Tag: School Leadership
Are Chemistry and Biology Relevant?
They’ve dominated the sciences taught in schools from grades 1-12 for at least the last century. But are they still relevant? Here are the facts. So tell me, why do we teach Biology and Chemistry as the two mandatory sciences in 2023? Wouldn’t it make more sense to teach programming and robotics in grades 1-10?…
The Nuances of Distinguishment
The days apart are starting to all look alike. All this social distancing is making the days stick together. Monday is hard to distinguish from Sunday. It’s kind of a blur. The days may be a blur, but you don’t have to be. Your work doesn’t have to be. Some people try to distinguish themselves.…
Management Before Leadership
Cults have leaders. Gangs have leaders. Dictatorships have leaders. Leaders wield influence, power, or other forms of socio-psychological leverage to achieve objectives. To be clear, leadership is not “bad”. But in schools and other social sector organizations, leadership is not the key to success. Management comes before leadership. And together, they form a foundation for…
The Filter: Any Engine Can Run On Fuel, For a Little While
Any engine can run on fuel for a little while, but there’s one small component that makes or breaks an engine. The filter. When sailing an open ocean, it’s all wind and sails. It’s coasting and cruising. But upon arriving at port the sails come down and the motor comes on. This is usually when…
School Improvement Plan or Compliance Plan?
Or is it a school improvement plan? Look, a one-page essay is hard for many students to write. A one-page poem is hard for most adults to write. And a one-page improvement plan is hard to find in most schools. That’s because most schools don’t have improvement plans. They have compliance plans. Compliance plans are…
Educational Leadership, At What Cost?
A quick Google search revealed the following: 1,030,000,000 results for Educational Management 454,000,000 results for Educational Leadership That might be shocking considering the trend in the last decade to replace all vestiges of the term “management” in education with the more amiable and aspirational term “leadership”. I revised the search to include only the past…
Capacity
The dictionary defines it: The maximum amount that something can obtain. The amount that something can produce. Both leadership and management have one thing in common. Their chief aim is to increase capacity. They go about in different ways, but the goal is the same. This is the topic of today’s podcast episode: Dam Capacity.
Sophisticated Problems
The pathway of school leads to sophistication. It’s what schools do. They create sophisticated thought. For example, it’s not enough just to use the practical register of English, we must master the grammar, the art, and the history of literary works. We spend years learning degrees of sophistication. And sophistication is good. Sophistication allows abstract…
Example is Better than Precept
In last week’s episode on Empowering Your School, one tactic I offered was Lead by Doing. This tactic can also work for crafting changes in school culture. A leader’s action will instigate the first steps faster than a thousand well-worded precepts. After you take the first step, it’s much easier to take the second step…
School Health, Culture, and Climate
Climate is the temperature of the school. It’s how people interact with the culture. Culture is the combination of routines, rituals, habits, and beliefs of the school. It’s the engine. School health is an overarching factor that encompasses culture and climate. It is the degree to which leadership teams unify and mobilize their people to…
Leadership Learning Communities (Interview, Danny Sunshine Bauer)
I sat down for an interview with Danny “Sunshine” Bauer of Better Leaders Better Schools recently to talk about Leadership Learning Communities. Here are a few highlights from that conversation: [divider style=’centered’]Leadership CommunityMF -Why is it important for school leaders to be a part of a leadership learning community? DSB The job’s too hard to do by…
No Peaks, Cycle of Summits
There are no peaks, only one summit after another. It’s a cycle of summit to summit, from win to win, and mountain to mountain. Peaks are like positions. They give perspective and teach lessons. Positions are launching points to new responsibilities…to new perspectives. Positions are not power. They are not goals. If you climb a…
Leadership: The Fulcrum in School Culture
School culture is the engine of your school’s success, but it’s not an engine that’s bolted to a frame. Largely, because school culture is not an actual machine, but a living collective organism comprised of humans, thoughts, beliefs, traditions, and actions. So where does school culture rest? On the single fulcrum of leadership. Here’s a…
The River That Shapes
The power of a river can chisel the toughest granite and smooth the most jagged limestone. The river is what shapes the Grand Canyon. Over time, it grinds. It’s relentless and never rests. School cultures are shaped in the same way. But what makes the river? Here’s a piece of it. Forgiveness. Forgiveness is the…
Net Zero, Negative, and Positive Messages
Imagine being told you’re going to have a salad bar for teacher appreciation week, and you plan accordingly and don’t pack a lunch. You’re thankful for the gesture and are starving after 4 hours with the kiddos! You show up to the lounge, but it’s your luck that you have last lunch. There’s a message…