muddling about » leadership http://60foot.edublogs.org Just another Edublogs.org weblog Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:08:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Keeping Kids Connected http://60foot.edublogs.org/2007/04/04/keeping-kids-connected/ http://60foot.edublogs.org/2007/04/04/keeping-kids-connected/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2007 04:03:39 +0000 Dustin Swanson http://60foot.edublogs.org/2007/04/04/keeping-kids-connected/ I started a discussion today in a staff meeting about a topic I feel pretty strong about; keeping kids connected to the school. The discussion went fine, although I didn’t really have time to get to the ‘heart’ of the issue and look at solutions. In our school of approx. 500 students, the majority are what you would say are ‘connected’. That is they have a strong sense of belonging and often show this through their involvement in both structured and unstructured extra-curricular activities , etc. However, there still remains a significant group of students who are not connected. Not surprisingly, some of these students exhibit academic, social, and behavior difficulties. So as an administrator, it’s not uncommon for me to deal with these students regularly.

So, I have two main questions about current secondary education. Firstly, what do we do about the kids who are not connecting? And, secondly, are the numbers of disconnected youth increasing? If so, how might we start addressing the issue? Is focusing on youth engagement a great first start? Okay, I guess that is more than two questions :)

A few years ago a group of administrators were part of the “revolution” group. It was a group aimed at examining these questions in more detail. A primary resource for our discussions came from an excellent Saskatchewan Learning resource . However, due to other priorities the group was dissolved for a portion of time. The good news is that recently our senior administration has decided to start discussions with interested teachers on the very topic. Needless to say, I’m excited by this prospect. This is not because I believe secondary education is ‘broken’. On the contrary, but by examining these questions I believe we can only strengthen our education system.
So, please help me out…what do you do to ‘connect’ kids? What is your district or school doing? How do you help ‘engage’ students?

]]> http://60foot.edublogs.org/2007/04/04/keeping-kids-connected/feed/ 6 Holiday reading http://60foot.edublogs.org/2006/12/26/holiday-reading/ http://60foot.edublogs.org/2006/12/26/holiday-reading/#comments Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:21:56 +0000 Dustin Swanson http://60foot.edublogs.org/2006/12/26/holiday-reading/ One of the great things about having a lengthy holidays is you get a chance to do the things you have been meaning to do for a while but never found the time. Well, this holiday I decided to continue reading Covey’s 8th Habit book. I was initially reluctant to read it as his work seems overly commercialized. However, after reading a few chapters I can tell it is a worthwhile read. I have been a Covey fan since I read the 7 Habits book ten years ago.

 Anyhow, chapter 2 deals with what Covey identifies as “the problem” with organizations and I assume is the motivation behind the book. His fundamental claim is that organizational problems are problems of paradigms of human nature . In particular, the fact that many employers treat people as objects, similar to an industrial model of management. Therefore, in order to succeed in the modern era, organizations must rethink  how they treat “Knowledge Workers”.

 For me there are three key things to take away from this part of the book:

1) People in organizations characterized by the problems Covey outlines create codependency between workers and management. In the end, workers stop believed leadership is a choice, instead believing it is part of a position.

2) Organizations must change from viewing people in a “thing” paradigm and instead view them in a “Whole Person” paradigm. Otherwise we are leading blindly.  It is interesting to see how Covey’s principle of “seek first to understand” is really manifested in this new principle of the Whole Person paradigm.

I have always held to a belief that at the root – leadership is about relationships…I think I’m really going to enjoy this book.

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