“At this exact moment I say we sit tight and assess.” Meryl Streep in ‘Don’t Look Up’ One of the things that being laid low with COVID does is provide the opportunity to catch up with watching a few movies or TV series. For me, it was an opportunity to watch the film Don’t Look Up, featuring a high profile cast, including Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio. If you haven’t seen it the trailer below provides a taste of the plot… Regardless of what your view of the artistic merits of the movie are, it does highlight an important message … Continue reading Don’t look up!

“It is the absolute duty of educators to look forward in an informed and balanced way to a future very different from the past; one that, though they may not themselves experience it fully, their students undoubtedly will.” Valerie Hannon and Anthony McKay, 2021 in Five Signposts for the Future of Educational Leadership I received quite a bit of feedback after my previous post about how we prepare for and respond to disruption in our education system. Some were appreciative of the perspectives I shared and the links provided, while a few expressed skepticism about what they felt I was … Continue reading Leading in uncertainty

There’s something very appealing about taking something we see and admire and then copying it for ourselves, expecting it to look the same on us or have the same impact on our lives or context. This is a pattern of how we operate in so many areas of life – it is how changes in fashion are perpetuated, or the latest craze on tik tok or in home decorating etc. None of us is immune from the influences of the ‘copy and paste’ behaviour. There are some downsides to this however. Like the time I bought a jacket because I … Continue reading Copy and Paste

In a recent webinar with a group of school leaders I was discussing their approaches to hybrid learning. At one point the issue of digital equity was raised, with one principal asking what was being done at a national level here in NZ to provision students with digital devices and internet connectivity. She went on to explain that in her school many of the students don’t have access to a device, and that she simply doesn’t have the funds available to support them – or to invest in some of the digital applications that may be helpful to support their … Continue reading Connectivity and devices