
22 Mar Shaping the Future of Schools
Term break is a wonderful time to catch up with family and friends and enjoy good food and good wine. I’m camping with my family and friends and enjoying the Australian bush. Lovely!
It’s also a great time to reflect on how things are going at your school.
You know that schools need to change to meet the needs of 21st Century Learners, but changing schools is hard! Really hard! And you’re exhausted!
John Kotter claims that change is really hard. He says that to make any change successful in an organization you have to change more than the structure and operations. You actually have to change the people – and that is never easy! He has developed and reviewed 8 Steps for Successful Change and I have used them to make successful changes at my school.
Knowledgeworks is concerned that we are currently facing a critical dilemma in schools claiming that the most vibrant innovations in education are likely to take place outside traditional institutions. Reconciling bottom-up developments with traditional top-down hierarchies that are in place in many schools today is a huge challenge.
And of course there are the TITWWADIs at your school. I have met TITWWADIs at every school I’ve ever worked at. You know the type of person I’m referring to here. The … ‘This Is The Way We’ve Always Done It’ people. Have you got any of those on your team? TITWWADIs make shaping the future of your school pretty challenging too.
Why not come along to the Melbourne ‘Leadership for the 21st Century’ workshop on 6 May or the ‘Embracing Asia in 21st Century Schools‘ Study Tour in Northern Thailand on 2 – 9 July to learn how you and your team can successfully bring about change at your school and shape the future of learning to successfully prepare your students for their future, not ours!
