Every school I have ever worked in or visited is keen to improve. When school leaders often talk about improvement, they more often than not consider what is needed to help teachers grow and develop. This may be in through the provision of resources to complement the teaching and learning that we wish to see... Continue Reading →
Most of us have been there, that moment when we do not appreciate the feedback and comments regarding our work. Feedback, even if it is meant to be constructive and focused on improvement, can be really tough to take at times. Develop a thick skin, we may have been told. As much as we can... Continue Reading →
Being a productive and effective school leader requires a positive mindset and the motivation to do our very best each day. I found that over the last 12 months that the mood I was bringing to school each day varied significantly. It was not that I had got bored with my work, quite the contrary;... Continue Reading →
It is questionable whether teachers and leaders are given regular feedback in order to grow professionally. When teachers work with students feedback is given in most lessons throughout the learning journey. The same does not happen for the adults in the school. We need to change this. When busy, teacher feedback is often the first... Continue Reading →
Working in education is a lifelong passion for many teachers. Even when teachers are sick, they dose-up on vitamins, cold and flu medication, just to make it into school because they cannot bear the thought of another teacher, substitute or other, messing up their class. As teachers we do have an illness when it comes... Continue Reading →
This talk from Alan November got me thinking further to a post that I wrote called: Avoiding “Just Google it!” with your students. One of the points in Alan's talk refers to the need to explicitly teach web literacy skills to students in schools. Upon reflection, I too am short of some techniques in... Continue Reading →
A variety of teacher evaluation models and methods are used in schools around the world and teacher and school leader attitudes towards them differ considerably. From the teacher perspective, perhaps the greatest concern regarding teacher evaluation systems is their fairness. In some schools teacher evaluation comprises an extensive list of things that the teacher will,... Continue Reading →
Where should schools start when determining how they are going to spend their available funds on professional learning for their teachers and who makes such a decision? This question needs to be addressed each and every year as part of a school's planning cycle, so that it gets the best out of the resources that... Continue Reading →
With a wide variety of professional learning opportunities and a certain limit to the funds that schools can spend on teacher learning and professional growth, it is important that school leaders ensure that the available funds are spent wisely on teachers to improve student learning. There are a number of things that leaders need to... Continue Reading →
