3 A Steve Jobs Moment Ahead?

We've all been affected by the loss of Steve Jobs and the hole in the creativity universe today.  Like many of you, I've been looking at websites and reading more about him and his life and, most importantly, his leadership of one of the most well known companies in the world.

What I've learned from many sites like wikipedia, the Wall Street Journal and All About Steve Jobs is that he was more than a leader; he was a visionary.  We all knew that but once you start reading, you realise just how deep that really went. What stuck me in particular is that he made mistakes along the way ( the infamous firing from Apple) and was able to reinvent himself to make one of the greatest come backs in business history.

After months of reflecting on my performance here at my school I feel like perhaps I need a "Steve Jobs Moment" myself.  I've been struggling with the realisation that I am not the leader that I thought or hoped I would be.  I have only been in a coordinator position for 3 years but as I have been reflecting, that road hasn't been what I wanted.

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0 Inquiry is Alive, and Without Rules!

I had to take a break.  It was all too amazing and I needed time to process the event and give it space to breathe inside my head.  I've taken a week to process and now all I want to do is celebrate and shout from every roof top around the world!

Yes! We finished our PYP grade 5 exhibition for this year! (To see the whole affair documented from start to finish check out our blog here) As many of you know, I am a strong advocate for the PYP and I believe that the exhibition is one of the best aspects of the program.  At the end of their 7 years of study in elementary school the students are encouraged to lead and inquire on their own in groups.  It is an inspiring and amazing process that has been documented beautifully by @whatedsaid in her post here about her (just completed!) exhibition this year.  I've been fortunate enough to be a part of 11 exhibitions in three different schools over the years and all have been astounding.

I am celebrating many things with this exhibition.  Of course the usual litany of student educational milestones such as:

• Working on social skills through collaborative team work
• Identifying and writing a line of inquiry to focus their investigations
• Discussing, posing and refining key questions to guide research skills with primary and secondary sources
• Embracing the joy of learning, overcoming struggles with cooperation and reflecting on successes of oneself and a group

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2 Developing Passion Based Teachers: Midwifing?

I've been reflecting a lot lately on leadership, change and passion based teaching as is evident in the various blog posts over the last month.  Precisely, I'm in the midst of reflecting on what I can do to be a better leader for the teachers that I help; where can I let go and where can I lead.  Luckily, every once in a while, something comes along that gives you that little push that you need to get up and get going on a new path.  Thanks to @ktenkely and her latest blog post I received that passion-filled push that I was requiring!

On her post she placed the video that I also posted above.  While the message of creativity and passion are resoundingly clear, it was the part at the 12:00 mark that peaked my interest.  I encourage you to watch the entire video on this amazing school called High Tech High, but would ask that you pay particular attention to the final few minutes.

Here's a list of the points/quotes that I'm interested in with respect to leading my teachers toward becoming passion filled educators:

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1 Dear Teacher who is afraid...

I've been back to school now for three weeks and have been trying to implement what I learned over the summer about change from @willrich45 @angelamaiers and Chip Heath.  The number one message that I received from these thinkers in change is that you need to change the situation if you want anything inspiring to happen.

So, from the beginning of the year I've been changing how we do professional development (which I am now moving toward using professional learning) opportunities.  The change has been small but I'm reflecting now on if it has been effective after 6 months.  I implemented small group learning, personal learning networks and choice in which small group to attend for professional development sessions.  While I haven't had any negative feedback, I haven't really had any.  While I saw lots of people taking notes, I haven't really seen any implementation.  While I have decreased the amount of information meetings, I haven't seen any increase in people using the new information sites provided.  Okay, it's early days still, but why are the roots of change not taking hold yet?

I got to thinking that maybe they are afraid.  Afraid of change; afraid of the possibilities that are out there. But as the video above explains, its happening all over the world and it cannot be stopped.  So, what do we do, those of us who are asked to be at the helm of the professional learning boat, when none of the people on board want to know what the direction is that you are going?  At times I feel like there are so many anchors holding us down that we will never set free into the wide open ocean of amazing education opportunities that are out there in the world.

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