Shifting Our Schools episode 13: What Stalls the Shift?
06.12.2008 by David Carpenter in
SOS 
Introductions
Rick Pierce of Rising Sun Consultants and Andy Torris from Shanghai American School joined David and Jeff for tonight’s show.
Essential Question
What Stalls the Shift?
Take away from the discussion>
-We need to differentiate between “change” and the “transition” that follows. Administrators need to allocate much more time for the transition. Need to validate the emotions of community members as they go through the transition. Need lots of support and guidance that takes planning just as one plans the change.
-Leaders as visionaries while also working to serve the teachers, students and community. Servant leadership. Managers who craft programs and follow through.
-Even with lots of energy and time for transition, there will be some “anchors” who are stalling the shifted and must be transitioned out with grace and dignity.
-How to start the change? Form a leadership team of admin and teachers, determine what you want to do and where you are going. Set the vision.
-Have to set priorities. How to deal with all the different community members with their varying priorities? What guides you in deciding what comes first? Leadership means sticking with the carefully decided priorities which are guided by your mission and student learning goals.
-What happens after the delegation of responsibilities? Administrators need to let go but be very clear in guidance and expectations being ready to accept the work of the follow up teams.
Blog Posts of the Week:
Jeff: LeaderTalk Learning 2.008 Bring your administrators and board members to the conference!
David: 10 Principles for Principals by Ryan Bretag. Adapting to Change by Will Richardson.
Rick: Leading the Shift Leading and Managing Change
Andy: PD Success Story Who is Interviewing Whom? Rising Sun Book Review’s on Change Management
Sign Off:
* Next show will be the start of season two as we pick up in September from Bangkok, Thailand from Jeff’s new abode. David continues to shift along from Hsinchu, Taiwan.
* We will be expand on previous discussions of teacher practitioners sharing practical methods to shift our schools starting from our classrooms. We will continue other discussions connected to the big picture process of shifting our schools.
* Don’t forget to post Web sites/blogs to the SOS Del.icio.us bookmarking site that support our upcoming EQ.
On Deck is a podcast site hosted by
Hey Jeff and David,
Thanks for the comments on Thursday evening. I thought that I should write a brief post to explain why I was suggesting to Andy that moving to a supportive school was not such an easy task. They are quite hard to find, especially if you are tied to a city as your spouse is not a teacher. (Quite common in Hong Kong.)
Posted a few words under Not all International Schools are the Same
Best wishes to all and especially hoping the relocation goes smoothly for you Jeff.
I look forward to seeing you both in Shanghai in September.
Paul
Guys,
This is a podcast every aspiring administrator should hear. Change is such a common philosophy in education but the system lacks the training to support it. Thank you for the great conversation!
Hi Michael,
I see that you are in Maine. I am in South China for the month of July loving the fresh air and time on the lake. Thanks for your support. We will continue the conversation starting in September.