we must change the way we change!” The authors propose a model comprising four Drivers, representing the forces propelling educational systems into the future while addressing current challenges. These Drivers are Well-Being and Learning, Social and Machine Intelligence, Equity-Equality Investments, and Systemness. Their cohesive interplay forms an integrated approach described as "Deep Learning.” Readers will explore each Driver through vignettes that provide real-world examples from public and private schools in Canada, the USA, and Australia. These case studies illuminate how institutions successfully implemented the new initiative, with a particularly captivating vignette detailing Uruguay's ability to transform its entire education model using the Deep Learning approach. For independent school educators, the fourth driver (Systemness) introduces exciting possibilities for collaboration instead of competition. The vignette featuring the Australian Association of Independent Schools of New South Wales (AISNSW) exemplifies how “Systemness” fosters cooperative efforts, challenging traditional top-down approaches and criticizing the limitations of standards-based accountability (SBA, Fuller & Kim, 2022). The book opens new dialogues for private school teachers, emphasizing achieving deeper purposes through the "Go Outside to Get Better Inside" philosophy – a mantra that positions external catalysts as pivotal for success.

Read More
Submitted by
Tural Abbasov, The Modern Educational Complex named in honour of Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan
Leadership Practice
Book

More Whole

By affirming the unique threads that make us who we are, Woven Together confronts the notion that there is any singular mold of a teacher, classroom, student, or model for success. Our experiences, identities, memories, mindsets, and more shape our ways of navigating our work, personally and professionally. Dr. Courtney Rose cautions us not to dismiss or silence the many aspects of who we are; by doing so, she suggests, we contribute to systems and schools that dismiss or silence aspects of who our students are. Instead, she encourages us to show up more whole and humanized, allowing us to support more whole and humanized kids and communities. But this work isn’t easy, and schools and systems are not always designed to affirm and value difference. This book provides us with compelling reflection prompts and frameworks along with the encouragement needed to navigate our work with a renewed sense of self and purpose. Rose structures this book as she might structure her graduate school classes, weaving history, data, thought leadership, personal narrative, and frameworks into each chapter. Beginning with a “journey into self” in Chapter 1, Rose encourages us to consider our own foundation before journeying through other chapters, which offer explorations of various aspects of our experiences as educators. While many of the narrative examples come from public schools, any educator can benefit from the critical reflective exercises that this book offers.

Read More
Submitted by
Deepjyot Sidhu, Global Online Academy, Raleigh, NC
Leadership Practice
Teaching Practice
Book

Past the Critical Hundred Days

Joey Coleman’s new book illuminates a step-by-step path to transform any school’s approach to employee retention. Coleman describes the eight phases of the employee experience, from being a prospective employee to becoming an enthusiastic promoter of the company. He encourages curating memorable and meaningful experiences at each phase so employees feel cared for and appreciated, leading to better productivity and retention. Each section of the book offers a comprehensive overview of each phase, including recommendations, examples, communication suggestions, quick takeaways, and thought-provoking prompts to help the reader apply the ideas to their company. School leaders will be inspired by some of the creative and innovative ideas to intentionally create faculty and staff experiences, from job posting to onboarding to far past the critical first one hundred days. Coleman’s example of the Trek Culture Book is just one that may be intriguing to school leaders. The Culture Book is given to newly hired Trek employees to help them learn about the bicycle company’s history, their new colleagues, and the “Trekisms” used inside the company. Trek’s book may provide ideas for how to smoothly onboard new hires at culturally rich independent schools – one of many potentially captivating, analogous ideas in Coleman’s book.

Read More
Submitted by
Melissa Vazquez Aguilar, Far Brook School, Short Hills, NJ
Leadership Practice
Article

Beyond an Initial Viewpoint

A Matter of Perspective by Jessica Minahan
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ascd) Vol. 81 No.3, November 1, 2023

In A Matter of Perspective, Jessica Minahan emphasizes the importance of taking time to explicitly help students develop the ability to consider multiple perspectives, especially when acknowledging, reflecting on, and repairing behavioral incidents. She makes the case for identifying gaps in students’ perspective-taking skills, just as we do with academic skills. This posture has become more critical over the last several years, as schools are faced with increased mental health and behavioral challenges in students. While social emotional skills are naturally integrated into Lower School learning, direct instruction in social skills often decreases once students enter secondary school. Minahan argues that teachers in academic subjects can reinforce perspective-taking, thereby increasing empathy and the capacity for engaging in civil discourse. She cites a body of research that identifies the individual factors that impact one’s ability to consider situations beyond an initial viewpoint. Post-pandemic, both students and teachers alike can benefit from slowing down to really consider one another’s perspective – a dynamic digital interactions can obscure. Additionally, Minahan’s suggested approach helps confront bias when managing behavioral challenges within the school setting. Our job as educators is to help shape the next generation – their perspective matters.

Read More
Submitted by
Miranda Orbach, The Chapin School, New York, NY
Social-Emotional Learning
Teaching Practice
Book

Any High School, USA

Accountable, by Dashka Slater, explores how the racist postings of a high school student on social media indelibly altered the individual lives of a group of young people and divided the greater community of a small town in the Bay Area. This carefully researched narrative presents the racist memes and tropes first posted on a private Instagram account by Charles, whose targets include his classmates and friends. Before Charles and his account are exposed to school administration and authorities, a number of students view and interact with the account. The book provides moments where the students involved express what they were thinking, much of which resides in the “I don’t know why I did it” or “what I was thinking” category of explanation. Their passiveness underlines an ugly complicity and a tendency to pass off hate as humor, a dangerously pervasive undercurrent of social media. The complex intersectionality of race and ethnicity in the liberal and relatively diverse Bay Area town of Albany adds additional context to this story. Slater was, remarkably, able to directly connect with many of the students, parents, school officials, and teachers involved. A few years out, Slater writes, “It wasn't easy, it didn’t happen in a straight line, but in the end each of them found a path through it.” This important nonfiction account does not have a storybook ending, which is one reason why it’s a must-read. Another reason is that this story could have taken place in just about Any High School, USA.

Read More
Submitted by
Patrick Nelligan, Marin Country Day School, Marin County, CA
DEIJ
Current Events & Civic Engagement
Book

More than Aptitude

Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant
Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, October 24, 2023

Have you ever felt a nagging sense that you aren’t quite living up to your true potential, or that as an educator, you aren’t able to tap and maximize the potential of each of the students in your care? Adam Grant’s new book, Hidden Potential, explores this conundrum and presents research and strategies for maximizing the potential in ourselves and in those whom we teach and coach. Grant argues that skills of character — those we employ to get better at getting better — are more important than aptitude in maximizing personal capacity. Those skills include embracing discomfort, soliciting and absorbing useful feedback, and relinquishing perfectionism. Grant also demonstrates how the use of deliberate play, teamwork, and methods for becoming “unstuck” help to scaffold an individual’s reach for stronger performance. Additionally, Grant demonstrates that it is possible to design educational and hiring practices that recognize hidden potential by evaluating individuals not only on current performance, but also on their progress and obstacles overcome. Ultimately, Hidden Potential is a must-read for anyone interested in boosting performance, but especially for parents, teachers, coaches, and those invested in building the potential of the next generation.

Read More
Submitted by
Jen Hoggan, Collegiate School, Richmond, VA
Creativity
Teaching Practice
Leadership Practice
Article

Not Less of Making Art

How to Save a Sad, Lonely, Angry and Mean Society by David Brooks
The New York Times, January 25, 2024

In a stirring article, David Brooks acknowledges the need to rethink the direction of society’s current shifts and offers signposts toward solutions. There is food for thought for any reader here, but for educators there is mandate, urgency, and wayfinding advice for volatile and uncertain times. His premise may feel intuitively right, but he does not settle there. Rather, he examines what is evidence-based about the connection between the humanities and increasing compassion for others. He walks us through how art, fiction-reading, the study of history, and knowledge of the classics draw us closer to a society that cares more for individuals and perceives the needs of society more acutely. Most importantly, while he points out that the great conversations across time and cultures have modelled effective civil discourse, he does not leave us alone to figure out how to build those skills in ourselves and our students. Brooks would likely have much to say when curricula are being set in schools. There would be more, not less, of making art in all its forms. Works that touch the heart, whether from the canons of culture or the student behind the next desk, would be championed. Empathy, longing, understanding, and desire run through this essay and could reach us in independent schools where we may find the autonomy to make creative choices toward the arts and the betterment of society.

Read More
Submitted by
Elizabeth Morley, Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study Lab School, University of Toronto, Ontario
Current Events & Civic Engagement
Curriculum
Social-Emotional Learning
Website

Amidst the Exigencies

Modeling an open, interdisciplinary curiosity for our students can sometimes feel overwhelming amidst the exigencies of the ordinary school day. Consider, then, following the @poetryisnotaluxury Instagram account and seeing what inspiration may follow. Named after an Audre Lorde poem, the account often shares timely and easily digestible poems that would be appropriate for a variety of classroom settings. Older students might reflect on Langston Hughes’ “Evil” (“Looks like what drives me crazy/ Don’t have no effect on you?/ But I’m gonna keep on at it/ Till it drives you crazy, too”), and younger students might be encouraged by Emily Dickinson’s “They Might Not Need Me” or Kim Stafford’s “Advice From a Raindrop.” Although published in English translation, the account is careful to represent a range of voices, time periods, and cultures, and many poems would be appropriate for the cover slide of a lesson, regardless of academic discipline. Indeed, whether or not one finds it “useful” for teaching, a daily dose of poetry can help educators tap into the shared joys and pains of being human, and prepare our hearts and minds for the enriching work of the daily grind.

Read More
Submitted by
Cambridge Ridley Lynch, Ed.M. Candidate, Klingenstein Center, New York, NY
Teaching Practice
Creativity

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN J. VALENTINE
Coordinating Editor
Assistant Head, Upper School, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ

JESSICA FLAXMAN
Dean of Faculty and Employees, Rye Country Day School, Rye, NY

NICOLE FURLONGE
Professor and Director, Klingenstein Center, New York, NY

JONATHAN GOLD
Middle School History Teacher/Expert Thinking Tri-Clerk, Moses Brown School, Providence, RI

TRACEY GOODSON BARRETT
Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Community, Gill St. Bernard's School, Gladstone, NJ

CHRIS LAURICELLA
Head of School, The Albany Academies, Albany, NY

JESSICA MAY
Associate Director for Strategic Marketing and Communications, Klingenstein Center, New York, NY

ELIZABETH MORLEY
Principal Emerita, Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study Laboratory School, University of Toronto, Canada

DEEPJYOT SIDHU
Director of Professional Learning, Global Online Academy, Raleigh, NC

MEGHAN TALLY
Upper School English Tutor, Davidson, NC

Klingbrief Actions

Subscribe to Klingbrief

Sign up using our Contact Us form to receive Klingbrief in your email inbox.

Submit to Klingbrief

Submit a review of a current book, article, or online resource of interest to educators.

View the Klingbrief Archives

Read issues of Klingbrief from Vol 1 - February 2009 through the most current issue.