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
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 …
Mar 02
From the Desk of the Superintendent- March 2013
Today, March 2, 2013, I am in Medicine Hat, Alberta to celebrate my mother’s 70th birthday. She doesn’t know that we have travelled down and so she will be quite surprised when we meet her and my dad at supper. When I left home at 17 to attend university, she was just 36 years old …
Feb 22
Do we want great schools?
Do we really want great schools? I think I would be hard pressed to find anybody who would say no. But in truth, do we really want great schools or are we content with good or worse, mediocre schools. It sounds like a trick question but in fact it is at the core of what we do and for all of …
Feb 13
AISI: Not just another acronym
Education is full of acronyms and AISI is another. So what does it stand for- Alberta Initiative for School Improvement. AISI has been in existence since 1999 and has provided substantial funding to school divisions across the province with a goal of encouraging and promoting creativity and innovation in Alberta schools. Projects are three years …
Feb 10
What does our future hold?
I graduated from McCoy High School in 1979. Although I may have had a slight inkling of where I was going, there was no way I had an understanding of how much the world around me was going to change. Imagine that the kindergarten children entering school in September 2012 will begin retiring (assuming an …