Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Yong Zhao a University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education at Michigan State University and international consultant to many governments talks here about the dangers of the narrow use of national test scores to define what students need.
I heard him speak recently at our Statewide forum on the use ...
Posted in Assessment, Leadership, Technology, Uncategorized, Video Clips, reflections, school structures | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
New flexible learning environments are being built in schools as rate never seen before [and given the country’s debt probably never again] in this country. The ‘Building the Education Revolution’ Commonwealth Government initiative was part of Australia’s economic recession proofing strategy.
In talking with the builders and the various sub ...
Posted in Instruction, Leadership, Teaching, Uncategorized, flexible learning spaces | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
I've been reflecting lately on our strategic plan which lists a number of worthwhile actions and improvement goals.
I know the goals as the principal as I interact with the plan on a regular basis but I wonder if they are remembered by everyone at school? The goals are not displayed ...
Posted in Accountability, Leadership, school | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
I have been reading the book Blind Side by Michael Lewis and thinking about the parallels here in life and education.
Now I do like watching American football on TV and confess besides the quarterback passing down field to receivers or a running back making a short run I'm a little ...
Posted in Leadership, Teaching, Uncategorized, Video Clips | 4 Comments »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Thanks to others including Nina Davis I found this clip on leadership which suggests that the courage shown by the first follower is what determines the success or otherwise of the 'movement'.
In applying this view of leadership to schools where leadership is often aligned with organizational hierarchy its a challenge. ...
Posted in Leadership, Video Clips, school | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
I've just returned from Wollongong where I was invited by the Australian Capital Territory [ACT] principals to share my journey of school improvement.
For those like me who are unfamiliar with the ACT public education system it has approximately 81 schools with different configurations: years P-6, 7-10, 11-12 type schools I ...
Posted in Instruction, Instructional Rounds, Leadership, Masters in Education Course, school | No Comments »
Monday, March 8th, 2010
“Well, what are the most important things to achieve in the strategic plan this year?”
This question was posed recently at a school council committee discussion on strategic plan accountabilities. While I was initially challenged to say everything in the document was important I got to think a little deeper on ...
Posted in Leadership, Teaching, Uncategorized, teacher efficacy | No Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
I don't think many teachers would disagree with the idea that its a good thing to use student assessment data to try and determine what students need to learn next, at least in Victorian schools - or would they?
Often teachers disagree on what student assessment data they find useful for one ...
Posted in Accountability, Assessment, Leadership, Teaching, school | No Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
At the start of the school year I'm teaching a series of workshops on cyber safety for students from Years 3 - 6 . These workshops coincide with the distribution the annual student Internet Agreement that parents and students sign.
Part of the agreement that parents and students sign is that they ...
Posted in Family, Leadership, Teaching, cyberbullying, school | 3 Comments »
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Last week I sent an email to the middle and senior team leaders offering to take the students from years 3-6 for an online safety session. This was partly a response to several incidents that occurred last year with students. The fact that most of these incidents started offsite was I ...
Posted in Leadership, Teaching, cyberbullying, parenting, school | No Comments »
