As educators, we often talk about creating a culture of learning for our students. We want our classrooms to be places where students are curious, ask questions, explore ideas, and learn collaboratively. But creating a culture of learning among adults can be surprisingly difficult. This year, I learned that culture cannot be mandated. It cannot be created through a policy, a meeting, or a well-intentioned initiative. Culture is something that is lived. It grows slowly thr

I picked up Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team because I'm stepping into a new role next year as my school's PD coordinator, and I wanted to start building a small library of leadership reading before I'm responsible for actually managing anything. I didn't expect a book about a fictional Silicon Valley startup to make me think so hard about staff meetings, department culture, and why some school initiatives quietly die a year after they're rolled out. The F

The classroom after the students leave — where much of the reflection, planning, and thinking behind teaching actually happens. In my last post, I shared that after than a decade of teaching internationally, I finally decided to formalise something I had already spent years doing professionally: becoming a licensed teacher through QTS. When I first started looking into the Assessment Only Route to QTS, I honestly did not fully know what to expect. I had read a few blog posts,