Brian's Blog

Leadership Capacity Unquestionably, a principals primarily obligation is for the learning of the students, as such, leading instruction is the core business of the school leader. However, in truth, dedicating the time for planned and ongoing instructional leadership, as well as overcoming the pertinacious difficulty of devoting time to effective and sustainable instructional growth is an obstacle that school leaders on all levels face. Spillane, Halverson & Diamond, (2001) point out is the principal does not have to be the expert on everything, but is the instructional leader. The expertise can come from others in the building but such operation should be distributed through the school. Moving away from one-person leading the school (Spillane, 2005; Lambert, 2002) and establishing greater capacity from within their team to carry and direct the load, principals can create opportunities by identifying teacher leaders and advocates who will clearly communicating the purpose the de...

School leaders matter for schools success (Hattie, 2012). It is universally acknowledged that effective leadership is an essential element in achieving school improvement (Leithwood & Jantzi, 1998; Hopkins, 2001). “At the heart of school capacity are principals focused on the development of teachers' knowledge and skills, professional community, program coherence, and technical resources” (Fullan, 2002, p16). “The old model of formal, one-person leadership leaves the substantial talents of teachers largely untapped” (Lambert, 2002, p.37). This one-person theory of instructional leadership that was promerate in the years previous to 2000 ( Hallinger & Heck, 1998) . It was an archetype where the principal would lead from the front being across all levels of leadership (Spillane, Halverson & Diamond, 2001). However, with the increasing complexities of schools, the development of other philosophies of instructional leadership, which can be defined as the guidance or mana...

This is my interview with Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher discussing ways we can create opportunities for students to make connections globally with each other to leave a lasting impact.

This is my interview with Jon Burgmann @jonburgmann at FlipCon Australia after he spent some time in my class looking at the ways technology and flipped learning have been used to enhance the students learning.

Sitting travelling at 307km an hour travelling from Beijing to Suzhou for 5 hours with a group of 80 gives me time to reflect on some of the engineering, architectural, fashion and acrobatic feats of China. This trip our group have been give the privilege of walking on the Great Wall, cruising through the canals of Suzhou and riding on the high speed train. What I have noticed is all of these engineering marvels were completed with amazing efficiency, are structurally sound and have aesthetic appeal. Our tour guides said this is because of the time taken to plan and execute, taking into consideration the natural beauty of the region and working with it. They suggested the public only sees the rate in which something is built; however, highlighted that it took long term vision to create something that was radically new for their culture. This idea resounds with me! As educational change agents and leaders we need to see the budding talent encompassed within our students and s...

                        It is just a little under two weeks since the Google Certified Innovators Sydney 2017 cohort graduated. In this time I have had pockets of time to reflect and gather my thoughts about the program and how it has affected my project. When I set out I had the plan to create a personalised learning pathway that would engage students in meaningful learning. Though the desired goal has not changed the academy, coaches and peer's have challenged me to think of ways to bring this to pass and obstacles to look out for. They have encouraged the mindset of "thinking big but starting small" by being critical friends. Colleagues and team mates I can constantly come back to and think tank with. This shared experience has broadened my perspective and connection to a world of educators who are making a real difference in the lives of their learning communities. During the academy, we had the time and space to l...

Reflections from Day 3 of the Google for Education Innovation Academy.

Reflections from Day 2 of the Google for Education Innovation Academy.

Practical Implications: Darling-Hammond (1995) found that teacher leadership is importantly associated to teacher scholarship and professional growth. She identified that leadership can be encapsulated in the tasks that everyday teachers do so that it does not create artificial, formal hierarchies. With this belief, it is suggested that teacher leadership can create more agile frameworks for leadership to be operated through. As the organisation has the flexibility and capacity to meet the requirements of their individual students in a differentiated and impressionable way. Ng (2006) supported the notion that teacher leadership can contribute to school revitalization. This was created by a mixture of methods including time and space, to work, reflect, and learn together, a common planning time had given teachers to intentionally focus on school improvement. As the personal, interpersonal and organisational skills and capacity enlarged the climate for school revitalization became ...