Director's Blog

I am taking EDAD 617 Advanced Leadership class through the College of New Jersey. The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) holds courses for international school teachers on the Spanish island of Mallorca. I earned my Master’s degree from the program in the 90’s and it is nice to be back to see the old sites and refresh myself on educational administrative issues. The course will be two weeks every afternoon and there is a variety of educators, from PYP Coordinators, to Athletic Directors, US and International-based people, and a variety of ages. It is very stimulating to hear from other people. I’ll be blogging what I am learning from the class.

Yesterday’s big learning was the Theory of Situational Leadership. This concept was brought forth by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  The theory states that different situations need different leadership styles. The two variables to consider are the following:

TASK – how much the leader communicates one-way in what, how, and when the project needs to be completed.

RELATIONSHIP – the extent the leader allows the colleague to take over a project

Directing Style – give specific instructions and closely supervise the performance of the follower

Coaching Style – give specific instructions closely supervise the task, but also explain directions and solicit suggestions and support progress toward completion.

Supportive Style – facilitate and support the efforts of followers and share responsibility for decision making

Delegating Style – turn over problem solving and decision making over to followers

The theory also takes into account the maturity (ability to get the job done and initiative) of the people a Principal is working with.

I read this in the New York Times this morning.

‘Independent thinkers’ sought by many schools

According to a survey of British and U.S. admissions officers, universities are looking for “independent thinkers.”

The research, conducted by ACS International Schools, which has three schools in Britain and one in Qatar, is carried out to measure the value of the International Baccalaureatediploma. The study was released July 6 to coincide with the day that I.B. diploma results were announced worldwide.

The survey found that 29 percent of U.S. admissions officers valued a demonstrated capacity for “independent inquiry” above any particular exam result. The next most sought-after quality was “in-depth subject expertise,” cited by 25 percent of respondents.

“American universities are looking first and foremost for students able to challenge conventional thinking and want to see clear evidence of this above all else in the qualifications and written submissions they receive from university applicants,” said Jeremy Lewis of ACS International Schools.

The survey also found that applications to U.S. universities have held up despite the economic downturn, with two-thirds of admissions officers in the United States saying that the number of incoming freshmen was better than expected. This contrasts with the response from Britain, where tuition fees have tripled and where only a quarter of admissions officers said that application numbers exceeded expectations.

— D.D. GUTTENPLAN

The International Baccalaureate is an excellent curriculum for providing those two characteristics (in bold) that university admission officers are looking for. I had never heard of ACS International Schools. They have four schools, three in the UK and one in Qatar, that uses a hybrid of the IB and British schooling models.

Every June I make a presentation at the ISB Board of Trustees public meeting of our students’ results in outside assessments. This includes a wide range of measures like the IB Diploma scores, Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), etc. 

After this year’s presentation, several administration and board members asked me to publicize these results. In this tough economic climate, a goal for our school is to market itself to attract more students. This presentation will help! They show a high level of learning and just how strong academically our students are performing. We are not perfect and there are areas to improve, but the results indicate we are a high-performing school. This is not just what we do every day, although the quality of the curriculum and teachers does help, it also shows high socio-economic families that value education as well. 

One member of the Board asked if we discern the data between students who have been with us for a long time and recent students. We do not do this and it may be a project for next year. 

I am developing a Moodle page with all of our student learning data, including things like report card grades and attendance data, as well as the major assessments mentioned above. Below is my power point presentation to the Board which I uploaded to Scribd.com. 

The end of the school year means many public speaking opportunities for the Principal. I wanted to improve in this administrative area and it is a big part of my job. In reflecting on this time period, there were 11 occasions that I needed to speak publicly. They were in a variety of venues and audiences.

• Diploma Programme Visual Arts Exhibition (April 14)- I had to welcome everyone, introduce and comment on all of the student-artists, and thank the faculty sponsoring the show. It was at a downtown gallery with about 50 people present.
• Support Staff Celebration (April 20) – Recognize my three support staff personnel at a restaurant.
• Guest Speaker for Grade 4 (April 26) -Speak to the 30+ fourth grade students on my family’s immigration to America and Bolivia
• Serbian Language Class Play (May 16)- Introduce and welcome everyone to the Grade 7 Serbian Play. There were approximately 50 people present and the speech was in Serbian!
• Awards Ceremony for MS Volleyball Tourney (May 10-12)  I opened and closed the volleyball tourney. There were approximately 150 people at the ceremonies and I announced the winners of the trophies and recognized the AD.
• Dr. Sands’ Farewell Celebration – (May 18)
• Grade 5 Parents Meeting (June 4)- Give a presentation about homework to the Grade 5 parents whose children will be in Middle School
• Athletics Awards Banquet (May 21) – Review the boys’ basketball season and give awards to three players.
• Commencement (May 26)- I did the opening address to a group of 250 people. It was a formal speech with the podium and stage.
• Retirement Ceremony (June 6) – 400+ people
• Student Awards and Farewell Assembly (June 14)

My big “take-aways” from this were as follows:

1) Prepare well! I think several days in advance before the speaking engagement and write  out either the major ideas, for a short speech, or write the entire speech, word-for-word, for those major speaking opportunities like graduation. Preparing in advance allows me to reflect subconsciously on what I am going to say and make improvements.

2) Discuss the speech with someone. This especially helps if I speak with another of the speakers’ for the event or the sponsor of the event. This allows me to craft my speech to fit the occasion and make sure I am not leaving any areas out.

3)  Growing up I had a severe stutter and it is amazing as an adult I am able to make a living by public speaking and speaking with others. Stuttering is more common in boys and many outgrow it, and luckily, this was the case with me. I struggled with my stutter all the way through college. I believe a stutterer is never completely clear of the problem, and I still need to be aware of it today, although at a much lesser level. When I am nervous or tired, I do notice the fluency in my speaking patterns falters. I still need to be conscious of it and take steps to keep this flow, or fluency. One thing that works for me is to read out loud the night before. The act of reading out loud for 15-20 minutes, somehow in my mind, triggers a fluency in my speaking. Having young children is a bonus in this area and many nights I read something to my children before they go to bed.

We discussed public speaking with the administrative team. We agreed to video our delivery at a faculty meeting or event. We would then watch the video and reflect on what we did well and how we can improve. For this class, I will watch the Commencement video, which was live streamed, and then reflect on it in a blog post.

By now most everyone has heard of the TED Talks. This is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “spread ideas.” TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design and started in 1984 as a conference where innovation in the three areas above were presented. With the advent of the internet and new ownership, TED has taken off.

In the six years since its launch, ted.com has added over 1,100 talks—the most popular TED-conference talks, plus TED-approved talks from other conferences and events. The most popular of these include Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain researcher, recounting the story of her own stroke; a British educator, Ken Robinson, bringing an effortlessly droll delivery to the argument that schools kill creativity; and David Gallo, an oceanographer, narrating underwater footage of bioluminescent sea creatures and crafty octopuses defending themselves. The idea that would prove more contagious than any other, though, was that of TED itself. Collectively, the TED Talks have been viewed more than 500 million times

I took the excerpt above from Benjamin Wallace’s article, How the TED Conferences Started an Intellectual Movement, in the New York Magazine. There is also an excellent podcast that critiques the movement, from Slate’s Cultural Gabfest, which is linked here.

I always check out the new talks featured on the TED.com page and think it is great that people are excited about intellectual ideas, instead of celebrity gossip, mindless video games, or sitcoms.

TED has grown outside of the website and the annual conferences. Our school held last November, a TEDx (x meaning external) conference. The TEDxYouth at ISB was very popular. A young science teacher at our school, Mr. Luiz Mello was that force behind it coming to the school. My role was to support him in giving him advice and logistical support of the school resources. Many of our students and parents absolutely loved it! My favorite “speaker” were G.R.U.B.B. Gypsy Roma Urban Balkan Beats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwAGd1oqLs0

The best part was several students also gave talks. TED went well with the MYP Personal Projects. One student, Sava, did his Personal Project presentation at the TED and was as well invited to a technology conference at MIT to give the same talk. He made a social networking program for mobile phones.

We will be holding another TEDxYouthatISB in November. Luiz has left the school but passed the torch to our HS Receptionist, Mr. Nikola Miletić.

An interesting initiative by TED has been the TED-Ed web site which will be helpful for students and teachers.

TED-Ed’s commitment to creating lessons worth sharing is an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas. The TED-Ed site, launched in April 2012, allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can distribute the lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student.

So far there 87 videos covering a variety of subjects. I am excited to explore the website more and to continue to help develop TEDx Youth at ISB.

Our Serbian Language A (Mother Tongue) teacher, Ms. Milica Jocić, invited me to attend a summer camp “Valuable Hands” near the town of Ljig. We are scouting for sites to hold ISB student retreats next September. I am looking for places that are rural, rustic, and have a strong connection to Serbia. The purpose of the retreats will be to foment relationships within the student body and with their teachers. We have many new students and teacher each year and many cultures and it is important for us to spend time together.

The camp we visited was on the grounds of the village school of Paležnica. It is a new school, built on the ruins of the old school which was destroyed by an earthquake about 10 years ago. Due to declining population in the village, this year the school has only 5 students. The school only goes up to fourth grade and then the students go to Ljig. Authorities have converted the school into a summer camp with a kitchen, bathroom/shower facilities, sleeping quarters, dining room, etc.

Several non-governmental organizations are assisting this program. UNICEF and the International Red Cross are two of them. They along with the Serbian government have constructed five camps in Serbia. One is along the Danube and specializes in fishing and another is a working farm. The one in Paležnica focuses on crafts such as basket weaving, making wool bags, etc. The idea is to develop tourism for children and developing lost manual skills. The camp is fortunately out of mobile phone range, and if we visit, I would like to ban personal electronic devices, especially headphones, to facilitate communication and quiet contemplation with our retreat group. UNICEF kindly found my family accommodation at the Hotel Park in Ljig. (Thank you!)

Besides hiking in the rolling hills and forests around Ljig, the camp also arranged a visit to the Brankovina Cultural Historic Village Complex. It is located near Valjevo and it is famous for the childhood home of the Serbian poet, Desanka Maksimović. She was a long-time Serbian language teacher and professor. Her best poem is called “A Bloody Fairy Tale” which commemorates a massacre by the occupying German Nazi army of school children. A translation is below:

A Bloody Fairy-tale

It came to pass in a land of peasants
in the hills of the Balkans
a martyr’s death was suffered by
a troop of pupils
in just twenty four hours.

They were all born
in the same year
their timetables were the same shape and size
they were all taken
to the same ceremonies
‘gainst the same maladies immunized
and all died on the same day.

It came to pass in a land of peasants
in the hills of the Balkans
a martyr’s death was suffered by
a troop of pupils
in just twenty four hours.

And just fifty five minutes
before the deathly toll
the tiny troop was sitting
in their benches in their rows
wrestling with the brain
exercises: from two stations
leave two trains…
and so it goes.
Their thoughts were full of
the same mysteries
and senselessly scattered
around the benches
were A’s and D’s.

Handfulls of shared dreams
and shared secrets
patriotic and romantic
were clenched tightly in their fists.
And each imagined
that for a long time,
for a really long time
they would run ‘neath the canopy blue
‘til all the exercises in the world
were through.

It came to pass in a land of peasants
in the hills of the Balkans
a martyr’s death was suffered by
a troop of pupils
in just twenty four hours.

Entire rows of boys
took each other by the hand
and from the last school lesson
to their executions went
as if death was nothing.
Entire rows of friends
in the same instant rose
to an eternal dwelling.

On Wednesday June 20th I visited the Ljig Primary School (Saša Kerković) in Ljig, Serbia. Ljig is a town of approximately 3,000 inhabitants 2 hours south west of Belgrade, and 45 minutes away from the city of Valjevo. The town is known in Serbia for a World War I Battle (Kolubara) where the Serbs defeated the Austro-Hungarian army.

I feel it is important for me to understand the Serbian education system as I deal with many Serbian parents, teachers, and students. It helps me see what their needs are and what adjustments they need to make coming to an international school culture. For example, I get many parents and students concerned about the homeroom lists. They call asking to change because a friend is in the other section. In Serbian primary schools (grades 1-8) the students stay together year-to-year and stay with the same teacher. You can see why they are anxious when the homeroom lists are announced in August. We wait until the Friday evening before the first Monday of school to post the homeroom lists.

This school in Ljig is an “osnovno škola” which is a primary school from grades 1 through 8. Government or public schools are generally not very well funded compared to the US or Australia. The average monthly salary for a teacher is around 400-500 Euros, which they supplement with tutoring or teaching at more than one school. For that small amount of money however, teachers only work about 3.5 hours per day. Also, that is about the average monthly salary in Serbia. Many schools are on shifts, where students come in three waves (morning, afternoon, and evening).

As we walked around the rooms, I got the impression that the teachers cared about the education and despite chalkboards, holes in the wall, broken tiles, the students are receiving a decent education. I know that the Serbians which come to us from local schools are excellent students, especially in mathematics. The emphasis is on factual knowledge and the students are asked to memorize a lot. That is not all bad, and I am partial to educational systems that give students information to memorize. I believe that students cannot “critically think” without facts to think about. The critical thinking and finding patterns or axioms, comes later for students, as they learn more and more facts and see relationships. I also think that if one believes in “life-long learning,” that it is okay in the early stages of education to give students a lot of “stuff” to know and later on in their lives, they can critically think about them. Of course, critical thinking and the search for meaning should come a bit with every lesson, but not to graduate critical thinkers without any information.

One interesting aspect is the class book (below). This school used an “old school” approach and for this particular group of grade 8 students, the teachers wrote their report card marks, lesson plans, and minutes of teacher meetings about the class in the hardcover book.

I also saw a good community service project while touring the school. The basketball courts and soccer field are in desperate need of attention. It would be good for our students to take a collection (raise funds) and take new backboards, rims, nets, and balls and give the school a proper soccer field and basketball court. It is a small item, but something that would be used by the community.

A part of my job as the secondary school principal is to monitor the summer construction projects. All spring we looked how much money we have to spend and then prioritize the projects. There are two major projects at the secondary school campus. The most anticipated project is the completion of the tennis courts. We finally have three days of dry, sunny weather to install the surface to the courts. As with everything in Serbia, there have been technical delays and issues with the construction company. However, as you can see by these photos, the surface has been laid down. It is a synthetic, all-purpose, material from Germany. The workers yesterday said it would be ready in 4 more days. I saw lots of paint cans around so hopefully they will also paint it within the four days.