"I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning." Stevie Smith 1. Getting our teachers back: The moment it hit home for me was when I heard that X had left teaching. I knew then with absolute clarity that we had a problem. Why in that moment? Because she was simply brilliant. … Continue reading Getting our teachers back. Getting our teachers’ back.
Author: ianfrostblog
Teamwork 3/ Characteristics of world class teams
This, the third of three blogs about teamwork, looks at the qualities of world class teams and what sets them apart. Here are the first two: Teamwork 1/ Building teams, building trust Teamwork 2/ Organising your team James MacGregor Burns, writing Roosevelt's biography, said: "Great teams happen when people engage with others in such a way … Continue reading Teamwork 3/ Characteristics of world class teams
Newts
Newts Tipton 1974: burnt rubber smell of factory along the canal, Empty of birdsong and trees. I search for newts, trail Towpath cinders in the tunnel. Scan The green-spotted slick surface Broken by bike-wheels and yellow-handled trolleys. Net-high ready for the joust. Waiting for wet bubbles And the dart-wriggle to the surface. Newt: Part-fish, part-eel. … Continue reading Newts
Pirates
Pirates Buckets full of crabs, Decent shrimp, bigger fish than we've a right to land With that children's bamboo net; and a baby eel. Satisfied, smug and sat, hands flat upon Four inches of warm waves and corrugated sand I'm braced against the unexpected sun As lazy, loud gulls wheel above my head. Secretly my … Continue reading Pirates
Teamwork 2/Organising your team
“Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask” Tim Ferris So now we have the right balance in the team how do we get it to function well? Some teams just hum. Seeing them operate is like watching the peleton in a cycle race. While a crocodile of lycra streams along a sunflower-strewn … Continue reading Teamwork 2/Organising your team
Teamwork 1/Building teams, building trust
"There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves." Lyndon Johnson One is too small a number to secure much of significance. We all work in teams, contribute to teamwork and sometimes lead them. Now is the moment in the year when we look closely at the … Continue reading Teamwork 1/Building teams, building trust
Brighton Subzero
Photo: Michael Regan I drove to Brighton: four degrees below. The motorways were salty, grinding, slow My windscreen wash was frozen. Would not come. The murky shroud of winter pushed me on. We met at Trevor’s Café. Half past three. Two full breakfasts and then two cups of tea. Like lovers, sliding eggs around our … Continue reading Brighton Subzero
Is that a newt in my curriculum?
photo by wildlifetrusts.org A thing of beauty is a joy forever/Its loveliness increases; it will never/Pass into nothingness. Keats – from Endymion Tipton: 1974. When I was young I had a love of natural history. Specifically newts. Near my house as a small boy I would idle away hours fishing in a wasteland pond with … Continue reading Is that a newt in my curriculum?
What T20 Finals Day taught me…about going back to school
1. Getting the right team? It's not always about the big names. Yesterday's winners Notts Outlaws could have picked their test player Stuart Broad, but they didn't. Instead they chose the right team for the right format, and the consistent players who had got them to the final. Actually on finals day, the biggest names … Continue reading What T20 Finals Day taught me…about going back to school
Our heroes matter
Summer. A time to take stock. To watch films and read stories about people and dream. To watch cricket... Childhood heroes This week I watched Michael Holding’s 1976 massacre of England during a rain-stopped-play moment in the recent England thrashing of South Africa in the 3rd Test. A re-run of Holding splintering England wickets. Silky, smooth … Continue reading Our heroes matter
