International Schooling - Dr Jake Madden

Teacher Appreciation Week 2020

During this COVID-19 crisis, many people have been displaced from their normal routines. There has been a tumultuous upheaval in our day to day lives as we have now come to deal with the sudden closure of our retail outlets, shopping malls, restaurants, and of our schools.

The impact is devastating, for many as jobs have been lost, salaries cut, and with the pressures of working from home, the balance of family and work life has become problematic. Well-being issues have been brought to the forefront of conversations.

For families, it’s difficult to have to monitor two, three or four children each day to ensure their learning continues and learning tasks completed. No doubt parents are very appreciative of the work teachers do (given that teachers manage classes of up to 30 students every lesson, every day, every week)

Everyone is acutely aware of the challenges teachers are under. The pressure on them has never been greater.

Let’s not dwell on the mandated high stakes testing, or the diversity of student needs within the classroom, or the ever increasing accountability measures placed upon them, but rather celebrate and affirm their unwavering efforts to do the best they can for each and every student. It’s not an easy task.

Many teachers have had to learn new digital tools overnight as they moved into uncharted territory to personalize and improve their instruction for distance learning. This has come without real guidance and was fraught with many challenges and barriers. Perseverance, creativity and long hours have helped ease the transition. New routines, communication practices and a huge shift in pedagogy (ie the method and practice of teaching) has seen learning continue.

Our teachers too are essential workers, keeping the future alive under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. They are also in isolation, but provide countless hours of support to our students, parents and each other.

If there was ever a time to show our appreciation of teachers it is now.

To my staff at Al Yasat Private School, Abu Dhabi, I thank you! our students are in great hands. We are lucky to have you.

#alyasatschool #teacherappreciation #uae #teachers

Leadership Essentials

When you place “leadership” into an internet search engine you very quickly come up with millions of hits. There are as many theories as there are experts. For me there are a few essentials that the school leader must put into practice

Uniting people around an exciting, aspirational vision;
Building a strategy for achieving the vision by making choices about what to do and what not to do;
Attracting and developing the best possible talent to implement your strategy;
Relentlessly focusing on results in the context of the strategy;
Creating ongoing innovation that will help reinvent the vision and strategy; and
“Leading yourself”: knowing and growing yourself so that you can most effectively lead others and carry out these practices.

Only the implementation of each may differ from leader to leader. Each leader will exercise each essential in their own was as they sum up their school’s circumstances.

Raising Student Achievement: The work of the Internationally Minded Teacher

One of the unique benefits of working in an international school is the opportunity to engage with a mix of cultures. One of the challenges is the drawing together of a diverse staffing demographics. Raising student achievement is the goal of each individual teacher.

While there is diversity within the student population it is also true within the teaching population. Given the research ( declaring the constant turn over of staff within international organisations of between 20-25 percent each year, the need for continuous induction of staff reveals a number of challenges for the principal and leadership team of the school. How do you sustain learning and not “waste” time inducting and re-inducting staff?

As explained in an article titled “Raising Student Achievement: The work of the Internationally Minded Teacher” (which can be found online at the International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change) the challenge for leaders in the international sector is to continue to meet the learning needs of educators. A targeted professional learning program is required. More precisely, a collaborative professional learning program. One that is focused on improving teacher practice more than learning how to implement a “program” of instruction.

This is where the coaching and mentoring aspect of the leader’s role comes into play.