Great Teachers don't make Great Leaders

The problem with leadership in Education is that often the leaders are leaders because they are good educators/teachers NOT necessarily GREAT leaders. This is a truism across all fields. An individual who excels IN a field does not equate a Great Leader OF that field.

I think a bit about the leadership structure and expectations that I'm currently in (UNDERSTATEMENT). OK, I'm always thinking about the leadership situation and about how we can be better. We're doing pretty well as a school but we ALWAYS can be better.

One of the major points that arises time and time again in my observations and assessments is that there is this broken logic that GREAT teachers make GREAT leaders.

Now I'm not saying that you can't be a great teacher AND a great leader. I just think that it is a fallacy to think that both are in lockstep with one another.

This is a core problem of educational leadership, especially when you promote from within - which is important. When you look at candidates on your staff you often judge them by what they are currently are doing - teaching - to project their success as a leader. Wrong.

While it certainly helps in the respect department to be pretty good at what you are going to lead people in doing, it just is not that important on the whole.

We need to start to understand that leadership requires important, unique skills that cut across disciplines. Universities really shouldn't have an 'Intro to Educational Leadership' class until they have done an 'Intro to Leadership' class. Do you think that the teachings of John Wooden, Winston Churchill, or Marcus Aurelius have no application to my work as a Leader in an education setting? Nowhere in any of the readings for 'Intro to Ed Leadership' courses are we analyzing leadership in its truest and most successful form.

Seeing education as some entirely unique world where we have rules unto ourselves is what is problematic. Finding the threads which connect successful leadership in business, politics, military, sport, and education are easy. Shouldn't we then gravitate to the best examples of leadership rather than limit ourselves to those which occur in an educational context?

In my next post I'll talk about the most important error leaders make time and time again in my experience as an educator.

CAV

Daily Update - 26/5

Thursdays are a killer for me. I have a whole lot happening. I'm either in meetings or classes all day. This means everything gets put to the side and I need to stay on my feet. Today I dipped into the coffee fund and spoiled myself at lunch to push me through the last two periods.

WHAT WENT WELL:
I am loving the projects that I have going on in my Geography classes. It is GREAT to just let go of the class and see the students be productive. As well, I like digging into the digital tools of Google Maps and Google Docs (and so do the students). It really takes this project to another level in that the students are mining the web for good resources (another great lesson they are learning is deciding what info is of quality and what is not) and then taking that data and interpreting it on to a Google Map or creating a Chart in Spreadsheets that they load on their Google Site.

There is really something for everyone in the project. For the tech-minded boys they get to have fun playing around with customizing a map or their own website. For the boys who like to find the best sites, they get to dig deeper and deeper for that info. I love it when I hear a kid shout out, 'I just found the best website' and all the kids scurry over to his laptop to check it out.

These kids are also getting a TON of IT skills that will pay massive dividends for the future. I can only imagine how much they will be doing online when their time comes to join the work force. Now they'll be able to create a 'wiki' and 'embed' photos and info to create multimedia documents.

I also love the freedom I have to get to know my students. When I don't have to be the 'sage on the stage' holding court in front of my subjects, I can bounce around and give direct feedback to students and really get an understanding of how boys work and who they are. Also, I can give that real time feedback (which seems to always be positive).

I am continually amazed at how much the students enjoy the freedom of a project. There is a respect that you are giving your class by saying - 'Go for it.' Especially at my school, where we have many independent boys and amazing technology resources, it just seems so logical to be doing digital projects.

That being said, I just haven't put together how to do digital projects in English. In Geography, a subject I have no training in, I find it easier to do projects because it is so clear how they work. The boys are finding raw data and working to interpret that data into usable pieces (maps, graphs, ect) and then drawing conclusions based on their work. The better they work to interpret the data, the better their conclusions.

With English we are lacking this objecting 'data' to work from. The interpretation from the start is very subjective. Still, even as I write this, I am starting to get my head around how to do digital projects in English.

This is the way I work. I think about something. Go away from it. Think about it some more. Go away. Eventually it comes to me how it works. Then I get into the project and it starts to come together.

I love finally starting to feel like I have schemas to work from when planning lessons. It has taken me a while but I am starting to feel like a competent teacher. This is strongly related to Duckworth's notion of 'Grit'. The more I do the tasks which I'm not that great at, the better I get as teaching. For instance, keeping better records of what I'm doing in class. When I take the time to make a detailed plan, I can go back to it the next class or next year and make it better. This is exactly what has happened in my Y10 Geo class where their project is going off!!

CAV

My First Foray in to Digital Project-Based Learning

So teaching Geography has allowed me to make the transition into digital project-based learning this year (have a look).

In Year 10 we have a unit about Australia and its Regional and Global Links. This is my third year teaching this year group. My first year I came up with a unit which forced the students to work independently gathering info on the web with a powerpoint presentation at the end of the year. It didn't go that well. It was mostly fact-finding and lacking in any real 'work' by the students. I got back some uninspiring powerpoint presentations.

In the second year I made a big upgrade introducing the use of Google Maps and the website Stat Planet. Both these sections brought about a significant uptick in quality. Still, the project lacked that independent 'problem solving' element. This was much more about the allure of some flashy websites.

So this year I took it to the next level. Since all of my students are working on blogs (Blogger) they have a decent understanding of the bare basics of running a website. This got me thinking about how I could make this project 'digital'.

I have been doing a ton of work with my blog for this class but my ICT officer at school, who has been super impressed/supportive of the steps I've taken with my class, told me that I had to get on Google Sites. I've heard this before, had a play, and wasn't impressed. To me, Google Sites lack the intuitive nature of Blogger or Wordpress and didn't seem worth the extra complication.

Anyways, I had a play again after becoming quite handy with Blogger. This time I had a play with a specific intent to embed my class blog into the homepage. This is the hub of my class and I need it to be the focal point of my site. With this specific goal in mind I played around with some basic html scripts I figured out to embed Google Docs on my blog and finally got my website embeded into the homepage. (Turns out that there is a far simpler way to do this in the 'insert' function.)

Back to the project: So, in my effort to figure out Google Sites for my classes I realized that this is going to be PERFECT for my students' projects. They are going to create wiki's for all their work. (Here's my example for the class.)

Nice. This makes it more 'digital' but how was I going to make it include a 'real-world problem solving' element?

I decided that I was going to have all my students become 'spies in training'. This part of their training would require them to become adapt at gathering information and then becoming a expert on two countries Australia interacts with and then create an position statement as to how Australia should interact in the near and long-term future with an important regional neighbour.

This would require them to take all the information that they have gathered and then make an informed conclusion of their own.

One week in and so far, so good. The first two lessons have started slow but it is looking good.

Will keep you up dated.

Cav

Back to Work - Drive, Flow and The Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Tomorrow I'm back to work after this school year's first break. I like the Australian system with 2-3 week breaks between each of the terms and 8 weeks at the end of the year - summer Down Under.

Most of this break has been spent chasing my son around. He's really turning into a little boy now.

I also did a bit of reading and thinking. I had the opportunity to read Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and reread most of The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. The former made me think of the latter and so I made it my night time story.

Flow was a delight to read. It just reaffirms many of my own thought and beliefs but it also was a nice kick in the ass to get my own world in order. Not that I'm way out of control but I think that I'm pretty dialed in with my fitness work but other areas of my life are a bit 'loose' at the moment. The repeated discussion of purposeful use of free time really struck a chord. This was also reiterated in The Way of the Peaceful Warrior when Socrates tells his student that we should be very weary of the rituals we depend on unconsciously. For some reason this made me want to cut back on the television and cut out caffeine.

So far so good - I'm three days into the caffeine and very fortunate to have time to take naps and drink lots of herbal tea.

The other piece of information that is central to both of these texts in the notion of focus. This again made me reflect on myself and realize that my thoughts drift all over the joint. I certainly don't give my entire focus to what is here and now which is really shameful when I think about the moments with my son that I've only given him half my attention. Still, I can't say that I've been able to give much of anything my full attention the last three days having cut out caffeine. Lots of fog in the brain. I can't even remember the last time I went without the drug of choice for most type A's.

What will I bring into the classroom?

I can't sit here right now and formulate an answer. When I mentioned that I've been doing something thinking at the start of this post this is what I've been thinking about. (I also reread Drive by Daniel Pink before giving it to a mate to read.) I haven't quite formulated how I'm going to bring in this information to class. It is coming to my in drips.

For instance, I'm a big believer in reading comprehension. I teach year 9 boys who openly admit that they've never read a book for English class. I use the comprehension to for a few reasons:

1. It gives me something to check to make sure that boys are 'reading' (I know that there is still a possibility that they have answers but aren't reading).
2. I use it as conversation starters in class.
3. I want to get students in the habit of 'active' reading where they have a pen in their hands and are making notes as they work through a book they are studying.
4. Often the questions are handy in helping students focus in on the focal points of the novel we are studying.

Having a read of Drive again has me thinking that reading comprehension isn't the best way to go. I'm not throwing them out I'm just going to not make them count for anything in and of themselves (which will take a load off of marking). I am going to have reading quizes which are directly related to their comprehension work (probably take questions directly from the work). They don't 'have' to do the comprehension questions but I'm going to try to set it up that, if they do them, they'll do much better on the reading quizes. The trick then is to tie the reading quizes into the greater scheme of the unit. In the upcoming unit we're working towards an expository essay. hmm....

As for Flow... it just hasn't come to me yet how to work this book into the classroom. These things usually have to bounce around in my brain before I can put them into practice.

Let me know how you've made it work.

CAV

The Simple Dollar » Leisure Time, Not Idle Time

The Simple Dollar » Leisure Time, Not Idle Time

A great little tidbit that really touches on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's ideas in his research and book Flow.

Good stuff.

CAV

Looks like I'm going to become an Aussie

So my plan to get my Coaching Psych Masters at Sydney Uni has hit a bump in the road. I can't afford the degree. At least I can't right now.

Right now, as a permanent resident, I have to pay the full fees for the degree - $21,000.

If I become an Aussie citizen, something I have been kicking around but never had the motivation to pursue, it is $5,400!

Looks like I've got a great reason to take the big leap into the Green and Gold - I hope I don't have to eat a Vegemite sandwich!

Cav

How I got here...what I'm trying to do.

I guess I am a bit of a classic convert to Positive Psychology.

My original exposure to psychology formally was in college at Northeastern University. I had been intrigued by how the brain worked in high school delving into subjects ranging between Eastern Philosophies, self-help and sports coaching - with a pretty strong interest in the Beat Generation. I had NO idea what my interests were at this point - outside of sport. In fact, I didn't have a clue what really interested me for pretty much my entire college experience. 

I was lost between the athletic world (I was on a baseball scholarship) that was physically enthralling but always seemed to lack depth intellectually. I jumped around academic majors motivated simply by a desire not to be like all the other 'jocks'. But I used my fleeting desire to play professional baseball shared by nearly all college players in the US as a shield from actually taking my studies serious.

Unbeknownst to me, my lack of ability to find an academic area that truly captured me was symptomatic of my inability to consolidate my talents and training in the direction of achieving my desire to play professional baseball.

In both worlds I had glimmers of the potential that lie within but lacked the self-awareness to capture and understand the situations which were invoking the potential that lied within me.

I didn't really know much about the career side of psychology while I was studying. Again, I think this ignorance was acerbated by my belief that I wouldn't need to pursue a career outside of sport. 

In baseball, after battling injuries and under-performing for the first half of my college career, I had a summer where I found that my thoughts of playing professional were far more 'real' than I thought. I surprised even myself with my potential that was spoke about but rarely displayed. I was in a league back home entirely amateur: filled with low-level and ex-college players and far from being any caldron forming potential professional players. Ironically, I was isolated at home. All of my friends were gone and I was left to work a random summer job and train like crazy. I poured myself into my workouts and spent hours perfecting my batting swing. There was no fanfare. There were no scouts. There was just a simple, intrinsic desire to perform. And I did. It was a perfect example of 'Flow'. I would train on non game days and 'test' this training in games. From there I took feedback, developed weaknesses, and created and situation in games to capitalize on my strengths. Besides Little League, this was by far the most fun I've ever had playing the game.

In psychology I got bogged down in performing behavioral research and rehashing breakthrough studies of psychology's past. There was little discussion of the application of psychology but rather the findings of the psychological field. Returning now to Northeastern's Psychology website I see that the department is still focused on: "preparing students for research and teaching careers in a variety of settings, including academia, government, and industry". This was the problem. It was/is a 'passive' program. I was looking for something more engaging, more active - although I didn't really explore what I wanted to achieve in psychology until my time as a student was far over.

My most memorable psychology classes were Social Psychology, Psychology of Women (serious), Perception (simply because my professor R. Eskew was an amazing teacher), and Developmental Psych. (I was looking at my transcript and frightened by the number of classes I just don't remember.)

I really should have been looking at a 'sports psychology' degree. Certainly 'coaching psychology' is very much applying sports psych to the wider population.

I was adverse to sports psych for two reasons. 1. I was already investing a ton of my time in the athletic world as a baseball player and was very self-conscious of dedicating all of myself to sports because I was terrified of being another 'jock'. (Fear makes you irrational because my second choice of careers would have been to be a strength and conditioning coach - something that comes so easy to me - but my fear of the 'jock' label didn't let me explore this field to the level I wish.) 2. I just thought that being a sports psychologist is far too specialized and helping a group of people to be good at 'sport' seemed futile in comparison to the greater population's needs. (The irony being that my inability to solve the riddle of evoking my potential in sport stunted my ability to tap into my potential in many other areas of my life. Just as Csikszentmihalyi as talks about the power of sport in cultivating one's understanding and ability to experience 'flow' in their lives.)

Both my careers in baseball and studying psychology came to an abrupt ending. I came back to baseball at Northeastern totally forgetting everything I did to conjure my deepest athletic potentials the previous summer. I was dizzied and frustrated by the utter lack of control I felt I had in my training and surroundings. I fostered a fixed mindset unable to think creatively about how to foster the habits and routines that brought so much success the summer before. I continued my career of unfulfilled potential in college baseball through my senior year and fostered a pretty pessimistic viewpoint of myself and my own capability of creating my own future.

I think that my recent exposure to the field of Positive Psychology touches me in a multitude of ways. Firstly, this was the tool that would have been very beneficial to overcome the obstacles (many self-manufactured) to realizing my potential as a baseball player and as a student. As we begin the process of rolling out a comprehensive positive psych program at the school I work at I'm excited for the students and the opportunities we are likely to unlock within them. Secondly, this was the area of study lacking in my undergrad studies. Positive Psychology presents an proactive application of psychology. Lastly, I find that this field seems to connect to something I truly value - the potential for all of us to grow and achieve.

So now I'm trying to increase my knowledge of both coaching and positive psychology and integrate this information/understanding into my work at school. We'll see how it goes. I've just applied to the Masters in Applied Science (Coaching Psych) at The University of Sydney and in the midst of a major transformation of my school working with The Positive Psychology Institute in Sydney. It is an exciting time that I think will be transformative in many ways and I'd like to share a bit of that experience here.