Nov 11
There is an old saying, “It takes a community to raise a child” but what happens when the community in unable to do so? Unfortunately, I think many of our communities regardless of their location either cannot or worse choose not to be part of raising our children. Therefore, it is critical that we develop strong …
Nov 04
A couple of weeks ago, Holy Spirit Catholic Schools hosted our annual division-wide professional development day that showcased many of our own teachers leading sessions and also included an open spaces concept. This year I offered both a morning and afternoon session entitled, “A Conversation with the Superintendent- Let’s talk about transformation!” It was an opportunity to share my …
Oct 21
When I first began my career in education, great teaching was often defined by a classroom where students sat quietly in rows. There was such an emphasis placed on classroom management as an effective teaching tool. And while I believe that classroom management is required for excellent teaching to occur, students sitting quietly in rows …
Oct 14
This past week my learning was further enhanced through two powerful events held in our school division. The first event was our Division-wide Professional Development Day. Dr. Julie Causton-Theoharis an Assistant Professor at the School of Education at Syracuse University provided our opening keynote and held an additional two sessions highlighting inclusive education. Her stories and …
Oct 04
We celebrate World Teachers’ Day on October 5, 2012. So who is the we? Simply put, the “we” is all of us who have been blessed with having a teacher in our lives or in our children’s lives who made a difference. I’m pretty fortunate as Superintendent of Schools to be around many of those …
Sep 23
This past week, I had the chance to re-listen to Simon Sinek’s presentation “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” on Ted.com. Often, you don’t hear the message the first time it is spoken. It may be that you were not ready to hear the message or simply did not appreciate the depth of the message. Regardless …
Sep 16
It is already September 15th and the question is, “Have you visited a classroom yet?” Most school administrators will probably be able to answer that question in the affirmative. Within the first couple of weeks and generally throughout the year, principals and associates find themselves walking through and visiting many classrooms. However, if I rated this activity on …
Sep 09
What do you do when you wake up really early (5:30 AM) on a Saturday morning? The answer of course, for connected educators is to engage in the Twitter chat #satchat. This week the discussion focused on 2012-13 professional development opportunities. Interestingly enough, being connected through Twitter, book studies as well as the “unconference” #edcamp themes …
Aug 23
Last week, I participated in our annual summer conference in beautiful Waterton Parks National Park. This event brings together senior administrators from 10 school divisions in southern Alberta as well as representatives from Alberta Education, CASS, ASBOA, ASBA and ASCA. It signals the beginning of the school year for us and provides an excellent opportunity …