The danger of teacher disengagement

Teachers are extraordinary. Despite ever-increasing accountabilities, demands on time, unreasonable expectations, media and societal scrutiny and rather average pay – they back up day-in and day-out to live out a deeply held passion for empowering, enhancing and improving the lives of young people. It’s quite noble stuff when you think about it that way.

Dropping the ball on staff resilience

When did resilience become something that we associated primarily with younger people? In the rush to identify the lack of resilience in our students, shown through a lack of initiative, a waning ability to cope with adversity and a growing wish to be rescued from any social, physical, emotional or academic difficulty, we have forgotten exactly what resilience is.

Without a safety net

Leading change from one model of practice to a new model can be challenging, rewarding and fraught with dangers. For example, many school leaders I work with are looking to move from the punitive model of punishment with all of the blame, stagnant results and negativity that comes with it – to the restorative model, where responsibility, action and relationships are the cornerstones.

Six ways to keep your teachers

Two alarming statistics have made their way into the national education conversation in recent years. We’ve been aware for some time that many jurisdictions are coping with 30-50% of their teachers leaving the profession permanently within the first five years of service. Alarming as this is, we’ve taken some comfort in the apparent quarantining of that problem to young or inexperienced teachers.

More recently, we’ve been made aware that 20% of ALL teachers have seriously contemplated resignation, not just from their schools, but from their teaching careers in the last term. This damning statistic is a reflection on all of us and should impel us to action rather than blame.

Mixing oil and water

I speak with a lot of principals and most are immensely proud of their schools. School tours with them are  always a joy. Pride in the achievements around the school exudes from both their words and their manner  as they point to samples of student learning on display and introduce me to teachers described as guns and rock stars.