#TweetingHeads

A guest blogging site for 'Tweeting' Headmasters, Headmistresses, Principals, and leaders of schools around the world, to share their thoughts on technology, innovation, learning, modern communications, and parent/pupil engagement. If you are a school...

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The Wonder of Lists

by Kevin Fear, Headmaster Nottingham High School

As a Headmaster of a very busy and large school I am often asked as to how I keep myself organised.  At any one point in time there are always a myriad of tasks to complete and in any normal week I am receiving over 500 emails.  So how do I manage the workload and still keep sane?

For me the secret to all this is a superb app called ‘Wunderlist’. 

This allows me to create an endless number of lists and it is through using lists that I stay in control of my working week and much else besides.  The free app (on all major devices and platforms) allows you to create a series of different lists but at the same time to merge them together to create a to do list for any day.  I recommend it to you all, it really will transform your life. 

Prior to using such a system I was forever waking up in the middle of night to remember something I needed to do the following day.  Now as soon as I know I need to do something I can add it to the list and then forget about it until the reminder pops up that I really must get it done.  Lists can be shared with others so that, for example, my wife can add a reminder for me to get something done at the weekend or to pick something up on the way home.

A list is a powerful tool in terms of organisation.  This is a clear case when technology can help to save time and the noise that the app makes whenever I complete a task also strangely adds to the satisfaction of finishing a tricky task. 

Lists help me to break down large tasks into smaller, achievable chunks and thus even on the most daunting project you can take smaller steps towards the end goal.  

In modern life so many of us have a pressured existence trying to juggle home and work life.  We are all trying to remember so much at any one time that we need to do.  

Technology like this can help to make our lives easier.  Thus, if there is a job that you need to do weekly, add it to Wunderlist and it will remind you on the relevant day each week.  I now very rarely forget anything I need to do and my own productivity has increased significantly.  Better still you can share lists with other people, thus my PA or even my wife can add things directly to my To Do list - you can never have an excuse for forgetting to do something again!  It also helps you to reduce your email inbox in that you can forward emails directly into your To Do list and then delete them from your inbox.  

I guess the world divides into those who love lists and those who prefer to take a more unstructured approach to their lives.  Whilst at times the list I have can appear daunting having a record both of what I have to do at any time and through a further list of all those things I have already completed I feel that I am in control.  How many of us can say that?  Now, I am off to tick off writing a piece for Tweeting Heads off my list!

Follow Kevin on Twitter @KevinFear

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Information Driven Community

by Dr Alec O’Connell, Headmaster Scotch College Perth, Western Australia

The Why

One of the greatest threats to any organisation, including schools, is complacency. As Bonnor and Caro (2012, p223) state, “Regardless of how good they are, all schools should be trying to do better. Sustainable improvement in schools can take many years and needs to survive changes of teachers, principals and governments.” The most important strategy is to ensure that the key drivers that we put in place across all facets of the school, are geared at improving teaching and learning. In a highly competitive educational environment, and one that comes at a significant cost for many families, we must ensure that we continue to add value and improve the educational experience for everyone.    We have all heard the saying “Change for change sake”. In the educational setting we often see programmes or initiatives implemented simply because a colleague was doing the same. Even worse a very convincing salesperson swooped past the school with the latest “fix it” for numeracy, literacy and every other perceived failing that schools have in the eyes of those not charged with the education process.    Change however is inevitable and in many ways a healthy part of our ongoing journey as educators. Educational change provides a wonderful opportunity to realign our personal and organisational priorities and determine what really matters to a community. The process of implementing an initiative provides a Johari Window moment through which to view and revisit who we are and what we are trying to achieve.  The Johari Window model is a simple and useful tool for illustrating and improving self-awareness and mutual understanding between individuals within a group. The model can also be used to assess and improve a group’s relationship with other groups. Being involved in a change initiative provides a community with  an opportunity to  gain a better understanding and appreciation of each other and share in a mutual journey. It was Ghandi who once said “Be the change you want.” On the surface a very simple premise, yet in so many ways hard to achieve; not necessarily because of a lack of ability, nor hard work, but simply because the reason for the  change may never have been questioned nor articulated at the strategic level. Before embarking on a change, those leading the change must ask a very simple yet powerful question, Why are we doing this?  Because a lot of other schools are doing it is simply not good enough. Likewise statements such as “I think this may be helpful” does not fill one with enthused vigour, nor confidence that the change will lead to any value add.   Simon Sinek in his book 

Start with the Why

 provides a salient argument as to the need to get the “Why”  right.  He presents a number of challenges:  Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? If we can get the “Why?” correct then the challenges of implementing change can be refocused into opportunities.  More importantly it may well lead the school to say “No” to an initiative because it is determined to be non core to who they are or where they are heading.  I would suggest that this is an equally great outcome and a reason for asking “Why?” before embarking on a new initiative. For me the drive for better access, use and delivery of information commenced before I started at Scotch. We began with a review of the role of libraries and the staffing structures within; quite often staffing structures can reinforce outdated models of delivery and in many ways can negate the level and quality of information usage and access.  In our case the “Why?” was simple and compelling. Students, parents, old boys, staff and the wider college community need access to quality information to remain informed and at the forefront of a rapidly changing world. We also thought the project will become the catalyst for community wide connectedness through a service approach to information delivery. Our ultimate goal is to develop a culture of information creation, discovery and sharing, without the limitations of artificial boundaries, which sometimes are reflected through the physical and mental constraints of how we think a library should look, feel and function.

The How

At Scotch responsibility for the strategic direction of the Library is located in the Executive portfolio of the Director of Information and Learning Technologies (ILT). There are several strategic reason for this; the most important being that when ILT is part of the solution it can enable, engage and empower an environment of community connectivity. In a contemporary school, the ILT and Library strategies need to be symbiotic as both need to focus on education, information and the whole of school goals.  At their core they must be focussed on providing services to the whole community.  Investment in infrastructure as well as people is the critical component enabling a strategy that is driving for better access, use and delivery of information to over 8000 community members, with plans to include almost 10 000 Old Scotch Collegians (OSC) in 2014.  Building a resilient network that supports and facilitates this access across two schools, Scotch College and our sister school PLC, brings with it added complexities, whilst enabling significant economies of scale.  From a technical perspective, schools need to provide a network that puts no limits on access to information, the tools needed to create neither information nor the ability to share information. Security, knowing who is viewing and accessing, is critical, Enterprise systems for authentication, fast and reliable internet, fast and reliable access to the resources wirelessly across the campus and access to all of these resources from any location need to be a normal expectation. From a personnel perspective, investment in specialised personnel such as digital creators and technical support staff is critical.  Their role is to work alongside staff, students, parents and the broader community empowering them with the skills to locate and critically assess, create and share multi mode information. With the rapidly changing world, particularly in regards to technology, personnel and infrastructure are critical components for success. Changing the mindset of traditional educators, IT departments and Libraries to create a culture of change requires a clear vision and direction.  

The What

Creating an environment that welcomes all members of the community is critical in establishing the first aspect of the vision. At Scotch we have an expectation that all of the  library ‘touch points’ with members of the community must be positive. This is due to the fact that we are a service to our community and we must ensure that all of the experiences they have are positive rather than negative. Whilst we acknowledge that we are not able to provide everything, we are a conduit that enables our community to connect with those who can provide assistance.  

This assistance to our community extends beyond the normal bounds of students and staff. All library services are available to our parents in order to enable them to help their son with any aspect of study or an assignment he is completing. Supporting our boys’ parents is paramount in enabling them to be involved in their sons’ education. Specifically parents can login to our library OPAC, borrow books directly from each library, borrow books from our extensive eBook collection and access the academic databases. 

In 2014 we will extend these services to our OSC with access to the college eBook collection. This in turn will provide service and connection to over 10,000 users. The nature of assistance has also diversified significantly for our boys and staff. The traditional skills of literature promotion, research skills and English support are now morphing into a position that is no longer isolated and without context. Integrated, collaborative and collegial support directly related to the curriculum is the only way that libraries will remain relevant to the various teaching programmes. By establishing this relationship we are then able to resource the specific needs of the curriculum with the teacher being directly involved in the resource selection. This selection of resources is not only relevant to non-fiction. 

At Scotch students are involved directly in the selection of fiction books with programmes in place to ensure that titles are ordered and issued straight to the requesting student.  

One of the paramount modifications to the role of the Scotch library has been the implementation of the Content Redefinition Framework (CRF). Depicted in Fig 1 (below), this framework is one where the Teacher Librarians, ILT Coaches and the newly added role of Digital Content Creator support teachers in creating original content. 

By establishing this framework we have established a user friendly, non-invasive way for libraries to work with staff to address the various ways of redefining their teaching. At each wedge of the CRF the teacher is involved; the full process takes two years and in the third year of the framework the teacher becomes self-sufficient at creating original content and only requires ‘on demand’ assistance.   While this is what we do in our library at Scotch we have set our sights on a more lofty goal. The library should and must collaborate and share with other libraries locally, nationally and internationally. Through sharing/presenting ideas in international forums, participating in webinars and by hosting professional development days we give back to our professional communities. An excellent byproduct of this process is the reciprocal nature of these communities in assisting us in achieving our goals. It is a rich world of information and we aim to contribute to it. 

A Final Word

In an ever-changing world, schools simply cannot assume a status quo approach to the delivery of information and library services.  By doing so there is a real danger of stagnation and decline. While the process of change can be challenging, it does provide rich opportunities for communities to come together and debate what is best for them and how the different members of the community can contribute and drive the overall process of change.  The information project at Scotch has in many ways provided just such an opportunity. While there is still plenty of scope for the growth and improvement of our current project and model, the benefits for a community engaged in a major change project are always in the journey not simply the destination. 

Follow Alec @alecschm007

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Twitter Etiquette for #TweetingHeads

by Andy Falconer, Headmaster at St Olave’s York

Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?!  Probably not regarding good manners on Twitter, unless you have one cool mum. As Heads, we spend our lives modeling and encouraging good manners in those young people in our schools.

Maybe it’s a sign that I’m getting old, but I seem to be getting wound up by people who, in my humble opinion, shun the basics of Twitter etiquette. Now, it’s possible that I’m in a minority of one, given that there are no rules when it comes to social media. However, there are norms. So here’s the ones that have been irritating me recently:

If you’re going to steal my photo by taking a screen shot of it and then use it in one of your tweets, at least have the decency to credit me with taking the image (HT @andyfalconer).

Stop copy and pasting other people’s tweets and pretending they’re your own – it’s called plagiarism. If someone has said something you want to tweet either retweet it (RT) or add “via @” or “by @” instead of just a void that implies it was you. Give a’ H/T @’ (Hat Tip) to someone who has pointed you in the direction of something interesting. You must always give credit to the original twitterer – it’s not difficult!

Twitter is about engaging in conversations with people, sharing great content that you think others might be interested in. It’s not a PR machine to make you look interesting or to blatantly promote your blog. Views vary, but for every mention of your own blog or company site you should be tweeting between 3-8 posts that engage with other people or share their content.

Why do you think having hundreds of followers when you follow no-one, except through your private Lists, makes you look important? It doesn’t, unless you really are the head of a country or the sovereign of the realm. It makes you look sneaky, self-seeking and with an over-inflated sense of your own importance. It’s even worse if you’re doing a Twitter One-Night Stand – following someone and then unfollowing them once they follow you back. Don’t. Just Don’t.

I love the following list from @girllostincity that adds a few more examples of Twitter etiquette:

If you are going to steal someone’s image, Photoshopped pic or illustration, make you have the decency to include a “via” or “cc” with their @handle so they are credited. 

To be really polite, you should also do that whenever you link to a clever article you find so people don’t brand you a Twitter thief.

Have at least a 15 minute gap between each tweet. 

Don’t attach pictures of selfies directly, Twitter’s not the place for that. (A link to Instagram is OK).

Don’t retweet more than three things in a row.

Try not to follow more people than follow you. It’s the Twitter equivalent of having some loo roll stuck to your shoe, the fact that you don’t notice makes it extra embarrassing.

Don’t ask anyone you unfollowed to DM you, because they’ll realise they can’t and it’ll get awkward.

Don’t include more than three hashtags (at the VERY most)

If you are humble-bragging, admit it.

If you are just plain bragging, don’t admit it.

Only delete a tweet (that pathetically flopped) after 5 minutes, any  longer then people will notice. 

The Favourite button is your friend. Make it your “read later” list but remember everyone can see them. So maybe have a second think when you’re about to favourite “How To Quit Your Job” or “How To Get Out Of Going On Holiday With A Friend”. Your favourites will say a lot about you.

Don’t accidentally tweet what you meant for Google, or for a DM.

Don’t put a cartoon or an animal as your profile pic unless you want to be mistaken for a troll.

Say thank you if people offer you advice, recommendations or answer helpfully to your question.

(http://girllostinthecity.com/2014/05/the-unofficial-guide-to-twitter-etiquette-in-2014/)

Call me a grumpy old Head if you like, but I feel better for having got it off my chest. And if in some scary parallel universe my mother does decide to venture into the twittersphere then I will make sure I return the favour by teaching her what good Twitter manners look like.

Follow Andy @AndyFalconer

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Benefits of tweeting for an International Head

by Mark Leppard, Principal Doha College

Love it, or hate it, social media is here and it is only going to grow. The generation we teach treats it as the norm, and many do not know of the time before social media, unless it is explained through a History lesson!

As a Head of a leading International school @DohaCollege, I am amazed at how we have embraced Twitter. Not only as a school, but also as individual departments, college projects, our own conferences and student led committees.

"It is a brilliant way of keeping up-to-date with what is taking place, and an amazing way to showcase, as well as raise topics for discussion."

Not to be outdone, I decided to tweet as the Principal of Doha College "DCprincipal" @mark_leppard. Initially, it was about dipping my toe into the water, but now, I use it for discovering great leadership articles, promoting the college and sharing some thought provoking ideas. I was amazed that anybody, let alone our students voluntarily chose to follow me!

As an International Head, you can sometimes feel detached from the UK, mainly due to distance.

"However, an enormous benefit is that by tweeting, I feel far more informed and this information is instant."

Therefore, I am hearing about new developments at exactly the same time as my UK based counterparts. This benefits of this cannot be over emphasised.

I would highly recommend tweeting as a Head, even if you are more a follower, although in your position, I imagine you will enjoy being followed just as much!

THREE SIMPLE STEPS TO TWEETING

Set-up an account and start following (listening/research)

Start to retweet and comment on other people’s tweets (participation)

Create your own opinions and tweets for others to follow (opinion former)

The video below by @SimonNoakes (MD @intSchools) describes this in more detail.

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Should #Headteachers Tweet?

by Ann Haydon, Principal Surbiton High School

Love it or hate it, Twitter has changed the way we communicate, changed our ability to communicate! It now has 284 million monthly active users and 300 billion tweets since it started 8 years ago. So why are so many head teachers still rather reluctant to tweet?

The basic answer is probably that they have not actually tried it (as with so much in life! J ). There is some scepticism surrounding Twitter and the way it is used, but I view it primarily as an excellent communication tool.  Not only can I communicate messages to the school community and beyond, but it also a method for listening, for me to hear what is being said in the community about the school, about education, and about the world that we are preparing our pupils for.  If you are not on there, how can you listen?

The young people in our schools today are ‘digital natives’[1] I firmly believe that it is imperative that school leaders - who are probably more likely to be ‘digital settlers[2]’ than ‘natives’ – are open to leveraging the benefits of being fully involved in the world of social media.

Let’s hear from one of the greatest communicators and longest serving male newsreader on British TV, Alastair Stewart OBE

Alastair believes that Twitter plays an enormous role in society today, so why do I believe Head teachers should Tweet? For me there are 3 key reasons. The three C’s - Communication, Collaboration and Community.

 We are all in the business of communication. I view my Twitter account (and do feel free to follow me @AnnHaydonSHS) as a way of sharing and celebrating school achievements, and promoting the school ethos and pupils’ work.  It is the heartbeat of the school.  For years, schools have had glossy prospectuses and termly magazines but through my Twitter account I have the opportunity to show our school and its values in action, to prove what we are saying.

Real-time communication, anytime, anywhere.  Comments and tweets are very immediate ways of demonstrating that we deliver on our promise to inspire, encourage and empower the young people in our care, to show a school which genuinely delights in the individual. The weekly offering of tweets provides a wealth of real-time evidence that Surbiton High School is a place where every child has the opportunity to participate in a wide range of inspirational learning experiences.

The second reason has to do with collaboration and learning. As a school leader, Twitter is a great way to gather insight into national (and global) subject matter conversations, to have an opinion. My Twitter account is a very useful vehicle for enabling me to be involved very directly with key education debates such as proposed curriculum changes and the new GCSE grading system, subjects that are current and topical. It also provides a useful forum in which to collaborate with other teachers, and exchange ideas and insights about teaching tools and technologies, of sharing best practice. I also know from my own experience that tweets from other business and education leaders I follow have led me to a breadth of articles and debates I simply would not otherwise have come across. Indeed, I’ve read more educational magazines than I’ve ever read in my life as a result of being on Twitter and, I won’t lie, many a school assembly has been created as a result of an inspirational tweet or article I have seen!

We are now going to listen to our Head of Physics, Rob Bastin and Head of Biology, Kavita Patel.

As a  shameless aside, I would just like to mention that Rob, who featured in the video, is collaborating with Dominic Norrish, United Learning Group Director of Technology and  who is seated in the audience, on a United Learning project called United Classroom – a distance learning environment which aims to increase access to excellent subject specialist teaching at A’Level.  They will be speaking here tomorrow at 2pm on the Google stand E240 in the main hall.

The third reason is to do with building the school community. It is not just about pupils, parents and governors; it is about developing a much wider network of supporters who can be ambassadors for the school and its culture. It’s about relationship building and it’s about connecting people in a way that wasn’t previously possible.  The content of your Twitter account can help alumni, previous staff, local residents, grandparents, godparents, and other relatives and family friends to feel “connected’ with the school in real-time ways that even a weekly newsletter cannot.  It can also serve to engage visiting speakers and, of course, potential new parents and members of staff!

We see our tweets at Surbiton High as a great way of offering our wider community a way to be more actively involved in the life of the school. When our pupils go on trips abroad, everyone can follow their daily adventures through Twitter; when our teams compete, the results are available instantly; when our pupils are recognised with national awards, we can quickly share our congratulations; and, of course, we can advertise our events!

But it is not just the generalities that are important here, it is the specifics, the examples that help demonstrate the power of Twitter to engage parents in their child’s school life. Parents value seeing what their child is doing during the school day.  One particular story that stands out for me is when a young boy wanted me to see him swinging on the climbing bars, I just took a picture and tweeted it and his parents responded to me very quickly. His Mum and Dad absolutely loved seeing a picture of their son in the middle of their working day, happily enjoying himself at school.  His father responded on Twitter -  “I always knew he was a high flyer!”

Dan Bloxham, Head Coach of Wimbledon All England Tennis Club, now gives his view of the impact of Twitter as a parent and Governor.

In fact, we have noticed an increasing number of parents interacting with our social media presence and after working closely with Interactive Schools, who you will hear from later, we now have a new website which acts as our social media hub. This means that news can be shared instantly from the website to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr so that there is a wealth of very up to date information and news available to our current and prospective school community. For current parents, we also like to think this is a positive way to promote learning discussions at home. Rather than the archetypal parental inquiry of “How was your day at school?” being met with a young person’s equally archetypal monosyllabic response of “ok” (or similar!), there is scope for a more focused exchange based on information about the day’s specific activities. So, “How did you enjoy the experiment with bubbles you did in science today?” may still elicit the same monosyllabic response from your teenager, but at least they will know you are actively taking an interest in school life J.

As well as showcasing the school through my personal Twitter account, I have the opportunity to share some of my own opinions, interests and personality, and I have built my own community of over 1,500 followers – not quite the  52 million of Barack Obama or the 4.5 million of Richard Branson, but maybe after today… J

Of course, there is more to it that just a head teacher’s Twitter account.   At Surbiton High School we have a corporate, broadcasting account for the school on Twitter and we also have about 30 different department accounts.  These are used not only as a showcase for what the young people are doing, but as a way to promote our various blogs, and also – importantly - as a learning tool through which to tweet subject-specific content. For example, if there has been an earthquake or volcanic eruption, the Geography department may tweet links to YouTube clips or BBC news headlines, whilst the Maths department might be tweeting “top tips” to help students prepare ahead of a GCSE Maths exam. Or, as your heard in the video, we might tweet a link to a webcam set up in our Science Department so we can share, moment by moment, the story of our little chicks hatching out of their eggs. For me, it is all about engaging with the way young people are used to consuming ‘content’ – and the parents are not all that far behind!

I would like you now to listen to Simon Noakes, MD of Interactive Schools and Social Media Guru.

As Simon reiterates – why wouldn’t you want to understand Twitter?  Aren’t you preparing your pupils for life beyond school?  You’ve got to embrace what is happening in society, the world has fundamentally changed, young people today are “digital natives” and you’ve got to be in their playground. 

For those of you already in the digital playground, I invite you to join me on our new blog www.tweetingheads.com - #TweetingHeads. A guest blogging site for ‘Tweeting’ Headmasters, Headmistresses, Principals, and leaders of schools around the world, to share their thoughts on technology, innovation, learning, modern communications, and parent/pupil engagement.

If you are a school leader (and you #Tweet), then you are invited to contribute to this blog.

So to conclude:

Banish your fear

Start listening

Use it as a place to curate your research

Start connecting with other people

Then start to comment

Then use it to start to talk

Be there and understand the platform!

So, should a head teacher’s “tweet”? I think you will have guessed my answer … “Yes”! Or, if a limit of 140 characters is imposed on me, “Head teachers to embrace Twitter as a ‘must have’ to take communication, collaboration, & community in schools to the next level #BETT2015”

Thank you.

Ann Haydon (@AnnHaydonSHS)

Principal Surbiton High School

[1] ‘Digital native’ is used to describe people born after 1980 and are characterized as having access to networked digital technologies and the skills to use those technologies. Major parts of their lives and daily activities are mediated by digital technologies: social interaction, friendships, civic activities, and hobbies. A digital native has never known any other way of life.

[2] ‘Digital settler’ is used to describe people who grew up in an analogue-only world.  they have helped to create and shape the digital world and can be quite sophisticated in their use of these technologies, but they also rely on traditional forms of analogue interaction

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#TweetingHeads launched at BETT SHOW 2015

#TweetingHeads is being launched this year at www.bettshow.com - The leading learning technology event - by Ann Haydon, Principal at Surbiton High School.

Ann will be speaking on the topic of "Should #Headteachers Tweet" in the School Leaders Summit theatre, on Thursday 22nd January between 3:50pm and 4:20pm.

Ann's speech will form the first blog post on this new and exciting channel - and will be shared immediately after the session.

If you are a leader of a school (and you #Tweet), then you are invited to contribute to this blog.

>> SUBMIT Your Blog Content Here - and we will let you know when published.