June 2017 – Happy Schools

The Pygmalion Effect (Part 1)

June 29, 2017

Teachers’ expectations can dramatically affect students’ achievement. Really believing makes a difference. Teachers can create better student results by just believing in them. This is even truer with underachievers. If a teacher is told that her students are bright, the teacher will be more supportive, teach more difficult material, allow more ‘wait’ time for students to answer questions and provide more thoughtful and useful feedback to the students. In turn, the students receiving this attention will perform to this level. They actually score higher on educational tests, even if they are not ‘bright’, simply because the teacher believes in them. This also applies in reverse. If a teacher believes his or her students are under-achievers, he or she will be…

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

June 22, 2017

Stevef

Effectiveness

We often need to put images into our documents such as newsletters, reports or even in Powerpoint presentations to colleagues, students or parents. Using appropriate images provide powerful visuals to reinforce the written (or spoken depending on the format) words. As the old saying goes…A picture tells a thousand words that creates a memory that can often be recalled faster than any spoken words. When working with schools the two most common challenges I hear are: Placement – getting pictures located in the right spot and getting text to wrap around (or not wrap around) it. Editing or Cropping – how to “cut” areas of the picture off to just focus on what you want to share. Once you understand…

Why Would You Want to Work in Schools?

June 8, 2017

Stevef

Resilience

During my career, the status of the teaching profession has declined. A generation or two ago I believe that a number of parents were more supportive of teachers. In times gone by, when issues arose parents were more likely to back and support teachers than immediately jump to the defense of their children and ‘attack’ or question the teacher’s judgement. The cartoon depicting an angry parent questioning a teacher about a student’s grades, that is found in many staffrooms, is an illustration of this shift. There are many factors contributing to this change in status. These include increased stress levels of parents, the competitive nature of an aspirational society and how busy and time poor most people feel. People under…

Where Are Your Time Bandits?

June 8, 2017

Stevef

Efficiency

One of the reasons people get themselves stressed, when trying to fit so many things into a day and deal with their distractions, is because they are ‘pleasers’. The problem is, when you try to be all things to all people, you end up reducing your working capacity and time, to focus on your priorities. Becoming resilient to pressure is finding the right balance (and not necessarily an equal balance) between toughening up and letting go. In this context, you need to know what your boundaries are. You may need to toughen up your boundaries and develop your own work priorities first before being prepared to help others. You may also need to let go of wanting to please and…