bo adams

Quick Narrative Bio:

Bo Adams considers himself first and foremost to be a learner. He treasures being a husband and a dad, as well as an educator. Bo identifies as a lifelong runner, and he experiences regular bouts of obsession with triathlon, mountain biking, and kayaking. Bo loves to read, write, draw, design, tinker, and think. Bo believes any boundaries between school and life should be blurred and semi-permeable at least.

Beginning in June 2013, Bo will join Mount Vernon Presbyterian School as Chief Learning and Innovation Officer. Head of School Dr. Brett Jacobsen announced the appointment on May 14, and Bo could not be more excited to become a member of the team at this leading school of inquiry, innovation, and impact. Bo remains active as an edu-blogger at It’s About Learning (
http://itsaboutlearning.wordpress.com
) and @boadams1 on Twitter. Additionally, Bo regularly pursues deeper understanding in the area of “schools of the future and the future of schools.”

From July 2012 to May 2013, Bo served as the Director of Educational Innovation at Unboundary, a strategic design studio in Atlanta, Georgia, specializing in transformational change processes, communications, and brand significance.

From 1995 until 2012, Bo worked at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, where he fulfilled a number of roles during his tenure there. In Bo’s last nine years at Westminster, he served as the principal of the Junior High School. In 2006, Bo co-founded The Center for Teaching at The Westminster Schools. Bo’s primary points of focus throughout his principalship were faculty development, professional learning communities, assessment literacy, project-based learning, change management and educational innovation. In 2010, Bo and Jill Gough launched “Synergy” – a community-issues, project-based, problem-identification-and-solutions course for eighth graders. Prior to coming to Westminster, Bo worked at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia; Loudoun Country Day School in Leesburg, Virginia; and Camp Sea Gull in Arapahoe, North Carolina.

Bo on Newsle

SAMPLES of Conference Attendance, Professional Learning, and Presentations:

2012-13

• EdCampAtl, September 8, 2012 [co-facilitated two sessions]
• SAIS Lunch & Learn: Matt Scully, Flipping the Classroom, September 24, 2012
• TEDxAtlanta “Edge of the South,” September 25, 2012
• SAIS Lunch & Learn: Grant Lichtman, Implementing Innovation: Lesson from the Road, #EdJourney, November 6, 2012
• EduCon 2.5, January 2013
• NAIS AC, February 2013
• SAIS Lunch & Learn: Bo Adams, Pedagogical Master Planning (presenting/facilitating), April 19, 2013
• The Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence Summer Conference 2013: Transformative Learning (presenting plenary session talk), June 12-13, 2013

[Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence 2012 Summer Conference]

[TEDxAtlanta Re:learn, May 18, 2010]

More about Bo’s PREVIOUS Chapter:

• On Feb. 29, 2012, students from the Westminster 8th grade Writing Workshop team that produces our Wildcat Press Xpress posted this podcast interview with me. Thanks WPX!

As Bo evolved as an educator and school administrator, he saw himself as not only the principal teacher, but primarily as the principal learner of the Junior High – his passions resided in being a “lead learner” in his division, as well as in the school. At Westminster, Bo fully engaged the Faculty Assessment and Annual Review (FAAR) Plan. Below is a link to a matrix of resources which houses Bo’s annual goals, administrative evaluations, etc.

• SAMPLES of Bo’s engagement with Westminster’s FAAR Plan.

SAMPLES of Conference Attendance, Professional Learning, and Presentations:

2011-12

• Bo is a regular participant in the TEDxAtlanta community.
• Mississippi Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM), Keynote with Jill Gough, September 2011 (Formative Assessment & Professional Learning Communities)
• SACS-SAIS Accrediting Team for Ravenscroft School, October 2011
• Kindezi Charter School, Project-based Learning Workshop, Co-facilitating with Jill Gough, October 2011 and February 2012
• EduCon 2.4, “Synergy-Questions are the way points on the path of wisdom,” Co-facilitating Conversation on PBL with Jill Gough, January 27-29, 2012 (launched Synergy2Learn blog)
• Professional Learning Communities Keynote and Workshop, Co-facilitating with Jill Gough, Randolph School, February 17, 2012
• Innovation in Education, NAIS Annual Conference Workshop, Co-facilitating with Jamie Baker, Lee Burns, and Grant Lichtman, February 29, 2012
• High Museum of Art (Atlanta) – “STEM to STEAM: The Meaning of Innovation” with John Maeda, President of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), March 19, 2012 [related Huffington Post article]
• Mount Vernon Presbyterian School Design Summit, attending, March 23, 2012
• The Lovett School American Studies Institute: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised? American Culture: 1970-present,” June 7-8, 2012
• The 2012 Martin Institute Summer Conference: Teaching for Tomorrow, June 13-14, 2012

  • Keynote Panel with Sandy Dawes, Bo Adams, John Hunter

  • Leading Learners to Level Up
  • Synergy – Questions are the Waypoints on the Path of Wisdom

2010-11

• INMAX: Innovation in Schools, June 2011, Co-speaker with Jill Gough (Learnopolis: Professional Learning Communities)
• Project-based Learning Workshop, Center for Teaching Summer Institute, June 2011 – Co-Facilitator with Jill Gough
• Professional Learning Communities Facilitation, Center for Teaching Summer Institute, June 2011 – Co-Facilitator with Jill Gough
• Sabbatical focused on Schools of the Future and the Future of Schools, March-April 2011 (Included internship at Unboundary, as well as schools visits such as The Lovett School, Trinity School, Brightworks, The Bay School, St. Gregory)
• TEDxAtlanta Creativ!ty, April 2011, and RE:SOLVE, September 2010
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Annual Conference, March 2011
• Learning Forward (formerly NSDC), Annual Conference, January 2011
• 21st Century Learning Summit, Solution Tree, October 2010

2009-10

• TEDx Atlanta RE:LEARN, Speaker (“Infrastructural Learner-preneurship”), May 2010, and RE:PURPOSE attendee, January 2010
• Professional Learning Communities Summit, Solution Tree, February 2010
• Learning and the Brain Institute: Modern Brains in the Digital Age, November 2009
• Assessment Summit, Solution Tree, October 2009
• Professional Learning Communities at Work Institute, Solution Tree, August 2009

2008-09 (and earlier) – Under Construction