There is a hashtag doing the rounds on Twitter right now in relation to Education asking #whatif. Its origins stem from the US Secretary for Eduction Arne Duncan, who asked teachers via his Twitter account… Arne DuncanVerified account@arneduncan What if every district committed both to identifying what made their 5 best schools successful & providing…
Category: education
Christmas Gifts for Leaders
Leadership is a rewarding job, and at times, somewhat problematic. Seems like some of these ‘gifts’ could help – I like the Neuralyzer, bunker and ‘instant calm’. I wonder if its too late for Santa to work some miracles? Enjoy. easel.ly
The 12 Descriptors of Christmas – An End of Term Story
Across the world educators are getting ready for Christmas. Here in New Zealand and Australia, schools are not only getting ready for Christmas, but they are shutting up for Summer. The last term before school breaks up for Summer is a busy one. I have been thinking about the words that describe this time of…
School Reports – Keepsakes of Learning
The end of year is a busy time for teachers. All around the country, teachers’ are putting the final touches on their end of year school reports as senior leadership teams and principals’ are reading, proofing and running a metaphorical fine tooth comb over them. Chances are your principal is just as pedantic and particular…
The IES Elephant in the Room
It has been a busy week for me, with a board meeting, community consultation evening, IES combined cluster and boards of trustee meeting and a fabulous Pasifika Festival. All of these things have been part and parcel of what it is to be involved in educational leadership, and all of them require teams of people…
Stress – Symptoms and Salvations!
“Stress – the confusion created when the mind must override the body’s basic desire to choke the living daylights out of someone or something that is causing the stress” Whilst the quote is amusing, its underlines a serious situation facing many workplaces and industries, particularly teaching, around the world. At its root, stress is our…
What Gives You Joy?
In a previous post I created an animation to share some key takeouts from a keynote Brendan Spillane presented at the NZPF Conference. In that post I shared some general leadership concepts that relate to vision and taking stock. Whilst I found those messages important and of great interest, what really struck a chord with…
Millionaire Techies, TIME and Education – A Grrr Moment
I like to believe the best in people, and I like to try to find the strengths and positives in most situations. Today, however, I am struggling to find anything strength based or positive about TIME magazines cover due for release in the US on November 3. It is currently available online. Quite frankly, its…
Change – To Be Embraced Not Feared
This is part three in a series inspired by Richard Gerver who presented at the NZPF Conference. Todays post are key takeouts from the keynote ‘Change belongs to those who prepare for it’. You can read part one on “What our students need’ here, and part two on ‘Finding the passion in education’ here. Leading change…
Leadership Loneliness
Leadership Loneliness I met with a colleague today. Call it a critical friend session, sharing of ideas, solving of all things to do with writing in classrooms and senseless data collection and of course, an opportunity to share and offload. Speaking of senseless data collection, anyone else find the weeks at school issue here in…