by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Oct 30, 2012 | Blog, Guest Blog
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power branding has on our understanding of companies around the world. When one thinks about companies like Apple Computers, for example, it’s not unusual for people to associate words like hip, trendy, youthful, rich, and educated. This association is by no means an accident, and is another example of the power of effective branding. As proof of this I’m reminded of a story I read this summer about the US-based travel website Orbitz, which would channel visitors using Apple computers to more expensive hotels and vacation packages because it was believed that these users would prefer options that started on the higher end. I believe that few would argue that branding is an important part of any business or organization (heck I’ve even taken a lot of time to think about what brand I’m creating at Learn[ed]Leadership)…but what about a school? As I’ve interviewed various school leaders over the last year, some have seemed to be uncomfortable using the word brand while others have fully accepted it. Either way I believe, whether we realize it or not our schools create a brand in our community for better or for worse. However, unlike multi-national companies that can spend billions on building their brands and reputation, our schools’ brands are built on their standing in the community. I had a chance to speak with Nick Kent the current Assistant HS Principal at Concordia Shanghai, who put it this way: “[I find that when I] try to have conversations with people about marketing & PR of their schools, their immediate inclination is to think...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Oct 21, 2012 | Blog
The other day as I was looking at the website of an international school, I noticed an interesting statistic listed on its school profile–100% of its teachers are certified. Now that may not seem very interesting since it’s expected or assumed that anyone who wants to be taken seriously in the teaching profession will get a teaching license. After all, don’t we expect the same from many other professions in the world. However, the longer I’ve been in education the less convinced I am that having a license is good indicator of the strength of a teacher. In fact I think it can be argued that a license is only a minimum indication of a teacher’s ability. For example, I know an amazing teacher who for a few years taught MS and HS ESL (including math and science), before being moved to the lower school to teach mainstream grade 4 and 5. She originally went to school for business, but has spent the majority of her career in a classroom. Even though she has no teaching license, she is an excellent teacher (much better than I ever was). She’s become so good because of a combination of mentorship, professional development, and an amazing desire to improve. She’s talked about working towards a license, but has concluded that the time and resources (tuition) required could be better spent on other things. Again, this is not say that a license isn’t valuable, but maybe instead of tying it so closely to university classes, it could alternatively be tied to experience? The military has figured this out giving battlefield commissions to solders...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Sep 12, 2012 | Blog
The beginning of the new school year has come and gone and it’s around this time I start to see droopy faced students and teachers roaming the hallways. How can it be that people are already looking so tired by week 5 of the school year? So it’s not surprising that as teachers and administrators, it’s right about now that we start to talk more and more about finding balancing in our lives. But is balance possible? The oddity of schools is that by their nature they’re not balanced. In what other industry do people work from dawn to dusk for 9-10 months of the year and then have little to no work to do in the off season? As the descendant of a midwest farming family (many of whom still work the field), farmers are some of the only other people I know who have the same schedule, which isn’t a coincidence. My dad was a farmer, so I distinctly remember the late nights he’d work in the fall, trying to get all the crops harvested, and the cold winters when I’d come home from school to see my dad had rearranged the basement…again. Maybe balance is so elusive because it doesn’t really exist…at least not in the form we’re searching for. If asked to define balance some would probably interpret it to mean managing the time in your life to allow for a variety of challenging, innovative and diverse activities. Although that quick definition could also mean that we should try not to be too challenged, innovative or diversified. That doesn’t seem right, does it? I can’t...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Aug 9, 2012 | Blog, The Leadership Project
For many of us in international education the new school year is already upon us. For some of you diehard holiday lovers this might come with a little dread, but hopefully as an educator you feel at least a little excitement at the beginning of a new school year. Like most summers I planned to do much more then I ever accomplished, which was compounded this year as it was my first time chasing after a 1-year old all day. It really is amazing how little one gets done in a day when it’s spent chasing after a small child. So now that I’ve taken a little break from the blog and the Leadership Project, I thought it might be nice to reflect on what I’ve learned from the many great leaders I’ve had a chance to connect with this year. So I’ve compiled a few of my favorite quotes and words of advice below. Click on the name of the person to go directly to their interview. Advice: “If you’re interested in leadership, then raise your hand for anything that would constitute leadership, even if [it’s not your specialty]…[and] make yourself indispensable.” Tim Carr, Jakarta International School “Trust takes a long time to develop and can be lost in a sentence, so be scrupulously honest with people.” Bill Gerritz, International School Bangkok I think it’s important to always focus on excellence and to never be satisfied with the status quo. Similar to Philippians 4:8 which says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Jul 27, 2012 | Blog
I just survived my 5th trans-Pacific flight with a 1-year old. Gone are the days of in-flight movies and long stretches of time to work, read, or think (oh how good I had it). Today my flights are filled with the feat of entertaining a squirmy child. For any parent who travels long distances with little kids, they know that preparation is as much an art form as it is a necessity. Still you never quite know what’s going to happen until the cabin door closes and the plane pushes back from the gate. In this way my international teaching experience has made me a better traveler, but has it better prepared me for the classroom? As and international teacher I like to think that I have developed some special skills that enable me to be more effective with diverse cultures, ESL students, or functioning within our unique field. This might be true, but in most cases I’m probably not as special or at least as specialized as I may think. So does international experience really matter? As I’ve interviewed different school leaders from around the world, many who have worked in very diverse cultures, I’ve heard a similar thought on this topic. Mark Ulfers, Head of School at the American School of Paris, might have said it best when he explained the differences between schools by saying, “I find more commonalities at our schools than differences. Clearly culture has a tremendous influence…[but] the needs of young people seem to be so much the same [anywhere in the world]…their desires, needs, aspirations…” In this example Mr. Ulfers was talking about...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Jul 7, 2012 | Blog, Video
What are you doing this summer with your coworkers or students to innovate for the next school year? Um…sorry did I same something about summer? Who would be so bold as to ask teachers to work over the summer holiday? Certainly we’d never ask that of our students, would we? Sorry, please excuse my sarcasm, but now that it’s mid-July I’m starting to get a little restless. Now before you write a comment about how you worked tirelessly this year and deserve a break, or that you are working on and off throughout out the summer, think about whether your coworkers are as dedicated as you are, because that’s who I’m talking about. I’ve been in education long enough to know that we all need a break; and not just a small rest, but a nice juicy period of nothingness. But hopefully that’s happened, and you’re starting to think about how next year could be better. For me, once I reach this time of the summer I find myself doing a lot of self-reflection. However, once I come up with a few ideas, I have only a couple of days before the first day of school to share them with my colleagues for refinement. Unfortunately, everyone is quickly busy again, including myself, that many of my “great” ideas take a back seat to more pressing matters. I wonder how much we’re missing out in our schools because once we’ve all finally gotten a chance to clear our heads, we’re not around each other to innovate. What would it take to change this practice of shutting down for the summer,...
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