WomenEd Blogs

by Ann Marie Luce @turnmeluce   Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash The past months have been challenging for everyone, and many have been forced to adapt to our new reality. I, too, have made some difficult decisions that impacted my family and career.  At the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, I returned to Canada from China, where I was an international school leader. I spent six months working remotely as a school principal with our school's staff, students, and parents scattered worldwide.

by Lisa Camilleri @HappierHead Well, here we are in 2021. I think it's safe to say that for the vast majority of the human race, 2020 was not the year we were expecting. In many ways, I would have been quite happy to hide my head under my duvet and sleep the new year in. However, on this occasion I chose to stay up till the early hours just to ensure it really did leave us….and kick it up the bottom on the way out!

by Rachel Doherty @dohertyrachel1 Teaching in a Derry City School with a student population of 500, is not for the faint hearted especially when you are a Primary 7 teacher. Being brave is a daily venture for me. I seek to challenge children to step outside their comfort zone in new learning so I must continue to strive to set that example too. I am also the ICT Co-ordinator at St. John’s Primary school. In my spare time I love all things fitness related and I am a qualified Hatha yoga teacher.

by Janet Metcalfe @ch100j Let me start by saying that I feel so grateful to have found a profession that I love. It has tested me to the brink this year, but I love it. I love it because it is through the inspiring students and leaders around me that I’ve begun the journey of self improvement. I feel as teachers and leaders we give everything over. Our passion, our time, our energy - and we don’t mind because we see it as all part of the greater good. But what happens when those personality strengths become the stick by which we beat ourselves?

by Geraldine O’Connor  @goconnor816 10 years as Principal and I'm definitely braver and indeed wiser than I was when I naively embarked on the winding and colourful journey that is school leadership.Blessed with a healthy physical constitution, an accomplished, academic profile, the reputation as an excellent early-years teacher, a strong work ethic, a transformational leadership style, and the long held belief that an excellent education is a right to be afforded to every child, I believed that I had a firm foundation upon which to scaffold and execute a strategic plan to achieve educational excellence, in all its guises.

By Jacinta C. Mayronne @drcalzy When I first began conversations with @WomenEd_US about hosting a potential chat titled 'Imperfection: Motherhood and Leadership,' it was back in March, before the majority of the United States began quarantining due to COVID-19. My perception and thoughts of what motherhood and leadership look and feel like are completely different now that I pick up my pen to write this blog six months later.

By Dr Jacinta C. Mayronne @drcalzy Dr. Tracey Beckendorf-Edou, superintendent of Cascade School District in Washington State, is a collaborator! As she tackles her second year of superintendency amidst the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Dr. Beckendorf-Edou, the ideal systems thinker, shared some brilliant ways for other women to navigate their journey towards superintendency. She gave us insight on essential qualities of a school superintendent, why qualified women choose not to pursue superintendency and benefits of diversity in the role - specifically gender diversity, how to encourage other women to pursue educational leadership, and what compels and sustains women throughout their leadership journeys.

by Nichola Lynagh @nicholalynagh   My stand out moments, some of which have shaped who I am in the world.. At 32 I was diagnosed with a treatable non-curable cancer: Non Hodgkins Lymphoma; a word I am very familiar with now as 51 year old woman.. – how did that happen? I still feel 30, lol!! Cancer brought such a challenge to me and my family; words cannot describe the fear and devastation I and they felt.

by Lisa Hannay @lhannay1 Recently at the #WomenEd book launch for our second book Being 10% Braver I was talking about my hopes for my chapter. There are loads of reasons I wrote my chapter but really the ultimate reason was to loosen the grip that shame often has on my heart and soul.

By Sean Harris @SeanHarris_NE   #HeForShe Two key events happen for me at the end of 2020. Another comic-book super sheroe gets a big screen release in Wonder Women 1984 in December and I return to the classroom after working at Ambition Institute. We read regularly about our profession haemorrhaging good teachers. Since the first lockdown, I’ve struggled to sit on the side-lines. The work of WomenEd, and several inspirational female school leaders are further drivers for me returning into the classroom.