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
May 05
Do we really want a better education system?
Change is an interesting dilemma! There are those in the world who are continual non-adopters of change and others who jump on every change that comes about, good or bad! From a leaders point of view, I can understand both, accept both and need to work with the two ends of a very diverse continuum. The …
May 04
From the Desk of the Superintendent- May 2013
Last evening, I returned from the Blueprints Conference. Blueprints is an annual conference organized by the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Assocation and held at the Delta Lodge in Kananaskis for Catholic administrators, trustees and clergy. Its unique format provides a powerful retreat setting that leaves participants spiritually uplifted. Our division sees the Blueprint experience has a critical process for the …
Apr 24
Forming Ethical Citizens
This past Monday, the entire staff from Holy Spirit Catholic Schools gathered for our annual Spiritual Development Day. Typical professional development days speak to our minds and impact knowledge on improved practice. This day, however, is organized for the heart of those in Catholic Education and is solely for faith nourishment. This year’s theme, “Taking …
Apr 21
EdcampYYC
This past Friday I attended (with six other school leaders from Holy Spirit) and led a conversation at EdcampYYC. My congratulations to the organizers of the event, Matt Armstrong (@Armstrong YYC) and Paul Genge (@paulgenge) and the host Elboya School. Although we’ve held similar “open spaces” at our divisional PD day and for our Learning Leadership …
Apr 17
Leadership During Transformation: EdcampYYC
On Friday, I’ve been invited to be a discussion facilitator on the topic of leadership during transformation at EdcampYYC (Calgary). The following information is posted as a session descriptor: Leadership During Transformation How do we lead effectively in an era of constant change and challenge? Is Distributed Leadership an answer? If so, how do we …
Apr 03
From the Desk of the Superintendent- April 2013
Happy Easter! I hope that our staff, students and their families are enjoying a wonderful vacation. We return to school next week remembering that we are a resurrection people. Our risen Lord brings light to our world and peace to our hearts. Our March board meeting continued with our planning process. The 2014-17 Capital Plan was …
Mar 24
Measuring Learning vs. Measuring Achievement
I want you to reflect on this question, “When was the last time your performance was measured by a written multiple choice test?” There will be few of us who have had our performance measured by a single test in our adult life. Our performance cannot be captured on a single or even a series …
Mar 20
Digital Citizenship
One of our schools, St. Mary in Taber, offers an archery club. The teacher/instructor is fully credentialed to teach archery and, as you can well imagine, safety is of the highest priority. It is understood that before any student picks up a bow and arrow, some significant safety training, rules and responsibilities are provided. We …
Mar 10
From the Desk of the Superintendent- My AISI Eulogy
On Thursday, the provincial government released the budget for 2013-14. As part of the education budget, one of the most successful grants to instill innovation for learning, the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) was eliminated. It would be easy to simply blame the government in making that decision, but not necessarily fair. While I’m …