At the end of June, I brought greetings to the St. Mary’s Graduating Class of 2013. The evening held a little bit of nostagia for me as this graduating class, was in kindergarten during my last year as a principal. So in essence, this was my last class. Although I’ve coached since then, both in school and …
Category: Educational Updates
Jun 16
What legacy have I created?
The end of the school year is fast approaching. Final exams, year end activities and retirement functions are all a part of this final month. There is a push to get through these last few weeks of school and begin to enjoy a restful summer vacation. But even with the fatigue that is setting in, …
May 26
No more Provincial Achievement Tests… now what?
There was a barrage of announcements during Education Week from the Education Minister that has the possibility of significant impact on education not only in Alberta but throughout North America. Of particular interest to parents and teachers, especially those teaching grades 3, 6 and 9 was the elimination of the Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) and the creation of a series …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …