“Global Boiling”, that’s the era we’ve reached says UN Secretary General António Guterres in a July press conference. RIP Global Warming. Did you fly to a holiday destination this summer and struggle to breath due to the fires burning around you? Did you just get annoyed or did you feel the irony of the situation?…
Identity, Values and Complexity
When I look back on this last year I see a theme of identity and an exploration of who I am. There are a number of reasons for this. My diagnosis with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune condition led me to question what I thought I knew about myself and I had difficulties with some senior…
It’s all Complex – Reflections on 2021
It was this time last year that I last blogged, so this blog comes with a warning, that it should really be several focused blogs – there are so many ideas to connect. It’s complex. That reflects the year I’ve had and the priorities I’ve made. It’s continued to be tough but half way through…
I Can’t Breathe
It took about 8 minutes for George Floyd to die with a police officer kneeling on his neck. Over 20 times, he said, I can’t breathe. Imagining how this might have felt takes you to a very dark place but what is even darker is to remember all the black lives that have been lost…
Regenerative Learning for Planetary Flourishing
Everything comes wrapped in the winter, waiting for the hope of spring, helping you through the hibernation stage of the year. Spotify Wrapped gave me a listening age of 21, which made me giggle. Goodreads Year in Books hides the swings in my reading, from claustrophobic (The Safekeep) to heart-warming fiction (The Correspondent), from heavy…
Liminal Spaces that Influence
The world is boiling. That was the message I started my last blog post with in August 2023. I was just starting my new, yet undefined role, exploring sustainability at ISZL and IB innovation, and I was going to need to employ all my sense-making skills re-ignited by Nora Bateson‘s Warm Data training. The summer…
Reflections
2020 has been a hard year. Everyone has experienced the lockdowns, social distancing and mask wearing challenges. As a teacher in Switzerland, I’ve had to live with an attitude to the control of this pandemic that conflicts with my personal beliefs. As a biologist, I’ve had to practice mindfulness as those around me demonstrated a…
Being a Woman
I recently attended a panel discussion on Race and Privilege. It was a thoughtful and interesting discussion, treading on some delicate areas such as should we feel guilty for our privilege. Following the panel, in our own school, I commented that I was surprised that the panelists (at least the educators) were white males, though…
Joined up Thinking
We are all guilty of thinking of problems in isolation. In joined up thinking, as an educator, I am proposing that we help students, and indeed educators, to see the big picture, to identify the links between components of the picture and to examine how they interact to form a system. Systems Thinking Systems thinking…
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