10 Things I'm Curious About in Education in My 25th Year of Teaching

Educational Leadership
1. Does the Danielson (or any rubric-based) evaluation system do more harm than good in making teachers more effective?
2. How does a leader set up and maintain the best conditions for teacher growth and success? (while at the same time effectively identifying teachers who need remediation and, if necessary, removal)
3. Sometimes it's not just about supporting teachers individual and group growth... sometimes there is a call to move in a single direction.  When that happens, how to go about leading unpopular change?

Student Learning
4. There's been a big movement in the past five years towards formative assessment, including clarifying goals, helping students self-assess, providing accurate and helpful feedback.  In the whirlwind of books and talks and district initiatives, what are the key components, the irreducible components, that really help students learn?
5. Student motivation.  Social Emotional learning.  Classroom climate. 
6. Spiral curriculum?  Lots of testing? Problem-based learning? Maker-Spaces?  What's the best fit for kids today?
7.  Does teaching "literature" matter? 
8. In this increasingly digital age, how can we help kids care about books, so that books can become an important part of lifelong learning (and not just things to be studied)?
9. What's the better approach to teaching writing: helping students feel like creative, empowered authors/aritsts? Or building steadily core structures of writing which will help them succeed in college and most forms of work?
10. The words we use can have a profound effect on kids (and teachers in the department).  It's often the form of what we say that matters.  What are the right words to choose to help students become motivated and curious?  In a more general sense, how do words condition us to think/believe/act in a certain way?