Round and round and I found my wallet

Working on the NZC can take unexpected turns and also produce obvious results. Sometimes it takes a little innovation to rediscover something we are already doing. We have had a few meetings on values with the NZC. With lots of thought it's agreed that ownership is the most important thing for our staff, community and kids too. But the reality is that the teachers should make the decisions on curriculum as they are the deliverers, distributors and facilitators and the community and kids are the willing participants.

So lets get on with it.

We have refined and articulated our values that reflect our joint philosophy and are now looking at how to shift these to classroom practice. The thing that needs to be acknowledged is that learning needs to be the highest priority, therefore mucking around teaching a value a week or a value a term, is going to leave you vulnerable when it comes to getting the time to teach.

Most great leaders that I have followed and admired actually lead with actions. If we truly want our values to come through in our children then we should teach hard, power the work into the kids, and lead by example, they will acknowledge you as a great person and a great teacher. I think too often teachers who are known as a "cool teacher" can be slack educators. You've got to be both.

So it seems I have come full circle. Facta Non Verba - deeds not words. Vision to Action.

We are going to weave our values and beliefs around our content. Simple! Obvious! Action!