11 of the Best TED Talks Every Human Should Watch - Travis Wright TED stands for Technology, Education and Design and if you’re not familiar with them, by now… LOL, you sux0rs at the interwebs. [OK, it’s actually Technology, Entertainment, and Design. But, it should totally be Education, instead] This is only the greatest repository of speeches and presentations by the most brilliant minds, most fascinating people, education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus, and music legends of our time. Awhile back, I made a goal to watch every TED Talk. Brené Brown – The Power of Vulnerability – Brené Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. Steve Jobs – How to Live Before you Die – No list of inspiring talks would be complete without Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford University. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Pay advice Advice helping schools decide how to pay their teachers is today published by the Department for Education. The advice is being sent to all schools in England, alongside a revised version of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document that reflects reforms to teachers’ pay. Schools will, from 1 September 2013, be able to link teachers’ pay to performance allowing them to pay good teachers more. This follows recommendations from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body, which last year called on the government to link teachers’ pay more closely to their performance. By this September every school will need to have revised its pay and appraisal policies setting out how pay progression will in future be linked to a teacher’s performance. The first performance-linked pay increases will be made from September 2014. The new arrangements provide increased flexibility for schools to develop pay policies tailored to their particular needs. A Department for Education spokesperson said:
preparing for an OFSTED inspection I have been a Headteacher for 9 years and, at the age of 48, this much I know about preparing from an OFSTED inspection. In March 2012 I received a letter from OFSTED saying that the earliest we could be inspected was the summer term 2013, which begins tomorrow… Don’t be naïve about OFSTED Inspections. A clear, intense and highly effective focus upon improving the quality of teaching is the only preparation for OFSTED that really matters, because the quality of teaching is the only thing that really matters in a school. Preparing for OFSTED booklet 2013 OFSTED Training Day 25-02-13 You and your SLT team get the school organised for the inspection. Get to the point where an Inspection is a moment not an event. Have a preparation plan for your SLT. OFSTED Inspection Preparation Timeline 2013 Final blog version Effective Governance is crucial. Make the inspection as easy as possible for the inspectors. The relationship with the Lead Inspector is crucial. Wilshaw final version Nail your SEF.
Can you feel the force? A leadership model Did I invent this? Unlikely .. but it makes a lot of sense to me and I don’t know where it comes from: In explaining my perception of how organisations work and what the role of leadership is, I’ve been using this model a lot recently. The magnetic forcefield analogy. An organisation is a group of individuals. In the absence of a force field, we tend to drift around; there is no automatic direction and our alignment to each other becomes weak and randomised over time. What does the leader do? 1. For me, the model is useful because it reminds me that a) everyone is an individual with perfectly legitimate personal and professional goals of their own. b) I need to work continually to make sure there is direction; there is an overarching vision. c) I can never take it for granted that the field is in place, in tact, and strong enough to achieve our goals. d) the best way to do this is to continually involve people in the process. Can you feel the force!!?? (PS I made this picture myself.