I quite like the idea of choosing a “big word” for the year ahead that will guide my thoughts and actions across the next twelve calendar months. But, I’ve buggered it up a couple of times. I tried to choose naff, corporate words that were about doing more and being more. I tried “growth” and…
It’s the time of year when we make all sorts of personal resolutions and also when we adjust the course of our school before we set sail into a new year. Many school leaders tell me that they contemplate a restorative future for their schools in January. Good! Today, I’d like to give you a…
As you enter 2022, I’d like you to stop trying to be the best. There’s way too much of what I call bestism in the world and I’d like its eradication to begin with you and I. So, if you agree not to strive to be the best teacher or the best school, then I’ll…
It’s been a rugged year. For some educators and schools, it’s been more rugged than for others. That ruggedness may be partially attributable to wealth or lack thereof and it may partially be due to the personal toll of the pandemic on our own lives and families. The impact may also have been an act…
I loved reading last week about New Zealand’s ambitions through the Smokefree Aoearoa 2025 Action Plan. Essentially, they want to remove smoking from the entire country by 2025. It’s pretty audacious. But it’s also backed up by a detailed plan. I think it’s that sheer audacity of the goal that so appeals to me. Even…
To those of you who have commenced to plan for 2022, I salute you. I was in a conversation with one such Senior Teacher last week who told me that she’d focus on relationships in the first four weeks of 2022 because, in her words “Relationships are the most important thing” She told me her…
It’s December and that means it’s time for some of the customary end-of-year gifts to begin landing on the desks of teachers. I remember well the gift that mattered most to me … and perhaps even taught me my own little ‘Spirit of Christmas’ lesson. While I certainly appreciated and used the gifts that came…
I’ve written before about the end of the year and the mistakes we make as we near it. I’ve suggested that “taking the foot off” reduces the likelihood of student achievement and creates an achievement vacuum often filled with poor behaviour. I’ve suggested that we keep the foot down and “teach til the end”. I’ve…
To be blunt, you shouldn’t be promising parents that you’ll be outcomes consistent when it comes to student conduct … because it’s not possible. Sure, the table you prepared of categorised behaviours and the standardised responses to them seems fair, orderly and artistically appealing. That is, until any context is applied. For instance, we can…
In preparation for the webinar I recently ran called “The Comeback Kid” we looked at what schools around the world are doing when it comes to the Covid stuff and lockdown returns – masks, social distancing, air flow, hand sanitizer, etc. What we found was an almost ridiculously wide spectrum of both approaches and parental…