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 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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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...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | Mar 15, 2012 | Leadership News
I especially like her comment about the “black hole” of vetted educational ideas. It’s funny, or ironic, that often as educators we talk about empowering our students to take control of their learning, take risks or any number of tasks. Yet as ed leaders we often find ourselves “knee-deep” in tradition or routine to affect change in our communities. Is the answer as simple as demanding that job descriptions be a source of empowerment rather than a school’s (and a dictionary’s) definition for the job? On the other hand do your teachers and other faculty want the authority to create change, or is the culture of school such that it’s dangerous to make suggestions and work towards improvement? Then what? For Effective Leadership, New Job Descriptions By Bambi Betts Just a few weeks ago at a high profile international school, a group of middle school heads of grade and department leaders gathered for some professional development. They were asked one question: What decisions is your team empowered and required to make? The answers, or lack thereof, were telling: no one really knew. If you work in a school, you have been there. An idea about learning bubbles up. It is on the agenda at meetings, at every level. Teachers discuss it; department and grade level leaders discuss it; principals discuss it; and everyone reads about it. Input pours in: opinions, reactions, embellishments. Our investigation confirms it is a valuable practice, adding value to learning. And a year goes by… What happened to that good idea we invested so much time in? Right into the “black hole,” the resting place...
by andrew@learnedleadership.org | 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...
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