SLT beckons

There comes a point in middle leadership when you get fed up with your limited power and influence. You realise it is time to step up and become part of an acronym: the SLT beckons.

I realised I was ready for the senior leadership team after a particularly -chaotic parents’ meeting. I was the new head of Math in my third school, 15  years into my teaching career.

It seemed clear to me that there were better ways of doing things around. I went to see the headteacher, who agreed it might be time to make a change but she wanted to ensure that everyone was in agreement. She asked me to present my views at an upcoming staff meeting.

I stood up to speak, full of enthusiasm and the naivety born of relative inexperience. I talked about alternative systems and how, I thought, we could improve ours to make it more positive and purposeful for staff, parents and students.

I quickly became aware of my audience’s negative body language. There were no nods or smiles, just stony stares and folded arms. When I finally got to the end and asked for questions, I was given a grilling by staff who “didn’t see how it could work”, “didn’t feel it was right for this school” and weren’t even prepared to try it before making a decision.

I drove home that day feeling bemused. I thought I’d presented a compelling case, clearly and confidently, but I’d got absolutely nowhere. It took me a while to work out what had happened. I was the newly appointed head of Math. Parents’ meetings were nothing to do with me. Who did I think I was?

I knew then, in the early days of my time as a middle leader, that one day I would feel the need to be a senior leader. I wanted to be able to suggest whole-school changes, even to something as relatively minor as this, and at least be taken seriously.

I loved being a head of department. Enthusiasm for my subject had taken me into a career in teaching in the first place and I was enjoying working with my classes. In this role I had the chance to have an even greater impact on what happened across the Math classrooms, working closely with the rest of the team. However, I didn’t feel that I made much of an impact on the life of the school beyond that domain.

That’s not to say that joining the SLT is for everyone. For many heads of departments, being immersed in their subject and holding a position of influence in that sphere is as far up the ladder as they want to climb. But for others, here are six reasons why the leadership team might appeal:

1 Whole-school scope

Although you will continue to do a significant amount of teaching, suddenly your area of responsibility (whatever that may be) affects the whole school, rather than just your department. This enables you to make more of a difference to more learners and work with more staff.

2 A bit of clout

You have the authority and the status to take on more substantial challenges and make more of an impact in a strategic sense, rather than simply an operational one. You have a greater opportunity to work with the headteacher, governors and the rest of the senior team to shape the school’s vision. All staff – teaching and support – should be consulted on decisions, but you are making things happen.

3 Developing staff

Whatever your area of responsibility, developing staff is likely to be a part of what you are able to achieve. Seeing others grow in confidence over time is hugely satisfying. As a senior leader you have the chance to support your headteacher and the rest of the senior team, in addition to supporting, challenging and helping the rest of the staff to mature.

4 Facilitating excellent teaching

Your work can enable teachers to do a better job; you need to see your role as one that facilitates the best teaching and learning, not one that adds pressure and makes it harder for staff to perform at their best.

5 Leadership experience

The parameters widen and the range of areas you are involved in extends significantly. You will work with many different groups across the school community and may also build key relationships beyond the school gates.

                                                    

6 Broader horizons

If you are eager for a new challenge and are ready to be tested, you will find being part of the SLT stimulating and rewarding.

For me, senior leadership was a natural, enjoyable and -satisfying next step after my time as a head of department.  Years later when I go in for my next role as deputy head and I discover that something that needs change I would like to hear my Head say : “If you want to try a different system, go for it.”

Just think: what would you like to change if you had the opportunity to do it?

Teaching - The supreme art of moulding minds

Success in teaching for me is seeing students’ eyes when they get the “light bulb.” You can see when they understand what you have been trying so hard to explain.

I feel my greatest success in teaching is my own growth as an Instructor. Which to me is because of each and every student I’ve had the honour of instructing. In the course of teaching, my students have challenged me to know my subject matter like the back of my hand. Also, the discovery of the different learner styles has humbled me to understand my own learner style and to always teach the student as they need to be taught, not by a category that the instructor textbooks put them into. The art of instructing has fine-tuned an intuitive nature that I didn’t even know I had. Therefore, I view each and every student as a success in her own right. I know now that as an instructor, I’m always striving to do better than the day before and learning should never end; that is what makes this journey so exciting. There is always something new to experience.

My greatest success that I have had teaching is when someone came up to me and said, “You probably don't remember me, but I took your class years ago and I asked you what should I do to be successful in the industry. Even though you were very busy you were so sweet and took your time to give me many inspiring words and even gave me an insight on how to do what was so hard for me at the time.” This person went on to tell me how I inspired them so much that they couldn't begin to explain how I have enriched their career and life. They also shared that because I had waiver their tuition, it had allowed them to touch someone else's life outside of our industry. Stories like these are awesome because it shows me that there are so many layers to giving and that love has no boundaries!

Turning Wounds into Wisdom:

The Power of Transforming Pain into Strength

Pema Chödrön said it best: “We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” Letting there be room is allowing for a space, a sacred space, where we can be fully present with our pain.

There’s a lesser known Hindu deity named Akhilandeshvari, or The Goddess of Never Not Broken.

 This Goddess embodies the ability to come together and fall apart, over and over again. She is the personification of healthy annihilation, the archetype of vicissitude. She breaks apart in order to come back together as a more powerful entity. Indeed, it is exactly because she is able to break apart that she is so powerful.

What a shift in perspective! True strength isn’t wholeness but the ability to adapt to the change that comes from falling apart and coming back together again, from wholeness to brokenness and back. This is the epitome of transforming pain into strength. Falling apart is what happens when we experience trauma. Coming back together again is the scar left behind. Adapting to the new way in which we are put back together again is honoring the sacred wound.

 Like Joseph Campbell wrote, “Suddenly you’re ripped into being alive. And life is pain, and life is suffering, and life is horror, but my god you’re alive and it’s spectacular.” It may take an entire lifetime to complete the healing of our sacred wounds, but the point is to begin the healing – and there are diamonds in the rough. Those who become wise always experience the most pain. Falling apart and adapting to coming back together again in novel ways is the epitome of wisdom. Facing the pain is like looking into the abyss. It’s like having a staring contest with our inner-most demons. But with enough practice, with enough polish, we can transform those demons into diamonds.

We can transform that abyss into a mirror that reflects infinite growth. “Think of the birth of the pearl,” writes Bill Plotkin, “the tiny grit of sand within the oyster creates an irritation the oyster seeks to eliminate by coating the grain with successive layers of lustrous deposits, ultimately producing the jewel.” Just as the grain within the oyster can be transformed into a pearl, the pain within the human can be transformed into strength.

There is a saying in Tibet, “Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.” At the end of the day, life is pain. We must learn to experience pain well. Indeed, there is an art to cultivating sacred wounds that only the happiest people know. Like the Buddha said, “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” When we resist pain we create more pain, which is called suffering. When we can embrace pain with a warm, peaceful curiosity, we gain the ability to transform wounds into sacred wounds, and we limit our suffering.

Like Leslie Fieger ingeniously opined, “Any fool can run toward the light. It takes a master with courage to turn and face the darkness and shine his own light there.” Let us have the courage to turn and face our pain, to shine our own light there and see how many demons we can mold into diamonds, how many wounds we can transform into wisdom, and how much pain we can wrestle into strength, in order to become multifaceted beings with the power to heal the deeper wounds of the world.

the week that wasn't

the week - KHDA decided to come to visit us.As teacher leaders and school administrators, you need the skills and understanding of a "Teacher of the Year," the insights and abilities of a "Human Resources Director", the management and leadership skills of a "Chief Executive Officer", the resources and savvy of a " Successful Politician," and the nurture and courage of a "Loving Parent." Never before have educators and their leaders be held accountable for so much by so many. Measures and assessments come from state standards and tests, district evaluations, career ladders, state and national teacher certificates, and grade level and subject knowledge scores to name a few. With so much at stake, it is important to understand the nature of supervision and evaluation of instruction, to value and respect its place in education, and to accomplish its goals for the sake of the students. To do that we must know more than the specific criteria cited on an evaluation form; we must know what constitutes professionalism, effective planning and teaching, positive learning climate, and appropriate assessment. Then we need to be able to identify each one when it occurs and knows when a piece is missing. Our decisions must be informed by these findings in light of objective data and sound research.

Being Head

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When I became a head of the department, I was thrilled. From my early days in teaching, I had seen the appeal of being a team leader, able to communicate my enthusiasm for my subject not just to the students I taught but, through the rest of the department, to all those studying the subject across the school. I have to say this seemed far more attractive to me than the responsibilities of senior leaders, some of whom appeared to spend several days investigating who threw the first toilet roll on the school bus.

And I did enjoy being a head of the department. But I don't remember very much by way of preparation and support in advance of taking up the role; I think the view at that time was that if you had enough about you to get such a post, you had enough about you to work out how to do the job effectively.

I recognised early on that to do the role well you needed to work hard on relationships and communication. This was all about trying to get the best from each individual member of the team, respecting their different skills so that the impact of the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. A good team was composed of people with complementary skills, and when appointing a new team member it was important to consider what each candidate would bring to the group, not to gravitate naturally towards someone you recognised was like you.

There were administrative tasks, but I could see that the best departmental leaders were so much more than efficient and effective administrators; their skills lay in helping others to be the best they could. It was all about the success of the team and making their particular domain as strong as it could be.

The best heads of the department didn't even need to be the best teachers in the team – though they had to be good enough to be credible. What they were really good at was seeing the best in and getting the best from others. It wasn't about ego; they saw the true sense of the Harry S Truman quotation: "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit".

The best team leaders struck the right balance of support and challenge – helping and guiding the members of their departments but not afraid to hold them to account too, as they themselves should be supported and challenged by the senior leaders within the school.

They didn't over-protect their teams, defend them at all costs and fight their corner to the exclusion of all else. The best heads of department were committed specialists, with impressive expertise and passion for their subject, but they also had a wider perspective and could see the big picture of the students' whole educational experience. They didn't spend their time railing against the system and moaning about "the management", either. They used their communication and relationship-building skills to ensure their particular domain was an example of excellence, and this then gave them the credibility to lead change from that position – they were respected and listened to by the senior leaders because they were seen as successful middle leaders who were responsible for co-ordinating the achievements of strong teams across the school. I learnt from these positive examples, rather than having any formal training, I think.

 But I did try to spot talent, identify potential in aspiring team members and help them to clarify their vision of the kind of leaders they wanted to be, and then to make that a reality.

Once I had the "right people in the right seats on the bus", as Jim Collins puts it in his book Good to Great I tried hard to give them the right balance of support and challenge and to trust them to do their job, a job which has the greatest impact on the standard of teaching and learning across the school.

Why Good Employees Quit

“People work for people – they do not work for businesses”          – Donn Carr

This has been my mantra for as along as I can remember. The message is so simple, full of truth and direction, yet it is consistently ignored by human resource departments, managers and owners alike and they wonder why their turnover is so high or they are always having to look for new people. The problem is with the managers – and seldom the employee or the quality of the workforce. This has been proven and well documented by study after study.

I don’t think this happens on purpose, most managers I meet have never been taught the art of developing people. Many rose to the rank of managers simply because they outlasted the last one and this lack of people training leaves the new manager with the only experience they know – to mimic the old boss.

This does make perfect sense when you think about it. All I should have to do is mimic the actions of the outgoing boss or the one above them. It should not come as a surprise when we see our managers yell or threaten their employees, make promises they won’t keep, or lead by the old adage “Do what I say and not what I do” failing to set the example or even clearly give expectations. After all, that is what the old boss did.

If you or your organization is experiencing high turnover or even more turnover than you would like, start with examining yourself and how you interact with your team. Here are nine proven reasons guaranteed to cause good employees to quit. Any one of them alone starts the process - if you find three or more you have some serious work ahead of you to correct. 

1. The Employees are Over Worked. In start-ups this happens all of the time and the managers simply do not see the handwriting on the wall. Talented employees love to contribute and will produce more, however if you plan on having them do more you best be prepared to increase their status as well. Talented team members will not stay if their job suffocates them in the process.

2. Employee’s Contributions Are Not Recognized or Good Work Rewarded.  I cannot emphasize this one enough. Never underestimate the power of a pat on the back, a thank you, or a “great job” comment. This is especially true with your top performers who are self motivated. It is much too easy to take their drive for granted – don’t.

3. The Wrong People Are Hired or Promoted. Good, hard working employees want to work with like-minded professionals at all levels. Promoting the wrong person is one of the worse mistakes that can be made. When employees work their tail’s off only to get passed over by someone who glad-handed their way to the top, it is a massive insult to the good employees. 

4. Employers Who Don’t Care About Their Employees. More than half of people who leave their jobs do so because of their relationship with their boss. Bosses who fail to really care will always have high turnover rates.

5. Employer Fail to Develop Their People. When managers are lucky enough to have talented employees it is up to the manager to keep finding areas in which they can improve and expand their skill set. This is a managerial sin of the most grievous kind. This developmental process does not belong with the human resource department; it falls squarely on your shoulders as the manager. You have a responsibility to continually challenge and grow that person. Failure to do so and your once talented employee will become bored and grow complacent.

This leads me to the next reasons good employees leave that are too often over looked:

6. Employees Creativity is Not Engaged. Talented employees seek to improve just about everything they touch. They take pride in what they create. The moment their ability to change and improve things is removed they begin to hate their jobs. You are caging up this innate desire to create and contribute. This limitation not only limits the employees – it limits managers and companies as well.

7. Employers Are Not Challenging People Intellectually. A great boss will challenge their employees to accomplish things that may at first seem inconceivable. Rather than setting mundane, incremental goals, the great manager will set lofty goals that will push people out of their comfort zones.

… And now the two final managerial sins guaranteed to run off good employees:

8. Employers Don’t Honor Their Commitments. Integrity and honesty are two traits that every employee will expect  of their managers. If you say you will do something – do it.  Keeping your word and your commitments tells the employee everything they need to know about you and the type of person you are and if they can trust you.

9. They Don’t Let People Pursue Their Passions. Of all of these, this is the most simple and can mean the most, but it does require that you listen to your employees and observe. Talented employees are passionate. Find out what those passions are and work towards giving them challenges that fill their passionate needs. It just may surprise you what they can do when you let them out of that little box you have kept them in.

If all else fails, simply remember this: 

“People work for people – they do not work for businesses” – Donn Carr

Are Lesson Plans that important?

Are Lesson Plans that important?

Lesson planning is essential to the smooth running of a class session. It is also one of the responsibilities that most educators least look forward to. The truth is that lesson planning can be time consuming and a bit tedious, especially when there are so many other things to focus on. Yet, it remains the most effective way to achieve maximum results from your lessons.

What is the point of a lesson plan?
A lesson plan is an educator’s road map of what students need to learn and how to do this effectively during class time. It offers a detailed description of the course of instruction for one class. It helps to maintain focus on the particular subject/topic. It provides the educator with a solid account of what has been taught. It allows the educator to track students’ progress as well as the various teaching techniques, learning aides utilized and the efficiency with which all were used. Having a lesson plan means that there is an actual outline with thought out goals and objectives, some of which may have impacted the learning experience in meaningful ways. This tells you how to proceed for your next lessons because your lesson plans have given you a clear picture of where your students are and how you can improve them learning particular topics going forward.
How to approach lesson planning
Lesson planning is similar to creating a story. You begin with what your motivations are. Why are you planning your lesson? Is it to improve knowledge of a particular topic or is it to reinforce something that was already taught? How badly do you want your class to grasp what you are teaching? These are easy questions to ask yourself when you are about to begin your planning. Educators who have students who take a while to understand particular topics will need to get creative and realistic with their objectives, goals, instructional materials and the activities that are used to explain and reinforce what is being taught. Students are great at providing feedback on lessons based on their facial expressions and body language during the session in addition to what is presented by them in evaluative exercises.

What do educators get from lesson planning?
Many educators are good with teaching a particular topic without the use of a lesson plan. However, these same educators, lesson plan in tow, are a pleasure to observe in the classroom. Their planned lesson allows them to show off their skill in the classroom as well as their accomplishments. It also gives them something tangible that may benefit their colleagues. Their creativity and imagination come to life as their lessons unfold and even if adjustments are made; it is still highly rewarding to their students.
What are some of the lessons in lesson planning?
It is easy to say that students are the ones who benefit most from lesson planning. Educators also learn a lot during a class session even with a lesson plan that they wrote. Here are a few points that highlight some of the lessons in lesson planning:

A lesson in patience – Even the best lesson planner has to spend some time doing research and marry the appropriate teaching aid/materials with the goals/objectives for maximum results from the lesson. Research also includes being acutely aware of each student’s learning ability and potential in order for each to get something from the overall lesson.
Ÿ A lesson in knowledge – Often times, educators surprise themselves with new discoveries when prepping for new topics through research. This allows for their lessons to be interesting and meaningful not only for the students but also to them and/or colleagues that they may share their discoveries with. Students can be great teachers of something new at points in time. A well-executed lesson will reward both the educator and the students in the process. It almost always furnishes those present with a new discovery or several.
Ÿ A lesson in individuality – Sometimes a class of eager faces is grouped as just that. They are individuals with different learning abilities despite having a myriad of similarities. There are a few students who are good at learning complex topics easily and then there are others who take a bit more time. Added to this, each student has his/her own personality and experiential background that may impact the rate at which he/she learns. Once an educator understands the individual potential of students, he/she will know how to best plan lessons.
A lesson in planning – Most take the idea of lesson planning and apply a similar approach to life events. Educators, who love to plan, understand that even if changes are made to the plan, it can still work. This helps them to adapt to changes in their personal life a lot easier. The time and effort placed in doing research affords them a wealth of resource persons and material to draw on.
In conclusion, it always helps to have a plan and to make that plan worthwhile. Students are great at detecting un-preparedness and they will act on that especially if they are very alert. Once there is a solid lesson plan in place, educators easily cut down on distractions during the lesson, improve upon what has already been introduced and can effectively manage the class time.