Almost everybody remembers the movie Groundhog Day. It’s one of those flicks that, true to it’s message, seems to appear with monotonous regularity in our lives. It’s certainly one that I frequently stumble across during a Sunday afternoon session of channel surfing. In the movie Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, is stuck in the American…
People often ask me why I advocate so strongly for Restorative Practices. I find that the question is usually posed without the Firstly, my sincere apologies to the many, many friends I have who are either Muslim or vegetarian for the clip I’d like to provoke you with today – but it’s funny and also happens…
People often ask me why I advocate so strongly for Restorative Practices. I find that the question is usually posed without the expectation of a genuine, rational answer. It’s almost rhetorical. The truth is that there are far too many Teachers our there who’ve had a negative experience of Restorative Practices – whether it be…
It’s time for your school’s Staff Meeting. Folk wander in at 3.45pm…ish after another day of facilitating the growth of batches of 25 or so resistive young people. Jarryd (damn those J names with their multiple potential spellings) has just had another one of those days and you’re feeling particularly weary, perhaps even a little…
Frankly, far too many Teachers and School Leaders report being stressed. Some studies have up to 27% of Teachers experiencing emotional exhaustion and burnout at any particular point of the school year. Can you imagine what that’s doing to our effectiveness? And it’s why we’re kicking off 2017 with perhaps our most important webinar ever…
Prompted by an exceedingly clever fellow in Dr Jason Fox, I allocated 2016 to one word. Picking one word (rather than making lame resolutions or setting unlikley “new year, new me” goals) is a great way to set the scene less for what you’ll stand for, but more for HOW you’ll stand. Jason’s word for…
Our Real Schools mission to raise Teacher status is on. And my commitment is to do it as comfortably and appropriately for early January as possible! I’ve just finished a coffee on my favourite outside couch and a fantastic little book called “88 Ideas to Teach More Effectively” by Tim Bowman. It’s a ripper. One of Bowman’s…
I have five non-content based learning intentions for each Professional Learning day that I run. One of them is to Provoke, mindful as I am of the affirming and unnecessarily nice nature of much PL offered to schools. We should not be in the business of learning that merely affirms or reinforces unhelpful patterns. And don’t worry,…
When you book a trainer to run a PL Day, the impact drops away remarkably as soon as 48 hours after the event. In fact, the feedback most people provide from a PL Day connects to the temperature of the room and the food provided – not quite “return on investment”. That’s why Real Schools…
It’s late in the year. So let’s make today’s message short, simple and easy to take meaning from. A little weariness at this time of year is something you can be forgiven for. At these times, we can retreat somewhat into ourselves. I just need to get MY reports done. I just need to complete…
I visit a lot of schools in Term 4. And at each I fall into the great Australian colloquial greeting and query “How you goin’?”. Almost to a man/woman I’m returned the equally automatic and stereotypical “Busy as mate. Running on empty. I’m really hanging out for a break.” There’s a reality to this. All good…
In schools, we’re pretty good with compliance. We do so much and sometimes we do things just because we have to. I remember a fabulous Principal who used to put his 12 JFDIson the staffroom wall (The JDI stands for Just Do It … I’ll leave you to work out what the F stands for!). The…
I sent a quick email to a teacher friend and colleague last week to touch base. I know she’s had a rough-ish time this year with a particularly challenging cohort. She’s a fantastic educator and perhaps one of those teachers who tends to end up with the toughest group due to her ability to connect…
Michelle Giffin today published an opinion piece on education in The Age titled “Stop Telling Students That VCE Doesn’t Matter – It Does” that I think we should pay attention to. This ill-informed and binary idea that teachers and parents are either telling students that their end-of-year results either matter OR that they don’t is…
Term 4 can feel like running fast downhill sometimes – it goes so quickly that you can even feel a little out of control. It’s like the next step is not entirely your choice and is more a matter of reckless, unavoidable momentum. The obstacles in Term 4 are also a little sharper and more…
I visited my local butcher shop this morning (apologies in advance to my vegetarian friends out there!) to quickly grab some meat for our family’s favourite meal – the slow cooker curry. Always determined to cook enough for us AND for some leftovers I ordered 1.2kg of diced beef. The butcher said what butchers say…
I’d like to introduce you to Jenny Beckwith. I think Jenny is amazing for two key reasons: She’s a highly dedicated and effective Assistant Principal in a rural K-12 school experiencing both some significant change challenges and successes. She’s a new alumni of our Real Schools Executive Coaching Program. You see, Jenny made a decision…
Most leaders and teachers are comfortable with a couple of thinking frames that apply very directly to schools or any learning intended organization: Vygotsky’s Zone Of Proximal Development – loosely translated as always coaxing students and ourselves into the next level of performance without exceeding actual capacity. That we should never rest on our laurels…
I’ve always loved the great Australian colloquialism “Doesn’t he like to blow his own trumpet?”. Not only does it conjure an awesome visual, but there’s a gorgeous irony in it too. I mean, who else is supposed to blow your trumpet for you? A trusted colleague last week told me that I need to start…
Teaching is hard work … so it should be. Anything worthwhile is always taxing and a struggle from time to time. So perhaps we should occasionally embrace the weariness, busy-ness and constant strain that comes with important work a little more than we merely bemoan it. Perhaps? But I think one of the greatest contributors…
What are our Teachers and Parents really kept awake at night by? It’s a confronting question and the answer is often connected strongly to “the unknown” about our kids. Where are they? What are they doing? What choices are they making? What are the consequences of those choices? How can I help them make better…
For the last 18 months or so I’ve been one of those odd, annoying-at-dinner-parties food evangelists who don’t eat any carbs or sugar. Relax, I’m not about to go all Pete Evans on you and beat you into the submission of a paleo school canteen! For the most part, it’s actually not so hard. But…
Jane D. Hull described the importance of schools and parents coming together when she said “At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” She’s onto something! But the truth is that the task of involving parents, let alone building genuine and ongoing commitment,…
And so we stepped out of line! I remember well the moment that our Teacher FastTrack Program was ‘conceived’. I was in a conversation about Real Schools with a rather skeptical colleague who was determined that the big problem with supporting Teachers with their practice is that “you just can’t do it unless you’re face-to-face…
Yes – this is a tacky advertisement for insurance. Well, this is at least an endorsement for considering the strength and resilience of the young people we are building. This concept of preparing or insuring our young people against their dreams being disrupted or destroyed by others came to me in watching a very interesting…
