As hard as we may work in our roles as educational leaders, to some it will not be enough. We will make 1000's of decisions, some are popular and some maybe less so. Certain parts of our job we may have no control over, yet the buck may stop with us. We may endeavour to... Continue Reading →
When I reflect on the positives of working in my current school and share my thoughts with colleagues from other schools, they are often amazed when I tell them that we do not set specific targets for student results. Our school does not have a specific average score that it needs to achieve from IB... Continue Reading →
I refer back to the article, Improving Relationships in the Schoolhouse, quite often when considering the work we need to do as school leaders. The article, by Roland Barth, serves a constant reminder that the our biggest challenge as school leaders is to bring out the "nondiscussables" if we wish to see healthy collaborative cultures... Continue Reading →
One of the things I encourage teachers to do when they consider the impact of their actions on student learning is to look at themselves through the eyes of the student. This can make all the difference in changing practice and improving learning outcomes for students. In many ways, it is part of a shift... Continue Reading →
Here’s an interesting question. As an educational leader, if you were to be away from your school for one day, a few days, a week, a month, or longer, how would your school cope? Perhaps we consider the shorter periods of absence and make plans just before we leave for a conference or other school... Continue Reading →
ed to Tackling issues and problems in schools is an endless task, so much so that if leaders are not careful, it can completely drain you of your energy. A lot of problems in schools are highly complex in nature and take significant amounts of time to figure out and work through. As we begin... Continue Reading →
A positive change in education over the last two decades, as far as high school students are concerned, is the move towards forms of assessment other than tests and exams. This, of course provides greater scope for the type of assessment task we use with students. More recently, project-based learning has emerged to accompany this... Continue Reading →
A lot of evidence has pointed to the significant positive impact of feedback on student learning and performance over the last 10 years. Many schools have placed great emphasis on tackling how teachers give students feedback to ensured that it has the desired effect - improving learning. Feedback is quite an easy aspect of teaching... Continue Reading →
In a recent post, I discussed how protocols are so often difficult to achieve between adults, yet at the same time we know that by following them they would lead to more productive relationships and a better operating school team. In recent weeks I have found some success in meetings both with large and small... Continue Reading →
