Introducing The Leadership Project

by | Mar 13, 2012 | The Leadership Project

Over the last few weeks I’ve been scratching my head a lot, thinking about characteristics of leadership and educational change.  So far I’m excited to see that there are others out there that are interested in this topic and have been checking in.  However, my original goal in starting Learn[ed]Leadership wasn’t just to examine the traits of leadership–and why bother, there are thousands of books out there already on the topic.  My goal has been to learn specifically about what great leaders are doing in international education.  I also hope in doing this I can find out what educational leaders are doing in common to advance schools and develop talent. So with this in mind I want to introduce The Leadership Project.  An industry specific forum to examine and interview leaders in international education.  In most job interviews the prospective employer often asks “what questions do you have for me?”  Unfortunately, especially in international education, it’s not common to have a lot of time to ask questions about what’s shaped that person’s leadership philosophy.  My hope is that by “flipping the tables” on school leaders we can learn from their experiences what motivates, inspires and challenges them to be relevant in a changing educational world and also see what our industry is doing well, poorly or just not doing. Dr. Dick Krajczar, the Executive Director of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) agreed to be my first interviewee and I will post his responses to my questions within the coming days.  He already mentioned a number of school leaders he thinks I should interview next, but I...

The Changing World of Education: Kony 2012

by | Mar 11, 2012 | Blog, Teacher's Corner, Video

I’m beginning to see that we are living at the edge of a very unusual time in education.  My students helped me discover this today by introducing me to a documentary on Joseph Kony the Ugandan warlord. By now you may have heard of the Kony 2012 campaign designed by the US based non-profit Invisible Children (If not I’ll post the documentary at the bottom).  Since the videos initial release, just earlier this week, over 60 million people have viewed it. Suddenly students who were never interested in Central African war atrocities want to discuss and learn more about the topic.  No doubt this is partly due to the nature of the story but it’s also a testimony to the effectiveness of clever branding and brilliant marketing.  Over the last few years there has been a steady increase of viral marketing and attempts to raise awareness through social media, but none have seemed as layered and effective as the Kony 2012 campaign. So how does this relate to education?  As I watched the inspiration rise in my students as we discussed this topic I see an opportunity to capitalize on their motivation.  In fact it seems more and more normal for my students to be keen marketing commentators.  I’d like to follow their motivation and see where we end up, but there’s one big problem, this is IB history and May exams are right around the corner.  So instead of harnessing my student’s ambition and seeing where it takes us I have to get my students ready to be assessed.  Anyone who teaches 12th graders in the spring knows...

Your Questions For Dr. Krajczar

by | Mar 6, 2012 | Education, Leadership News

As I mentioned in previous posts the goal of this blog is to learn more about great leadership in international education and where it’s happening.  Since I’m just about out of ideas, I’ve been lucky enough to connect with someone who should have some good thoughts on the topic. I’m excited to announce that Dr. Richard Krajczar has agreed to meet with me to share his thoughts on leadership and international education.  Dr. Krajczar is the current Executive Director of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools, or more commonly referred to as EARCOS.  For any of you who are teaching in East Asia it’s likely you’re familiar with the organization and have maybe even attended one of their annual teacher or leadership conferences. Before overseeing EARCOS Dr. Krajczar was the Headmaster at the International School of Kuala Lumpur and has worked in international education for over thirty years. So instead of only relying on myself to come up with questions, I thought I’d open it up to any readers out there who have something they’d like the to ask Dr. Krajczar.  I can’t promise I’ll ask every question, but don’t miss out on this opportunity and post your questions...

Is Admin To Blame For All Our Problems

by | Mar 5, 2012 | Leadership News, US Schools

Although this editorial is about the education system in the US, it says some pretty provocative things about administrators in general.  I think most responsible administrators would accept a lot of responsibility for their school’s success or failure, but do they deserve the most blame?  Is poor leadership as endemic in school administration as Mr. White seems to think?  Are international schools different, or are our problems masked by our relatively high performing population? Paul D. White: Education Lost in Administration By Paul D. White NO education reform article I’ve ever read accurately identified the two real stumbling blocks to improving our K-12 school system. The reason is because almost all of them are written by school administrators – not teachers. Our schools are melting down – academically and morally – for two simple reasons that (contrary to what you’re told) have almost nothing to do with teacher quality or a lack of funding: Ineffective leadership at all levels and a refusal to hold parents accountable for their children’s behavior. That’s it. These two areas are the source of every single thing that’s wrong with our nation’s schools. School leaders would have you believe that public education’s failure is totally due to ineffective teaching. But their endless attempts to lay full blame on inadequate teachers, teacher training programs, tenure, nonspecific curriculum, etc., are nothing but camouflage blather, used to distract the public from the real causes of this problem. This problem starts at the top, with the U.S secretary of education. The education secretary is the symbolic head of all K-12 schools in the United States. Secretary Arne Duncan, like...

Make Room for the Introverts

by | Mar 3, 2012 | Leadership News, Video

A great TED Talk about society’s view of introverts and our obsession with extroverted leadership. How can we as teachers, administrators, parents, etc rethink the way we view introverts and extroverts?  Are you an introvert?  How about your school’s leaders?  Is your school a good place to be an...