A light-hearted inside look at School Leadership, based on 10 Irrefutable Laws School Management What does a Head of School do? So you want to run a school?

1. Strategizing the Heuristic Empowerment
of a Professional Learning Community
mickpurcell

2. How to Run a School
mickpurcell

4. How to
Run a
School
mickpurcell
mickpurcell@gmail.com
slideshare.net/mickpurcell
2 September, 2018
Warhorse Stable Talk
thanks to Vishal for the idea

5. A light-hearted inside look at
School Leadership, based on
10 Irrefutable Laws
● School Management
● What does a Head of
School do?
● So you want to run a
school?

6. 1st Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
Everybody knows
how to run a school
My kid was not taught subtraction properly! 😠

7. 2nd Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
Nobody knows how
to run a school
John D. Rockefeller:
Captain of Industry

8. Beware of people
who call
themselves
“educationists”
Nobody knows how to
run a school Wikimedia:
soldier

10. Watch out for anyone who calls herself an “educationist”

11. Get a Ph.D. or an
Ed.D. in Educational
Leadership at your
own risk.
It might help you GET
the job, but will it help
you DO the job?
Wikimedia: Cambridge
You will learn a lot of jargon

12. Maybe I should get
a PhD?
For about 10 years,
I have been
thinking: “maybe I
should get a PhD in
Educational
Leadership!”
3 problems
Educational Leadership: Cambridge?

13. The Cambridge Leadership for
Learning Fan
an innovative hand held resource
that captures the key LfL
principles and framework
elements and stimulates debate
and reflection in educational
context

14. 3rd Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
Communicate
frequently and
honestly in plain
English
Wikimedia: Communication

15. William Zinsser
His chapter on
professional writing
gives examples of how
not to write: like a
principal!

16. words, words, words

17. “At 21st Century Global School, we will innovate hands-on
articulation through high impact practices and facilitate
collegial competencies with synergistic effects. Our
dedicated collaborative of passionate facilitators will
streamline meaning-centered problem-solving via self-
reflection and prioritize metacognitive multiple intelligences
through the use of centers. Our exciting and dynamic
philosophy will leverage student-centered professional
learning communities within the new paradigm.”

18. And how does that help me?

19. If you’re going to run
a shirt factory . . .
you better know something
about collars and cuffs

20. 4th Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
If you want to run a
school, first spend
20 years as a teacher Years of being a classroom
teacher gives you credibility

21. Lee S. Shulman

22. So you want to be a teacher?
Doctor and nurse (MD and RN)
Counseling Psychologist (Psy D)
Scientist (M.S.)
Historian and Futurist (Ph D)
Technologist (B Tech)
Business Administrator (MBA)

23. So you want to be a teacher?
The 5 “Approaches to Learning Skills”
from the IB (what we SHOULD teach to
Middle Schoolers, or young teens:
● Self-management skills
● Social skills
● Thinking skills
● Research skills
● Communication skills
A teacher makes about 1000
decisions per day that have a direct
impact on the happiness of families

24. And that’s the easy part . . . .
Teachers are experts in
Human Behavior

25. 5th Irrefutable Law of
School Leadership:
being a head of school is like
cleaning the toilets . . .
if you do your job well, nobody notices,
but if you mess up, they scream like hell

26. “Putting out Fires”
What does a Head of School REALLY do?

27. In theory, what is
a Head of School
supposed to do?
The Strategic Plan:
1. Health & Safety
2. Teaching & Learning
3. Governance
4. Finance
5. Communications
6. Human Resources
7. Professional development
8. Admissions
9. Operations
10.Legal

28. 6th Law of School
Leadership:
A school leader must be
able to teach teachers
The story of
Mr Fish Hat
http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html

29. Is the Dancing the
Macarena
appropriate
Professional
Development for
teachers?

30. Lee S. Shulman
It’s bad enough to re-invent
the wheel
what really hurts is when the
re-invent the flat tire

31. 7th Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
Collaborate and
Distribute the
Leadership
“Keeping the books” is not my
favorite part of the job.

32. 8th Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
Read, read, read:
choose your own
learning path
The first management book I
ever read

33. What does a
Head of School
actually do?
forget all that

34. 9th Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
Support the teachers

35. 10th Irrefutable
Law of School
Leadership:
Be nice

36. THANK YOU!
Any questions?
Extras for How to Run a School
1. Science of Learning
2. Teaching Math
3. Strategic Planning
4. What is a School?
5. What is an International School?
6. The Importance of Jargon
7. Social Constructivism
8. PEN Principles
9. The International Baccalaureate
10. Cambridge Assessment
11. The Inquiry Cycle
12. University Admissions