Ripples of Influence

Gear-head Rex and a couple of others have taken on the Technology aspect, both within the school and reaching out to other educators, innovators, administration and the private sector. He keeps a high social media presence to showcase Brooklands’ team accomplishments, and also extensively shares and curates best practices information, educational research, resources and collaborations. You can follow him @RexFB and the school @BrooklandsElem on Twitter.

Rex meets monthly with a group of inner-city principals (crossing Division lines!), social service providers and key community leaders. He has spoken and presented to educators locally and increasingly further afield in Canada and the US. He is a member of the Discovery Educator Network, a worldwide network of education professionals and part of the Discovery Channel. He was recently selected as one of 14 Discovery Education Champions, and now works advising and consulting educational programming, partnerships and initiatives globally.
(http://www.discoveryeducation.com/) (http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/times/Brooklands-Schools-champion-360828641.html)

Rex on Schools: From Institution to Culture

Rex says that really his role on the team is a cross between Sheepdog and football Blocker. 

Sheepdog in that he physically herds kids to school and class and activities, and also sniffs out and rounds up qualitative stories and quantitative data from his team. This he uses with an expansive and growing Personal Learning Network to foster relationships and identify  resources and solutions to problems.

He’s a Blocker in that he works equally hard to be a buffer between outside pressures (administrative, bad stuff, time-takers) and the team, so that they can do what they are passionate about: Teaching.

Rex ends his emails with a favourite quote by Peter F. Drucker, “Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things”.

That’s a good pole-star. For a topographic map or a global positioning system.