Drjmoorhouse

Stop lights or Roundabouts One of the things that I love about Kingsport City Schools is the opportunity we have for professional learning. I want to share with you a learning that I recently experienced that was a real paradigm shift for me and caused me to reflect. So much so, that I am going to try and share it with you and hopefully it will have the same impact on you. So stick with me as we go through this exercise! Question: How might we prevent cars from hitting each other in an intersection, while maintaining the maximum flow of traffic? Both of the scenarios pictured above are viable solutions. So, how are they different? The stop light solution is based on a set of assumptions. #1 People need to be told what to do. #2 Problems need to be managed with rules and complex technology. #3 One must have a plan for every possible scenario. The roundabout solution is also based on several assumptions. #1 People can be trusted and will use their judgement to do the rig...

The One….. A few weeks before Christmas, my mother-in- law passed away. She was a neat lady. She taught Chemistry at the start of her career (around 5 years) and then took time away to raise her children. When it was time to return to work, she could not get a job teaching and was hired as a chemist at Nuclear Fuel Service. She was, for several years, one of only six Nuclear Fuel Inspectors in the world and the only female Nuclear Fuel Inspector in the world. As we stood in line for the receiving of friends, a man came through the line and introduced himself to my wife. He stated that we would not know him. He commented that he was a student in her mother’s class. He detailed how, as a high school student, he was just an average student,  destined to average outcomes until he had Mrs. Gardner’s Chemistry class. He stated that she saw something in him and lit a fire under him. He said having her as a teacher had changed the trajectory of his life. I asked him where that traje...