Most leaders and teachers are comfortable with a couple of thinking frames that apply very directly to schools or any learning intended organization:
- Vygotsky’s Zone Of Proximal Development – loosely translated as always coaxing students and ourselves into the next level of performance without exceeding actual capacity.
- That we should never rest on our laurels (although I’ve always wondered what a laurel actually is – but that’s for another newsletter!)
What happens when we adopt both frames is a highly motivated, highly engaged and high expectation culture. That’s good news.
Don’t video games do this incredibly well? A good one won’t even give you the option to go back and do the same level ad nauseum. You just happily, completely motivated by the thrill of mastery, click “Play” or “Next” and tackle the forthcoming, and slightly more difficult, challenge. It’s all about progress and improvement – we like those things, and so do our students.
What’s the next level for your school as you head into the final term of the school year? Is it:
- Improving student behaviour, conduct or relationships.
- Focusing attention on academic achievement.
- Achieving consistency in good practice across the staff.
- Challenging old or outdated practices and processes that are no longer serving us.
Or will your school stay in the boredom and repetition of its current level? Your call!
Free Webinar – Ryan Martin presents “The High Expectation Classroom”
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Real Schools Director, Ryan Martin, knows a thing or two about raising and sustaining high expectations. Having led and taught in many challenging locations, he’s developed an arsenal of strategies that actually work … and he wants them in your hands.
In the webinar, you’ll learn exactly how to:
- dispel myths about achieving high expectations
- connect higher expectations to improved student behaviour.
- lay the groundwork for self-directed higher expectations.
- mobilise parents on the high expectations journey.
- Encourage students to dream bigger!
This webinar is really a no-brainer and is targeted at teachers of all phases of learning. You’re welcome!