Todays post was inspired by a keynote at the NZPF Conference by Brendan Spillane. Brendan is an ex teacher, principal and is well known for his work as an executive coach. He was our final keynote, and they choose him well. I have read some of his work and although I had heard of him,…
Category: education
Visual Goal Setting
This is my fourth post inspired by the NZPF conference in Invercargill. The previous posts are; “Fifty Shades of Green‘, ‘Finding the Passion in Education‘, and ‘What do our Students Need?‘. Todays post was inspired by Patti Dobrowolski, TedEx speaker and presenter extraordinarie (well, in my eyes). Patti led delegates through the Visual Goal…
Finding the Passion in Education – Richard Gerver part 2:
Infographic number 2, based on the workshop I attended at the NZPF Conference, run by Richard Gerver. You can find part 1, ‘On What Students Need’, here. Education is the kind of profession, in my opinion, where all teachers enter with the distinct belief and desire that they are there to make a difference. I have…
What Do Our Students Need? Richard Gerver Part 1:
In my post Fifty Shades of Green, I mentioned that I had been to the NZPF (New Zealand Principals) Conference, where I had heard some fabulous speakers. This is the first post in a series, with my key takeouts from the conference. In an effort to consolidate my own thinking and learning in a variety…
Imagine If…
I have been wandering through a variety of social media sites in the last few days. You can tell it’s term break because I rarely have the luxury of time to randomly float around in social media sites aimlessly, usually I am researching or looking for something specific. It is however, aimless rambling that more…
The Paradox of Pseudo Consultation
This week, the Primary Teachers Union NZEI has released its results on the IES vote. 93% of teachers and principals voted they had NO CONFIDENCE in the policy. 73% voted to dismiss the policy outright rather than go back into the ‘pseudo consultation’ tent to renegotiate. In the last few days there have been…
What do I want for my child?
This election you have a choice. You can choose Neo liberal policy from the right or Child Centred policy from the left. Today I watched the Current Education Minister Hekia Parata and Education spokesperson for Labour Chris Hipkins on The Nation, go head to head. They both debated their aspirations for students in New…
Novopay – An Election Story
This week saw the announcement by the Government that the Novopay payroll system that has been nothing but trouble since it was inflicted on schools in 2012, would be ‘taken over’ by the Government. This takeover is due to take place in October. It appears that Talent2, the Australian company who won, but should…
The Mythology of Education – Time to Bust Some Myths
Several weeks ago Readers Digest published its 2014 Trusted Professions list. Teachers were the 11th most trusted profession, up one from the previous year. Teachers haven’t been in the top ten since 2010. Prior to that they were at least 9th. It got me wondering, why don’t the public trust us more. It really is…
Labour Education Policy Headliners
This is an important statement that highlights the differentiation between left and right wing educational policy. This weekend the Labour Party has been meeting in Wellington for its Election Year Congress. Whilst there were a number of big announcements over the week for Labour, the area I am most interested in and the one that…