At present we have 3 projects launched, but in their infancy, 2 projects were are working on and 2 in the planning stage. Keeping these 7 projects up to date and on schedule or in development is a real challenge.

We have been communicating and directing these projects through traditional meetings and conversation but keeping each project on track and all parties informed soon became overwhelming, so we added Collonas Workplace to our project management. It take a little while to get the settings right and proxy set up, but since then, its been a really useful tool.

Collanos allows unlimited number of members to work, communicate in real time or asynchronously reducing the need for constant email updates and permitting fewer meetings.

Projects and related projects are stored in a single, consolidated workspace. From now on we all access the same project-related activity / task / comments / documents without the need of going back and forth between multiple tools / channels. Meetings, now less frequent, are also more productive due to our shared understanding.

Instant notification is possible, but a little annoying when teaching so I have turned my off, the IT team however find it useful. Collanos Workplace also allows you to send instant messages to team members (all with set permissions) and alerts you when updates have been made. The usual, ‘Im busy’ or ‘Im available’ is useful but its a feature we have come to expect.

Did I mention Collanos Workplace is free! The service is backed by premium services or bespoke solutions, but as yet, its done all I need and more. We have set up a Collonas to help support and encourage communication between the network managers in the county. I am keen to see how it is adopted.

I find it rewarding to help families deal with succession planning issues in family businesses. I am a director of The Ontario Chapter of Family Firm Institute (FFI), which is an organization focused on three pillars:
1) interdisciplinary education,
2) networking opportunities for family business advisors and
3) to increase public awareness about trends and developments in the family business and family wealth fields.

FFI has been an excellent netwoorking source to meet other professionals who advise family businesses.As a business valuator and family business advisor, I am frequently asked for the best method to maximize the price of a business when the business founder decides that transition of the business is not to be passed on to the next generation. Preparing your business for sale means much more than sprucing up its curb appeal and the organization and cleanliness of the plant. Clearly, these are important factors to create a positive first impression. However, there is a substantial amount of planning that should take place well in advance of exposing the business for sale. While the preparation process can be time consuming, the following 5 steps can significantly increase the price realized for your business.

Step # 1: Update and Normalize Financial Statements

One of the most important information items that potential buyers will be relying on will be your companys financial statements. If they are unaudited, you may want to consider upgrading the quality of the financial statements to an audit. The key advantage of audited financial statements is that financial information will have more credibility in the eyes of the buyer and may enhance the value of your business.

The business owner and advisors must have a good understanding of the reasons for fluctuations in revenue, gross profit percentages and expenses from year to year. Furthermore, it is a good idea to normalize the historical financial statements to show the true profitability, by adjusting for items including uneconomic management remuneration. salaries paid to non-working family members, benefits paid on the owner’s behalf that would likely not be incurred by a buyer; and non-recurring expenses.

Step # 2: Prepare Projections

A well reasoned and realistic business plan incorporating a projection of future profit for the next one to five years can result in a significant increase in the value of a company. Therefore, such projections are an excellent vehicle to paint a picture of the future plan for the business, specifically identifying growth opportunities and untapped expansion potential.

The preparation of projections may allow you to demand better terms, as it may convince buyers of the growth potential of the business. A properly prepared business plan and projection may also enhance the buyers ability to secure financing for the purchase.

The projections are developed using a “bottom-up” approach. This means that the projection is built upon the underlying assumptions (e.g., number of units that can be sold each month; selling price per unit; actual and potential customers, market penetration, etc.).

Step # 3: Gain an Understanding of the Value of Your Business

An outside valuation of your business has the following advantages:

Prevents leaving money on the table by under valuing the business;

If the lowest price that an owner will accept greatly exceeds the business valuation, it may not be the best time to sell the business;

Provides a benchmark for evaluating bids for the business;

Provides an understanding of the value drivers of your business which can enthuse prospective buyers about your business and indicate those drivers which are currently “weaknesses” that need to be addressed prior to the sale.

One of the best ways to enhance the value of your business is to take the current weaknesses in the business and change them into positive factors. For example, over a period of time, changing a business with a high percentage of sales derived from a few large customers, to one with a broader customer base can result in a significant enhancement to the value of the business.

There are many excellent resources dealing with this stage in the sale planning process. I recommend “Good to Great“, by Jim Collins and “100 Ways to Win The Profit Game“, by Barry R, Schimel, CPA and Gary R. Kravitz. Also, an independent business valuation can be conducted or an operational review of your business can be performed to recommend strategies to enhance the value of your business.

Step # 4: Plan for Tax Consequences of Sale

It is imperative that you consider the tax implications of a sale well in advance. For example, if the business satisfies the criteria for a Qualified Small Business Corporation (“QSBC”), a sale of shares could qualify for a $500,000 capital gains exemption. If the business does not satisfy the criteria because some of the assets may not be used in an active business carried on in Canada (e.g., marketable securities, real estate, excess cash, etc.), it may be possible to “purify” the company by transferring these passive assets to another corporation.

You should also consider whether it is more advantageous to sell shares or assets. Vendors usually desire to sell shares, primarily to obtain the capital gains exemption. On the other hand, purchasers usually want to buy the assets of the corporation for two primary reasons:

The purchaser will not be responsible for liabilities that are not known at the date of closing; and

On an assets purchase, the buyer has the ability to step up the cost base of depreciable property to fair market value, thereby increasing the capital cost allowance available to be deducted against future taxable income.

It should be noted that in most circumstances it is necessary to have held the shares in the QSBC for a period of 24 months to take advantage of the capital gains exemption.

Step # 5: Diversify Management Talent

If you ask a private equity firm what is the most important factor in assessing whether or not to invest in a business and what price to pay, the first response is usually the quality of management.

Businesses that depend solely on the owner may have difficulty selling and the price of the business will be negatively impacted because of the increased risk from the buyers perspective. When a business is too dependent on the owner, there is risk of loss of customers that only have a relationship with the owner, key employees that have remained with the company because of the owner and suppliers who may have had a long-term relationship with the owner.Therefore, it is critical to broaden the strength of the middle management team to reduce the risks in these areas.

After the disappointment of the repetitive start to day 1, I took enjoyed a more leisurely start to Day 2 of the conference.

Dame Stella Rimington began the days proceedings with an interesting speech outlining the global changes that occurred during the her time with the secret service. Sadly there was little I could take back to school except a passing comment she made on the value and diversity of female colleagues within leadership.

Bob Compton, Director of 2 Million Minutes attempted to debunk four third world educational myths and IMHO did so quite successfully. Back in 2005 Bob compared the high school experiences of two teenagers from the U.S., India and China so it is safe to say he is well positioned to take forward this argument.If you are unconvinced that western standards fall short of education standards in China and India, then have a crack at some sample questions. Or watch the trailer.

Madame Fu Ying concluded the morning with a informative portrayal of a new China (political opinions set aside) that portrayed two views, one a young vibrant and economically driven, globally astute urban China the other, a detached but emerging rural China. If educational and global connectivity is possible, she requested that her rural communities be given precedent.

To conclude, Ed Balls and a later a criticism of myself. I did not warm to the keynote, nor did I see the connection to the conference theme so well included by other speakers. Over dinner, the day was of course reviewed and Ed Balls speech critiqued. During this conversation it was proposed that it was less likely to be my own experiences of leadership that would define my later career but rather, more likely the political landscape. presumably only 15-20 years of headship experience and reflection can offer this view. The comments we not meant to belittling, far from it, but to encourage that I look beyond school, beyond school leadership and to look at how education was being led by government, or future governments. That was all shared before coffee was served.

Finally, today I made Tony Parkin and Mike Herrity 3D! Nearly 12 months of conversation and blog reading, it was my pleasure to meet both these online PLN colleagues and we hope to continue to work together in the not to distant future. Should we create a workshop for #ssat10 and the value of Twitter to leadership and why school leaders should might be curious?

Working for a private company? Got some stock? Best of Luck figuring out the value without math.

Do you know how much your company is worth? If you work for a public company the answer is pretty easy — the stock market values your business every day. If you work for a private company it’s a bit harder. In this post we’ll discuss a technique that can be used to estimate the enterprise value of your private company.

Enterprise value is a financial concept that describes the amount of money the market believes your business to be worth. More here

Pigs Eating Pork – Not Quite Kosher or A Broad Market Approach!

When I first saw this commercial, it was at lightening speed on Tivo, so it didn’t click.  It only clicked when my 3 year old said he wanted to look at the pigs, so I slowed it down.  Not so glad I did, as I suspect this is offensive to whole populations by just the pork piece alone, but what about the cannibalism implications?

LOSERS! ZL Tech going to be a niche solution provider for a while I suspect, I wouldn’t pay the Gartner bill this year.

So while ZL clearly admits a short coming in marketing, which is the reason they aren’t leaders, thus the law suit, they might want to spend some time reflecting on the Ability to Execute concept when this is all over.

Never Met a PM I didn’t Like, well maybe a product manager or two…

I’ve never considered myself a people pleaser, but corporate politician or favor trader works, which is not inconsistent with the Tweets above.  Ultimately the activities, ownership and accountability for PM’s is a difficult thing when a company has all 4 of the PM’s types – Product Managers, Product Marketing, Project Managers and Program Managers.  On any given product, project or initiative all 4 can be involved and ownership can be difficult to discern and each may have some level of conflicting goals/motivations, but that is have the fun of being a PM.   So I’ve been stuck on the 4 PM concept for like 2 weeks since I talked to a friend…

Day 1 started with Thomas L Freidman. I was reassured that this was not merely going to be a prequel to his later address keynote in the main hall, otherwise why would I have got up early? I was pleased to hear his views and the Q/A session at the end provided some much needed personal input.There were one or two gems to take a away but generally narrative,

‘give me a student with CQ and PQ over IQ any day. Curiosity quotient plus passion quotient will overcome intelligence quotient.

So, to the main hall, two impressive student performances, one choral and one contemporary dance/drama before Thomas L. Friedman took to the stage for his second appearance. In truth, I needn’t have got up early for breakfast as he merely recited the same keynote, the same gags and the same message .

‘In a flat world, everything that can be done, will be done.’

Very disappointing and poor form on his part, even when you except his reason for not attending the conference in person (lunch at the Whitehouse, dinner with the president.)

Lord Digby Jones offered a real world viewpoint and commentary. He oration was commanding, if some did find his views a little one sided. It was about half way through his keynote that I realised I was sitting next to Tony Parkin an online colleague I initially had tried to meet / contact for some time with reference to our Digital Leaders covering the conference. A little surreal, that in a full auditorum, here he was tweeting away, sitting next to me. I am please to say I hope to meet Tony Parkin tomorrow for coffee during a breakout.

Finally, the view of four colleges following their visit to Brazil. Poignant teaching stories but I felt it went on a little too long for me however perhaps the best comment for innovation  – in referring to a Brazilian Digital Inclusion project they trained students to not only be proficient IT conusmers but ‘change makers.’ The aim to effect greater influence / impact of initiatives. Interesting concept – a little like our Digital Leaders, I hope.

The afternoon was spent in the exhibition, but I will note the highlights in a second post, and then onto project management. Although the message being delivered made common sense I was hoping for more. Bright and imaginative ways to collate project management progress. Innovative ways to PM within schools with disparate groups of across and between schools. Collonas or the effective use of gant charts or collaborative tools? Sadly not, but well scripted planning documents that will be stored and used to delivered future events and quite rightly, support new staff joining the school of fulfilling new roles, eg HoDs or leading Parents evening. One colleague on our table felt it quite inappropriate as a leadership session and was reasonable robust in his criticism.

Overall, a disappointing level 4.

It seems this topic is getting hot.  MIT professor Paul Osterman has a book entitled “The Truth About Middle Managers.”  Read more about it via this Harvard Business summary:

http://tinyurl.com/ych4t9c

Another fantastic re-direct from my RSS reader. My learning really is global. I find it amazing that I can watch the keynote speakers from a conference in New Zealand. Today I watched Dr Gary Stager presentation, ‘10 things you can do with a laptop.‘ With nearly 20 years experience of digital education and 1:1 computing, Dr Stager is well placed to lead the conversation. In particular I noted his view,

1:1 computing is NOT about hardware, it is about SOFTWARE. Software determines what you DO. What you learn depends on WHAT YOU DO.

So, that leads to our DMGC first steps into Scratch. I am disappointed that I have not been able to experience and play with scratch more myself but within 1-2 hours students a few students were hooked. We had i-touch type games (tap tap tap) where Tim and we raced our cats around a very basic track, mean time Grace was creating a very basic traffic frogger type game. Great, now the challenge is to a) get them to download scratch and ‘play’ at home and b) extend their playing/programming – ‘plagramming.’

Of late, I finally think that education is beginning to see the benefit of greater school collaboration. Whether school federations, NCLS cross school cohorts or lead practitioner groups, there appears to be a greater emphasis on dispersed conversation. Despite the growing formal CPD opportunities, I still gain more influential strategic and teaching input from my Personal Learning Network (Blogs, Twitter predominantly). Surely education can do better?

That said, face to face communication and conversation is vitally important. Since taking up the post at Hamble College, Gideon Williams has been one of the most supportive colleagues I have worked with. On Thursday we discussed a number of key IT services issues and compared the relative solutions offered by our schools. We also looked and modelled a managed VM solutions, linking together services that could be offered by SchoolsICT and elearning4schools. Of course as technology matures, the solutions available to answer, what appears to be fairly static educational needs, diversifies. Managed VM solutions are just one such solution. 

The second part of the conversation involve exchanging Moodle resources and the discussion to look at developing resources for the new ICT qualifications in 2010. I wonder if there are many other ICT HODs / Directors of E-Learning that would share content through moodle? One thought was to create a Moodle development site on which to develop the course, with staff exporting and importing the course to their own moodle as required? In the process of sharing resources and courses, Gideon demonstrated how he had deployed glossaries to share Mp3s and a short description about the clip for Unit 22, rather than as a set of individual resource. I felt this was a simple and effective idea although I now wonder if they could also be displayed as a directory?.

 Finally Gideon solved one of my few gripes with Moodle, the two step process of moving resources and activities with the up and down arrows – replacing it with the ‘move thingy icon.’ In minutes we had downloaded and installed the ‘move thingy icon’ and activated it my profile. Now I can drag and drop resources and activities much more efficiently. Althought this was not a siginificant issue for me personally, I am confident that a number of staff will appreciate the tool.

An administrator needs to turn the feature on, its under appearance / ajax and java script / untick disable ajax course editing. The per user, edit profiles and turn on used advanced web features. Now we can move items swiftly. Second, we have moved to the addvark theme, and finally lightbox works…. impressive.

So, when do you come up for air when you have a dual role? Should the requirement for half-term days be given in lieu? Should I trust and manage the IT services staff more effectively?

Coming up for Air

When do you come up for air? Many teachers use half-terms to clear a back log of marking and I am no different, but what of those teaching staff that are also responsible for IT Services? The challenge for those middle leaders with this duality is, down time for one role is peak time for the other.

This half term I have 4 set of class assignments to mark, 120 scripts, approximately, 5 minutes a script. On top of this I had two meetings, one with Gideon Williams from Perins School to discussion IT infrastructure and Sims2Moodle but as ever the meeting also included some resource collaboration and teaching idea exchange, more of that later. The second meeting was with Ian Tasker to ensure that the schedule of work was met. This included completing the Netbook deployment and preparation of both the loan units and the Digital Leaders netbooks. The Digital Leader units are a slightly modified netbook and the students are then used to pilot netbook developments and offer constructive ‘rock-face’ feedback. In our experience this group are extremely insightful and their contributions have been vital. Jobs left incomplete, the Skoogle facelift and cabling. Finally, we received delivery our new hardware, just over £22,000 investment in a blade server set-up, replacing servers at the end of their warranty and providing us with the much needed flexibility for growth in the new building.

What is perhaps more important is the redundancy and develop opportunities that virtualisation offers. The benefit is much improved continuity, server consolidation and reduced power costs (20%). We can now run both live and development platforms of all our key services, Sims, Moodle, Joomla as well as future platforms such as Wordress, Elgg and Mahara before going live. Expansion is then much more viable with blades costing £2500 and space is no longer an issue.

Following comparison quotes with 4 suppliers, primarily looking at IBM, HP and Fujitsu, we were impressed with Fujitsu communication and willingness to support our staff. Without significant staff experience of both blades and Fujitsu kit – we were keen to get onsite and extended Fujitsu support. During installation we were supported by an engineer, who first presented to our staff and then supported the installation process, providing our staff with the much needed reassurance to configure the Fujitsu  ETERNUS DX80 and PY BX620 S5 Dual Server Blades with fibre channel san. (Now thats a step into the unknown for me!). Further specifications details, Intel® Xeon® E5504 4C/4T 2.00 GHz 4 MB and VMware ESXi 4.0 UFM Device and Serverview embedded. (Now I am all teched out!) By the end of the day, we were up and running with a virtual Windows 7 machine connecting to the internet. We are now ready to migrate our IT services and deploy development suite of our key services of the next few weeks. Our thanks to Nick Francis at Vorkus for their first class service and continued IT support.

I was the last name on the CLT staff rotor for the ‘Secondary Headteachers Digest.’ Sadly, it has taken me nearly four weeks to read it. Next time, it will be given greater priority but first I will have to source it. The editorial included a wide range of documents covering various professional themes, political issues and research articles. Two articles in particular stood out for comment. 

Pupil feedback

The article summarises Sir Dexter Hutt’s proposals to offer pupils the opportunity to survey lessons, to further engage pupils and for pupils to sense that they ‘own the lesson’. What is missing is how this process will be put into practice. Meanwhile, Union responses were typically protective of members.

About 6 months ago I shared a lesson model I had constructed some time ago, that was taken on by the CLT to structure the VLE (not actually lesson delivery). On the reverse was student / pupil lesson survey tool that was not adopted, but was heavily road test at Tauntons College on the BTEC National in Sport. Maybe, with this article supporting this teaching strategy, it is time to re-raise document.

We used a doubled sided, laminated document. The front side was the aforementioned lesson model, the reverse the lesson survey tool design with some input from Geoff Petty. The document was simple placed in front a student at the start of the class, who then completed the tool with a simple dry wipe marker. The document worked on a number of levels;

As a course leader, the survey tools guided teaching preparation and planning. I could walk into any lesson and very easily source feedback about that lesson. I could use the survey tool to discuss the relevant merits of a lesson with a staff member. The survey tool communicated expectations of teachers to the students, but also the expectations of students, to the student in a very subtle way. As a teacher I could get immediate feedback on a lesson. The survey tool could be used to discuss the relevant merits of a lesson with the class, the expectations of staff and students with the class.

Is this a potential Leading from the Middle strategy? How would the document need to be adapted for use in ICT. I think that this is a worthy task as we have both GTP and PGCE students working in the department and I feel this would be a strong tool for guiding teacher in training.

I didnt dwell on self talk, nor on moving out of your comfort zone. To be honest, moving from post 16 Sport Science to 11-16ICT is a big enough move for me. Given the task of highlighting tasks that invoke comfort, tension, anxiety or panic I am pleased to say, I was not paniced, if a little anxious.

Goals – Articulating your personal vision

This is a personal reflective activity. Do try to give yourself time to complete it fully: allow at least one hour of uninterrupted time.

So, LftM is already showing itself to be a significant time commitment. When (other than half-terms) do we have an hour of uniterrupted time? If I did, I know I would have significant tasks to complete during that time.

Find yourself a quiet space and a notebook or paper

Make up a few statements about your aspirations (the things you want) in all aspects of your life. Record these statements.  See current projects tab at the top.

At this point, in reading the task I have more important things to do than to draw my imagined new life and what it looks / feels like. There are more questions, but I am finding this a little…..

I am supposed to be suspending any limiting thoughts and doubts. I dont think this is really me.

What kind of person are you? I will have a look at the diagnostics.

• Describe your health and fitness. I am active.
• What sort of relationships do you have? I have a wonderful wife, very supportive and helps me balance my work / family life.
• What material possessions do you own? Not sure what this has to do with anything? Warren Buffet, lives in his original home and when asked why he didnt live anyway more grandeur he replied, ‘Would I be happier?’
• Describe your ideal home/living environment. In time I may move somewhere quieter, more rural but again, what does this have to so with leading from the middle?
• How do you spend your recreation and social time?
• What is you ideal profession or vocation?
• What kind of teacher are you?
• How do your pupils see you?
• What individual learning opportunities have you created?
• What sort of community of society do you live in? How do you contribute?
• What travel opportunities have you created?

Thats enough, I am not wasting my time on this. Again, I am frustrated with this process! I am not even sure I am going to focus my vision.

Focusing your vision. Next you need to find out which of these visions is closest to your heart, which ones do you want the most?

Sorry, I am moving on to ‘Do you have any untapped potential?’

List two or three areas in which you are not fully using your potential or where you have not developed at all? This is a much more difficult and direct question to answer. Leading on creating learning materials. Working with disaffected male learners. Sadly, even if I wanted more input here, it would not be timely possible.

Identify an occasion when you were very effective as a middle leader. Getting a 50% increase in pass rate in one year. We had disaffected students, limited time and discipline issues to manage. We made three strategic decisions. We identified those capable of passing, we increased contact time through accelerated workshops and gave parents regular written updates. 

Identify an occasion when you were ineffective as a middle leader. Managing poor attendance and punctuality of IT staff and making them accountable.

What is the difference between these two occasions? Knowledge and confidence to address the situation.

What are your current challenges in your leadership. Concluding and then managing 2 major IT projects. Expanding my view of leadership and to be more involved in whole school curricular projects.

When I saw this task, I was a little frustrated. I know why I am in education. I thought this answer should be readily available to all teachers. I enjoy challenging and inspiring young people. Second, I thoroughly enjoy learning myself and in my current post, out of my subject and favoured teaching age group, I am learning every day.

Reflect on these questions about your reasons for choosing a career in education, they refer to the Middle Leader who is a teacher.

Now I am disappointed with the course, is this really necessary or informative to me as a middle leader?
Why did I become a teacher? Originally I chose to complete a PGCE as I really enjoyed working with young people and I had a great role model tutor at college.

What do I hold dear as a teacher? Integrity, not doing for students, what they can do for themselves (with a little prompting and support). Professional standards, showing students you learn with the students, failure as feedback, I could go on…

What do I give to my work as a teacher and leader? As a teacher, my lesson observations would suggestion I give good/high quality, consistent and innovative teaching. As a leader, principled leadership, honesty, innovation…. What do I want my legacy to be as a teacher and as a leader? Legacy? I am not working towards a legacy. I working for the students I teach right now. As a leader I hope to influence and lead curriculum change to take into account of what we are preparing students for in their future lives. Currently – I don’t think we are preparing student with their futures in mind. What can I do to keep to my own values and beliefs as a teacher and as a leader? I write a professional blog, I read as widely as I can and I seek feedback from my students and the staff I work with

(Adapted from Livesey and Fullan)
Really, I found that task, rather pointless. Second, recording these tasks is taking rather a long time.

The next task, the boiling frog is so much more subtle. Funnily, there is even a website with a (very weak)Youtube video telling the same story.  The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to important changes that occur gradually. According to contemporary biologists the premise of the story is not literally true; an actual frog submerged and gradually heated will jump out.

That aside, the tasks asks if there is anything we said when we were young that we would not do, that we have in fact done. This question reminds me of the Mark Twain quote

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he’d learned in seven years.

Well, I can remember in interview for my first post I was asked if I wanted to be a school leader. At the time, I could think of little worse than not teaching and coaching. I am not sure if I will be proven wrong.

How do I feel about this changes? I dont feel anything other than a little disappointment. That to make a wider and more substantial change to the education of students, it requires teachers who love teaching to move further and further away from the classroom and move closer to the office (data to be exact).

Data. I don’t think I have been to any DOL or CLT meeting that has not referred to or focused upon at some point the data being collect in school in some fashion or form. I have never had an issue with working with data and its one of the few places that my Masters degree really supports my professional development, having had to take advanced statistics and research methods modules.

This week’s CLT meeting reviewed the ‘data collection’ practices and outcomes that had occurred already this term. Attitude to Learning (ATL) scores for all students was followed by subject targets for all years, to be shared and discussed with students during mentor.

I was interested in two/three aspects, the actual process of collecting the data and the management of the process – to lesser degree the actual quality of the data. I was reassured that I was not the only colleague present that had reservations about our current practices.

My first query regards the necessity of so much data for lower school students. ATL scores provided an easy barometer for students to gauge their learning relationship with staff. At the subsequent parents evening, these scores were then easily shared with parents. Even from this simple set of scored students could be targeted improvements in individual subjects or their overall total.

Can the same be said of the time expensive, target setting? The process was moderated by senior interviewing students from across the school and feedback was variable. As a mentor, I would have to agree. Key points note

• I was not confident that my lower school mentee understood their attainment grade targets.
• I was less than confident that my mentees understood the process of collecting 3 x 8 individual subject targets and what they meant.
• This process, of student collecting targets, was impeded by students low literacy skills and inability to collect and record their own targets reliably.
• Some students were frustrated by generic targets set by some subject areas, particularly Yr9 and 10 students.
• It was evident that the students who gained the most from this process were Yr11 students. Suggesting that a level of student maturity is required to make target setting motivating.

This meeting then left me with a number of unanswered questions.

Do target grades, barely understood by the lower school students, provide the basis for positive academic performance conversations? Would a recording tool like a learning ladder or emotional tree, encourage the development of academic aspirations more effectively? Is the time invested in collecting lower school data be invested into more resilient processes for Yr 10/11? What / how do other schools record? Can ICT have a role to play? ILPs or e-Portfolios?

One minor point, in my pseudo CLT role, I retain a pastoral role as a mentor. I felt that this enabled me bring an honest opinion to the meeting. When / if later formally in a position of leadership, inviting ‘rock face’ staff to such a meeting has two clear benefits. Invites to CLT meetings would be both fantastic CPD experience for staff, but also invaluable ‘real’ accounts of the process. I am interested to see how this issue of student academic motivation is resolved.

Final posting for the weekend. I have two professional firsts.

This year I am mentoring our first ICT GTP student. So far the process has involved advertising the post, interviews and appointment processes. Supporting the application to the GTP programme at Reading University (obviously successful). A meeting for mentors (July) and most recently our first on site meeting with the course leader Jonathan Allen.

There are two stand out points to note so far. Assessment of the teacher in training is a combination of written coursework, lesson observations and course interview. I think is a marked improvement on my personal experience of teacher training in the PGCE of yester-year. Second, the emphasis on mutual support put forward by Reading staff.

Second, I am undertaking the Leading from the Middle qualification with NCSL,  a 10-month professional development programme for middle leaders using a combination of online tools and face-to-face sessions.

In principal I am looking forward to the course, although first impressions are cool, 25 FAQs may indicate I am not alone or just good support?!?! From my application on 10th of July until just recently I received minimal information although on Friday I did received a very informative folder.

So far, this course is missing the warm communication and reassurances I expereinced when I enrolled in OFAT, also an NCSL course.  The first Induction twilight session is on Oct 13th, followed by a full day on Dec 11th, so I intend to keep an open mind.

Each and every day, I try to improve a little… learn from my mistakes… grow. I think we all should.

One of the most often quoted folks in the world, Unknown, aka Anonymous, once said…

“Aim for a 1% improvement every single day”

This small improvement each and every day will lead directly to BIG changes in a fairly short amount of time.

That is because, as Albert Einstein (not as often quoted as Unknown, but quoted a lot, nonetheless), once said…

The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.

In fact, if you make a 1% improvement today on your diet and exercise plan, and then a 1% improvement tomorrow, and then keep going, you would be over 3000% (that’s not a typo) better by the end of the year!

At Build-Muscle-and-Burn-Fat.com Middle Management, I constantly harp on making small changes, usually just one small change per week… in my opinion that is the easisiet way to sustainable, long-term improvement.

After all, if you made a 1% improvement each week (like I suggest at the FatLossAcademy.com), at the end of the year you would still be 168% better at the end of the year.

We all have things we want to be better at, not just burning fat or building muscle. The power of small lasting changes, compounded over time, leads to permanent big changes.

Remember this next time you come across a diet or fitness plan that suggest sweeping wholesale changes. You don’t need to make a bunch of big changes all at once.

Start small. End big.

Become An Entrepreneur

Can you imagine yourself adding zeros to your current paycheck? $1,000 can instantly be $10,000. The problem is that someone else is writing your paycheck and telling you what to do.

I worked in retail for 17 long years so I know your pain. I started out on graveyard peeling my eyes open around 3 AM to ring someones order into the register. I stuck to it, basically I started to rely on the paycheck, and I worked my way up to an assistant manager of a store, then a manager, and eventually a District Manager overseeing 16 stores and hundreds of employees.  After a while I noticed my whole identity and self-worth was wrapped up in my job.  The problem was just that – it was a job, not a calling.

The good old days of playing my guitar, snowboarding whenever I wanted  or traveling for weeks on end were not a part of my life anymore. After I got into the middle management game I really was sucked in.

I spent Saturdays and evenings on my computer just trying to catch up, my wife kicking me in bed and mumbling “PLEASE shut off your computer and go to sleep!”  I still dream about firing employees (my least favorite thing to do) and sending faxes.

Can you relate to this? Are you tired of not having YOUR time and feeling like you’ve never lived out your dreams?

I felt the same way and then I jumped ship and now work for myself. I can show you how. In the meantime, get to know me, tell me what you think and let’s share some ideas. Right now I’m posting a series of blogs on how to market on the internet with little or no money using your own product or service that you might already have.

Visit www.LibertyMindset.com for more information on a community of entrepreneurs that already have a turn-key system in place.

   This is an introduction to a series of posts on Hitler’s encounter with the restless, skeptical “Jewish” mind: The first posting includes footnotes inside the text, one of which will introduce the reader to some of the most important historiography that has perpetuated the notion that Hitler had contempt for the masses. It is my contention that this is a distortion of Hitler’s views. Rather, he saw the Jews and other “Social Democrats” as the big liars, while he was ever the good father, sent to save the masses from their own “objectivity craze.”  (This will be demonstrated in later parts of this title. If you want a copy of the essay in one fell swoop, footnotes at the bottom of the page, write to me at clarespark@verizon.net. )

    [New post starts here:] While reflecting upon Hitler’s publications (along with the productions of other “moderate men”), I have seen an incoherence and anxiety which, however affected by family history, seems primarily structured by class position; my synthesis supplements the work of those historians who have stressed counter-Enlightenment as the centerpiece of Nazi ideology.

[footnote:  See Bernard Semmel, Imperialism and Social Reform: English Social Imperial Thought 1895-1914 (Harvard U.P., 1960): 41.  The social imperialists adopted Darwinism, but made tribes and races the competing units; Karl Pearson held that race or national feeling were stronger factors shaping conduct than market forces.  Also, see Eberhard Jäckel, Hitler’s World View (Harvard U.P. Paperback, 1981, orig. publ. 1975); Hans Staudinger, The Inner Nazi: A Critical Analysis of Mein Kampf (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U.P., 1981).  Hitler was of course not supporting laissez-faire industrial capitalism favored by Social Darwinists, rather his rhetoric often echoed the reactionary utopian agrarianism one would expect from a member of the declining petit-bourgeoisie; parallel movements can be discerned in the English Distributists of the early twentieth century, American Southern Agrarians of the 1930s and in the more nostalgic sectors of the New Left, especially in those who have repressed the anti-Semitic side of populism; intellectual mentors of this tendency include William Blake, the Christian Socialists, William Morris, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Van Wyck Brooks, Waldo Frank, Aldous Huxley, and Lewis Mumford.  See Meyer Schapiro, review of Mumford’s The Culture of Cities, “Looking Forward to Looking Backward,” Partisan Review (June 1938), 12-24, for analysis of Mumford’s reactionary organicism; John L. Thomas, Alternative America (Harvard, 1983). These radicals would probably agree with Sombart that it was “the Jewish spirit” that created economic determinism, that is, the domination of money and the market as Parsons argued in 1928. [end footnote]

     Racialist thinking, I argue, is not about some ahistoric group superiority per se, ever present and perhaps inevitable, as the functionalists who write our school curricula would have it, but about corporatism/organicism: Tribal or feudal social relations are upheld or applied to halt developing societies; such localisms are undermined by concepts of international species-unity, by capitalism supposed to be moving leftward. In spite of anticapitalist brakes, industrial societies are science-driven, hence retain their capacities to promote the wandering imagination to the point of global solidarity, a solidarity in the pursuit of health and happiness, if not equality of condition.

 
    My particular interest in Hitler’s Jewish problem stems from study of the moderate men, led by Henry A. Murray, who have revived/not revived “the forgotten” Herman Melville (1819-1891) after 1919. I inferred that double-binds specific to modernity (the demand for both truth and narrow conceptions of Order) structure ‘liberal’ socializing institutions, that Melville pointed this out most powerfully and unambiguously in Pierre, or the Ambiguities (1852), and possibly for that reason Melville, tracer of lost persons, both fascinated and upset many readers who then either continued to puzzle over him, or distorted his positions or rendered him persona non grata in American letters. Hitler’s revealing table talk, taken with the passages on propaganda in Mein Kampf, bear out my thesis: There are analogies between readers hostile/attracted to Ahab’s/Melville’s modernism and Hitler’s extremely anxious response to bold, expressive critical thought above all, his own and his father’s. Some key Melville readers and Hitler alike simultaneously try to hold the center/flee to the margins. They are not alone in their spaced-out confusion.

[A Pennsylvania educator, 1949:] “This wonderful something which we call life comes to the teacher in its most plastic, pliable state and condition. The teacher’s mind, will, and conviction mold the plastic mind of the pupils. It is clearly evident that the teacher’s position is important in the social and cultural relations of the group…Nervous activities must be normal to enjoy one’s work. Then the teacher speaks in a well modulated voice and not in shrill or harsh tones which disturb the orderly procedure of the class room.
    “A good, careful preparation for one’s work is the chief source of confidence. One knows what he is going to do. He knows his material. Confidence utilized in the right way helps him to be positive and constructive in his teaching. He will help to have all sides of a question discussed and try to arrive at a definite decision as far as possible. It might be remembered that an opinion expressed does not constitute the teaching of social studies. The result to be achieved must be definite and not probable.” [footnote:] Charles William Heathcote, “The Teacher of Social Studies: A Reappraisal,” The Social Studies, Vol.40 (1949): 67,68.  The author was “Head, Department of Social Studies, State Teachers College, West Chester, Pennsylvania.

    Lord Alan Bullock (1991, 164) and his predecessors in the aristocratic Hermann Rauschning historiographical tendency in Hitler studies have constructed an extremist, a cynical demagogue descended from Marat and Robespierre. Strangely, this Hitler is a paranoid merged with narcissistic masses worshipping the Goddess of Reason/themselves, yet at the same time, the detached puppeteer gloating over the credulity/cynicism of “mob society” swallowing the Big Lie; this curious character is now a cliché in American high and popular culture. Besides Murray and Mosse, their ranks include Hannah Arendt, T.W. Adorno, Leo Lowenthal, Georg Lukács, and Joachim Fest. 

[footnote:] See T.W. Adorno, Leo Lowenthal, and Paul W. Massing, “Anti-Semitism and Fascist Propaganda,” Antisemitism: A Social Disease, ed. Ernst Simmel with a Preface by Gordon Allport (N.Y.: International Universities Press, 1946): 132: “…it is a deceptive idea, that the so-called common people have an unfailing flair for the genuine and sincere, and disparage fake.  Hitler was liked, not in spite of his cheap antics, but just because of them, because of his false tones and his clowning.  They are observed as such, and appreciated….The sentimentality of the common people is by no means primitive, unreflecting emotion.  On the contrary, it is pretense, a fictitious, shabby imitation of real feeling often self-conscious and slightly contemptuous of itself.  This fictitiousness is the life element of the fascist propagandist performances.” 

    [fn, cont.] See also Hannah Arendt, “The Concentration Camps,” Partisan Review, July 1948, 745: “Hitler circulated millions of copies of his book in which he stated that to be successful, a lie must be enormous–which did not prevent people from believing him….”  This claim, the center of her irrationalist argument, is not footnoted; in any case, she implies that Hitler was boasting about his own successful lying in attaining the support of the German people (and which I challenge in this essay).  Arendt argues that Nazis were philistines, relativists/nihilists, not pseudo-aristocrats defending “individuality” in terms similar to her own (for Arendt: “the uniqueness shaped in equal parts by nature, will, and destiny,” 758).  Note the refusal of former critical tools: “An insight into the nature of totalitarian rule, directed by our fear of the concentration camp, might serve to devaluate all outmoded political shadings from right to left and, beside and above them, to introduce the most essential political criterion of our time: Will it lead to totalitarian rule or will it not? (747).”

     [fn. cont.] See also Georg Lukács, The Destruction of Reason (London: The Merlin Press, 1980): 721-726 for the claim that Hitler learned his demagogical techniques from American advertising (imperialist Americans were the new Nazis in 1950s Stalinist propaganda). Citing Rauschning as his source, Lukács wrote, “In their speeches and writing, the fascist leaders poured out with a nauseating show of emotion their national and social demagogie, whose public second names were honour, loyalty, faith and sacrifice, etc. But when they came together in private, they spoke with the most cynical, knowing smiles of their own messages and manifestoes” (721).  It was of course English wartime propaganda that Hitler credited in Mein Kampf and he disavowed manipulativeness, see below; Cf. Jim Fyrth, Britain, Fascism, and the Popular Front (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985): 10: “…fascism posed as a form of socialism and its anti-capitalist rhetoric was directed at the working class and lower-middle class.” The Tory/Stalinist characterization of Americans as the new Nazis persists in anti-imperialist movements today; see for instance, Alexander Cockburn’s ill-timed insinuation in The Nation, 8/17-24/92, p.163 that Jews (in the persons of Edward Alexander and the Jews who publish him) selfishly and callously minimize the suffering of other oppressed groups (American Indians and Southern slaves) by resisting [ahistoric] attempts to equate “the Holocaust” with other forms of mass death.  Cf. The New Masses during the 1930s which defended the revolutionary bourgeoisie and its development of the productive forces in the same progressive America that would be treated as a country of Bad Jews after the war.

     [fn.cont.] Also see Joachim Fest, Hitler (Harcourt Brace, 1973): Fest presents a bouquet of diagnoses in “the manic simple-mindedness with which he traced all the anxieties he had ever felt back to a single source.” (101-102); “[Hitler learned everything from Marxism and its idea of the vanguard.]  He also went much further than his model.  In his nature there was an infantile fondness for the grand, surpassing gesture, a craving to impress.  He dreamed of superlatives and was bent on having the most radical ideology, just as later he was bent on having the biggest building or the heaviest tank.” (126) i.e., both Marxism and Hitler are crazy.

    [fn. cont.]  Although E. Jäckel criticized the Hermann Rauschning tendency, such arguments appeared before Rauschning’s book.  See for instance, George Sylvester Viereck, 1923 (his self-published journal, with the “explosive” Hitler as Byron, vagina dentata, Jewish intellectual, and Gorgon); also Johannes Steel, Hitler as Frankenstein, with a preface by Harold Laski (London: Wishart, 1933): 7.  Describing Mein Kampf: “Eight hundred pages full of curses against Pacifists, Jews, Marxists, Internationalists, and Capitalists without a single productive idea.  His political faith as proclaimed in this book is, that everybody is wrong and only he is right.  A curious book…in which he never speaks about himself, his family, his life, or even his program for the future, but only about generalities.  Metaphysical theories on the necessity of the purification of the German race, of which he is not a member, and in addition to that, nothing but hate and again hate…. (7).  At the end of his speech he registered a child-like happy self-satisfaction” (9).  Hitler is drawn as a Henry Ford-type, not a corporatist liberal: “[Henry Ford] like himself, was a bourgeois, did not like Jews, Socialists, Communists or Revolutionaries, or government interference with private business.” (33).  On Jew-hatred, Steel writes of  “black-haired Jews who seemed to have such an easy life, just trading, arguing and talking and yet getting on and on more rapidly than he, or anyone around him” (3).  The Hitler-Robespierre-syndicalist connection was explicit in Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Our Battle (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1938): 68 ff, 77.

     [fn.cont.] On 7/17/92 Los Angeles public television broadcast a British film, Führer: Seduction of a Nation, advised by Lord Bullock, which carried these themes, depicting Hitler as an inflamed narcissist, “a face from the crowd” taking in the masses with a line that “sounded democratic”; the grandiose Hitler was too close to his mother, the father was described as “authoritarian” and perhaps half-Jewish.

     [fn.cont.] For other works that promulgate the Big Lie theory of Nazi propaganda/Nazi narcissism see the Fireside Discussion Group of The Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’rith, Hitler’s Communism Unmasked (Chicago, 1938); Louis W. Bondy, Racketeers of Hatred: Julius Streicher and the Jew-Baiters International (London: Newman Wolsey, 1946); Adolf Leschnitzer, The Magic Background of Modern Anti-Semitism (N.Y.: International Universities Press, 1956): 142-143; Stanley G. Payne, Fascism: Comparison and Definition (Madison: U.of Wisconsin Press, 1980): 7.  In his typology of social movements, Payne describes Nazi style and organization as “Emphasis on esthetic structure of meetings, symbols, and political choreography, stressing romantic and mystical aspects”; David Welch, Propaganda and the German Cinema 1933-1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983): 44-45; Ian Kershaw, The ‘Hitler Myth’: Image and Reality in the Third Reich (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986): 3, 147, 259-62; Martin Broszat, “A Plea for the Historicization of National Socialism,” Reworking the Past, ed. Peter Baldwin, op.cit., the (populist) Nazis [not Plato et al] invented the idea of the Big Lie! (84).

     [fn.cont.] A somewhat differing impression of Nazi propaganda is carried in Leonard W. Doob, “Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda,” Public Opinion Quarterly, vol.14 (Fall 1950): 419-442.  Doob believes Goebbels defended the “truth” of his propaganda, but “credibility” was sought in the spirit of Machiavellian expediency, not morality.  But, according to Richard Crossman (British M.P.), this was (also?) the Allies’ position!  See his “Supplementary Essay” to Daniel Lerner, Sykewar (N.Y.: George Stewart, 1949): 334-335.  For Crossman, the “arch propagandist” Goebbels was sincerely deluded in his Big Lie (then described as necessarily duplicitous): “Where the Germans differed from us was not in their means, but in their ends.  The Nazis really believed that the Germans were a Herrenvolk, with the right to dominate the world; that democracy was an expression of decaying capitalism, and civil liberty a relic of a decadent bourgeois civilization; that the Soviet Union was simply a Mongolian despotism, and Communism a disease; that the Slavs were natural slaves and the Jews vermin, fit only for extirpation.  The real lie of which Goebbels was guilty was the attempt to conceal from the rest of Europe the implications of his Herrenvolk idea…. (334)  Earlier, he claimed that Nazis “took over and vastly refined Bolshevik techniques of mass persuasion (323).”  (Compare Hitler’s admiration in Mein Kampf of British war propaganda for its clarity regarding guilt and innocence; in the Crossman essay, he states that the same propaganda was solely dedicated to urging the Germans to overthrow the Kaiser and establish democracy.)

     [fn.cont.] In Doob’s account, Goebbels himself did not evolve criteria for measuring the effectiveness of differing media, so tried everything to catch his fish.  As often happens, mind-managers have less confidence in their tactics than their critics.  But see Weinreich, “The Jew As A Demon” (Hitler’s Professors, 1946) for evidence of hypocrisy among Goebbels’ disciples.  In my essay, I make no further claim than the absence of Hitler’s bragging about manipulating the masses (against their interests) in either Mein Kampf or Table Talk. [end footnote]

     I have seen nothing in Hitler’s published writings, however, to support such a view; on the contrary, it is almost always “the Jew” who manipulates the helpless; Hitler defines himself as the good teacher-saviour defeating Social Democratic/Jewish “artistry in lying.” As a representative of European high culture and (conservative) Enlightenment, Hitler loathes Weimar mass culture (also Jewish); if he must carefully craft his messages for the masses, it is in response to the imperative of mass psychology (not to be equated with individual psychology, cf. LeBon and Freud) and for their own good. Moreover, inexact translations of some small but key words in Mein Kampf have made it more difficult to spot Hitler’s consistent obsessive need for clear boundaries between categories, images, and feelings. Similarly, typing Hitler (the brute) hides the particular psychodynamics (the switch) that seem to lead him to despair/purging/more switches.
     Hitler’s construction of the Jew cannot be attributed solely to family trauma and individual psychology–the authoritarian family–
but was probably a function of the historically specific hopelessness of a declining class, the small producer competing with more efficient rivals. Charting his class position would reveal collapse and quagmire. If Hitler was a psychopath then neither his craziness nor his elusiveness is unique to himself or the Germans; therein lies the true horror and the lesson for ourselves as “progressive,” “moderate,” “public interest” intellectuals similarly positioned in middle-management, and decrying class fears and class resentments.

With exams data being prepared for tomorrow, I thought it was a good time to set out the new targets for 09-10. We still need to mature existing projects but most also look forward to future innovations and opportunities.

We have a new ‘team’ of IT staff due with internal promotions, additions and new roles. I am pleased to say that the new team and have meshed together, skipped the ’storming’ phase and moved onto the norm. What has been refreshing is  important is the fact that the new staff has brought new ways of the addressing engrained tasks.

Targets 09-10

Improve our current OCR Nationals passrate of 70% to 75%.

1. Grow the L4L Programme with a Yr7 and Yr10 – targting 75% inclusion
2. Rebrand IT Support to IT Services and widen the range of services we offer; audio, visual, college digital magazine, remote services.
3. Develop the Sims2moodle product and broaden the features available to schools.
4. Extend CPD, to include GTP / PGCE and internal CPD opportunties.
5. Engaging collaboration throught the Network Managers Working Group
6. Visit at least 3 school to investigate the innovations they are currently deploying

With a secure network and the staff to lead its development, I hope to be able to focus on my professional development this year a little more this year.

One of the issues for Middle Management within IT is how to structure your work schedule. In my particular case, my teachers contract does not suite the role requirements particularly well. I have chosen to work Thursdays (an odd meeting here and there) and the last week of the summer holidays to ensure the IT development is successful and that IT infrastructure is in place for the start of the new school year. These additional days are vital very important, but should I have to work an extra 10 days a year? Should I ask for these days in lieu? What is the best solution?

The benefits of working intermittently through the summer;

• Personal learning and greater understanding of the IT infrastructure.
• Discussing and reflecting on decisions taken during the first week of the summer.
• Planning meetings are thorough, uninterrupted and can involve all IT staff.
• Involvement in the development of the Laptops 4 Learning project; ensuring that we reach our inclusion targets of 75%. 
• Meeting opportunities with IT agencies and suppliers. 
• Increased accountability of the IT team and the ability to respond to issues early.

Although I thoroughly enjoy both the teaching and the strategy development aspects of the The ‘Director of E Learning’ role, I am unsure as to whether it would not be better suited to an IT professional / business manager. It is impossible to assure your own headteacher that IT development will be successfully carried out without your personal involvement and that in turn means working some part of your summer holidays.

My wife is a big fan of Sarah Beeny, the ‘Property Ladder’ presenter and expert. Show after show, we watch prospective property developers ignore her invaluable advice. One common mistake is their ignorance of her insistance to attentive project management. Although the summer project may only be 4-6 weeks (staff holidays accounted for) I am certainly not expecting an IT summer project to manage itself but I am not willing to work all summer either. One day a week on site and emails is in my opinion permissible.

Sarah Beeny’s final rule is account, accounts, accounts. The numbers must add up. The schools IT budget is the largest budget I have had to manage so far in my career. It am very conscious of what and where we are spending. Although this year our financial committment on single items of IT is much less, I am still committed to keeping a close eye on spending. Whilst working these days is not compulsory, I would not be confident in my conversations with the Senior Leadership Team that we were doing all we can to make ICT and IT a leading contributory factors in the schools improvements.

I’m used to jobs where employees are watched with the same suspicion that a 17 year-old boy in an oversize hoodie picking through CD is treated to. One job so closely monitored our breaks and lunches that if we were two minutes late leaving, we had to fill out a form and get it signed by a manager. When my review came up, the manager nailed me for being 15 minutes late one morning. She knew I arrived early – we had an extended conversation about Tupperware in the lunch room – but was locked out of the computer and had to wait for someone to come down – but I forgot to fill out the form. Another job required employees to enter codes whenever they did anything, so middle management could make all sorts of charts, showing how no one works very hard.

For the most part, these have all been lowest common denominator jobs. Jobs where the employers treat the employees like criminals and employees don’t care if what they’re doing screws over the company in any way. Neither side expects any loyalty and neither side gives any.

But then yesterday morning, we strolled into the office a full fifteen minutes before our start time, and over the course of the next forty-five minutes, watched everyone else trickle in. I was astonished that not everyone arrived as early as we did. No one had to ask permission to use the washroom! We could get coffee whenever we wanted it! I didn’t even think of taking a break halfway between starting and lunch, I just pressed on with what I had set to work doing, typing away at my new Word template.

At 11:55, Dave suggested we go outside and eat our lunch. He was ravenous and needed some quality time with his roast beef sandwich. But I wouldn’t let him go. I made him wait until noon exactly. Hour lunches are supposed to be an hour, right? They should start right on the hour and finish right on the hour. The Wrath of Management might be swift and furious – I don’t know, this is my first day. I don’t want to chance anything. Dave looked at me like I had three heads. I simply can’t shake the programming that has everything I do planned right down to the second. (I did the same thing when it was time to go home. I made him wait until 4:30 exactly, not a minute sooner.)

And then there’s the dress code. I asked what I should wear. “Dress is casual,” I was told. “Business casual?” I asked. “No, casual-casual. You can wear jeans and a t-shirt if you want.” Also something that’s been programmed out of me. When I worked for a major Canadian bank on the fifth floor of the second tower, where the only people we ever saw were our co-workers and the lovely people at Tim Hortons, even casual days had limitations on what we could wear. But try as I might, yesterday, I couldn’t bring myself to wear jeans and a t-shirt. Dress pants and a button-up shirt. My only concession were the shoes, which could hardly be seen anyway. The bank would have sent me home for dressing like that.

So I am left with one conclusion about this new job. I must be dreaming. There can’t possibly be a world where the rules aren’t there to strangle the will to live out of the employees, where management doesn’t feel the need to track your every move and chart it, where people can wear t-shirts in an office. What madness is this?!

man⋅ag⋅er [man-i-jer]

–noun

1.     a person who has control or direction of an institution, business, etc., or of a part, division, or phase of it.

2.     a person who manages: the manager of our track team.

3.     a person who controls and manipulates resources and expenditures, as of a household.

Among my many flaws in my adult professional life, my biggest one, by far, is a deep terror of anything management related. I’m not talking about questioning authority – that’s fun.  I’m referring to being authority.

There is absolutely nothing about being the supervisor, boss, grand poo-bah, that appeals to my simple little mind. Not the accolades.  Not the bonuses. Not the primo parking spots. Not the headaches. Not the long hours.

And it goes beyond that for me. It also means a revulsion of telling people what to do. Of checking on them in any way, shape or form. I’m not made with that temperament.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve supervised before. And I found that I hated this management realm exceedingly more than any dislike for any subordinate. I observed a prevailing sense of entitlement amongst supervisors that was repulsive.

Respect is not automatic. Submission is not respect. Any monkey can obey the rules and still not give two dingleberries about the boss or the job. There is no admiration, honor or esteem for the leadership. If the boss were on fire, no one would be inclined to even piss out the blaze.

But these men (and women) in charge didn’t care about allegiance or fraternity. They never saw these truths or how transparent their clout really was. They walked around their empire, minions at their feet, and never gave a second thought about the automatons surrounding them. They never realized that they had no juice. Just fancy titles. And that makes them the saddest people in the world.

…

I remember one guy I “supervised.”  He was the most irreverent, ballsy, witty individual I had met up until then. He was rather young so he made mistakes. But when he was on, he was a fantastic worker.

Upper management labeled his irreverence as “problematic” and insisted that he reform. They focused on the negative. They focused on whatever would jeopardize their tightly-controlled ego trip.

I admired this worker’s spirit. I admired his preference to just not care about the grumbling in the shadows. He never became fazed or resentful.  He laughed at all the asinine write-ups from smug superiors who never took the time to talk to us.  He got his job done and didn’t sweat the small annoyances.

The fact that they overlooked his spirit is very telling. He’s the guy you want on your team: the one that faces the fire and doesn’t get rattled. The one that doesn’t cut corners and doesn’t try to blame others. The one that hasn’t reached his position by having his ego stroked the whole time — and is now too fragile for any type of tribulation. The one that doesn’t lose sight of who he is.

That spirit frightens upper management.

In my experience it hasn’t been about the bottomline. It’s sometimes not even about the mission, an objective I can at least respect.

No, with these folks, it always seems to be about sidestepping the blame and photoshopping professional blemishes off of slimy reputations. “Not my problem” with a pinch of “just make me look good.”

Do I want to keep my job? No, but I need to. I’m not oblivious to the slumping economy out there. Of course my heart goes out to victims of said economy and not the evil managers looking out for themselves.

But I do resent the game. At what point is it really worth losing yourself?

Keep your awards and praise. Leave me my dignity.

…

Ban cubicles

In keeping with the workplace theme, here are a couple of pictures of an amazingly cool office setup.  This is the Red Bull office in London. A slide? I might have to dig the “grand poo-bah” that slides to his office everyday.  More pics of cool workplaces found here.

This Friday we had the whole day to spend together as a Department. Although prior to the meeting I had requested and received agenda items, I decided we would start the day by writing our self review document for the department. Many of the agenda points we covered as a result. Over the past 12 months we taken a number of brave decisions and I felt that by completing the SR document I could reaffirm our progress, attribute our successes to the members of our team and plan for 09-10. Despite a very thorough search, it would appear that this was the first SR document for our Department, as I could not find any historic planning or SR documents on or offline. Now this is not a very interesting read, more a reflection on the day than a shared post.

The four areas to review were

Priority 1 Learning and Teaching- Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4

Priority 2 – People and Training

Priority 3 – Information Communication Technology

Priority 4 – Extended School and Community (Including Extended Learning)

After welcoming our newly appointed GTP to our team and outlining the position of our former PGCE students, I went straight to the data. I was surprised that there was no direct request for data to support the observations so, here I included it anyway. In July 08, our OCR pass rate was 33% and that was largely the result of 2 arduous ‘Accelerated Workshop’ days that Easter half-term. This year we are currently at 68% pending moderation, with 15% of the cohort gaining 2 GCSEs. Teaching at this pace, including workshops and accelerated workshop days in half terms, has generated a significant amount of marking. Add to which, we felt it necessary to  moderate all OCR coursework taught marked by non-ICT from previous Units,  meant the team efforts rightly deserved recognition. As a courtesy our Headteacher has offered a small, but justified over payment, for the additional marking. I would estimate each staff member has committed a further 15hrs marking of coursework they themselves did not teach.

We reviewed the progress of the current cohorts, targeting 70% for 07 and 08 starters but with students achieving at least 2 GCSEs. This is now our benchmark. For the Level 1 course we set a D-G pass rate 50% for 07 starters, but notably, for those students starting the course in 08 the same benchmark but for 20% of the students to go on to achieve 1 GCSE at grade C or above (contributing a further 2% to the overall year pass rate).

We then used the meeting time to clarify our teaching direction, jointly create Departmental policies for sanctions and marking. Both these policies focused on our shared use of the Departmental Marking database created by Andrew Sangster. As with all new innovations, its been a work in progress but Andy has created a very versatile collaborative gradebook that allows staff to record, display, transfer and update grades within the department. It also allows any middle manager to review grades submitted for any student, group or year, by any staff member. Certainly when reporting grades this year, its been very simple to target low performing students, next we want instant reports set up to generate default letters. We are adding a department sanctions / detentions option and the ability to manually export to Sims. Of course we have the new ICT option this coming year, with over 60% of Year 8 opting for this course. The signs are very promising, but it will add additional responsibility to our department to develop these resources, and the need to be proactive and transfer these resources to the VLE.

Finally the department shows a real commitment to extended learning. There is also an ICT room open before school, at break and lunchtimes and also 3 days a week, if not 5! Pending the staff timetables we will create a rota for these opportunities – which will also determine how and when the sanctions with the department will be issued.

‘People and Training’ was less well organised, but each member of staff contributed a professional aim. Liam started a blog and we have already asked Liam to asses the new sanctions strategy as one of his GTP investigations.

‘Information Communication Technology’ focused on our use of the VLE, small innovations and sharing the grade database.

‘Extended School and Community’ emphasised our commitment to supporting extend learning but also developing the Digital Leaders brand.

We broke for lunch at 12. I took the team to Hamble village, where the team chatted over lunch. It was very pleasing to see the team gelling together, we chatted about future plans and reflections on the year. Some very positive comment and compliments were exchanged with the group and it was a warm welcome for Liam.

For me personally, 09-10 is an important year. It is the first we are without legacy issues, no unmarked or poorly marked coursework, groups are already in sets, rooms are well serviced and controls in place. I accept there will be some adoption time needed for the VLE and for the creation of resources for Units 22/23 but largely we are settled.

Changes for Sept 10

GTP – I am confident that Liam will be an asset to our team. He has excellent SEN experience and brings a creative focus to the department.

The addition of the ICT + option contributes three aspects.

a) More contact time with students to grow ICT – student relations and encourages / validates student uptake of a new ICT Conference visit to Paris.

b) increases the contact staff hours within the department. We currently have 10  hours of non-ICT staffing. A forth fulltime members of staff can only be employed once a further 12-13 hours of teaching is required. The ICT+ contributes 8 hours per year cohort, a 4th member of staff should therefore be a consideration 2011.

c) rasies the profile of ICT within the school and disperses more ICT skills into the curriculum

Netbooks – this initiatice will impact on my working week, but is not directly referenced in our SR review.

I look forward to reviewing our progress against these targets next July.

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