As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post I intend to make three school visits each week in the coming session.
The focus of my visits are: leadership; self-evaluation and learning tasks.
At our Quality Improvement Group meeting this afternoon I was asked what I was looking for in relation to the last of these points of focus.
So here [...]
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A teacher said to me last week that we (in education) seem to have to play, more and more, the role of parents as well as educators. I had to point out to this person that that is exactly what we have to do - especially for some of the most vulnerable children in our communities.
One of the [...]
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How can some teachers work in the same school for forty years and leave the job as enthused as they were on their first day, whilst others in the same situation feel completely burntout and exhausted?
The signs of burnout tend to be more mental than physical. They can include feelings of:
Frustration and powerlessness
Hopelessness
Being drained of emotional [...]
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Diplomatic - skilled at dealing with sensitive matters or people
I spoke to two head teachers today about how they deal with potentially difficult situations with parents. It was interesting that they both almost used exactly the same words: “If you feel you need to “win” you’ve actually lost” Their point was that we need to [...]
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If learners aren’t paying attention they can’t learn. If they are being distracted by others in the class they can’t learn. It follows that for learning to take place then there must be a purposeful and focused environment in the classroom.
I was talking with a couple of colleagues this week about classroom behaviour and how it [...]
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Following on from my posts about
Children need to be liked and
Being positive about inclusion have set me to thinking that this is perhaps the key to the inclusion agenda. In my experience where a teacher, or a school for that matter, adopt an “Unconditional Positive Regard” for children, then the inclusion responsibility is effectively discharged. [...]
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Schools are on the mid-term break yesterday and today so not as much e-mail traffic as usual. I spent most of this morning working with Derek Haywood, School Business Manager, trying to finalise the budgets for primary and secondary schools.
Worked on SELS from 11.00-1.00 this system will allow us to actively engage pupils in providing [...]
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Following on from yesterday’s post and my conversation with Ewan MacIntosh I'm going to experiment with offering a little more of my own thoughts and feelings about education. I intend to start each daily entry with a “thought for the day”
TFTD Number 1
Children need to be liked
Do pupils need to feel that their teacher “likes” [...]
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SELMAS conference at Stirling Management centre, SELMAS stands for Scottish Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society. The theme of the conference was Opportunities and Challenges for Educational Leadership at a Time of Change
A variety of speakers including Peter Peacock, Minister of Education and Young People, Professor Brian Boyd, University of Strathclyde and Professor John MacBeath, [...]
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