In the wake of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's retirement announcement, industry insiders are busying themselves predicting who will be tapped to head the tech firm.
Everyone from a former Apple executive to Bill Gates himself is being rumored to take Redmond's top job, yet an official announcement is not expected soon.
Rick Sherlund, head of U.S. technology research at Nomura Securities told CNBC's Squawk on the Street that there is little in the way of top-level executive talent currently working for the company. "I do not believe there is a successor in waiting ..." Sherlund said. "Unfortunately, at Microsoft there has been enormous turnover of senior people under Ballmer, so we are left with no obvious choices here."
Likewise Dan Niles, CIO of AlphaOne Capital Partners told NBCNews that the best course of action Microsoft could take in selecting a new CEO is to look outside of the company. "I hope they do some out-of-the-box thinking and they get somebody from outside the company," Niles said.

“Is it possible to study martial arts every day and know how to play the piano by adapting the data and skills we learned in martial arts to the piano? Or what about adapting the skills learned from ballet to cooking? The answer is yes we can.” — Opher Brayer
We’ve seen the big data. The future of work is all about imagination, given that...
Author's Note: This is the final installment of a three-part series on my experiences working as a gifted education resource teacher. I included the references used in all three blogs at the end of this blog.
Part 3: Discussion
During this autoethnography, I explored my progression from a frustrated resource teacher, who second-guessed my decision to accept the position, to a functioning co-teacher, who, in at least in some cases, able to influence my colleagues to better...

“The more we standardize school, the less our kids have the time and support to develop the ability to learn how to learn, think independently, and create initiatives that make their world better.” – Ted Dintersmith
“Our kids will be adults in a world where automated solutions absorb all routine...
In this installment, I write about the themes I discovered in my story of working as a gifted education resource teacher. Essentially, I experienced much frustration until I learned to first collaborate with classroom teachers, until I gained their trust and respect, only then could I begin to share my expertise. Interspersed in the writing are journal reflections and e-mails, which convey my thoughts and emotions at the time of the experience.
...
Note: This article first appeared in The Qualitative Report. This is the first installment of a series on working as a resource teacher of gifted education. I am sharing a modified-version of this article in pieces because I think it sheds might light on the challenges that teachers face collaborating together—when one “has” their own classroom and the other visits the classroom to work with students. Both resource teachers and classroom teachers can learn from each other, for the benefit...