I don’t have time to talk about the environment in my class!

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NEW CEO APPOINTED TO AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL OF APPLIED MANAGEMENT

The Australian School of Applied Management (ASAM), which sits alongside the National Excellence in School Leadership Institute (NESLI), has announced the appointment of Karen Taylor as Chief Executive Officer.Ms Taylor is a highly skilled CEO with extensive experience in strategic planning, change management and business growth and development in the education sector. As former CEO of Government Skills Australia, Executive Director of GOTAFE, Executive Advisor to Bendigo Kangan Institute and Deputy CEO of the Australian Institute of Management, she brings to the role a deep understanding of the education and training landscape in Australia. Ms Taylor is a graduate of the AICD Company Directors Course and has successfully led large teams in complex business environments, been accountable for strategic planning, financial strategy and sustainability, and consulted to CEOs and Boards across AustraliaImportantly, as a successful woman leader, Ms Taylor is acutely aware of the obstacles and challenges facing women leaders and is passionate about advancing gender equity.The appointment also sees Ms Taylor take up the CEO role for Women & Leadership Australia (WLA) and Women & Leadership New Zealand (WLNZ), which sit alongside ASAM.“I am delighted and honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead and work with the outstanding team at ASAM. ASAM is an exciting business that represents unique and diverse opportunities for learning and professional development in Australia.“ASAM as an organisation believes that visionary leadership, which is inclusive and embraces the power of diversity, is key to solving the complex challenges we face as a global community. I look forward to joining the organisation and continuing to drive leadership development for all Australians.”The Australian School of Applied Management (ASAM) is one of the country’s most highly regarded providers of leadership education. Working with approximately 8,000 learners each year, they provide innovative development solutions for individual leaders and leadership teams across all sectors and industries.About ASAMThe Australian School of Applied Management (ASAM) is one of the country’s most highly regarded providers of leadership education. Working with approximately 8,000 learners each year, we provide innovative development solutions for individual leaders and leadership teams across all sectors and industries.Focused on improving the way people work together, our world class learning solutions support organisations of all sizes to accelerate their leadership capability and achieve their unique goals. We also provide specialised leadership development and networking opportunities through Women & Leadership Australia (WLA), Women & Leadership New Zealand (WLNZ) and the National Excellence in School Leadership Initiative (NESLI).Part of Navitas, a leading global education provider, our vision is to be Australia’s best leadership education provider by supporting organisations and individuals in the continuous pursuit and application of leadership excellence. WE NEED MORE LEADERS LIKE YOUYou’re here because you know that great leadership enables better teaching and learning. We’re here to help you be a great leader within your school community. For more leadership news, plus event updates and expert tips, subscribe to our mailing list. SUBSCRIBE NOW

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How to replenish your surge capacity

The coronavirus pandemic – and the response that has been required by the education system, is truly one of the most pressing challenges schools have ever faced. Many school leaders are experiencing serious ‘carers’ load’ and ‘vicarious trauma’ as a result of their staff and students’ challenges.This series of ‘recharge’ blogs explores themes and models that school leaders, teachers and staff can come to in times of stress, or to replenish their leadership capacity. In this blog, we look at the phenomenon of ‘surge capacity’ and how the application of constant ‘surge’ conditions has impacted school leaders during the COVID pandemic, and caused an increase in vicarious trauma and carers load for leaders.What is surge capacity?Have you ever scaled up your efforts – whether increasing your work hours, donating more to charity, or squeezing more tasks into your day - in times of crisis? If you have, then you have used your surge capacity. Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive leadership qualities that leaders draw on in times of crisis, change or trauma to survive – whether figuratively, or literally. While these qualities can be used over a short period of time, they lead to burnout if we operate at that heightened level for too long.The most tangible example is the extra resources that people pour into natural disasters – firefighters work around the clock to put out fires, SES volunteers go days without a break to rescue people from flood waters, and governments, private organisations and individuals donate large amounts of funds and goods to support the survival of the people affected. All these things have one common theme – they are unsustainable over time.As a leader, you activate your surge capacity to protect your school community in times of crisis or rapid, unpredictable change. The usual timeline of these situations would see you have an immediate surge response, and then soon after turn to rest, reset and rebuild, using more normal energy and resource levels.Why has my surge capacity disappeared?The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significantly drawn out timeline of a ‘disaster’ meaning that leaders’ surge capacity has been on heightened alert for the better part of two years. Without the usual timeline that allows for rest soon after the disaster, you are left feeling burnt out, depleted and wholly uninspired or motivated to lead your school community. This contributes to poor wellbeing for you, your teachers and the broader school community.How to support yourself:Luckily, there are some things you can do to support yourself in times of crisis, to better cope with your heightened leadership responsibilities. These include:Going easy on yourself. Giving yourself some extra time and space to get things done, leaving things that aren’t urgent and having more rest time aren’t selfish, they’re important for your health and wellbeing.Acknowledging that things are different. There is a lot of commentary at the moment about things going ‘back to normal’, but the reality is that things really are different now. While it’s okay to miss things that are different now, there are a lot of positives to think about, too.Recognising that you may be experiencing grief-like symptoms. As mentioned above, you will miss some ‘pre-covid’ things, and that is okay. Taking the time to grieve for those things is an important step to letting go and moving forward. Focussing on maintaining and strengthening important relationships. COVID was a big ‘reset’ for a lot of personal and professional relationships. Take the time to identify the relationships that might need to be reset or renewed, and focus energy into these.Finding new activities and hobbies that offer some relaxation and reprieve. Now that things are opening up, there are new opportunities to try new things, or to continue hobbies that we picked up during lockdowns. It is important to take time away from the ‘crisis’ and do something that is enjoyable and good for you. Dealing with elongated periods of distress and change is challenging for everyone. Understanding what surge capacity is, and taking steps to replenish your surge capacity, will help you lead productively and positively for your school community. WE NEED MORE LEADERS LIKE YOUYou’re here because you know that great leadership enables better teaching and learning. We’re here to help you be a great leader within your school community. For more leadership news, plus event updates and expert tips, subscribe to our mailing list. SUBSCRIBE NOW

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How to overcome complex decision fatigue

The coronavirus pandemic – and the response that has been required by the education system – is truly one of the most pressing challenges schools have faced in our time. Many school leaders are experiencing serious ‘carers’ load’ and ‘vicarious trauma’ as a result of their staff and students’ challenges.

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How to be a trauma informed leader

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Leading through disruption and into the future

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I don’t have time to talk about the environment in my class!

Then don’t plan separate activities, simply make sustainability a common thread in your lessons, says Anick Chouinard, Program Convenor (and green warrior) at Griffith College in Queensland.

I teach Australian history (Intercultural Studies), and my Foundation Program students (99% international) create their own plan in class. From an Aboriginal elder guest speaker, they learn how the first people are connected to the land and how they used to take care of it. Then, through the politics of the last century, they explore how laws have influenced Australian land. In teams, they write on the walls (yes we put paper on it), creating their own time lines of decisive moments in Australian history and the dates of the policies that have impacted, and still impact, Australia today.

We consider the culture, economy and trends that explain how we got where we are today. Students then work in pairs, assigned a country (such as a classmate's country of birth) and research the environmental damage and policies of that location. They have to describe that country’s lifestyle and environmental challenges, and in comparing these with Australia, suddenly we are discussing cultural differences.

Using the tactic of incorporating sustainability students learn so much about climatic change, endangered species, rising ocean temperatures, extinction and so on, that we often need to address climate anxiety in the group. We begin by observing how to properly recycle EVERYTHING. We walk around the campus, and visit parks, cafés and other student hangouts, to look at the different bins and recycle stations, and what is on the ground.

Students bring to class their best rubbish finds, and we hold a contest for best-looking rubbish and we throw them into the correct bins; compost, landfill, mixed recycling and soft plastic recycling (students of any age love throwing stuff, try it!) Then in teams, students need to come up with a plan for Australia’s future.

They draw up their plan on A3 sheets of paper, taking all their understanding from the past mistakes of the various countries and generating solutions for the present and future. It is about reducing consumption; it is about local actions that all Australians can take; which is really empowering. At this point, students have been working with so many environmental views, issues and solutions, that they are able to apply their knowledge to evaluate the best options and create viable solutions. They then present their ideas to the class. The class votes and all the best solutions are displayed at the College with descriptions of the old systems and what the action should be now.

Teaching English literacy? Pick an article on plastic pollution in the ocean. Teaching chemistry? Get students to discuss the effects of gas pollutants.

I want all students to feel they can get involved and change the course of history. I want them to feel believe they have the power to change and to change the world. As teachers, we don’t have to teach a social sciences program to be able to embed environmental awareness into a course. Even in mathematics, you could have your students calculate the numbers of harvests left on earth or the exponential rate of decline in the bee population. You never know, your students might be the ones who come up with the solutions that will turn the climate crisis around.