Sunday, August 12, 2012

GAS Up Your Student Leadership Training

Is student leadership training on your horizon? Do you wish to enable your young people to become the successful individuals that you know that they can be? If so, make sure your student leadership training includes:
  • Goals Action Plan
  • Attitude Redevelopment
  • Self Leadership Skills
After working with numerous schools and speaking at national conferences. I have witnessed very few student leadership programs that delivered truly sustainable life long skills. The main reason for this failure is because there is no Goals Action Plan.
Many student leadership programs talk about goals and action plans. However, they expect the students to construct their own. Tell me how many adults have personal action plans for life and yet we expect young people to physically construct their own plans.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Reinventing Educational Leadership

As the 21st century continues to unfold, the task of finding competent leaders to occupy positions of leadership in the educational arena continues to be a challenge not because of a lack of academically qualified leaders, but because of a lack of adaptive -competently qualified candidates. As such, many schools are under the leadership of leaders who lack the qualifications necessary to operate educational institutions in an era marked by rapid and constant change. If the educational scenery is to realize any meaningful change educational leadership should be reinvented. This paper identifies some of the challenges currently faced by the Education system. It looks at how these challenges may be addressed by reinventing educational leadership. The paper culminates with brief recommendations of how institutions of higher learning as well as stakeholders in the educational sector may reinvent the manner in which they prepare educational leaders -the end result not only academically-qualified, but also adaptive-competently qualified leaders who are able to perform in environments characterized by constant and rapid changes.
The educational environment in contemporary society is one in which change represents one of the very few constants. Cultural, social, political, technological and economical changes have resulted in a more diverse school populace since the genesis of education. With the advent of these changes, the educational sector is now faced with increased challenges. Challenges such as: low family literacy, increased poverty margins, a rise in dysfunctional families, and increased access to counter-productive information via internet. These challenges have seemingly created an uneven playing ground where students from all walks of life enter the education system being different, but by the time they exit, the barriers of differences should fade significantly, at least academically. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. An article by The National Association of Secondary School Principals "How do you reinvent a principal" highlights a number of effects these challenges have birthed: higher drop out rates, lower academic achievement and teacher attrition. The impact of the effects of these challenges on society is detrimental, as more students exit the educational system without the necessary qualifications to become positively contributing citizens to society.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Masters in Educational Leadership Information

If you are interested in becoming a catalyst for change, you'll need the tools to induce this change. As a leader with this type of degree, you will learn what it takes to support the learning process effectively. This type of degree will give you the skills to induce change, giving access to education to more and more students.
This degree gives you the knowledge it takes to serve the community. This particular degree encourages the participation of all students, getting them involved is a basic principle that a candidate of this degree learns. The importance of involvement is also emphasised. Giving students access to high-quality education, regardless of their class, gender or economic standing is another learning point.
There are a number of different principles that guide this degree. The obligation of school leaders to serve their students fairly and equally. This degree also encourages student-based leadership, empower students on how to make the right decisions.
The program teaches school principles to use their administrative know-how intertwined with the curriculum. The focus then grows from only a curriculum based school into an environment that works toward the student's overall ability to succeed. This kind of school program encourages critical thinking at a new level.
One of the main emphasis of a masters in educational leadership is an administrators responsibility to their student population. The goal of such a program is to give students that ordinarily come from marginalized backgrounds a chance to succeed. This is done by giving these students equal access to learning resources.