Whenever I speak to Teachers and School Leaders about the challenges they face these days, there’s often a slightly exasperated tone to their voices as they describe the seemingly endless list of new responsibilities and accountabilities that schools are experiencing.
The most common analogy I hear (and I hear quite a few!) is that it’s like being the plate spinner at the carnival or circus. In the desperate search to keep every single plate from crashing to the floor, it’s sometimes hard to make any of them a priority.
This really isn’t ok. Further, it makes the job of building a thick, meaningful connection with our parents a task that’s often attempted in the cracks of time between the all-encompassing responsibilities that we grapple with daily.
But what if there was another way? What if, while we look to reach equally time-poor parents through technology, we could use that technology to actually make our jobs easier? What if the technology could keep a few plates spinning for us while we focus on the core business of building tomorrow’s young citizens and success stories?
It’s possible, and the first thing it takes is a determination not to do more and not to do better. I know, I know – that must sound quite counter-intuitive to the usual school improvement agenda. But enough is enough – and I refuse to ask schools to do more when you’ve already got so much to do.
So I’ll ask you to do it differently instead. Let’s face it – today’s Parents are different to those of 30 years ago – so let’s also be different. When we embrace a disruptive and wholly alternate view of how we can reach them, then some options we didn’t know existed begin to emerge. It’s really quite exciting!
All of this is why I’ll be running a free webinar for Teachers and School Leaders titled “21st Century Approaches to Home-School Communication” on Thursday 14th September 2017 at 3.30pm AEST.
Adam Voigt
UPDATE: You can access a recording of the webinar here.
