This year I was priviledged to be awarded a Woolf Fisher Fellowship. This included attendance at Harvard University where I spent eight intensive days on an Experienced Principals' Leading Change programme.
Those eight days at Harvard would best be described as life-changing. I learned a great deal from some brilliant minds - for example Howard Gardiner.
I learned a great deal from my esteemed fellow principals from around the world. My study group of ten principals included principals from Spain, Mexico, Texas, Perth, Dominican Republic, Israel, New York, Hawaii and Colorado - five women and five men.
I learned a great deal about myself - good and bad. Character flaws that I began addressing while there, but I also realised I can stand confidently in this hallowed place of learning. My experience and ideas contributed much to my group and also to the cohort of 160 principals from all around the world. More importantly, it was very clear to me that our New Zealand education system and our New Zealand Curriculum document are indisputably world class.
Some great thinkers and leaders in education shared with us best practice to support us all to lead educational change for the 21st century and beyond. More specifically, the focus was on leadership to enhance organisational performance, and enable sustainable change.
So much of what was shared mirrored innovations and initiatives that we already have in place in New Zealand.
Innovative Learning Environments under the guise of Universal Design for Learning is one such example.
Engaging communities into our school as a community of learning is another.
Strategic planning by always starting with ‘Why”, as per Simon Sinek, was another strong theme. We have been applying Simon Sinek’s approach for nearly two years now, so it was further affirming that we are not only on the right track, but leading the way.
We are a learning community at Western Heights. We encourage shared leadership, diversity of thinking, risk-taking and mistake making. As a result, we can be innovative and leading practitioners. Because we have a culture of reflection, always focused on improvement - being better than before - we can ensure our innovation does not lead us away from our primary purpose - educating each child to be the best human being they can be.
One of our esteemed Harvard lecturers loved our Western Heights Mission of “Love to Learn to Lead”, wrote it on the board for all of us, and asked to take it away with her.
In all of this learning there were some really key points for me to take away.
Quoting Einstein, “Everything should be as simple as possible, and no simpler.” My goal is to ensure we simplify our message, our philosophy, values and practices to be as clear and true to our core purpose as possible.
The power of three was emphasised by our Strategic Planning lecturer. We know three is the strongest shape in nature. Three comes through in many ways - parent, teacher, student. Learner, content, teacher. Mind, body and spirit and many more.
It is evident in our Love to Learn to Lead. There are many areas where we can simplify and condense our practices and ideas, our goals and focuses to a key three.
Another take away for me is the cost of meetings. We have done much to cut down meeting time demands for our staff. Meetings can be a drain on time and of varying value to all involved. Meetings should be a time for a balance of reflection, team-work and new learning. While we have always done much to ensure staff are kept fed and fresh, I know I can do better in this area. I know the meetings I lead can be more interactive, more focused on the why and on reflection.
Each Monday Morning Meeting will now feature a Review and Reflect aspect and and Embed and Extend aspect.
We used the Harvard conference as an opportunity to focus on Insights, Hindsights and Foresights.
One of my hindsights was ways that meetings I lead can be improved for all involved.
An insight for me was a clarification of an idea that has been evolving in my head for some time. Applying Einstein’s quote from above again, I have been looking at how we can synthesise our core function as educators, and Harvard helped me to crystallise it to this point - though there is still much work to do.
As educators we envision a preferred future of a thriving people in a thriving land.
Simon Sinek says always start with why. Our why is twofold, the People and the Land.
Sinek’s second focus is on the How. For all my 25 years as a principal I have been evolving a teaching philosophy that focuses on what I term the Three Original Languages. They are Visual Language, Music and Story-telling. These three languages are as old as we are, in fact I believe they are embedded in our DNA, and as such provide powerful tools to engage and cement learning in us all. I have much evidence to back this up but that is for later.
Sinek teaches us begin with Why. Next address the How, and finally comes the What.
Our What is the Key Competencies of our New Zealand Curriculum - Thinking, Relating, Understanding, Managing Self and Participating. Following from the Key Competencies are the Key Traits. These five Key Traits have emerged as the most relevant to one's success in today's world - Grit, Self-control, Self-confidence, Empathy, and a Service Mindset.
And from the Learners themselves comes the context or vehicle - their curriculum, contextualised to their interests, passions, needs and personal lives and experience.
I hope to develop my thinking and experience in these areas into a thesis for the next step in my own Higher Learning.
Foresights for me come down to simplifying and clarifying our engagements with our parent community. Currently we do a lot of great things with our community. I love how our community feels at home in our school, but I know we can do better. In fact one of my key insights could be summed up as, “we can do more by doing less, better.”
A question we will be focusing on as a staff and as leaders is changing the measurement criteria from quantity to quality. Currently we judge the success of a school event based on the number of parents who attend that event. Instead we need to be reflecting on what parents and caregivers brought to and took from the event. Much harder to measure but much more important to measure.
One way of looking at this is to focus on the two words - involved and engaged. Parents can be involved, but hopefully they can take that to the next level and become engaged. A good metaphor to use as a comparison is to consider the difference between being involved with someone and being engaged to someone - a big difference in terms of relationship and commitment. As a learning community, therefore, we will be focusing on ways to ensure our parent and caregiver community play an ever more integral role in our instructional practice and strategy.
Those eight days at Harvard would best be described as life-changing. I learned a great deal from some brilliant minds - for example Howard Gardiner.
I learned a great deal from my esteemed fellow principals from around the world. My study group of ten principals included principals from Spain, Mexico, Texas, Perth, Dominican Republic, Israel, New York, Hawaii and Colorado - five women and five men.
I learned a great deal about myself - good and bad. Character flaws that I began addressing while there, but I also realised I can stand confidently in this hallowed place of learning. My experience and ideas contributed much to my group and also to the cohort of 160 principals from all around the world. More importantly, it was very clear to me that our New Zealand education system and our New Zealand Curriculum document are indisputably world class.
Some great thinkers and leaders in education shared with us best practice to support us all to lead educational change for the 21st century and beyond. More specifically, the focus was on leadership to enhance organisational performance, and enable sustainable change.
So much of what was shared mirrored innovations and initiatives that we already have in place in New Zealand.
Innovative Learning Environments under the guise of Universal Design for Learning is one such example.
Engaging communities into our school as a community of learning is another.
Strategic planning by always starting with ‘Why”, as per Simon Sinek, was another strong theme. We have been applying Simon Sinek’s approach for nearly two years now, so it was further affirming that we are not only on the right track, but leading the way.
We are a learning community at Western Heights. We encourage shared leadership, diversity of thinking, risk-taking and mistake making. As a result, we can be innovative and leading practitioners. Because we have a culture of reflection, always focused on improvement - being better than before - we can ensure our innovation does not lead us away from our primary purpose - educating each child to be the best human being they can be.
One of our esteemed Harvard lecturers loved our Western Heights Mission of “Love to Learn to Lead”, wrote it on the board for all of us, and asked to take it away with her.
In all of this learning there were some really key points for me to take away.
Quoting Einstein, “Everything should be as simple as possible, and no simpler.” My goal is to ensure we simplify our message, our philosophy, values and practices to be as clear and true to our core purpose as possible.
The power of three was emphasised by our Strategic Planning lecturer. We know three is the strongest shape in nature. Three comes through in many ways - parent, teacher, student. Learner, content, teacher. Mind, body and spirit and many more.
It is evident in our Love to Learn to Lead. There are many areas where we can simplify and condense our practices and ideas, our goals and focuses to a key three.
Another take away for me is the cost of meetings. We have done much to cut down meeting time demands for our staff. Meetings can be a drain on time and of varying value to all involved. Meetings should be a time for a balance of reflection, team-work and new learning. While we have always done much to ensure staff are kept fed and fresh, I know I can do better in this area. I know the meetings I lead can be more interactive, more focused on the why and on reflection.
Each Monday Morning Meeting will now feature a Review and Reflect aspect and and Embed and Extend aspect.
We used the Harvard conference as an opportunity to focus on Insights, Hindsights and Foresights.
One of my hindsights was ways that meetings I lead can be improved for all involved.
An insight for me was a clarification of an idea that has been evolving in my head for some time. Applying Einstein’s quote from above again, I have been looking at how we can synthesise our core function as educators, and Harvard helped me to crystallise it to this point - though there is still much work to do.
As educators we envision a preferred future of a thriving people in a thriving land.
Simon Sinek says always start with why. Our why is twofold, the People and the Land.
Sinek’s second focus is on the How. For all my 25 years as a principal I have been evolving a teaching philosophy that focuses on what I term the Three Original Languages. They are Visual Language, Music and Story-telling. These three languages are as old as we are, in fact I believe they are embedded in our DNA, and as such provide powerful tools to engage and cement learning in us all. I have much evidence to back this up but that is for later.
Sinek teaches us begin with Why. Next address the How, and finally comes the What.
Our What is the Key Competencies of our New Zealand Curriculum - Thinking, Relating, Understanding, Managing Self and Participating. Following from the Key Competencies are the Key Traits. These five Key Traits have emerged as the most relevant to one's success in today's world - Grit, Self-control, Self-confidence, Empathy, and a Service Mindset.
And from the Learners themselves comes the context or vehicle - their curriculum, contextualised to their interests, passions, needs and personal lives and experience.
I hope to develop my thinking and experience in these areas into a thesis for the next step in my own Higher Learning.
Foresights for me come down to simplifying and clarifying our engagements with our parent community. Currently we do a lot of great things with our community. I love how our community feels at home in our school, but I know we can do better. In fact one of my key insights could be summed up as, “we can do more by doing less, better.”
A question we will be focusing on as a staff and as leaders is changing the measurement criteria from quantity to quality. Currently we judge the success of a school event based on the number of parents who attend that event. Instead we need to be reflecting on what parents and caregivers brought to and took from the event. Much harder to measure but much more important to measure.
One way of looking at this is to focus on the two words - involved and engaged. Parents can be involved, but hopefully they can take that to the next level and become engaged. A good metaphor to use as a comparison is to consider the difference between being involved with someone and being engaged to someone - a big difference in terms of relationship and commitment. As a learning community, therefore, we will be focusing on ways to ensure our parent and caregiver community play an ever more integral role in our instructional practice and strategy.
