Reading!Writing!Thinking and Digesting all these new ideas and train of thought (sigh). That seems to be the cycle that I have been finding myself in now. Recently found a new website that is blowing my mind away called Success At the Core. (http://www.successatthecore.com) Basically it is a set of free modules that engage leadership development around school improvement. The combination of readings, videos, and reflective activities develop knowledge about issues student outcomes and build team members’ skills to work on those challenges together. It's totally free!!!!!
Dennis Sparks, stated"School will improve by developing teamwork, real-time professional learning, and system and school cultures that allow new ideas and practices to grow and flourish." The kind of teamwork based real-time professional learning he is advocating for leaders is very different from the "sit and get sessions still commonly experienced by most school and district administrators. Such activities--- which sometimes are little more than a series of speaker who offer their view on a variety of subject--are often markedly separate from leaders core day to day responsibilities, seldom build on one another to develop complex understandings and skills, do little to promote teamwork withing the school system and reinforce the mistaken not that good staff development is a series of "presenters" who convey ideas and research to relatively passive recipients. (Spark,2009)
As advocated by Gardner the five kinds of minds can and should work synergistically. If all that is being written in the current literature concerning leadership, teamwork, relevant professional learning and change is driving us to what LEADERSHIP can and should be--- I believe that we must make a paradigm shift of how we train, induct and retain our leaders and teachers. Rethink what constitutes achievement and success and THEN STAND OUR GROUND !!!!------ against the powers that be-------radical thinking!!!!!
It has long been my opinion that most of what is billed as staff development or professional development simply is not. Sitting and listening to speakers may even be insspirational if the speaker is good, but it seldom translates to on-the-job skills. The real-time workplace learning you speak about is so much more powerful. I am with you on being radical thinkers and standing our ground.
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