Harvard Graduate School of Education - Leadership: an Evolving Vision 2007

I am sure that we all like the idea of working less, playing more and still getting the job done. That was the focus on our lecture today by Malachi Pancoast. He was posing us with the question ‘Are we technicians or managers?’ His definitions for each were:

Technician - a specialist or expert whose expertise runs narrow and deep.

Manager- A person whose job it is to get things done through other people.

He used a great deal of examples linked to the sporting arena highlighting that baseball managers/coaches observe and give feedback. They get into where the game is actually happening. How often do we as Head Teachers do that? Is that our core business or do we get bogged down with the paperwork?

By getting out to where the work is happening we would have “command presence” and build belonging. He carefully linked this to a police car coming up behind you in your car. How does this impact on our driving?

Malachi suggested that we as Head Teachers should have three types of day:

Coaching days (2 days a week) - these days for being in classrooms and around the school

Office days (3 days a week) - these days being for paperwork, meetings, phone calls etc.

Rest days (2 days a week) - weekends. There are two rules here -No paperwork at home at nights and no paperwork at home at the weekends. Does that actually seem possible?

Malachi gaves us 7 steps to producing a breakthrough in our time. The seven steps were:

1) Clear the office - he suggested that our offices should be impeccable with no desk, no paper and no computer. For me this would be a real challenge.

2) Redefining your secretary’s role- the secretary runs the show and we do what we are told. I don’t have difficulty with this one but I know that this would take time. I am used to being in control so this would be challenging.

3) Your secretary handles all your mail and paperwork. - What a super idea! I am lucky to have a super secretary who does sort out all the mail but this is much more than that and is linked to the next step.

4) Your secretary holds a 20 minute meeting with you every day. At this point he/she would review the paperwork with you and recommend action. The secretary takes the paperwork wiith them when complete. This would release a huge amount of burden from us. Too often the paperwork sitting there is just a reminder of what needs to be done and causes pollution. By having someone else aware of what needs to be done and be able to schedule tasks in your diary you know it will be done to time. Is this time management at its best?

5) Hand your calendar to your secretary- Would we want staff to have to schedule time with us via the secretary? Does this affect an ‘open door’ policy?

6) Become superfluous to the operation - Do nothing. Become unneeded - do not play. Are there some people who would struggle with this concept? Do we need to be needed?

7) Keep in mind, this is a process. Like any change it takes time and we need to make sure that everyone is aware of the changes and understand them.

For me there are key things that I would to take away and try. Let’s face it anything that can help us work less and play more is appealling and of benefit to our health.

I listened to Norman Kunc and Emma Van der Klift today talking about Inclusion. This lecture was extremely powerful and thought provoking. It emphasised the importance of building a ‘sense of belonging’ for staff and pupils in order to allow them to grow and learn. Two things that stood out for me during this lecture were:

• the importance of listening to those with experience, mainly pupils and their families.
• How we provide support in schools to ensure that the needs of the children are really met. Making sure it is the child’s needs and not the teacher’s needs

Often the support we think people require is not actually what is needed. Without taking time to ascertain the need by asking those who have the experience we will struggle to get it right.

For me one of the most important skills we can instil in our pupils is independence – the ability to initiate the support we require. There are different kinds of support for teacher that can be put in place to assist inclusion. Some of these highlighted by Norman and Emma were:

Information, collaborative planning, shared agreement on goals and expectations, classroom and school based support, classroom assistant and administrative support.

Too often people think that the answer of ‘support’ is additional staffing. Pupils who have someone there to scribe for them, carry their bags and be with them all the time may be being robbed of their independence and their ability to find solutions for themselves. We need to ensure that ALL pupils are leaving school with life skills and are not too dependent on others. ‘Avoid co-dependent symbiotic relationships’.

It is imperative that we ask the pupils and their families how we can support them and what works best for them. Norman Kunc suggested that the first question we ask pupils with a disability is ‘How can I help you?’ Shouldn’t we ask all pupils this?

This would allow us to focus on the experience rather than make generalisations which could lead to mistakes and misunderstanding.

The use of ‘passports’ and ‘My meeting booklets’ for pupils with ASN are an excellent tool to ensure that the pupils voice is heard. We must also be listening at other times to these children to guarantee that we do not overpower them with unnecessary support. We must allow them to feel valued and respected – providing a sense of belonging. Emma Van der Klift spoke about how important it is to ask pupil what their dream/vision is. As teachers we need to know this if we want to assist pupils along their path.

‘Relationships are the only way to get authentic influence’.