I have Jenni Kincaid to thank for this insight.
Jenni and I were thinking out loud – across continents – about the lessons being learned about educational leadership during this crisis of lockdown and separation. Personally, I can see a difference between schools not just relating to their choice of distance learning solution. I can see a real difference in the ways that school leaders are handling things – and just in the simple things, in communication and relationships.
For some schools, the leaders have become invisible to students, parents or staff. Any one of those three is a big mistake! And for some schools, they are substituting Internet-published resources for contact with teachers. To do that wholesale, well that’s another big mistake. The best practice I experience, just now, involves parents and students ‘seeing’ their teachers and school leaders every day. And not just through the name that’s written at the bottom of a list of assignments that the student has to complete and return.
Get on the (virtual) school gate, guys!
Jenni pointed me to the fable of ‘Mann Gulch’. It only takes five minutes to read in this edition of Harvard Review (https://hbr.org/1996/05/prepare-your-organization-to-fight-fires) but, I promise, it will be one of the best five minutes you spend as leader during this challenging time.
I take my hat off to all those leaders who have built the deep structures – often personal – that are helping their schools get through these challenging times.
