The drive from where I live to where I work is about 35- 45 minutes each way. This is great time for napping (I normally catch the bus at 6.20am!), listening to Podcasts, and catching up on professional reading. It’s also good for catching up on not so professional reading so if I’m slouched down in my seat with a kindle glued to the end of my nose, chances are Sir. Dashing Rake is attempting to woo Lady Virtuous… and succeeding! Bodice rippers aside, here are some of my more recent reads: ![]() Currently reading: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek I admit to a bit of a crush on Sinek, he would make a good Sir. Dashing. He also crafts a very accessible narrative on what leadership means and what it looks like. For schools, bringing about change can be like trying to turn an oil tanker and while Sinek ostensibly writes for business, his thoughts and research transfer to educational organizations too. His other book, ‘Start with the Why’ has been a touchstone for me as I work within schools to effect and implement change, making the point that we need to get our stakeholders on board and that doesn’t happen with action it starts with building understanding and buy in by explaining the why- there is no weakness in explaining the reasoning and the rationale, nor does it necessarily indicate that you are asking for permission. Rather, I believe it allows people to buy in to your world view, your vision and philosophy because it is those things that guide the actions and choices you make. Anyway, this book is a work in progress and I'll update here once I am complete. In the meantime, join me in adoring Sir. Dashing Rake... I mean Simon Sinek and his genius. Buy Leaders Eat Last here Quick Read: Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess Burgess comes across as the sort of teacher we all thought we wanted to be before we started teaching… and standardized tests, paperwork and quality time with social services stole all the joy. ‘Teach like a Pirate’ encourages teachers to recapture the joy of both teaching and learning, by harnessing creativity and encouraging student agency in the learning process. I appreciated the honesty with which Burgess wrote about how challenging it is to teach in this way and the fact that he too had his struggles. If Burgess’ goal was to inspire others, I think he succeeded, his hashtag has qite the twitter following and large numbers of my colleagues (both near and far) have read this volume and as a result, have started to make small changes in their classrooms- and isn’t that what it’s all about? Helping people make small steps towards something better? Also, it made me want to buy play-do and dress up, like a Pirate. ‘...one of the big secrets and shortcuts to engagement is to spend less time trying to get students interested in what you are presenting and more time making connections between what you are presenting and what they are already interested in.’ (Pg 38) Buy Teach Like a Pirate here The door stop: Blended- Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools- by Michael B Horn and Heather Staker As an Instructional Tech team we started a little book club last year- we’d all try to read the same book and then come back together to discuss it. Needless to say, the start of the school year got in the way but I persevered in my reading of this tome and this summer saw it traveling to from the UK to Italy and the USA, before making its way back to China with me. This book is heavily researched and pretty far reaching. At its heart, I think the authors are making the case for redesigning our traditional view of education and educational institutions through the development of more innovative mindsets, learning spaces and leveraging digital tools. While we read it as a Tech team, it’s just as applicable to school leaders as it walks its readership through how to bring about change in education through strategic leveraging of teams, culture, and elements of design thinking. Disruptive innovation is not limited to what can be plugged in, nor is it defined by flexible learning spaces and rolling tables with whiteboard surfaces (though I wouldn’t say no). Disruptive Innovation demands leaders willing to take risks, leaders who knows their community, their stakeholders, leaders willing to serve as vanguard, advocate, cheerleader, captain and rowing cox in order to bring about meaningful change that will make a difference to their community. It clearly got me as I took page after page of notes and there are certainly chapters that could be read in isolation, without reference to things that plug in or tables that could be written on (NB: any table with a plastic surface could be written on with a whiteboard pen, I was doing this back in 2000 when my inner city Manchester kids needed quick explanations of concepts and skills… or wanted to know how to draw a rabbit for their RE book).
‘Culture is a way of working together toward common goals that have been followed so frequently and so successfully that people don’t even think about trying to do things another way. If a culture has formed, people autonomously do what they need to do to be successful.’ Pg 249 Buy Blended here
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About the AuthorPassionate about learning, creativity, innovation and tech. Brit Abroad keen to work with others to make the world a little kinder. Archives
April 2019
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