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 …
Tag: Leadership
Nov 11
Building a strong school community
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 …
Sep 09
Getting out of our comfort zone
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 …
Jul 21
Leadership Lessons
I began my leadership career as a brash and cocky 29 year old back in 1991. As a new vice principal in High Prairie, holding a fresh graduate degree, I thought I knew it all. Fortunately, I had a wonderful principal and mentor who took the time to guide me through the beginning of my leadership journey. …
Jul 10
Fail Forward
During my opening address to staff last year I termed the phrase “Fail Forward” as a way to promote an environment of risk taking and culture of transformation. Although I was fairly confident in my own definition of the phrase, I erred in not fully understanding the potentially negative connotation of it. Failure is not a word that …
Jun 13
Where lies the enemy?
There is considerable finger pointing in our world today. We’ve replaced responsibility with accountability. Too often, society is quick to blame somebody or something else for their own woes. This really struck a chord a couple of weeks ago when I was involved in a Twitter chat that blamed everything beyond themselves. Even trying to …
Apr 15
Dissatisfied not critical
Last week, I read the LeadershipFreak blog, “Being Dissatisfied without Becoming Critical.” I’m a great fan of the Leadership Freak but this post has haunted me ever since I read it. A leader, a teacher, even a parent has that same challenge. We are all dissatisfied with something or somebody, but the key point is to …
Mar 11
Tortoise vs. Hare
This past week I led one of the worst meetings I’ve had in my career in senior administration. It wasn’t contentious and nobody’s temper blew but it left me and I’m sure the other twenty of my administrative colleagues wondering why we came together. The meeting was a joint meeting of our budget, curriculum and inclusive education …
Feb 17
Being instead of doing!
I’m a subscriber to the Leadership Freak. I love the insights I receive about leadership in under 300 words. The blog causes me to reflect on my own practice as a leader in a school division- sometimes I’m reaffirmed for what I’m doing and other times… However, some of the posts really push me hard in my thinking …