Last trefoil, I had three strong candidates by Tuesday. This week was steadier. Again, my morning runs/podcasts delivered insight and provocation and I finished off with Y9B English – on top form!
Trust comes on foot, but leaves on horseback.
Sir Kevan Collins, soon to step down as chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)
Over at Trialled and Tested, eight years in the role, Sir Kevan discusses system change, decision making and influence. Unsurprisingly, high stakes accountability frameworks is challenged. We end up looking “up” and not “out.”
Second – Keara Mascareñaz spoke to Principal Centre Radio on Teamwork and Organisational Design. I find it is useful to hear from educators outside our own education echo chamber. I have written about the pain points of meetings previously, I noted the practice of “check-ins.” A simple, solitary opening question that everyone responds to (serious or fun).
By shifting the way you start your meetings, you can change the tone, engagement, and ultimately culture of your meetings and your team.
I can see the value of asking, “What’s occupying your mind / your daily work this week?” or “What are you concerned about this week?” or “What’s a mistake you have made this past week and what did you learn from it?” Less so the fun/nonsense questions of “What was your childhood nickname?”
Keara states that the process of check-ins can really enhance the level of trust, creating stronger bonds between attendees, increasing presence and equalising talk time in meetings.
Lastly – I managed to connect the visualiser microphone to classroomscreen.com. In pairs and trios, students from 9B were sourcing their textual references, discussing their plans for their final assignment of the term. Classroom noise levels were being picked up by the microphone with live feedback displayed on the screen. The selected iceberg image a visual metaphor and teaching opportunity to reinforce the theme of family in A Christmas Carol.
