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

Once upon a time a high heid yin from East Lothian was called upon to accompany five beautiful, highly intelligent, vivacious, drop dead gorgeous, head teachers on their journey to excellence. Despite his small goods, Don chose to accept this mission and he began to impart his passion and wisdom surrounding the mysterious world of blogging at Glasgow airport departure lounge. To ensure a sense of belonging, Don issued top of the range celtic toories to establish open source leadership (WHIT?).

His relentless nagging (hold on to that - write it down, write it down!) of these five beautiful, highly intelligent, vivacious, drop dead gorgeous, head teachers on their journey to excellence, ensured that they blogged and reflected and blogged and reflected and blogged and reflected and blogged so much that they got blogged off!

Don is a net worker par excellence. During a visit down under to the Charles, Don’s ingenious non verbal communication skills (sign language) impressed the international audience so much that they have been used frequently in all lectures. In addition his entrepreneurial skills have funded his remaining stay in the Big Apple. (Has he mentioned Broadway!?).  Who else could have been in charge of the kitty?
Don peerie goods introduced the five beautiful, highly intelligent, vivacious, drop dead gorgeous, head teachers on their journey to excellence to raspberry martinis, purple rain, Fred and Gingers and the world of fine dining – they did draw the line at sushi!
Upon reflection as the five beautiful, highly intelligent, vivacious, drop dead gorgeous, head teachers on their journey to excellence neared the end of their journey they realised that they had learned the importance of invitational/ distributed/ adaptive/ collaborative/ reflective/ open source/ instructional/ value added/ blogging leadership and the impact this will have on their return.

Don’s girls would like to say thank you for this CPD experience.

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!!!   OOPS WATCH THIS BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

In the course of today we’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing education in Scotland and some of the issues which present real leadership challenges - this list is not exhaustive and will grow and change over the course of the the next few days but we thought we should try to capture them here:

1. How do we provide leadership to teachers who do not want to engage in the improvement process?
2. How do we establish a balance between parental rights and parental responsibility?
3. How do we encourage flexibility and creativity in how we approach the curriculum and yet maintain a strong focus on improving attainment?
4. How might Head Teachers and Local Authorities work together to do something about weak Head Teachers?
5. How do we create a culture where we can share difficult truths about the quality of teaching and learning or leadership - without it being seen as a personal attack?
6. How do prevent some people coming through Intital Teacher Training and quite obviously not being up to the required standard?
7. How do we really embed self-evaluation within our schools and local authorities?
8. How do we introduce five year school based contracts for teachers and head teachers, where they could then be transferred to another school?
9. How might head teachers “reinvent” themselves after a period of time in post?
10. How do we manage incompetence in our schools and local authorities?

First post at 35,000 feet. We arrive in Boston in an hour. So what do we hope to get from this experience? Here are some thoughts from the Team

To be challenged in my thinking and practice

To share learning experiences and practice in an international context

To enjoy the experience!

To spend quality time focusing on what leadership really is in relation to learning and teaching.

To have the opportunity to engage in discussions with other professionals about experiences, views and opinions related to leadership.

To further and challenge my own thinking in terms of reflecting on what leadership means for me regarding my own school and authority.

To assist me in considering my own professional development.

Enjoy the company of people committed to improving education in an intense and focussed environment.

Learn some new things about leadership which will change the way I think and behave - even if only in very small ways.

Really test out some of my own ideas about educational leadership.

To enjoy the experience of being a learner.