5 Ways to Break Out of Your School Bubble

Do you ever feel like the air in your school is getting a little bit stale? You know, like you're stuck in a bit of an echo chamber with the same ideas floating around? Today, we're gonna explore five powerful ways for you to break out of your bubble and bring some fresh perspectives into your practice. Hey everyone, I'm Shane Levy.

Welcome to Global Ed Leaders, the chat-topping leadership podcast for schools around the world. I'm an organizational coach and in this show, I get to know the teachers, leaders, and innovators making a difference in education. Now before we jump in, I am really happy that today's episode is supported by the University of Warwick's Center for Teacher Development and the International Curriculum Association. Stay tuned to learn more.

So where am I this week? I'm actually recording from London this week where I've been connecting with colleagues and friends across the education sector. It has been a bit of a whirlwind. It's been mega busy, but it's been brilliant.

And it's got me thinking about something really, really important, something very close to my heart, the power of getting outside our professional bubbles, those usual bubbles that we're in. You see, this week I've been, I think simultaneously, challenged and supported. In the week, new opportunities have presented themselves to me. There's been fresh ideas that have come from new conversations and my mind has been really opened in ways that I just don't think would have happened within the four walls of my usual workspaces.

And here's the thing, when we stay within our walls for too long, the air can get a bit stale. When you stay within a certain area for too long, your thinking can become circular. We might even find ourselves solving the same problems in the same ways over and over again. That's funny, when we talk about things we do outside the school walls, often we talk about that in terms of professional wellbeing.

We think of things like switching off. And yes, like personal wellbeing through exercise, hobbies, family times, these are all really crucial. But today, I wanna talk about switching on outside of work, switching on differently about tuning in to that wider educational world in ways that can reset and refresh your professional practice. So let me share five powerful ways.

It's a short episode, five ways for you to get outside your school walls and bring fresh perspectives into your work. So let's start, number one, with our most accessible option and that is digital learning communities. Think podcasts, think books, think blogs. These are brilliant because you can engage with them often while you're on the go doing other things.

Maybe while you're commuting, you're gonna read that blog that's come up on a professional practice or maybe while you're exercising, you're going to listen to the podcast or just when you're taking a quiet moment, you can be connected with new ideas. And yes, you're listening to Global Lead Leaders right now but there's a whole host of other content out there. There's brilliant podcasts, a lot of content for you to explore. I really like the idea of making sure I've got time in my own time to connect with that content that is out there.

It really inspires me, it helps me grow. Currently, I think you'll find me on two places in particular, LinkedIn and Blue Sky. But most of my days in education were with Twitter, of course. The education Twitter community was wonderful, now X.

But of course, there's many people who don't really want to engage there now. I'm not gonna go into all the reasons for that. But still, those communities provide a really valuable space to kind of really break you outside of your practice. I think they're really, really useful.

Secondly, you might want to think about local education networks. Think about locally to you. How can you create connections in your local areas with other professionals in education? You might think about initiatives like Pub PD, have you heard of that?

Where educators gather informally in pubs around the world to share ideas. It doesn't have to be formal conferences, just some kind of regular meetups with educators from other organizations, from other schools who might bring you fresh perspectives. This can be a really powerful way. And these face-to-face connections can be incredibly energizing.

Thirdly, you could formalize that into almost professional social networks. Here, like I mentioned earlier, we've got social networks like LinkedIn, Blue Sky, Twitter, these have got great professional networks and some people will use them exclusively for professional things. So curating a feed exclusively for professional learning, professional development, professional connection. But there's also independent platforms.

Maybe you are a school that subscribes to certain products or platforms and there's maybe forums built into them, some ways that you can connect into a professional school network where meaningful educational conversations are happening outside your school walls. And they can provide, especially those social media, a daily dose of inspiration and connection. You know, recruiting and developing great teachers is one of the biggest challenges we face in international schools. That's why I'm excited about the University of Warwick Center for Teacher Education.

Their QTS and PGCEI with QTS programs are specifically designed for international schools, combining online learning with hands-on classroom experience. Check out the link in the show notes to learn more how they develop teachers in your school. This episode is supported by the International Curriculum Association. The ICA have been around for about 30 years now championing quality, unlocking potential and improving learning in international schools.

And what I really love is that right at their core is the model for improving learning. This is a model focused on the learning experience and they have tons of great curriculum materials, PD resources and even an accreditation pathway for schools just like yours. If you're interested, head over to internationalcurriculum.com.

So we've got one, the digital learning communities like your podcast blogs, two, local education networks, three, more professional social networks and number four would be structured learning communities. Have you considered joining some sort of structured community? That might be a formal conference which can give you less frequent but more deep dives into new ideas. But it might be through something like a mastermind group.

A mastermind group is a collection of people who get together usually pay to be part of this group and maybe read books together. You challenge each other, you do peer coaching but a little bit like the leadership mastermind that I run for international school leaders. These can really provide purposeful collaboration and peer coaching communities with leaders across the sector. And last, there's a real power.

You know, I'm an advocate for one-to-one professional coaching. There's a big power in one-to-one coaching. When I work with my coaching clients and when I work with my coach, I've literally just come off a coaching call which just really helped me to get through some of the challenges that I'm facing at the minute. And while it's the most resource intensive option for sure, if you can having a dedicated thinking partner who challenges your assumptions and can really help you develop new perspectives can be super transformative in your practice.

So there you go, five areas that you can think about to get yourself out of your school wall to clear that stale air. Digital learning communities, local education networks, social networks, that professional social networks specifically, structured learning communities, and then one-to-one coaching. And the key with all of these approaches is not just about escaping your professional role and getting outside of the school, but it's about enriching your professional role, about bringing some of that fresh air into your space and really ensure that your practice and your thoughts stay dynamic, stay evolving. I would love to hear how you keep your practice fresh.

So let me know what strategies do you use to get outside your bubble. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn, Blue Sky, or email me even at shane at shaneleaning.com. I genuinely would love to hear from you.

Global Ed Leaders is hosted by me, Shane Leaning. Thanks to my show editor, Pete McGill, and for the original music by Guillerme Silva. As ever, if we don't speak before, I will see you here next week. If you're interested in the work of my show's partners, the University of Warwick and the International Curriculum Association, head to the show notes to get links to learn more.