A few weeks ago, I had an incredible opportunity, that, while very much a ‘real world’ experience, had as much to do with the online world of social media connections as it did face to face ones. Allow me to explain. About two years ago, after using Twitter for a while as a fun...
It is not uncommon for me to read comments on Twitter that characterize school administrators as a group who need to get more in touch with 21st century learning. Whether it is a comment about how senior administration is blocking specific online sites or resources, how school leaders need to provide leadership and role...
Isn’t Twitter amazing! I have been in schools since 1978. But nothing has been like 2011, a real game-changing year for me, because I decided to take Twitter seriously. What I have discovered is a world of like-minded people who daily provide inspiration and ideas. A tribe. My tribe. I have also worked...
A valuable part of our professional journeys as educators is to look beyond our own experience and learn from others. One strategy that has worked very well for our circumstance has been to bend budgets so that we can recurrently send teams of teachers to learn from others. This strategy commenced a decade...
I am constantly challenged to consider what we need to throw out from our assumed daily practices as teachers. If we come to the topic through the lens of making choices that maximize deep and passionate learning for students, then I have come to the conclusion that there is very little that will survive...
Okay … this lesson probably commenced in my early childhood if I count the number of hospital visits from bumping into (stupidly designed) concrete telegraph poles in Auckland, slipping off high chairs to raid the top kitchen cupboards or eating poisonous plants because they looked nice. But the notion of learning by doing...
I find leadership a fascinating topic. If something typifies our 21st century world for me, it is the lack of leadership where and when it is needed. This is evident in micro and macro contexts – in countries, communities and schools. The issue is possibly that the media focuses way too much on political...
2011 has been an amazing year for me professionally – a year of great change at NBCS and a year of outstanding opportunities, travel and thinking for me. It has also been a year of new connections. I am going to try and capture some of the main insights during 2011 gained in...
On Thursday, December 8, 2011 I attended the Ohio Summit 2.5, which is a conference that showcases what Ohio schools are doing to integrate 21st Century skills and technology in the teaching and learning process. I wanted to attend the conference to hear some of the keynote presenters: Karl Fisch (@karlfisch), the creator of...
Last year, I listened to an audio book called, Good Boss, Bad Boss by Dr. Robert Sutton. It was interesting, entertaining, and caused me to reflect on my craft as an educator and my work as a building leader. His statements were challenging, funny, and also sobering. He told story after story about what...
“If we want teacher evaluation systems that teachers find meaningful and from which they can learn, we must use processes that not only are rigorous, valid, and reliable, but also engage teachers in those activities that promote learning—namely self-assessment, reflection on practice, and professional conversation.” Charlotte Danielson Evaluation is a tricky thing, even under...
On October 21st at 8:30 am, George Couros and I will host a workshop / discussion at The Educational Computing Organization of Ontario’s Conference exploring how leaders and aspiring leaders in the field of education can use online tools and social media to develop leadership competencies across the Ontario Leadership Framework. Watching the pre-conference chatter on twitter, I noticed...
Over the past several months, there have been a number of posts and articles about evaluating teachers in K-12 education. And in just the last few days, the media in British Columbia has been floating the idea of yearly teacher evaluations. Whether something like this happens or not in BC, I find that I...
Cross-posted at Edutopia. School leaders across the country are meticulously planning for the upcoming year. This process has become more difficult as mounting challenges such as budget cuts and what seems like a relentless attack on the profession of education have taken their toll on staff moral. With this being said, quality leadership becomes even...
Steve Bollar is an Upper Elementary Principal of Hartford Upper Elementary in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. He is passionate about creating a positive school climate and school culture one student, teacher, parent, and staff member at a time. If you are a tenured teacher or administrator think back to the day you got tenure. ...
Ok, so it’s July, and probably one of the most professionally reflective points in the year for me. Now that the end of year administrative dust has settled, I wanted to share two of my favourite reflective tools that help to shape and guide the ongoing development of both myself and our/my school. Firstly, in terms...
Cross-posted at the Huffington Post: Effective Leadership in the Age of Reform. School improvement efforts rely heavily on quality leadership. Educational leaders are tasked with establishing a collective vision for school improvement and initiating change to spur innovation, ensure student learning, and increase achievement. On July 13th I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. James Strong, from the...
After spending the last two years at Forest Green School and Connections for Learning as principal, I learned an amazing amount both through my success and failures. The idea of Connected Principals is to share our learning openly with other administrators and educators so we can not only better ourselves, but these lessons will...
I had the fantastic opportunity to attend the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) Leadership Academy, this past weekend in Banff, Alberta. Working with representatives from Parkland School Division, we talked about the many fantastic opportunities that we have in the future of education. While many are very pessimistic about the future of schools,...
It’s mid-May and I’ve been thinking a lot about next school year. To say that this has been a challenging year is an understatement. I began the year telling my staff the “Who Moved My Cheese?” story as we were planning a number of changes. I wanted to set the stage for us to...
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