High profile sports teams may not all be shifting to more relationship-based decision-making. But some are. It's an emerging trend across the public and private sector.
If video is not part of your educator toolkit, your faculty and students are missing out on connecting our emotive selves to meaningful learning. The right videos inspire and motivate us, help facilitate problem solving and deeper thinking, and create natural collaborative conversation. A relevant message that engages multiple senses often creates an environment where viewers lean in and open up. These are my current favorites.
From time to time, I receive email or Facebook messages from former colleagues sharing a new adventure or frustrated with status quo education. This one was a frustration.
The FB message from former colleague:
I just had to share a memory, overlaid with a reality I am experiencing, which also connects with where I will be next year. The topic? Examinations. The subtext? Traditional, limiting education. I remember you posted a photo some years back of the HS gym in its stark exam set up. As I recall, you didn't feel this was a picture of human-empowering education. Agreed.
In case you haven't noticed, leadership has changed. A lot.
Gone are the days where the leader stands at the top of the pyramid; speaking authoritatively, doling out wisdom, and is the keeper of all decision-making.
Today, from the professional coaches team room to business executive suites to the principal’s office, there are several key words and phrases that resonate deeply with leaders in successful organizations. These words are consistent across both the public and private sectors.
Which words and phrases?
Educators commonly use the phrase, "research-based, best practice," when introducing new programs and initiatives. The phrase demonstrates the school has done due diligence, scholarly review, conferred with other practitioners and gives confidence to parents and community members that the school knows what it is doing. Due to the results of this research, schools are reasonably confident that the new program or initiative will do what we say it will do . . . improve learning.
Unfortunately, educators to often fall victim to ignoring or de-emphasizing the "research-based, best practice" phrase when it no longer fits current practice, especially in the face of opposition from inevitable naysayers.