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Bob Lenz, founder and chief education officer, Envision Schools
Bob Lenz is chief education officer and cofounder of Envision Schools, where he and his educational-support team help school leaders and teachers create the culture, processes, systems, curriculum, and assessments that produce powerful teaching and learning, a community of learners, and results. Lenz has served public education as a teacher, a student-activities director, a school-reform leader, a consultant, and a principal. He earned a bachelor's degree from St. Mary's College, in Moraga, California, and a master's degree in education from San Francisco State University. He lives in San Rafael, California, with his wife, Cathy, and their children, Evelyn and Brendan.
Subscribe to this blogger's RSS feedSessions for Success: Preparing Students for Life After School
By Bob Lenz
10/2/08
One of Envision Schools's four principles is about building relationships. Often, the difference between a student graduating and going to college and a student not finishing school or going on to college is the relationship that student has with just one adult at school who knows him or her well, believes in the student's ability to succeed, and will not let him or her fail.
The Four R's: Relationships in Twenty-First-Century Schools
By Bob Lenz
7/14/08What structures and systems does Envision Schools use to prepare students for success in college and their futures in the twenty-first century? We focus on four guiding principles, and the second concerns relationships and how we build them among students and educators. Read a previous post of mine that defines the principles and reflects on the first one, rigor.
The Four R's: Rigor in Twenty-First-Century Schools
By Bob Lenz
5/27/08In my next several blog entries, I will highlight how we at Envision Schools interpret and use the new four R's of education: rigor, relationships, relevance, and results.
Learning How to Care, Part 2: Building Academic Identities
By Bob Lenz
2/29/08This is the second part of a guest posting from my colleague, Kyle Hartung, who has worked in small schools for ten years as a classroom teacher and instructional leader in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. As part of the Leadership and Instructional Team at Envision Schools, he coaches and facilitates professional development among school leaders and teachers.
Learning How to Care, Part 1: Celebrating Student Successes
By Bob Lenz
2/28/08This is part one of a two-part guest posting from my colleague, Kyle Hartung, who has worked in small schools for ten years as a classroom teacher and instructional leader in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. As part of the Leadership and Instructional Team at Envision Schools, he coaches and facilitates professional development among school leaders and teachers.
The Challenge of Creating Community: Meetings and Managers
By Bob Lenz
2/6/08In part one of this entry, based on responses to an earlier post of mine, I reproduced some queries about how to establish a communal learning environment at school, and my responses. Here, I continue with questions and answers about how to hold community meetings and how to encourage fellow educators to share your enthusiasm.
The Challenge of Creating Community: First Steps
By Bob Lenz
2/5/08My reflections on building community in schools have sparked a lot of responses and many questions. It appears people are looking for specific tactics, tricks of the trade, and ideas from Envision Schools and our cyber colleagues.
Intervention for Failing Students: The Mandatory Study Session
By Bob Lenz
12/18/07At a recent professional-development day, I challenged my colleagues to think about how we could reduce the number of students in our lower division (grades nine and ten) -- especially the ninth graders -- who fail high school courses. "What if we decided that failure is not an option, and that success is the only choice available to us?" I asked them.
Structure in Project-Based Learning: The Freedom to Learn Requires Planning
By Bob Lenz
11/28/07When a colleague at another urban high school commented to me that because his students needed more structure, he no longer employs project-based learning, I replied that his decision presumes that PBL is unstructured.
A Community of Learners: Building a Supportive Learning Environment
By Bob Lenz
11/16/07Recently, a nationally recognized expert in classroom management visited the campuses of Envision Schools to help coach our teachers. Though he had plenty of advice about how we can make our learning environments more structured so student learning is accelerated, he was also effusive about the sense of respect he witnessed between students, between students and teachers, and between adults in the schools.
