Ideas for School Administrators

Here are ten ideas

1) Your School Must Be For All Kids 100 Percent of the Time
If you start making decisions based on avoiding conflict, the students lose. This is what sustained me through one of my most difficult decisions. I asked
the school district to let our school health center offer birth control after four girls became pregnant in one semester. For this group of kids, the health center at
King was their primary health care provider. Although
we offer birth control to our students, we are not the birth control school; we are the school that cares about all of its kids. This decision was the right one, and it cemented for all time the central values of
King.

2) Create a Vision, Write It Down, and Start Implementing It : Don't put your vision in your drawer and hope for the
best. Every decision must be aligned with that vision. The whole organization is watching when you make a decision, so consistency is crucial.

3) It's the People, Stupid : The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate
you away from those who are still undecided. (That's adapted from Casey Stengel.) Hire people who
support your vision, who are bright, and who like kids.

4) Paddles in the Water
In Outward Bound, you learn that when you are navigating dangerous rapids in a raft, the only way to succeed is for everyone in the boat to sit out on the edge and paddle really hard, even though everyone would rather be sitting in the center, where it's safer.

At King, in times of crisis, everyone responds with paddles in the water.

5) Find Time to Think During the Day
They pay me to worry. It's OK to stare at the wall and think about how to manage change. If i have 70 people who work . Even the most centered has three bad days each school year. Multiply that by 70 people and that's 210 bad days, which is more than the 180 school days in a year. So, me, I am never going to have a good day -- just get over it.

6) Take Responsibility for the Good and the Bad
If the problems in your school or organization lie below you and the solutions lie above you, then you have rendered yourself irrelevant. The genius of school lies within the school. The solutions to problems are almost always right in front of you.

7) You Have the Ultimate Responsibility
Have very clear expectations. Make sure people have the knowledge, resources, and time to accomplish what you expect. This shows respect. As much as possible, give people the autonomy to manage their
own work, budget, time, and curriculum. Autonomy is the goal, though you still have to inspect.

8) Have a Bias for Yes
When my son was little, I was going through a lot of turmoil at King, and I did not feel like doing much of
anything when I got home. One day, I just decided that whatever he wanted to do, I would do -- play ball, eat ice cream, and so on. I realized the power of yes. It changed our relationship. The only progress you will ever make involves risk: Ideas that teachers have may seem a little unsafe and crazy. Try to think, "How can I make this request into a yes?"

9) Consensus is Overrated
Twenty percent of people will be against anything. When you realize this, you avoid compromising what really should be done because you stop watering
things down. If you always try to reach consensus, you are being led by the 20 percent.

10) Large Change Needs to be Done Quickly
If you wait too long to make changes to a school culture, you have already sanctioned mediocre behavior because you're allowing it. That's when
change is hard, and you begin making bad deals.

Coutesy: http://www.edutopia.org

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Etisalat calls for more funding of education sector

COMMITTED to promoting academic excellence among tertiary institution students in Nigeria, leading telecommunications giant, Etisalat recently rewarded some outstanding students of Nigerian higher institutions for their brave academic performances, through its education empowerment scheme, Etisalat Merit Awards that held at the Oriental Hotel Lagos.

Speaking at the event, the CEO Etisalat
Nigeria, Mr. Mathew Willsher said the award is a scholarship scheme designed to fulfill the company’s goal of empowering the society through knowledge acquisition and promoting education within Nigeria.

In his opening remarks, Willsher reiterated the importance of education and innovation to human development and improvement of the quality of human lives. He lamented the global illiteracy rate, which currently stands at one billion.

He also congratulated the 70 students drawn from seven universities in the country, describing them as the future of the Nigeria and adding that the country’s greatness in the area of innovation and scientific discoveries lay on their shoulders.

Speaking further, he canvassed private sector partnership for funding education in the country and argued that education is critical to development and should not be left exclusively to government to fund.

He added that this was why Etisalat Nigeria is involved with promoting education as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility.

He said: “We are gathered here in recognition of the importance of education. It is sad that about one billion people can’t read globally. We
know that government is doing a lot in the area of funding and promoting education, but corporate organizations also have roles to play and this is why we focus on education as one of our corporate social responsibility initiatives.”

“The importance of education is further
underscored by the fact that studies have
shown that countries where less than 20 per cent go to school are less developed compared to others. Countries with less literacy rate miss out on a lot of things because they have a
community of people who can’t read,” he added.

Highpoints of the ceremony was the
innovation contest among the participating universities and the award ceremony proper.
Selected scholars of the five institutions made five-minute presentations of innovations of their choice.

Tagged The Etisalat Innovation Moment, the presentations were judged based on
adaptability, value, social impact, environmental impact and rate of feasibility. They were scored by a panel of judges.

The entry by Onohaebi Samuel, a 400-level undergraduate of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the University of Benin was adjudged the best, and he emerged winner.

James Fagboun of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, and Eigbe Eghonghon of University of Lagos came second and third respectively.

While Samuel got N100, 000 and a HP
laptop for his efforts, Eghonghon and Fagboun won a Techno Phantom device each for their efforts. Besides, the participating students, 10 each from the seven schools that took part in
the contest, went home with N100, 000 each, while their schools were awarded N1.1 Million each courtesy of the telecommunication company.

Speaking after the ceremony, Samuel exuded happiness and said: “This is a dream come true for me. I have always wanted to be commended for my academic prowess and now that I have been so recognized, it would serve as a
motivation to do more, especially in the area of improving access to power for creative uses across all economic sectors.”

A Great Teacher

What does it mean to be a great teacher?

Of course credentials, knowledge, critical thinking, and all
other faculties of intelligence are important.

However, a great teacher should be much more
than credentials, experience and intelligence.
What lies in the heart of a great teacher?

You are kind:

a great teacher shows kindness to
students, colleagues, parents and those around
her/him. My favourite saying is “kindness makes
the world go around”. It truly changes the
environment in the classroom and school.
Being a
kind teacher helps students feel welcomed, cared
for and loved.

You are compassionate:

Teaching is a very
humanistic profession, and compassion is the
utmost feeling of understanding, and showing
others you are concerned about them. A
compassionate teacher models that characteristic
to the students with her/his actions, and as a
result students will be more open to
understanding the world around them.

You are empathetic:

Empathy is such an
important trait to have and to try to develop in
ourselves and our students. Being able to put
yourself in someone’s shoes and see things from
their perspective can have such a powerful impact
on our decisions and actions.

You are positive:

Being a positive person, is not
an easy task. Being a positive teacher is even
harder when we’re always met with problems with
very limited solutions. However, staying positive
when it’s tough can have such a tremendous
positive impact on the students and everyone
around us. Looking on the bright side always
seems to help make things better.

You are a builder:

A great teacher bridges gaps
and builds relationships, friendships, and a
community. Teachers always look to make things
better and improve things in and outside of the
classroom. Building a community is something a
great teacher seeks to do in the classroom and
extends that to the entire school and its
community.

You inspire:

Everyone looks at a great teacher and
they want to be a better teacher, they want to be
a better student, even better, they want to be a
better person. A great teacher uncovers hidden
treasures, possibilities and magic right before
everyone’s eyes.