Thursday, April 28, 2016

A New Era of Admin

I am #eduHonored to be giggin this week at #CUERockstar Admin. This is a Cue-Style jam, but only for the pencil pushers and bean counters. The only thing is, I think the admin game must be changing, because this room is filled with super-stars and game-changers. When I started out as an admin, I pulled my seat up to a table filled with stuffed collars and well worn penny loafers. Tonight I sat for dinner with innovators, extroverts and edu-leaders pushing the limits of learning. I rapped with one cat, who runs an elementary school somewhere in the valley, who says that physical school buildings are old pedagogy - we don't need multi-million dollar facilities or clocks run by bells, just give him and his kids open space, amazing teachers, some spheros and the kids will teach themselves.

Tonight's assignment is just to write: not to edit toward some well polished or perfected outcome. I sat across from this character, Adam Welcome, who preached over port wine that a perfect blog is simply the one you publish. So here it is. A few words about the current state of edu-leadership from my perspective.



The current edu-leader is laser focused on leading learning and leaving the business of school to the bureaucrats. This is a break from the days of the building administrator buried in budget reports and human resources hoopla. The modern leader is happy to allow the down-town crowd to handle the headaches as long as it allows the site leader the freedom to lead. Well, here is to ushering in a new era; an era where business is separated from learning; where the lights are kept on by the spreadsheet superheroes in some central space; and the lead learners are the center of the school.