(This is a copy of a my guest blog post published this week for the World Innovation Summit for Education – WISE, Qatar – on re-designing spaces for learning: http://www.wise-qatar.org/content/stephen-harris-redesigning-spaces-around-collaborative-teaching and slide show: http://www.wise-qatar.org/node/16860 RE-DESIGNING SPACES FOR LEARNING There is a clear movement occurring in education globally right now – a movement that is seeking...
I believe that every person in this world has dreamed of having the power to be invisible. It would be nice to have the power to strategically vanish (if only for a little while). As nice as it would be…the power of invisibility does not translate well into the world of leadership. Visibility...
This year is a leap year as evidenced by today being February 29th. It should also be a leap year for your leadership practices. I know you have heard the saying “Look Before You Leap” a million times. This concept was unsuccessfully drilled in my head throughout a series of leaping adventures growing up...
“Some organizations incubate companies – we incubate people. The mission of the Sandbox Network is to accelerate young leaders and help them have a global impact before they become 30.” http://www.sandbox-network.com/ “Imagine if a country’s assessment system measured the growing impact a young person has had on sustainability, environmental responsibility, equity or...
This interesting thought occurred during a conversation today. Are we living through a process whereby social media is finally breaking down some of the traditional divides that have kept education transformation suppressed? I suspect we are. What is twitter managing to do? Break down the barriers that have made it difficult for teachers...
Rwanda 2012 Reflection #4 – do you use your role for a higher purpose? As Principals, Superintendents or school leaders, do you use your position to try and ‘be the change’? It seems like a straightforward enough question – but probably one that bears a...
Rwanda Reflections #3 – ‘They walk straight past us’ Through this series of blog posts, I am seeking to process another profound experience – visiting Rwanda for the fourth time. I am also hoping to raise awareness of the educational needs of this country – particularly in the regional rural schools. And I...
Rwanda 2012 Reflection #2 – ‘We could and should have done more’ – Kofi Annan, 2004 A journey I have just spent 8 days in Rwanda in preparation for a summit I am organizing with some colleagues – Innovate Rwanda (www.scil.com.au/rwanda). During these days, I had the privilege of being invited into...
Rwanda 2012 Reflection #1 Circumstantial Privilege I probably think way too much and I’ve had the opportunity to travel a fair amount in the last few years as part of a process to determine ‘next practice’ for our school. When in the air and looking at a map of the terrain over which...
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...
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” - Albert Einstein Earlier this week I began writing about the second new year for leaders. You can read the introductory post for more background information here. We have already admitted that the beginning of the school year has not been exactly perfect...
The title for this particular blog had its origin as I listened to a number of presentations on ‘blended learning’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning) at the Virtual School Symposium. I have for some years liked the notion of blended learning and it seemed a generally suitable term describing a learning environment where students could transition from the...
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...
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...
Have you ever read one of those emails that just got under your skin? You know that email or post that just elevated your blood pressure to the point where you felt like your head was going to explode? You then frantically type out a response and hit the send button only to think,...
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. ...
Right now there is a conversation that is going on in #EDChat about the impact that social media has on education. As many posts in the last little while have talked about the urgency to adopt social media and technology into our schools (including mine), the “why” of this needs to be apparent. Now...
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