I think it might be high time we called “accountability” and its kissing cousins “metrics” and “performance indicators” to account. For educators, that draws a focus to assessment, where maybe it's time we asked if high-stakes standardized testing has finally reached its use by date? I mean what do you think it will take before we see public acknowledgment that the damage such ill-conceived tests have done to our kids and their learning, far outweighs any real or perceived benefits? Will it be when we have evidence that supports the depth and breadth of the damage to our learners? In my mind, there is no doubt we already have that, in fact, an overwhelming amounts. Our recent Whitepaper, 7 Strategies to Win the War on Learning references a significant number, and the thousands of downloads would suggest it's already provoking a wider conversation. Will it be when we see policy action at a senior government level that acknowledges the need for alternatives? That is also … [Read more...]
Agency and the Rise of New Power
Surprisingly, it wasn’t Deputy Headmaster Rohan Brown abruptly cutting a student’s hair that was front page news, but rather what came next. It was a day in early March when school photos were being taken, and as the young lad walked through the front gate of Trinity Grammar, a prominent boy’s school in Melbourne, Brown noticed the length of his hair. As he had done on other occasions, he pulled a pair of scissors out of his pocket and snipped a lock of hair. Only this time, it was captured on a fellow student’s iPhone, posted on social media, and within days Brown was dismissed, after more than thirty years teaching at the school. However, that was not the end of the story but rather the start, with several weeks of student-led protests, meetings, and online petitions to “Bring Brownie Back” which reached out to drive strong parent support. Within weeks Brown was reinstated, the Headmaster resigned together with several School Board members. Now in light of the massive … [Read more...]
How Do You Discover and Develop Talent in Your School?
“It’s hard to find good talent these days.” It’s a catch-cry becoming more and more familiar as the demands of our exponentially changing world force a quite radical shift in the way companies attract, retain, and build talent. Over the years, the Human Resources Department grew from what was previously known as the Payroll Department, and in doing so, its role expanded as novel ideas such as professional development and staff well-being started to take precedence over the traditional bureaucracies associated with hiring, firing, holidays and sick pay. But Human Resources never accurately defined the secret sauce of the people business and today the modern corporation has moved on, and talent has taken center stage. Today's workplace is all about Talent Discovery, Talent Development and Talent Management as (finally) companies recognize that they are only as good as the talent their employees bring onboard. Of course, this was just a question of establishing priorities, and … [Read more...]
How Does Your Practice Reflect the Modern Context?
For all of the discussions we have shared in these posts and beyond in our Changeleader Community and in Change School, the cold hard facts are that many educators are reluctant or rather, immune to change. The irony of this comment is that for the most part, anyone reading this post has already self-selected as an exception to the rule, and certainly those that are part of the previously mentioned communities, by their very commitment to the dialogue there, are in fact contrary cases. But let me be even more specific. What puzzles me most is how we can now be so aware of the increasingly rapid changes in our world around us, yet be so oblivious to the implications they have for classroom practice. We’ve often written about context as the Modern Learning lens that provides relevance to practice, but I’m yet to be convinced that there has been much shift in classroom practice that has impacted the learning experiences of students on any real scale. Our "adoption" of … [Read more...]
Will Learner Voice Lead to the Learner’s Revolution?
Brodie is an interesting kid; not precocious or in any way insolent, but also not afraid to share his opinions. He’d been going to one of Melbourne’s leading schools when late last year he decided it was time he and the school parted company. It was about that time his father, Nicholas, a local realtor, was asked to come to a meeting with Brodie’s principal. “Brodie appears to have a lot going on in his life,” said the principal. “We know he’s already successfully running his own business, and I really don’t think we’ll be able to help him further in his endeavors. He’s told me he thinks he should be running his party entertainment business full time, and I agree with him.” And that is exactly what Brodie is doing right now. He started his business at fifteen, and by the time he entered Year 11 at school he was earning more than some of the adults he connected with. But he did still need his dad (and any other adult he could find) to drive him to his gigs two or three … [Read more...]
The Importance of Forgetting
You’ve had a full day shopping at the mall, and the last thing you thought about when you parked your car was where you parked your car. How often do you lose your car? Probably the worst place for me used to be airport car parks. I always had a lot on your mind, planes to catch, schedules to meet. It was only when I got back from my trip that I suddenly had to think, "Now where did I leave my car?" Thank goodness most parking stations these days have color-coded levels and numbered bays, and now, of course, there is the "Find My Car" app. What about at home? Forgot where you left your keys or misplaced your phone? How often have you had to have someone ring yours to locate it? Now if you’re over 50, the chances are that when this happens more than once in a week, you start thinking it might be time for a medical checkup. But is that what’s really going on? Why do we forget things, often those things that we think we really want to remember? How about books. That one … [Read more...]
Modern Learners Podcast #37 – Revolutionizing Education Through Student Empowerment
Templestowe College, or TC as we call it in Victoria, Australia, was built to accommodate 1,000 students. At the start of 2010, those numbers had dwindled down to just over 200. Peter Hutton took on the challenge of rebuilding the school, despite severe challenges. Today, you will get to hear the story of the past 7 years, and how Peter revolutionized one school by testing assumptions and changing the way they thought about education. TC desperately needed a new brand and a new vision. Peter was longing to see how a school could actually nurture their students while also instilling in them the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in life. Peter will describe for you today how those logistics play out for TC students today. We will also discuss how the students, parents, and staff have all responded to the changes over the past 7 years. TC is producing committed, happy students with impressive work ethic and a thirst for learning. Peter claims that culture was built from … [Read more...]
The Dark Arts of Our Agents of Change
As happens more frequently these days, the idea for this Shifting Conversations post had its start in a Zoom coaching session in Change School last week. Most weeks we now have the very good fortune to be talking regularly with some outstanding educators, and it was on one of our calls that several teachers wanted to talk about their roles as change influencers. When we talk about school change, we usually refer to changeleaders, but by far the largest number of change influencers are the global tribe of curious, somewhat subversive teachers who are committed to school being a better place for their students. They are our agents of change. What makes them so different is that the change they can affect happens every day in their classrooms. It’s the change that happens when the curriculum stops at the classroom door. It’s everything that they can do within four walls, but even more importantly it’s the ripple their changes make across their schools as their colleagues become … [Read more...]
This is What Powerful Professional Learning Looks Like
In the midst of everything else we have currently going at Modern Learners, recently I was lucky enough to set aside time to sit in on one day of the exceptional professional learning program that runs at one of our local schools here in Melbourne. It’s the start of the school year here in Australia, and most schools schedule one or two days of professional learning for all faculty before students return. In this case, the two days were set up as an off-site retreat at a small resort a couple of hours from the school. We have written about this school before, Princes Hill Primary (Elementary), a public school of around 500 students in an inner suburb of the city, so I was interested in checking back and seeing how the school was progressing, two and a half years on. Princes Hill runs an inquiry-based program for students 5 ot 12 years old, and late last year you may have been fortunate enough to hear details of their work in the Inquiry Workshop we ran in the ChangeLeaders … [Read more...]
2018-The Year For Living Dangerously
Well, 2018 has certainly kicked off with some extremes. In the first week of the year, we saw -37°C on top of Mount Washington in NH US, while on the same day in Melbourne Australia it was +37°C. (that’s -36°F to +100°F ) I'm glad I had the beaches, but I'm tipping this is a sign of things to come in 2018. So, while maybe you’ve started your New Year by drawing from the traditional bin of resolutions around fitness, weight loss, and work-life balance, I want to suggest that 2018 is the year for living dangerously...so make your resolutions accordingly. In case you have forgotten, it's been 18 years since we kidded ourselves that a new millennium would herald new ideas and some radical thinking around what modern schooling could and should be. Unfortunately, we grabbed the 21st Century tag and stuck it on anything that moved, and before we knew it, everything pretty much stayed the same. So much for waiting a thousand years to see change in our schools. Well, now we can put … [Read more...]