Let’s be honest, we all make excuses. It is really difficult to accept our own failures and much easier to lay blame on something or someone else. This is especially prevalent in team environments. In her book, Teach Your Team to Fish, Laurie Beth Jones states, “Fewer than 15% of team blockages are caused by external factors- …
Category: Educational Updates
Aug 26
Support for Instructional Leadership
Tomorrow we will be gathering with our entire Learning Leadership Team to start the school year. I always start with an address to set the tone and share my excitement and enthusiasm for the upcoming school year. In last week’s blog post, Quality School Leadership, Teaching and Optimum Learning, I touched on the importance of …
Aug 19
Quality School Leadership, Teaching and Optimum Learning
This past week, I had the pleasure of co-facilitating with our Director of Learning, Lorelie Lenaour, the “Leading Learning” module at the inaugural CASS/ASBOA Summer Conference. The focus of the conference was to bring all system leaders in the province of Alberta together under one roof and begin to support the implementation of the new …
Jun 30
“New Roads to Travel” 2018 Graduation Address for St. Michael’s Bow Island
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, honoured guests and St. Michael’s Graduates of 2018. I always look forward to attending this graduation ceremony and am honored to bring greetings on behalf of the school division. St. Michael’s Bow Island is so unique not just because it is a small early learning to grade 12 school but …
May 09
The Journey to Inclusion
Recently, my Director of Support Services and I have been meeting with a small group of parents from the system on our continued journey to inclusion. All of these parents have children with diverse learning needs, some more significant than others. This is not a formal committee of the board, but rather an opportunity to …
Apr 15
Why are we dismantling education in Canada?
It is Sunday…a typical work day for me (I try to take Friday night and all day Saturday off to spend with my wife and family) and I’m ready to focus on work I need to do for the division. But instead, I’m going to spend the next 2-3 hours or more responding to the …
Mar 25
No Armed Teachers Here!
Since the tragedy in Parkland, Florida and the ensuing conversations around gun control in the United States, I’ve found myself trying to hold back on not making comments. Part of my reasoning is because I’m Canadian and in some ways probably don’t have the right to judge another country’s policies. But I’m also an educator …
Feb 23
Style vs. Substance
Next week I’ll be part of an interview committee for a principal position in our division. Part of our process is the inclusion of multiple stakeholders who provide me with feedback on each potential candidate. Before we begin, I always provide the committee with a reminder to listen carefully to the answers and don’t get …
Feb 21
Ode to Support Staff
The following blog post was published in the Lethbridge Herald on February 21, 2018. It is difficult not to automatically think about teachers when we talk about schools or education. In past articles, I’ve written about the importance of our school leaders and, just recently, about the unseen life of teachers. But our school systems …
Feb 11
Psychological Safety
A couple of weeks ago, during a conversation with an executive coach I was re-introduced to the term “psychological safety.” I had not thought much about the term previous from a leader’s perspective but after the talk I realized the importance. As I further reflected, I realized how much psychological safety is connected to high …