After nearly a 35 year career in education, I retired as the Superintendent of Schools in January 2020. While in the role as superintendent, I sat on two national committees, ERDI and C21 and also was an adjunct professor for Gonzaga University. I now work as a leadership consultant supporting the work of school boards, system and school leaders.
Chris Smeaton
Author's posts
Feb 09
The Importance of Early Learning
Anyone who knew me as a superintendent knew that I was very committed to early learning and play-based education. Some of my previous blog posts were: Grandparents and Early Leaning, Early Learning: A Great Way to Start, and Developing the Young Brain. During my time at Holy Spirit, we created a play charter with the …
Feb 03
Positional Authority is not Leadership
About a week ago I placed the following on my LinkedIn feed. “It is perplexing how often we toss the word leader around especially in the political realm. Many of our so called “political leaders” in both Canada and the United States are far from leaders. They have power, financial backing and authority, but they …
Jan 21
Some Thought Provoking Statements
Many years ago, I had the pleasure of working closely with Wayne Hulley. In one of his keynote presentations, he began with some thought provoking statements. It certainly got the audience thinking and was an excellent “starter.” Since then, I’ve often used a similar format to help set the stage. Last week while working in …
Jan 12
Can we at least make the box bigger?
I woke up early this morning with cascading thoughts on what I wanted to write about this week. Some of my desire to share comes simply from my desire to share, while there is also a certain amount of frustration that I need to “write” out! Let’s begin with a statement that I used to …
Jan 11
5 Years
Today marks my 5-year retirement anniversary as Superintendent of Schools for Holy Spirit Catholic School Division. Just like today, it was a Sunday, and I remember walking around St. Basil’s Catholic Education Centre one last time before I left my keys on my desk, closed my office door and said goodbye to a place that …
Dec 31
Looking Back at 2024
It is pretty unreal that we have already come to the end of 2024. Time certainly passes quickly as you get older but also it passes quickly when life is good. I continue to feel very blessed with the life that my wife Donna and I have and the closeness we have to our own …
Mar 16
Growth Plans: From compliance to commitment
Back in 2015, Alberta Education, through a very collaborative process, established a policy on Teacher Growth, Supervision and Evaluation. It was very forward thinking by eliminating cyclical teacher evaluations and replacing those evaluations with a focus on growth. It is not that all evaluations were unnecessary (there are still four reasons to initiate an evaluation) …
Feb 25
Indigenous Languages
Last week, I had the honour of addressing the staff and Board of Directors of Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council Education Authority at their second annual convention. One of the key points in my presentation was that the Cree language must be the first priority of the Education Authority. Part of their mission statement …
Feb 19
Taking care of the adults!
Over the past decade, we’ve made some great strides in uncovering and bringing to light the issue of mental health and well being. It is becoming increasingly okay to openly admit mental health struggles faced not only by children but adults alike. We are not there yet, but at least we are beginning to address …
Jan 20
Continuing the learning!
Last week, I wrote a blog post entitled “Always be a learner!” It referenced some of my own learning, especially as a young administrator, but also talked about the importance of organization learning. I want to remain with the theme of personal learning but specifically look at (1) Learning from anyone and (2) The discomfort …