Earlier this week it was a great privilege to be invited back to The University of Aberdeen to deliver the final lecture to their 2017/2018 Primary and Secondary PGDE Students. This is the fourth time I have been asked to deliver the final lecture and this year my theme was Leading, Learning and Teaching in challenging times.
I touched one some of the challenges that we currently face within the current VUCA World (a world full of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) as well as a need for a new narrative around Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility. Importantly I stressed that we needed to use this new narative to actually help people understand what is possible in Scottish Education (and education globally).
We also spent some time looking at examples of what is possible when you think differently about traditionally perceived education barriers (timetable, curriculum, vocational vs academic, skills agenda, etc..) and the importance of clarity while working towards a common goal & moral purpose.
Presentation slides here for anyone in my wider network who may be interested.
Summary of Key Messages:
Focus on improvement.
Improved teaching leads to improved achievement and attainment.
Feedback (at all levels) is important.
Always try to see the bigger picture.
Develop a culture of reflection & revision.
Work collectively and collegiately to overcome barriers in a VOCA world.
Scotland (and many other parts of the world) is currently facing a teacher recruitment crisis. The crisis is currently the most prominent in the state education sector.
There are lots of reasons for this including:
Significant pressure on local authority budgets(leading to staffing cuts);
Lack of incentives(such as relocation expenses, help with housing or the creation of a rural living allowance);
Poor succession planning from Government (not enough new teachers in the system to replace an aging work force);
Teachers being attracted to more appealing jobs in the private sector (including independent and international schools); and
Poor advertising.
Some schools who have struggled to fill posts have turned to more imaginative ways of advertising to recruit the best candidates to the jobs at their schools.
At Kingussie High we have had success in recent years using Social Media to attract an outstanding group of teachers from a diverse range of subjects to our small rural school. This article outlines some of the things that we have learnt along the way about using Social Media for recruitment.
Lesson One: Social Media doesn’t recruit staff on its own.
Over the years I have heard lots of people say they are going to create a ‘viral video campaign’ to recruit a member of staff to their school. Yet when you look at the total YouTube views they rarely reach double figures. The reason for this is that social media doesn’t recruit staff on its own.
The schools that have success in using social media for recruitment will be the schools that already use social media well. They will have active Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as a modern looking website. Over time they will have built up a large social following of both current and past pupils, staff, parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents and members of the local community. This ‘tribe’ of social brand ambassadors will be the main reason that your video gets 100s, 1000s or 1,000,000s of views rather than just a couple of dozen.
Lesson Two:Your Social Media Campaign is only as good as where you directed people to on the web.
Importantly, where you direct people to is not necessarily the advert or the application form. Lets face it (particularly in the public sector) most adverts and application forms are boring and sterile. You need to direct people to a web page or a web page of links that really sells your school and very importantly, as a school leader, sells why people might want to work for you.
We use the simple www.kingussiehigh.org.uk/joinus holding page as the hub of our social media campaign. It links to supplementary information about each post, provides a nice statement about the school, links to some other fun content (to help people get a feel for the team they will be joining) and of course links to the more traditional job and person specification (hosted on www.myjobscotland.gov.uk - where all of the Scottish public sector teaching jobs are listed).
Lesson Three – if you want to increase your viral audience you need to push the boundaries just enough to not to get the sack.
Remember, on the web controversial is often king (that is why there are so many cat videos on YouTube).
I once advertised an English teachers post and on the web version of the supplementary information I purposely muddled up ‘their’, ‘there’ & ‘they’re’ and ‘to’, ‘two’ & ‘too’. The advert spread like wild fire with lots of people keen to point out how ‘grammatically incorrect’ it was and how ‘literacy standards’ must be very poor in the Highlands of Scotland. The people who understood the humour were also the ones who made it to the bottom of the advert and discovered the disclaimer!
Here is an example of some supplementary information that we sent out to accompany a Depute Head Post. The online chatter it generated called it everything from ‘refreshing’ to a ‘disgrace!’ We had tens of thousands of views and in the end 24 applicants (many of whom would have been worthy of the position).
Lesson Four – Pay for on-line advertising to promote & boost your posts.
We run our social media adverts thought Facebook. It costs me £150 - £250 to put a small advert in the local paper. I normally throw about £30 - £50 on any Facebook advert. Don’t get me wrong; sometimes I think the newspaper is worth it. This is particularly the case if I am trying to recruit someone locally for a support role (office, technician, etc.). But if I want to attract a teacher from outside the area then Facebook wins hands down every time for me.
It is really important not to forget the above lessons one, two and three though. The bigger your social reach the more reach you will get with your paid advert due to its magnifying effect. Also, don’t forget to make your landing page appealing – clicks are one thing but you want people to dig deeper and apply.
The great thing about Facebook advertising is that you can set a budget and also target where and when your advert will appear on other Facebook users profiles.
It is pay ‘per click’ so you only actually pay when someone clicks on your advert and they link to your landing page. You can target on a number of levels such as male or female, by age range, by geographical location, by interest or by a little bit of everything.
Once you have ‘boosted’ your advert and set it in motion you can track the amount of social vs paid views.
Lesson Five – Use your own social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to further promote your advert.
Basically, ask people to share within their networks. This will increase your social shares and add value to your paid advert.
Other Things
The time of the year that you advertise is really important. This is particularly important if relocation is going to be required.
First impressions count – what shows up in Google when you ‘Google your School’.
Digital impressions are first impressions these days...
In 2017 I promised to write more on olliebray.com(which is also currently undergoing a digital overhaul in the background). I’ve committed to this new series of school improvement stories, which is really about the lessons I have learnt, mistakes I have made and things I want to share from my leadership of Kingussie High School. There will be twelve posts in total (published on the last day of each month during 2017).
This is part of a short series of posts where I reflect on the inaugural Intel Education Visionaries meet up in Santa Clara, California in October 2015.
Regardless of where you are in the world the Project Red Toolkit is definitely worth having a look at if you are interested in developing sustainable 1:1 models within your school, district or country. Importantly, it is linked to independent research and evaluation of the impact that programmes like this can offer if they are implemented correctly and in a holistic way.
Lesley finished her talk with the ‘first follower’ video – which I am not sure I had seen before, but I certainly found quite amusing. It takes a very lighthearted approach to how replicating behaviour can lead to impact.
You can download the full transcript from Derek Sivers website (and also a version of the video if you don't want to rely on YouTube). There is also a lesson (that you can customise) on using the video over on TED-Ed.
IRIS Connect have dissected the paper on their blog and quite nicely condensed eight of the key tasks that Hattie believes need to be established in order to achieve conditions to nurture the collaborative expertise of teachers within a school.
The eight key ideas are:
1. Shift the narrative to collaborative expertise and student progression.
Hattie says, “re-framing the conversation away from its current focus on standards and achievement and towards progress is the first step. As well as recognising that everyone, from teachers and school leaders to parents and policy makers, should be working together towards ensuring every child receives at least one year’s worth of progress for one year’s input”.
2. Agree on what a year’s progress looks like across all subjects, schools and system levels.
Hattie says, “What a year’s progress looks like needs to be debated and agreed upon among educators. This will reduce variability in teachers’ understanding of challenge and progression for students and truly accelerate progress.”
3. Expect a year’s worth of progress by raising expectations that all students can achieve.
Hattie says, “Research proves that one of the greatest influences on learning is the expectations of students and teachers. When teachers have high expectations of their students, those students tend to be very successful in achieving their goals.”
4. Develop new assessment and evaluation tools to provide feedback to teachers.
Hattie says, “We need to find improved ways of helping students and teachers to better teaching and learning through assessment. Evaluation tools shouldn’t measure learning, they should help to shape it.”
5. Know the impact by making sure that all teachers take responsibility for the impact of everyone in the school on the progress of students.
Hattie says, “Schools need to become evaluators of impact and experts at interpreting the effects of teachers and teaching on all students.
Schools should create environments that enable excellent teaching and strong communication with a focus on making an impact, where teachers identify what success looks like and the magnitude of the impact before they start teaching.”
6. Ensure teachers have expertise in diagnosis, interventions and evaluation through teachers working together as evaluators though self-evaluation of their impact on their students.
Hattie says, “Teachers need to be experts at diagnosis, interventions and evaluation. They need to understand what each student already knows and where they need to go next, as well as what interventions to use to get them there and then how to evaluate the impact they have made.”
7. Stop ignoring what we know and scale up success by using the wealth of knowledge that exists in teacher communities
Hattie says, “We have an enormous wealth of knowledge already about how to address certain challenges that students face. Teachers should be encouraged to share and use the existing expertise that has been proven to work.”
8. Link autonomy to a year’s progress by studying teachers who are achieving a year of student progress and supporting teachers who aren’t
You can download the full report here and it makes interesting reading when you put it in the context of Scottish Education. I wonder how many teacher actually know what one year (or stage) of progress looks like within the context of the curriculum both in the BGE and Senior Phase?
I believe, projects like Internet.org will create a rapid increase global communication and with it global competition - but is the Scottish education system ready to accept the challenges and benefits that ambitions projects such as this will bring?
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Internet.org is an ambitious Facebook-led initiative bringing together technology leaders, non-profits and local communities to connect the two thirds of the world that doesn't have Internet access. This lack of access is due to a combination of factors such as devices being too expensive, service plans being too expensive, no mobile networks, content not available in the local languages, limited power sources, poor networks that are unable to support a large amount of data and local populations unsure of the value that the Internet could bring.
Interestingly the main resistance seems to be from people who already have access to the Internet (including all the benefits it brings) but are now keen to make a lot of money out of providing connectivity to others. Or, by groups of people who argue that it will create a two tear system of partial and full connectivity (which is bizarre when the alternative is full and no connectivity?).
Whether you agree with its principals or not you can’t help admire the sheer ambition of the project which includes providing connectivity my lasers through a series of solar powered high altitude gliders that have a wing span larger that a Boeing 747 but weight less than a car!
What I love about the project as well is how much societal progress we could make by increasing the potential of online global collaboration from 33% towards 100%. Of course, with an increase in potential collaboration on this level and with it an increase in global competition the UK will need to ‘up-its-game’ in terms of the digital skills and the innovation agenda within schools.internet.org
Lets hope someone in the Scottish Government Learning Directorate / Education Scotland has this as a standing item on their ‘Education Futures’ agenda. Projects like this that will rapidly up the levels of global competition (which is not a bad thing) will literally be here in no time.
I came across this post from September 2014 by George Couros (@gcouros) on the Innovators Mindset and it got me thinking that it could be a nice little model to use with students and staff at school.
In his post Couros lists eight characteristics that seem common in developing students (and teachers?) as innovators:
1. Empathetic -To create new and better ways of doing things, we need to first understand who we are creating them for.
2. Problem Finders -All innovation starts from a question not an answer.
3. Risk-Takers –Many would argue that “best-practice” is the enemy of innovation. To be truly innovative, you sometimes have to go off the beaten path.
4. Networked –Innovation does not happen in isolation, as it is often ideas that are being shared amongst many that lead to new and better ideas being developed.
5. Observant –A practice normal amongst those that would be considered “innovative” is that they constantly look around their world and create connections.
6. Creators –Innovation is a combination of ideas and hard work.
7. Resilient –To simply try something and give up as soon as it fails never leads to innovation only a definitive end.
8. Reflective –If we started again, what would we do differently? What can we build upon?
You can read the full narrative behind his thinking in the original post.
On Frank Crawfords (@frankcrawford) previous advice I think I would change ‘risk taking’to ‘adventurous’as I think people find it a more acceptable term - but then perhaps I’m just being picky?
George up-dated is post in March 2015 with this great image by @SylviaDuckworth.
Almost exactly ten years ago I had just arrived back home from Alaska after a month long expedition to the Alaska White Mountains and the Yukon. I've been lucky over the years to lead four expeditions to Alaska (with a 5th on the backburner). But the 2005 trip will always stick in my mind as being particularly special and a grande finale to my time at Knox Academy. It was great pleasure to share the trip with nine exceptional young people and two even more exceptional colleagues and lifelong friends (David Russell and Rhona Smith).
Unfortunately, the trip took place before before this blog came into existence (only just!) which meant it missed out on any digital documentation. We also lacked a final report because Nicola Holding(ace expedition member, amateur ornithologist and my canoe buddy for ten days - who could only paddle on one side!) was so tired as we flew back though Seattle she left her journal in the airport!
Dave reminded me last night that it was the tenth anniversary of the expedition. His reminder was timely and I had just written about the importance of residential opportunities for young people. It also gave me a good excuse to dig out my photos from the trip and up-loaded them to Flickr as well as having a chance to look though my old expedition maps and files. It is really is great to explore old memories. It also reminded me that it was also nice to still be in touch with pretty much all team via Facebook (I've lost touch with lots of members of previous trips from the mid to late 1990s - partly due to the lack of social media at the time).
Photo:Bear Encounter on Beaver Creek
The 2005 trip (as with most youth expeditions) was over a year in the planning. Originally we had planned to paddle to Noatak River but the costs were spiralling (although I did get back and paddle the Noatak with a group in 2010). In the end we discovered (and opted for) perhaps the greatest (and cheapest) wilderness float in North America. Nome Creek into Beaver Creek into the Yukon this is a 499 mile float that scrapes the Arctic Circle and is an Alaska Classic (easy grade I water, with one grade II rapid) that goes road-to-road so you don't need expensive air transportation. We spent 17 days being self sufficient on the river and we didn't see another person during the whole of that time.
As part of the trip we also aimed to hike the Circle to Fairbanks Historic Trail, which took in the Pinnell Mountain Recreation Trail. The Pinnell's were exceptional (classic Alaska Tundra Hiking) and I enjoyed our 30mile hike above the tree line as well as visiting the mountain huts on trail. However when we dropped down back onto the Circle - Fairbanks Trail navigation and bushwacking became almost impossible as we traversed areas burnt out by forest fire and areas almost impossible to negotiate due to fallen trees. Making painfully slow progress we bailed from the route eventually and made our way through forest and rivers to the Steese Highway and the comfort of Billy's Backpackers in Fairbanks. To be fair they started to up-grade the trail in 2006 (and it has become popular with Mountain Bikers) so I expect a re-visit might provide a different experience compared to our bushwacking adventure!
Happy memories indeed from bear encounters, to paddling though forest fires, to Paul's crazy driving, to a night in Mordor, to Alaskan Amber, to Joe (at the hostel) and lots and lots of laughs! What we accomplished was really quite amazing and it is great to see so many of the team still active in the outdoors.
The theme for the recent series of Google Teacher Academies was 'Moonshot Thinking'.
Moonshots or Moonshot Ideas live in the gray area between audacious projects and pure science fiction; instead of mere 10% gains, they aim for 10x improvements. The combination of a huge problem, a radical solution, and the breakthrough technology that might just make that solution possible is the essence of a Moonshot.
Great Moonshot discussions require:
an innovative mindset;
a healthy disregard for the impossible;
the ability to maintain a level of practicality.
The video below says it all really:
Which challenging times ahead in Scottish Education we are going to need a lot more Moonshot Ideas to help us nurture curriculum and current education system fit for the Third Millennium. For far to long we have concentrated on incremental improvements rather than radical change.
What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety — especially in an uneven economy — means taking on big responsibility.
I enjoyed this. Simple advice, beautifully illustrated with stories. Also, can't help thinking that Local Government offering Scottish Teachers an extra five days (unpaid) holiday a year would sort out the current budget deficit!
I’m just back from Iceland (well a week ago) where Frank Crawford and I were working at
the Icelandic Headteachers Annual Conference.
I love Iceland and it was great
to work with such a passionate group of professionals. It was also great to work with former Minister of Education Katrin Jakobsdottir who although has a new love for cooking, certainly still has passion and drive to take education forward in her country.
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