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...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | May 31, 2012 | The Leadership Project
As I’ve had the opportunity to meet with peers at other international schools, it seems that so many international educators come from either Washington, or Minnesota, my home state. Although I’m sure the world of international ED benefits from all the high-IQ WA expats, Minnesota and the Midwest continue to export good-ole fashion kindness. Where I’m from we actually call it “Minnesota-nice.” Although Dr. Kerry Jacobson, Superintendent at Shanghai American School, originally comes from Wisconsin, he spent a large chunk of his career in Minnesota before moving overseas, and it seems some of the state’s niceties have “rubbed off.” Despite a demanding schedule overseeing a school population above 3000, Dr. Jacobson was not only nice enough to meet with me in the busy month of May, but also put-up with a weak Skype connection—and he did it all with a big smile. As we talked Kerry spoke of the importance of bridging the complex differences between stakeholders at our schools. He went on to explain that although it’s important to be focused in our execution of purpose, so much of what we do relies on our ability to connect, empathies and be nice with others. As a proud Midwesterner, I’d like to think his success as a leader might be traced back to his time in Minnesota. You’ve spent most of your career in US public Schools, what has been the most drastic difference between leading a public school and an international school like SAS? First off, I have to say that I am a big advocate for American public education “[in fact] I think American public education is...
![Introducing the Learn[ed]Leadership Summer Reading List](https://i2.wp.com/learnedleadership.org/divi/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/reading-list.jpg?resize=900%2C220)
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | May 30, 2012 | Leadership News, Summer Reading List
Why is it that the longest month of the year also happens to be the last month of the school year? Of course there are a number of months with 31 days (7 to be exact), but August is the only month without any major school holidays. Now don’t get all pious as you read this and say you don’t need a break. After all if you’re like most teachers or administrators I know (at least the good ones), you’ve been working 50-60 hr work weeks all year anyway. So now that summer is finally upon us, it’s time to reflect on the year and learn something new. Sounds like a nice vague summer goal to me. So in an attempt to keep myself accountable and not let the summer drip through my fingers like a quickly melting ice cream cone on the 4th of July (I am from the US after all), I’m going to use the following weeks to review a few books for the Learn[ed]Leadership Summer Reading List. Similar to the book reviews in TIME Magazine, I’ll make a quick a cutting judgement of the book; either READ, SKIM, or SKIP. The first book for the Learn[ed]Leadership Summer Reading List is Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School. Yes, I know it has little to do with leadership, but it was written by a fellow international teacher, Andrew Hallam, an English teacher at Singapore American School. Learn more about his book and how to download a copy here. Watch for the review in the coming...
![Learn[ed]Leadership Pages](http://redesign.learnedleadership.org/divi/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Logo3.jpg){kind=logo}
Recent Comments