Thursday, August 25, 2011

Reflect on Respect

During this busy examination registration and preparation week, I had a several encounters with teachers which made me consider how much respect other people seemed to give me and how much respect I believe I am giving others. I had approached teachers whose help I am grateful to have received. I had also given advice and guidance to those who had approached me.

For me, I believe that the amount of trust I would receive is almost directly proportional to the amount I give to the people who work with me. Sometimes, I hear teachers balk at this idea and say, in effect, “Our school leaders and middle managers or teachers should not be the ones deferring to students. Respect has to be earned, and, like it or not, it can move in only one direction at their age in school.” In some ways, that observation may be true. But respect is not the same as compliance. Respect is the way in which we demonstrate that other people have value, even if that value arises only from their potential, which is the case of our students. The school leader who does not show consideration for middle managers, the middle manager who disrespect teachers and teachers who are dismissive of students, all of whom, in my opinion, had undermined his own authority already.

Hence, it is important that I evaluate myself candidly on the level of respect I am demonstrating to others. Then I can consider whether there is any correlation between the amount of respect I show my colleagues and the amount I have been shown in return.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Waste Time

Finally I gotten better … In fact, I am happy to be healthy again. Being Healthy holds a totally different meaning to me now.

The title of today’s reflection is, I admit, intentionally misleading. Today’s goal really is not to waste time itself, but to become more aware of the ways in which we all waste time. All of us have habits or practices that are not as efficient as we might like them to be. As middle managers, we hold on to responsibilities that could be more productively be delegated to others. We have long emails when recipients are unlikely to care to complete reading. Or we may agonize over the punctuation marks in examination papers. It is possible, too, that we may waste time working with a committee for months to develop a learning package that is not used the following year, or outlining a new procedure that is not measurably different from what we could have found already in place at other schools.

It is now my goal to be conscious of how I spend my time from moment to moment. Having gone through a period where I was “so weak to do anything”, I am more convinced of this now. As I am currently doing the review of ICT implementation, I intend to identify at least 3 practices that I think are not the most productive use of my time. At the same time, I will consider what could I accomplish for the benefit for my students instead I had directed my energy toward goals which will make a more significant difference to my students and teachers.