‘Does not know what they do not know’

We start our ‘aware’ life knowing very little – we know what’s around us – so that must be it.

We then outgrow our surroundings, we find out more stuff about more stuff – then there’s more stuff out there for us to know about.

And so it goes on. Every time we learn more stuff, we find out there’s even more stuff.

We actually now know that we don’t know.

Are we as adults any different from children? We know stuff that children don’t know – and we know of stuff that we don’t know

“The truly great people are overwhelmed by their ignorance” – Brian Tracy

“Have you ever tried pushing  a piece of string”

Do the things you don’t like to do – so you can do more of the things that you do like to do.
Often, the beneficial, profitable tasks involve hard work and long hours. The rewards that come from them eventually pay off.

In the absence of excellence – you default to mediocrity.
How often have you heard someone say ‘That’ll do’ when clearly it didn’t do?

Lower level staff struggle to commit to higher quality levels than their leaders.
This is an important psychological finding, and is really important for anyone leading a team. it’s the effect of ‘Do as I say, don’t do as I do’

Be hard on yourself and life will be easy.
Be easy on yourself and life will be hard.

Was straight, obvious and you knew where you were going?

A few days ago I  saw a fabulous post by Doug Woods. One to get the thinking matter – thinking.

Doug has picked up a lot of the areas I’ve been thinking about, discussing with staff and discussing with head teachers in the last few weeks. I’ve come from  a very different background from teachers, most educational advisors and school heads.

Here’s my view – the role of headteachers and senior members of staff now has more in common with my role as a small business owner – than it has with the role THEY had 5  or 10 years ago.

That’s a strong statement – based on what?

Doug has focussed on ICT in education – perhaps his observations are actually echoed across more aspects of the life of a headteacher?

How has the headtacher become more like a small business owner?

Going back a few years – the central body (kind of) told the LAs what to tell the schools to do – and the LAs were funded, staffed and directed accordingly. The headteacher could focus on running the school.

Then the central body got some assistance to help set policy, focus on ideas, look at strategy and focus. In addition, Local Management of Schools gave decision making power to the headteachers and governing bodies. Slowly the influence of and the support from the LAs was reduced. The other bodies took a more prominent role and the poor headteacher was being guided and supported by the multitudes.

Now ..

Is the school headteacher now in my position? That is – you have your inputs, here’s what we’d like your outputs to be, there’s someone a long way up the food chain maybe suggesting, maybe telling, maybe not. Here’s the rules and regulations – but we might change these.(As small businesses we are just about to lose the Regional Development Agencies).

Is there too much focus on trying to persuade / cajole or convince politicians to review their decisions? You can’t saw sawdust.

In sales training we are taught about objections and issues. Objections are the reasons why a prospective customer is hesitating to go ahead with the offer in it’s current guise, now. Issues – on the other hand – are absolute show stoppers. issue – ‘I live in a 4th floor flat, and much as I’d love it – I really aren’t buying an outdoor pool’
The best issue I ever heard
’I’ve just taken early retirement, just bought a Croft on Skye, leaving next week and I’ve recommended that the Authority closes this department’

The governments decisions are ISSUES – we have to live with them and work around them. How, effectively?

Here’s 2 simple thoughts

Help Naace to really explode it’s membership

Increase teachers and related folks at teachmeets, on forums and similar by 100% by Christmas 2010. Then 100% again by Easter 2011

These thoughts have one thing in common – both are independent of government funding.

What do you think?

The Sweetie Shop Syndrome

When does choice become too much to be useful?

A trip down the coffee aisle at a large supermarket, the options on offer at the ice cream stand in a good cafe and the bewildering selections of chocolate bars in a reasonable sized petrol station.

All these and more can leave you dizzy with choice –

Do you always pick the best options?

Do you walk away not picking any?

Or do you grab a couple – just in case?

The mass of free software, on-line resources, stunning activities and mind-blowing free on-line tools makes me ask a question. Are too many of us too busy finding stuff to really (and I mean REALLY) get the best out of it?

I’m asking this question of myself really. But I think it could be asked of a lot of people.

I found a really good blog the other day. On it the writer mentioned she’d used a screen capture tool, and I suggested an alternative. Why? They were both free tools, I guess the tool she’s using was doing the job just fine – I was trying to be helpful.

A few years ago schools in the UK had a fund specifically to buy software. Our team installed a lot of this software in our customers (local primary schools). Then, we commented that ‘package x’ was doing a similar job to ‘package y’.

Now, are we getting to the same point with free stuff? Are we grabbing it, using it, sometimes learning it, rarely stretching it – because it’s there and it’s free? Or because it’s really beneficial?

Here’s a few winners for me – Twitter, MyMaps on Google Maps, Google Reader, Microsoft Live Writer, Photosynth, Xobni, Community Clips, Cropper, OS on BING

And a few losers? Wikispaces, Facebook, Windows Media Encoder

What’s your experiences?

Photo © http://www.flickr.com/photos/anguskirk

In his excellent book from 5 years ago “The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth” American author Steven S. Little introduced me to the concept of Weak Signal Monitoring.

The idea is simple, but time consuming. Use your periphery vision, be aware of what’s outside your direct environment and read as much as you can get your hands on.
He also recommended that if the reader only had time to read one periodical – then the number one to read is The Economist – a UK publication. So I subcribe!

In these changing times – it strikes me that a typical primary school headteacher has more in common with me (a small business owner) than she (or he) has with a ‘typical public sector employee’. What do you think?

So what weak signals should you be looking for – and how can you do it?

Tory government – who influenced them – what have they been saying in ‘semi private’? (See the Centre for Policy Studies article on my education blog ).

Cuts / finance / value for money. Who will police this? When was the last time you browsed the National Audit Office website? What about the Department for Budget Responsibility?

Okay – very clever – we’re too busy. Do you have a listening station? If not, why not? Here’s how

The June issue of History Today has some fascinating stories which could fall straight out of (or into) a business training manual.

Disruptive Technology

Every now and then something comes along that rewrites the rules. CP/M and DOS introduced PCs and disrupted the mainframe world, lead in petrol was recognised for its terrible side effects.

How about this?
Overnight, every wooden-walled warship in the world became obsolete

“Born in the USA: A New World of War” is the article written by David White. In it he explains how the 2 sides pushed technology in the name of war and the responses forced by the enemy. The technology and human responses are fascinating and include

Machines to stitch soles to shoes
A dedicated medical corps
Printing of money on a huge scale
Slaughter on a whole new scale
Recognition of Post Traumatic Stress

Ana Shulmi U Balaati U Balatu

How did the Mesopotamians resolve conflicts? Bettany Hughes explains how prior to any dispute, the parties made the declaration above to each other ‘To peace and to life’.

I’m reminded of the proverb ‘Before you argue with your neighbour, walk a mile in his shoes’ which can be extended as follows – ‘so if the argument escalates into a full blown fight, you are  a mile away AND you have his shoes’

I received a brilliant email from Lindsay Calder that got me thinking while I was out running last night

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather a chance to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming– WOW, what a ride!

When running in the countryside I tend to listen to business stuff on my MP3, but when I’m on roads it tends to be music played just too loud. Here’s my list with a few reasons-

*Note to self – must add ‘Run for Home’ by Lindisfarne one day.

What would you play, and why?

Has anyone ever tried to call BT Broadband support? How well did you do? (Press button x, wait for option y, sorry you’re in a queue, yes your call is important to us).

The following screen grab is related to BT Business Broadband support – but maybe here’s a point to Twitter ..

The time delays you see above are not to do with BT – I’d asked a question in the previous afternoon regarding technical support availability at 7am the next day (that’s where the 19 hours came from).

So, maybe there is a point to Twitter. Do you have similar stories?

I came across a fabulous blog post recently by David Rogers, who is a geography teacher in Worthing.

I was going to reply to his post, but realised that there was just so much to build on that I’ve borrowed his content (with his permission) and added my thoughts to it. My comments are in italics. So – blogs can become wikis, can wikis become blogs? The wonderful photos are also David’s – I’m far too old for such hard work!

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

 I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey.  As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others.  Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five.

1. Emotional
2. Connected
3. Demanding
4. Reflective
5. Collaborative

As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up.  I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain)

My brain is not so world-cup-free! I recently attended a fantastic business leadership seminar, and followed that with a 2 week trip across Canada – so I had plenty of time to reflect on the course. David’s list is brilliant – and I’d add Hungry. More, give me more, where can I find more. I deliberately took reading material and bought magazines to read which were clearly not business or leadership according to their titles. 

I found so much business and leadership in them that I’ve started to write a business book based on them!

You know when you’ve had a profound learning experience. You can’t sleep! The corollary of this could be that you’ll make your pupils SO tired!

1. Emotional

I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions.  From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment.  From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die. 

How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach?  Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment is not always conducive to profound learning.  I think we sometime need to take risks. For example, doing that on-site fieldwork with that nightmare class last lesson on a Friday may lead to better learning both for you and your class?  I’m not advocating that every lesson is a white knuckle ride, but through using images, video, audio, some personal experiences or stories in class maybe learning will become deeper.  Maybe someone will leave the classroom to learn more.

Many people write and talk about life long learning, but very, very few practice it. You – the reader – are probably one if you have stayed with us so far.

The comment about ‘safe learning environment’ can maybe better be shown as ‘safe to fail’. Did you teach your children to ride their bike on the side of the main road or on a patch of grass?

Personal experiences – yours or theirs?

2. Connected

By connected, I mean motivation.  What’s the point in learning this and what will it do for me in the future?  Maybe this can be done through effective signposting of skills and ideas in lessons, but I fear that too much learning is about passing the exam unless we connect those experiences to something else.  For example, developing confidence to give a presentation to performing well in an interview.

This can be expanded by linking learning to goals. For each goal find ‘What do I need to learn to achieve that goal?’. For each learning exercise say ‘How has that lead me to my goal?’, so perhaps I look at connected and motivation from the opposite side – what do I need /want/desire to do in the future and how does this learning help me get there?

3. Demanding

Content has never been so easy to get hold of.  Twitter is a constant stream of easy-to-get-hold-of resources and ideas.  However, if it’s easy to obtain, it’s just as easy to forget.  Most deep learning I have encountered was hard work.  I fear that sometimes I make learning too easy and wonder how long it stays with the class.  We should aim to make learning harder work, although that may be unpopular with the students and may mean a dip in results?

Sadly, schools and teachers have a problem – it’s called exam results. Content and twitter shows that it’s easy to be data rich and understanding poor. Is there a way to make learning harder work, but not be perceived / received that way? There’s a challenge here – make the learning offer benefits to the pupils AND don’t have that dip in results. How can that be achieved?

4. Reflective

Why did I just do that? How does it link to….? Would I do it again? What can I use this experience for?

I don’t think that learning occurs in convenient 1 hour chunks, which is why the focus by Ofsted, SLT etc upon the lesson instead of the learning sequence is frustrating. We need time to reflect.

Having time to reflect upon learning is important.  How often do we really give time for reflection? Would a mind map between lots of different subjects about a topic be useful?

Wow – nothing to add to this!

5. Collaborative

Behind the two people that summited, there were two others who didn’t.  Indeed, I can’t think of any major achievement, academic or otherwise, that I would have gained without support from others.  So why do I encourage assessment of individuals?

People have different skills, so why do I encourage everyone to be an all rounder?  Collaborative is much more fun, and brings a wider skill set from different people.  Duke of Edinburgh expeditions teams all bring different skills to the mix, maybe my lessons should do the same?  You’re being assessed as part of a team.  How could we formalise that?

Does David really encourage assessment of individuals? Or is that the framework he has to operate in? ‘Working with others’ is a common response when children are asked ‘How do you like to learn?’

The question of team assessment versus individual assessment is tricky. As a business our results are always an assessment of the team. Individuals have the chance to flourish and develop in business (NVQ, MBA, MCP etc), but at the end of the day/year it’s the team figures we see. As a business we are not focussing on school league tables or similar – we compare ourselves with other businesses, but we strive to the line ‘Am I living up to the best that is in me?’

What factors do you think create profound learning experiences?

I was reminded of this saying at a recent Brian Tracy seminar.

If you stand on the giant’s head – you can see even further.

And – if you ever get the chance to stand on a giant’s shoulder – treat them with respect.

I was reminded of this recently.

There are a lot of excellent blogs out there – and I have found some gems.

Amongst the gems I particularly like two very good blogs – one business and one educational. These folks are (or will be) giants in what they do. They’ve expressed their opinions on a few things recently.

They’re entitled to – we are talking about their blogs. To say that the vitriolic responses were childish is an insult to children.

If you see a blog post you disagree with –

• Get into an adult conversation with the poster.
• Object to the comment – not the person
• Provide your responses so that the blog owner can publish them (take the general theme of the blog into account)

What do you think?