21 Things That Will Be Obsolete in School by 2020

Had to link this one - I have summarised the list below and linked to the blog post where you can read the original detail on each one - some may be more pertinent for high schools - maybe not??  I'm going to try and comment on each one over time on what it might mean for our place!?!

21 Things That Will Be Obsolete by 2020

1.  Desks gone! - 2 classrooms down - 4 to go!

2.  Language Labs

3.  Computers - mix of iMac's, MacBooks and iPads happening!

4.  Homework

5.  The role of standardised tests in college admissions

6.  Differentiated instruction as a sign of a distinguished teacher

7.  Fear of Wikipedia

8.  Paperbacks

9.  Attendance Offices

10.  Lockers

11.  I.T. departments

12.  Centralised institutions

13.  Organisation of education services by grade

14.  Education schools that fail to integrate technology

15.  Paid/Outsourced professional development

16.  Current curricular norms

17.  Parent / Teacher conference night

18.  Typical cafeteria food

19.  Outsourced graphic and web design

20.  High School Algebra 1

21.  Paper!

Social Networking in Schools

While browsing the 40 odd posts summarised on Google Reader from the 'Committed Sardine' Blog that I hadn't yet read was one that I found really topical.  The pros and cons of Social Networking in Schools is something that our school is working through at the moment.  We have a generation of students to whom online networking is 'normal' and still highly engaging and rewarding for them in their learning journey while some teachers and parents - while mostly not negative about it - are unsure about something that is not natural to them.  As the linked post examples there are pros and cons to any social networking online and part of the development in use of them is to ensure that good procedures manage and minimise the risk without restricting the potential it brings to learning.

Part of reviewing our local goals and strategic plan this year will hopefully involve some good discussion with parents about how education is (and has to) change to meet the changing needs of our 21st century society and just how social networking / online collaboration fits in with this.  This is an exciting time as we attempt to keep our school and its learning environment relevant to todays students while also ensuring that partnership with our parent community is enhanced rather than disconnected!

Sustainable Leadership

Since coming back to school from the NZPF conference I have been reading Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink's book on Sustainable Leadership.  They list seven key principles of sustainability in educational change and leadership.  I want to list them here and then over time I hope to come back and reflect on them in more detail as I continue to read the book over the term break!  They are:

1.  Depth - Sustainable leadership matters.
2.  Length - Sustainable leadership lasts.
3.  Breadth - Sustainable leadership spreads.
4.  Justice - Sustainable leadership does no harm to and actively improves the surrounding environment.
5.  Diversity - Sustainable leadership promotes cohesive diversity.
6.  Resourcefulness - Sustainable leadership develops and does not deplete material and human resources.
7.  Conservation - Sustainable leadership honors and learns from the best of the past to create an even better future.

How we engage and learn from others - Andy Hargreaves 1

To grow as a teacher, leader and school we have to find what is positive, optimistic and challenging from learning with other teachers, leaders and institutions.

You become a better teacher from learning from other good teachers.  You don't just learn from the biggest or the most powerful, you learn from sharing with some of the best, usually more than one!  One example tends to be overwhelming.  We have a staff of individuals that are very good at sharing and encouraging improvement in each other.  They may not always agree - but that is a good thing for in our diversity lies our strength as it is brought together by the shared purpose of whatever a particular initiative is trying to achieve.

Its the same for schools - you don't just look at one when you want to improve or reflect on what you are doing - you network with a number of them.  Like our ICT cluster we should be able to learn from each other.  Though for this to happen authentically it requires genuine trust and respect for what each other is doing.  This does not happen overnight but it can!  Otherwise, we are all just islands doing our own little thing and like the old saying goes - "united we stand, divided we fall!"

Learning time for self

Last week I attended the NZPF Conference in Wellington with around 800 other Principals and School Leaders.  While attending the keynotes, catching snippets of discussion around the trade hall and having in depth discussions with colleagues and friends from around the country my head became rather full of information that will take some weeks to work through.  Coming back to the real world of school for the last week of term means catching up with the happenings in house and the initiatives that we are working on locally and with other schools.  This is the real world and gives the context to what was a very powerful time and one that enables a return on the investment (time and money) for some time to come.  With the term break approaching at the end of the this week I look forward to listening to a couple of the keynotes again (yes I bought the discs!),  some light reading (on topics such as Sustainable Leadership by Professor Andy Hargreaves!) and then posting some reflections (hopefully for a comment or two!)

Watch this space...