Thought this is a good one... Of late the importance of a good head seems more apparent. I think we lack good leadership in many schools. Heads are too busy chasing all those labels... High Performance Schools, Pengetua Cemerlang, New Deals.. every year something new comes up. For every Pengetua Cemerlang, there must be a whole lot of guru cemerlang behind them cos Pengetua Cemerlang don't become cemerlang without their guru cemerlang... but that is often lost after they get promoted. Pengetua cemerlang are supposed to create more guru cemerlang... but these days, they're no better than slave drivers.
So how do they chase all these awards??? Paper trails! Pushing paper, crunching data with plenty of make-ups.... if you think teachers' core duty is teaching, think again. These days, the former is more important cos that's how a Principal gets rewarded. Then they move on... a new one comes, like the Medusa head, they keep growing and growing.... teachers are everything but not what they are supposed to be.
Some good highlights from this slideshow...
1. It's people not programs that make a school work
2. Treat everyone with respect, every day, all the time
3. The Principal is the filter that decides the tone of the school
4. Teach the teachers
5. Experienced teachers are not the best teachers, best teachers are best teachers
6. Focus on behaviour, then focus on belief... (not the other way round)
7. Make people who do the right thing feel comfortable
8. Understand high achievers (but that's a rarity in the teaching profession these days)
9. Make it cool to care... most Principals care about their upward movement only...
2 comments:
Good principals are too few and very far apart these days. We have lots of DG54 ,58 what-have-you chasers ! Some eye the PPD seat, and may only care for their image at the PPD or Jabatan.
Reminds me of the movie, Mr.Holland's Opus. Need to re-watch that one of these days again.
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