When observing classes in high schools, it is possible to see two extremes of teacher support. Firstly, there is complete hand-holding or, as some teachers would like to say, spoon feeding, with the teacher doing most of the work. Secondly, at the opposite end of the spectrum we have some teachers who provide little... Continue Reading →
Trust and trust-building qualities frequently top polls and surveys that attempt to show the most important qualities of a leader. A 2016 McQuaig Global Talent Recruitment Survey places trust as the second most important quality of an effective leader while a PewResearch Center survey shows honesty to be most important. More recently in the run... Continue Reading →
Professional sports teams have coaches and they have leaders. Leaders in sports teams do not have to be the coach. All sports teams, however, have a person that must be the coach and a leader. Professional teachers and teaching teams require the same. Schools have a responsibility to provide leaders who are not just instructional coaches but they coach collaboration.
At a very young age, I held close the saying “treat others in the same way that you would like to be treated.” It was not until recently that I realized the limitation of this statement. Leading with this in mind, we may not fully recognize the individual differences of our colleagues. If we were... Continue Reading →
Many schools, along with their mission and vision statements, have a set of core values. It is vital that if a school decides to have core values, they become embedded in what the school does. More often than not, these core values refer to the behaviours or personal attributes that an organisation wishes its members... Continue Reading →
Working productively in teaching teams can be so rewarding yet so frustrating. When we all get on the same page, we can begin to really enjoy what we do and we can believe that we are progressing in a way that has a high impact on student learning. Subsequently, when a member of the team... Continue Reading →
I like tapping into posts from Leadership Freak, Dan Rockwell, who puts together some excellent posts about leadership for us to consider. A post titled - 'Tapping the power of "For you"' caught my attention and got me thinking further about how we, as leaders, use the word, 'You', in our schools. Considering my previous... 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 →
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 →
