The Journey to Becoming Flex Friendly

By Caroline Doherty @_C_J_B

Dear Headteacher,

If I were to offer you a simple way to get you a more diverse, skilled, happy and engaged workforce with greater levels of wellbeing, you’d say it sounds far too good to be true!

by Vivienne Porritt @ViviennePorritt

I write an annual blog about the #GenderPayGap in education, using the date of Equal Pay Day in the UK. From this day, most women are working for nothing for the rest of the calendar year because they earn less than men. In 2019, Equal Pay Day was 14th November and in 2020 it was on 20th November. This year it is November 18th which confirms we have moved backwards during the pandemic. Change is clearly not secure, and the pace of change is too slow.

by  Jacqui Brelsford @BrcounsellorJ

On Saturday 23rd October, WomenEd Thailand hosted its first ever international career clinic! Women from around the world shared their expertise, advice, cheerleading, and general awesomeness with aspiring leaders in education. As one of the WomenEd Thailand Network Leaders, it was my responsibility to live-tweet the event and my fingers could not keep up with all the brilliant things being said. Here are my top takeaways in short bitesize tweets:

by  Jacqui Brelsford @BrcounsellorJ

Asking someone to nominate me for an award is probably one of the most uncomfortable things I could do. Putting myself out there is not something that comes naturally. My education was one of criticism and abiding by the archaic, strict rules of jaded teachers who didn’t know any better, and the shame of getting something wrong or being judged has stayed with me my whole life.

by  Kerry Jordan-Daus @KerryJordanDaus

I have been reading Mary Ann Sieghart’s The Authority Gap (2021), the stories of expert, talented, successful women, occupying a wide range of powerful leadership roles, recounting their lived experiences of being treated as a ‘Miss Nobody’, silenced, ignored and disrespected despite their clear expertise, intelligence, brilliance.

by Maria @CreativityMrs @SeedsCreativity

Hay muchos obstáculos para la creatividad. Antes pensaba que no tenía tiempo, ni tenía las cosas, ni la inspiración. Busqué por internet y en las revistas y me dejo tan completamente abrumada que no sabía cómo empezar – y por eso, no empecé. Reflexioné sobre si mi falta inicial de creatividad no se basaba en los obstáculos que se me  ocurrieron, y por eso no le hice. Las actividades creativas que deseaba tener, a menos que se reconocieran, parecían ser una enorme pérdida de tiempo. Pensé que a menos que estuviera creando un ejemplo para que los niños lo usaran en mi clase, era un ejercicio inútil.

by Maria @CreativityMrs @SeedsCreativity

There are many obstacles to creativity. I used to say to myself that I didn't have the time, or the resources nor the inspiration. Trawling through countless websites and magazines would leave me completely overwhelmed, that I didn't even know where to start—so I didn't! I wonder if my initial lack of creativity wasn't based on the obstacles that I came up with, but with the thought of permission. The creative pursuits I wished to have, unless validated, seemed to be a huge waste of time. I thought that unless I was creating an example for the children to use in my classroom, it was a pointless exercise. And yet, I was encouraging others to be creative, but not giving myself the permission to do the same.

by Punam Mohandas @PunamMohandas

One of the most common scenarios the unexpected COVID-19 situation created globally was to propel students into cyber classrooms, as online learning became the new order of the day. Although e-learning is certainly not new, it has become a more sought-after and viable proposition in recent years as students combine higher studies with simultaneously holding down jobs. However, apart from throwing up several unpalatable prospects such as the lack of face-to-face interaction with teachers and peers and lack of student engagement and motivation, e-learning also highlights unethical student behavior like cheating, plagiarism, or taking help from parents or friends in order to complete assignments.