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 …
Tag: Holy Spirit Catholic Schools
May 12
From the Desk of the Superintendent- Graduation Address
This weekend, I had the honor of addressing two graduating classes within our division. I began my Saturday addressing 242 graduates from Catholic Central High School in Lethbridge. Later in the day, I drove an hour west to Pincher Creek and spoke to 16 graduates from St. Michael School. Although the number of graduates was significantly …
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 …
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 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 …