The Future of Schooling: Are Students Being Prepared to “Dance with Robots”? | Educhatter's Blog February 21, 2014 by Paul W. Bennett One of the most stimulating recent ‘think pieces,’ Houman Harouni’s “What should a School be?‘ has set the cat among the pigeons in the North American education world. Education does matter but that is difficult to discern surveying the public debate over the current state and future of schooling. The entire North American education debate, Houman Harouni contends, “keeps folding back into itself” because it accepts established parameters and is almost entirely based upon “self-referential questions” that perpetuate “a system that has stagnated for seven generations.” What is the purpose of schooling? Schools are vital civic and social institutions but schooling is never openly discussed unless it’s said to be “in crisis.” Since the mid-1970s, Harouni claims that serious discourse about education was abandoned to ‘the educationists.‘ Cultural critics, sociologists, and outside scholars simply “washed their hands of education.” Like this:
10 Ways to Build Teacher Leaders “You don’t need to be in a leadership position, to be a leader.” By Jill Thompson We need teacher leaders! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. There are a lot of other ways we can build teacher leaders within our schools. Other Resources: Building Teacher Leadership Capacity through Educational Leadership Programs Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders Becoming a Teacher Leader CTQ: Center for Teaching Quality Like this: Like Loading... Day 7: A Future Space for Teachers to Share What did you learn today? Submitted by: Louise Robitaille On March 27th 2014, Pete Douglas and I were invited by the TLLP (Teacher Learning and Leardership Program) team to attend a focus group discussion with TVO. At the meeting, we learned that TVO, the Ministry of Education and OTF (Ontario Teacher Federation) are working together on a project that I think will be beneficial to all teachers across the province. TVO shared that their platform will serve 3 functions: Explore – educators will have access to materials that support teaching and learning, teacher blogs, Ministry resources and more.Share – an interactive space for teachers to connect and discuss best practice.Create – this space will investigate how new technology can be used in classrooms. The group was given a chance to brainstorm ideas about what we thought the online space could look like. We were given the chance to see the prototype. What would you like to see on this online space? About Louise Robitaille
Women Need To Brag More At Work Ah, the see-saw advice that women face when it comes to professional success. Can we have it all? Should we lean in? Subverting these proscribed gender norms can make women uncomfortable. The researchers recruited female freshmen at the university to write essays about their own accomplishments or about someone else’s. "The key here is that when women had an alternative explanation for why they might be feeling uncomfortable--the supposed noise generator--the awkwardness they felt from violating the modesty norm by writing about themselves was diverted, and they did just fine," Smith said in a statement. How that might work in the office is another story. Why Do We Keep Creative People Out of Leadership Roles? 265Share Synopsis We love stories of creative leaders; we just don’t want to be led by them. We admire stories of creative leaders. We like to hear tales of CEOs and political leaders bringing about transformation with fresh ideas and innovative thinking. The evidence, gathered and analyzed by psychologists Jennifer Mueller, Jack Goncalo, and Dishan Kamdar was drawn from 300 employees of an unidentified company and published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. While the study was confined to one organization, you don’t have to look too far to see similar results in nearly all organizations. This study’s results complement another study led by Mueller in which participants explicitly stated they desired and valued creative ideas, but implicitly rejected phrases associated with creativity when exposed to uncertain situations. Perhaps the explanation for both studies is our preference for order and the status quo.
The Secret to Leadership Finding You You aren’t a leader if you don’t have followers. “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” John Maxwell, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership“ A young leader I coached received a leadership award. I asked him, “Why did you receive this award?” He said, “I have no idea.” I said, ”Go find the reason.” Successful leaders understand why others see them as leaders. 10 Questions that help leadership find you: What compelling benefit comes to those who follow you? Bonus: How are you igniting passion in others? The Secret: Aspire to become worthy of being followed. Lousy leaders focus on position, prominence, power, and authority and neglect becoming attractive individuals. Great leadership begins with understanding and practicing great followership. “Seeking Leadership roles never produced anything for me. Jimmy Collins, “Creative Followership“ Guarantee: Leadership finds those who understand and practice followership. What makes a leader worthy of being followed? Like this:
12 Words You Need to Delete From Your Resume Right Now Wise Bread Picks According to a recent study, recruiters spend an average of 6.2 seconds looking at an individual resume. Working with that kind of attention span and operating with limited space, resume writers need to make every word count. With this in mind, it might be time to a take a critical look at your resume or CV (or even your LinkedIn profile) and root out terms that aren't doing you any favors. And you can start with these 12 vague, cliche, inappropriate, or downright meaningless words. (See also: Get Your Resume Past the Resume Filter) Your resume is a chance to showcase how your skills, experience, and knowledge have produced quantitative results for previous employers. "Microsoft Office" Amber Carucci of PR Daily says that most employers assume that candidates have basic computer skills, so applicants shouldn't take up valuable resume real estate to point out the obvious. "Love" "Impactful" Sure, impactful is a word, but it's not necessarily a good one. "Experienced"
Literacy 2.0:Orchestrating the Media Collage At the epicenter of the evolving nature of literacy is digital literacy, the term du jour used to describe the skills, expectations, and perspectives involved in living in a technological society. How has digital literacy evolved in the 25 years since digital tools began appearing in classrooms? And how can we make it more responsive to our present needs? Writing What You Read Modern literacy has always meant being able to both read and write narrative in the media forms of the day, whatever they may be. For centuries, this has meant being able to consume and produce words through reading and writing and, to a lesser extent, listening and speaking. New media demand new literacies. Being able to actively create rather than just passively consume new media is important for the obvious reason that it teaches literacy and job skills that are highly valued in a digital society. Eight Guidelines for Teachers 1. 2. When we write, we think. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Teachers as Guides Endnotes
5 Ways To Influence Change “At the end of the day, what qualifies people to be called ‘leaders’ is their capacity to influence others to change their behavior in order to achieve important results.” Joseph Grenny In a time where the only constant in education is change, people involved with education need to become “change agents” more now than ever. You can understand pedagogy inside out, but if you are unable to define “why” someone should do something different in their practice, all of that knowledge can be ultimately wasted. Look at the debate over “new math” right now. “To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.” So how does this happen? Model the change that they want to see. “Increase your power by reducing it.” The change process is a tough one but simply being knowledgeable is not enough.
10 Job Interview Tips From A CEO Headhunter No two situations are ever exactly the same, but as a general guide, these are the types of questions that could come up in a typical interview. 1. Why don’t you tell me about yourself? This question, often the interview opener, has a crucial objective: to see how you handle yourself in unstructured situations. The recruiter wants to see how articulate you are, how confident you are, and generally what type of impression you would make on the people with whom you come into contact on the job. Most candidates find this question a difficult one to answer. There are many ways to respond to this question correctly and just one wrong way: by asking, "What do you want to know?" The right response is twofold: focus on what interests the interviewer, and highlight your most important accomplishments. Focus on what interests the interviewer Do not dwell on your personal history—that is not why you are there. Highlight Important Accomplishments Stories are powerful and are what people remember most. 2.
9 Defining Ways Educators Can Tug Education Back in the Right Direction As I watched my field day team win one of the longest bouts of tug-of-war I’ve ever seen, I was reminded how forces combine to tug education in the wrong direction. It might be as subtle as a phrase or a bad habit permeating our profession. This morning as I sat down to blog, opinions and rants poured from my heart onto the page about the forces tugging us in the wrong direction. We can pull back – add your voice but even better – add your actions. Education is a noble calling – lets do things worthy of that calling. 9 Defining Ways Educators Can Tug Education Back in the Right Direction 1. Learn from intriguing people. Teachers must be a living model of lifelong learning. Teaching is an incredible profession. 2. Our PD should be an engaging use of the pedagogies we are espousing in the classroom instead of lecture-only hypocrisy. Teachers do as you do, not as you say. 3. First, include teachers in your panels and conferences! Second, add diversity! 4. Educators who care, share. 5. 6.