A humorous yet honest look at the education system, from trainee to headteacher across an extraordinary thirty-year career.
'As I began my teacher training, little did I know of what awaited me. Almost three decades and seven schools later, I am head of a state secondary school. On the wall in my office is a children's toy, a plastic monster's head which, if pressed, emits a pre-recorded message: 'It beggars belief!'. I press the monster whenever I, pupils, parents, staff, or the Department of Education do something that is notable, ludicrous, odd, bewildering or unreasonable. It is pressed so often that I am forever having to replace the batteries.'
Nick Smith charts his journey from trainee teacher through to inspiring head across his near thirty-year career, with fascinating insights into the educational system along the way. The catalogue of incidents ranges from the embarrassing to the ridiculous, hilarious to the heart-breaking, and together they illustrate the daily grind of life at the whiteboard face in UK schools. Head Trauma is more than an amusing look at the trials of teacherdom - it's a call to arms for parents, teachers and pupils alike.
Social media is extremely difficult to implement and manage on an organization-wide basis, for three reasons: Social media is new, so best practices, tools and skills continually evolve at a relatively rapid pace, and organizations lack expertise, and tools. This book provides management systems and tools. Successful social media efforts require significant coordination across many functional areas. This book explains how. While most social media tools are free to start, companies that seek meaningful business outcomes need dedicated resources with specialized skills, new roles, in addition to training and policies for employees who interact with external audiences (e.g., sales, customer support, recruiting, billing) These challenges impact the vast majority of people involved in social media efforts, and these are the people we seek to help with this book. This book will help those organizations: Define an organization-wide strategy for social media Empower employees and teams to utilize social media effectively throughout the organization, not just in a single person or department Ensure brand consistency in online conversations Measure the ROI of social media investments and ensure appropriate business value is achieved over time. Train and monitor employees public conversations, avoid lawsuits and comply with new FTC disclosure guidelines Respond to negative customer feedback
