November 11, 2010
Resources:
October 27, 2010
To learn. Like many others, I read books and articles, attend conferences, workshops and trainings, and visit other schools in order to learn more about best practices and innovative new approaches. But I know about myself that I will retain much more, and be much better able to draw upon and use that information in the future, if I write while I am learning, if I record the main ideas I am learning in writing, and if I reflect upon them. So I write to learn, and if I am writing about these ideas anyway, I figure, why not share these writings.
To model learning. I think that educational leaders should publicly demonstrate that we too are learning and we too love learning: chiefs of learnings need to be chief learners. Blogging is a great way to display the ways in which I too, like our students, am trying regularly to learn.
To share. Like all principals and school heads, I often speak (separately) to students, teachers, and parents, and sometimes it seems that what I say might be of interest to other constituencies or those who could not attend. My blog is a great way of making these remarks available for everyone.
To showcase my school. There are so many things about my school I am proud of and which I want others to know more about so they will more strongly appreciate and admire my school (and perhaps choose to attend it). My blog is a way to share great things happening here at school. I can re-post the syllabus for a cool new class, write up what is said by teachers about their courses at Curriculum Night, or publish fine student work. (more…)
July 30, 2010
My contribution to Leadership Day, 2010:
I have had the incredibly good fortune (for which I am so grateful) to be an educational leader for 13 years now, but only in the past several years have I sought to be come an educational leader– and it’s been a great ride, one I wish all my school leadership colleagues will take! Here is a smattering of thoughts on techniques for 21st century ed leadership, with one most important message: today more than ever, leadership is about learning, and those of us who aim to lead learning must be ourselves Chief Learners in order to be Chiefs of Learning.
Focus on yourself. You must become the change you wish to see in your schools. Unfortunately, this can be hard if we are, as I think I was, trapped in a fixed mindset. Carol Dweck’s book Mindset was critical to me; she explains how there are only two mindsets, fixed and growth, and many of us, students and even more so adults, are trapped in a fixed mindset. In this, we think we are what we have been, and cannot become something different. We think that to seek to grow, to learn, to change will demonstrate weakness, flaws, or failings. We think that if we have not been, in our past, digitally savvy, then we cannot change ourselves. But if we take Dweck and adopt a growth mindset, there is nothing we cannot become.
Having adopted a growth mindset and made the pledge to learn and grow, start learning. Reframe your own self-image as Principal, Head or Superintendent; you are not just Chief of Learning but you are Chief Learner, you are Learner in Chief.
Learning is not just about reading more widely, or attending more conferences (though those aren’t bad ideas). We must also learn in the field, visiting other schools with all the frequency we can possibly find, and make it a priority to do so. Visit widely, and do your research: where are the schools that are doing the kind of work you most want to do in your own schools. (more…)
