by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Jun 30, 2012 | The Leadership Project
What comes to mind when you think of Belgium? Chocolates, waffles, or beer? Maybe Brussels sprouts. For someone, like myself, who has worked in SE Asia most of my career, Belgium seems like a far off exotic place where trains arrive on time, the streets are clean, and it gets cold enough to wear a sweater. After my talk with Kevin Bartlett, Head of School at the International School of Brussels, it might be more accurate to think of leadership, at least in international schools. While most schools realize that leadership consists of more than the three or four people that occupy the front offices, in my experience, not many schools do anything to develop the school’s less public leaders. Recognizing this gap in development Kevin and his team at ISB, have pushed for common training and leadership development for the many various leaders in the school. Developing leaders is valued so highly that they’ve even incorporated it into their strategic goals. Goal number two reads, “All of our outstanding teachers are motivated, retained and developed. Middle-level leaders are fully effective in leading towards the ISB vision. The school has re-designed its leadership and career development system, and now provides full leadership training for all faculty team leaders and mentors. Job expectations and compensation have been re-structured to reflect the greater emphasis on the importance of faculty leadership and mentoring.” If this seems like a big goal, it’s because it is, but I was lucky enough to hear from Mr. Bartlett about how this is being acted out, as well as what has helped in his own development and...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Jun 30, 2012 | Leadership News, The Leadership Project
I am really excited to announce that this fall at the EARCOS Leadership Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Learn[ed]Leadership has been granted the opportunity to host a workshop. The culmination of The Leadership Project, The Leadership Symposium will be a candid Q&A style discussion for all school leaders. Tim Carr from Jakarta International School and Jim Koerschen from Concordia Shanghai, have generously volunteered to participate in a panel discussion with a few other leaders (TBD), to discuss their challenges and triumphs as leaders, as well as take questions from the audience. If you or leaders in your school plan to be at the ELC this fall I hope you’ll join us. Details about the exact date and time will be announced later this fall. Learn more...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Jun 13, 2012 | Leadership News
Interesting review of Sherry Turkle’s research on kids and technology. How much should we try to restrict our student’s modern means of communication? Is the solution to encouraging student interaction restricting technology or teaching the value of real relationships? What policies does your school use in regards to technology? “Friends’ Without a Personal Touch By Michiko Kakutani Teenagers who send and receive six to eight thousand texts a month and spend hours a day on Facebook. Mourners who send text messages during a memorial service because they can’t go an hour without using their BlackBerries. Children who see an authentic Galapagos tortoise at the American Museum of Natural History and can’t understand why the museum didn’t use a robot tortoise instead. High school students who wonder how much they should tilt their Facebook profiles toward what their friends will think is cool, or what college admissions boards might prize. As Sherry Turkle notes in her perceptive new book, “Alone Together,” these are examples of the ways technology is changing how people relate to one another and construct their own inner lives. She is concerned here not with the political uses of the Internet — as manifested in the current democratic uprisings in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East — but with its psychological side effects. In two earlier books, Ms. Turkle — a professor of the social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a clinical psychologist — put considerable emphasis on the plethora of opportunities for exploring identity that computers and networking offer people. In these pages, she takes a considerably darker...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Jun 9, 2012 | The Leadership Project
Dr. Bill Gerritz, Head of School at the International School Bangkok, is a self-described “nerd” who views much of his work with the eyes of an engineer. In fact much of what Dr. Gerritz has achieved while leading various international schools around the world could be described as visionary engineering. Most recently he’s helped to pioneer the ISB invention Center, which will create a “system for kids who are interested in science and math [a place to] actually create new machines” and think like engineers. After 11 years at ISB, and over two decades overseas, Bill is ending his international school career to make room for new endeavors. When asked about retirement he was quick to explain, “I’m not calling it retirement, [because] retiring implies going to sleep or going off somewhere. I’m calling it being on the loose or a very long summer.” So if you happen to be in Estes Park, CO this summer watch out for Dr. Gerritz who will be officially on the loose and anxious to start his new adventure. Thankfully before he takes off, I had the opportunity to listen to him reflect on his leadership experience in international education. (If not specifically quoted, Dr. Gerritz’s responses to these questions have been paraphrased) You’ve had the opportunity to work all over the world, what’s surprised you the most about working in Bangkok? “Thai culture is very peaceful, gentle, and funny. This is the most humorous place I’ve ever worked at…[there’s] a lot of joking and laughing and fooling around.” Are there other schools or administrators that inspire the way you lead ISB? I...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Jun 8, 2012 | Leadership News, Summer Reading List
One of Hollywood’s favorite portrayals of teachers is of the dedicated, stern, and often second career professional who decides to give up a high-paying gig in the corporate world to make a difference in the classroom. If this is the case for you and you’re independently wealthy, then the financial challenges some teachers face might seem hard to fathom. As a personal example, in my last position before moving overseas, I made only $1550/month after taxes, despite working about 12 hours a day. Plus if you add in the fact that many teachers spend some of their own cash on classroom supplies, take home pay becomes less and less. Of course this is the case for many teachers and even in international education there are many challenges teachers must overcome. Combined with cutbacks in school funding and rising student-teacher ratios, it doesn’t seem like teaching is the best place to maintain a finically secure life. For many, the words millionaire and teacher may seem more like an antonym then any form of reality. Andrew Hallam, an English Teacher at Singapore American School and author of Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School, argues otherwise. In his book, Hallam reveals nine important lessons he sticks to that has helped him create a large nest egg and live a great life now too. Without giving too much away, he argues a few simple principles, which include, save more then you spend, invest that money into three low-cost index funds (including a broad based US index fund, a international fund, and a global bond fund), and...
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