Author: derekkensinger

School leaders play an integral role in providing a successful learning environment characterized by quality teaching and learning: instructional leadership.   Many school leaders receive training on instructional leadership via educational leadership coursework. Other school leaders assume principalships without any training regarding instructional leadership and learn on the job or effectively delegate these responsibilities.  Regardless of your leadership path or style, instructional leadership plays a large role in becoming an effective administrator.  There are two types of instructional leaders according to this article.

The ‘traditional’ instructional leader is a ‘coach’, usually a great teacher, and gets into the classroom to interact with teachers to improve learning.  This type of instructional leader  has strong interpersonal skills, communicates well and is motivational.  However, in larger schools/districts it may not be possible for a principal to effectively lead instruction using this traditional model.

A newer conception of instructional leadership focuses less on hands-on visibility, but more on organizational leadership with ‘tremendous effect on student learning through the teachers they hire, how they assign those teachers to classrooms, how they retain teachers, and how they create opportunities for teachers to improve’.

As the article questions, ‘no matter how extensive the teaching background of a school leader, could anyone have the content knowledge and relevant experience to coach one beginning teacher in how to engage students in British poetry of World War I and another on how to differentiate instruction in general chemistry?’

It is safe to assume that organizational, communication and interpersonal skills should all be sharpened in order to become as effective an instructional leader as possible contingent on the size of your school/district.

What does it mean to be a leader?  How can we become better leaders?  Leadership can be an ephemeral concept, however, many writers have talked about what it means to be a leader, and the necessary characteristics required for successful leadership. Here is a link to a quick quiz that may help you understand your personal leadership style and become familiar with other styles to address situations within your teams as they arise.  The quiz credits Daniel Goleman with outlining the 6 predominate leadership styles.   Here is a link that claims there are 12 different leadership styles.  Whether there are 6 or 12 leadership styles is not the intended takeaway of this post, rather, be mindful of the fact there are many ways to lead and there are many situations that a leader will be faced with that require cultivation of as many styles as possible.  An open-ended question that arises is how do we employ many distinct leadership styles while remaining authentic?

Reflection is an important skill for everyone to develop in life.   Reflection develops the ability to look at life from a metacognitive POV and make adjustments or give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.  Reflective practices belong to soft skills that are becoming more and more in demand in today’s ever changing and diverse world.  Teacher’s are generally taught about reflection in their teacher training programs, but many educators are often too busy between work and home life to take the time to sit down and regularly write and reflect on their practice.  For school leaders, systematic reflection is a necessary part of the school improvement cycle.  The following is a very useful article that discusses the history of reflection and it’s uses in education, drawing from the thoughts of seminal educational philosopher John Dewey.

Defining Reflection (Carol Rodgers)

The article provided involves a discussion of how language is acquired, discussing the nativist vs. behaviorist viewpoints.  On the one hand nativist theories related to language acquisition claim that language is instantaneous once a ‘language acquisition device’ is accessed.  Behaviorists on the other hand argue that nurture is a big part of language acquisition.  Regardless of which side of the fence you may reside in regards to this discussion, it is important to stay as informed as possible when it comes to language acquisition as we are all language teachers to some extent, particularly in international schools, regardless of our subject matter.  For aspiring leaders and those in school leadership positions cultivation of the ability to relate to language teachers/learners on their journeys and provide them hope with authentic and timely assessments is a big-picture goal.

The ability to shape and mold  the culture of a school is an extremely important skill for any educational leader to hone.  And it is not easy!

Luckily, there are experts that can help aspiring school leaders understand best practices when it comes to shaping school culture.

Terrence E. Deal and Kent D. Petersen have written a ‘go to guide for leadership’, that should be within arms reach on every school leaders bookshelf.

Triple Bottom Line Theory was developed originally for businesses.  It has been adapted for international educators in the article below.  The idea is that as leaders we need to be aware of multiple bottom lines in order for our school’s to be successful.

The three bottom lines are:

1. Fiscal: this is a very measurable and important bottom line for schools and requires a strong background in budgeting/finance.
2. Academic:  this is also a very measurable bottom line and requires identification of what academic outcomes are important for you to measure at your respective school.
3. Intangible Core:  this is a difficult bottom line to measure as it relates to qualitative data connected to values and dispositions.

Simultaneously incorporating three bottom lines requires systems thinking on the part of educational leaders.  This systems thinking in combination with the use of the data cycle can lead to the ultimate goal for educational leaders: improved educational outcomes for students.

Link to scholarly article explaining Triple Bottom Line theory for international educators

This Fall 2016 semester as Activities Coordinator I have been involved with the implementation of  a more student-driven after school program based on polling of student interests. One area of high interest for students at my school is LEGO Robotics. After interviewing a very experienced LEGO Robotics teacher, we hired him and today from 345-500 pm will be his 7th class.

What is the impact?  So far, students report  excitement and joy related to STEM  activities and say they are never bored.  They have so far learned how to program LEGO mindstorm robots to go straight, turn left and right, and simulate a soccer game.  Here is a link to: Scholarly article related to STEM after school programs and success in traditional classrooms.

As an educational leader do you ever feel as if your school is in dire need of improvement? For many, if not all educational leaders, the answer to this question is a resounding yes.  This begs the question, how do we, as educational leaders get unstuck and start moving toward meaningful schoolwide improvements.  The answer according to this  text book is through the use of data.

Victoria Bernhardt’s seminal text is ‘a call to action.’  It is ‘about inspiring schools to commit to a framework that will improve teaching for every teacher and learning for every learner.’  How? By instructing readers on how to become ‘data literate’ and use this literacy to ‘transform data into information and then into action’.  If this occurs, schools are capable of making a shift away from ‘compliance toward a true commitment to improvement.’

Bernhardt, Victoria 2013.  Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement. An Eye on Education Book.  Routledge.  For more information about Victoria L. Bernhardt: http://eff.csuchico.edu

As international school leaders it is our responsibility to provide an inclusive and supportive environment for our diverse student populations. Third culture kids (TCK’s) are students that move frequently to different international schools as their parents international jobs change. Some are children of diplomats, some are children of businesswomen/men, some are children of international educators. Because these families and their children move around frequently they can have difficulty forming meaningful relationships which are at the heart of social and academic learning. The article below shares some of the ways we can improve our induction processes of TCK’s at international schools to alleviate the feelings of temporality and promote a sense of community for these students.

Scholarly article related to inclusion of TCK’s (third culture kids)