Teach Middle East Magazine Apr - Jun 2020 Issue 3 Volume 7 | Page 9

Administrator's Corner
The core question to ask is 
‘What
will we have at the end of this crisis
that we don’t have now?’ Think in
terms of resources, capabilities and
capacity. 
And be specific. Keep in
mind that this applies to you as an
individual professional as well as to
your organization. If you don’t know
where you want to go, how are you
going to get there? 
Practical advice for
enacting your vision 
Maslow hierarchy meets ‘Snakes
and Ladders’: 
As we all know, in
crisis situations, people will naturally
slide down Maslow’s hierarchy as
their safety and human connections
are
jeopardized.
Personally,
I
imagine Maslow’s famous pyramid
superimposed with the game of
Snakes and Ladders, and our job as
leaders and educators is to build
ladders (and remove as many snakes
as we can) so everyone can move
up to higher levels. Remember, you
cannot enact a vision without self-care
and care for others, and if people don’t
feel cared for, they won’t care about
the vision.
so, I would suggest you adapt/tweak
what observation rubrics you already
have in place, to create a modified
one, as a tool for planning, professional
dialogue and feedback. This rubric will
also paint a clear picture of excellent
teaching and learning. (We are piloting
our own at the Al Futtaim Foundation,
and if you would like more information,
just message me – we would be more
than happy to share our rubric and
other resources.)
New types of learning are now possible
– embrace them! While physical doors
on campuses are closing, virtual doors
to new learning are now wide open.
This is a great opportunity to enact
technology learning standards 
like
ISTE. With the shift to online learning,
everyone will be using tech in new
ways, so why not 
embrace and
celebrate new learning possibilities
and communicate to your community
that
e-learning
has
upsides,
too! 
Students, teachers and leaders
will be developing new 21st-century
skills. 
Remember
that 
a crisis
amplifies
strengths and exposes weaknesses.
For example, cracks in decision-
making processes become fault lines,
and already healthy professional
relationships move to new heights. Get
ready to have a SWOT analysis imposed
upon you and your organization!
Learn from experience as you go. Good
drivers don’t just look forward – they
also check their rear-view mirrors.
Being able to look back and reflect is
essential to learning, so actively seek
feedback and be prepared to adjust
your vision accordingly.
These are not easy times...
As I write this, fatalities in countries
around the world continue to grow,
economic hardships are threatening
some of society’s most vulnerable,
and seemingly everyone is feeling
uncertain. But I am reminded
that while we cannot choose our
circumstances, we can choose how
we respond. Education will change as
a result of this pandemic, and we all
need to decide how we want to shape
the change.
The future of education has never
been about tech. Tech initiatives in
education have a long history of falling
short of expectations, largely because
people wrongly focus on the tech tools
rather than the underlying human
behaviors. (The best tech integrators I
know, have amazing relationships with
others, rather than being the most
tech-savvy.) Now with new behaviors
being imposed upon us, through social
distancing, tech must finally assume
its proper place as our humble servant.
So, don’t waste this chance to develop
a process for thinking through what
new normal human behaviors should
be embedded post-crisis when things
get ‘back to normal’.
Do you know what great learning looks
like? One of the best ways to define,
visualize and communicate what
great teaching and learning looks
like is through a rubric. We all have
classroom observation rubrics in our
schools, but one for the online space
are less common (partly because
the asynchronous learning means a
snapshot observation can’t work the
same way). If you haven’t already done
Originally from Canada, James began his career as a classroom teacher before
going on to lead two separate IB schools in Japan (Yokohama IS) and Thailand
(NIST IS). James also led a large cluster of US & IB curriculum schools with GEMS
Education (UAE), before taking on his present role of Managing Director of the
not-for-profit Al Futtaim Education Foundation (UAE).
Class Time
Term 3 Apr - Jun 2020
09