2015 Was A Great Year

Creative Commons image sourced from: http://pixabay.com/en/sylvester-2015-fireworks-435376/

An ex-Principal of mine (Prue Kelly at Wellington High School) used to start the 1st Teacher Only Day of the year saying that it had been a great year. By setting that expectation from the start we just had the ‘simple’ task of proving her right. I am facing a year looking completely full of awesome (yes in the true sense of the word: reverence, fear et al) challenges:

#EdJourney Part 1

  I recently finished reading a wonderful book by Grant Lichtman called #EdJourney. This book is the result of an 89 day trip in which he visited 64 schools and interviewed over 600 people on educational innovation and the future of schools. Part One of the book is on roadblocks to change and innovation in schools and then gives examples of how schools he visited have overcome these. The four major obstacles found were:

• Time (the most common)
• People (risk, fear and growth mindset)
• Leadership
• Structure

Each of these are discussed in a chapter and also gives examples of how schools have overcome each of these.