After nearly a 35 year career in education, I retired as the Superintendent of Schools in January 2020. While in the role as superintendent, I sat on two national committees, ERDI and C21 and also was an adjunct professor for Gonzaga University. I now work as a leadership consultant supporting the work of school boards, system and school leaders.
Chris Smeaton
Author's posts
Aug 31
2011-12 Faith Theme: Do You Love Me?
On August 30th, our entire school division came together as both a faith and learning community to celebrate. Our Lady of the Assumption School organized a powerful mass with music provided by exceptionally talented staff. Fr. Tim of All Saints Parish was our main celebrant with Fr. Fernando (St. Martha Parish) and Fr. Tomy (St. Ambrose/St. …
Aug 24
The Night Before Our First LLT Meeting
Tomorrow morning our entire Learning Leadership Team (LLT) will be heading to St. Michael School in Pincher Creek for our first meeting of the school year. It will be a relatively short meeting as we plan to head out to Castle Mountain for our retreat shortly after lunch. The LLT is made up of senior …
Aug 05
Leadership Day 2011
As I’ve previously written, I’m a neophyte to Twitter and this will only be the 7th post to my blog. I’m not sure I have the correct lingo and have much to learn but I continue to explore and more importantly use these medias in my work. This year, we have seven new formal leaders in …
Aug 04
Upcoming SALT retreat
On Saturday, August 6th (28th wedding anniversary) our Senior Administration Leadership Team (SALT) will be heading to beautiful Waterton Lakes National Park for our annual summer conference. This conference brings together senior administrators (CASS & ASBOA) from southern Alberta and various Alberta Education personnel. On a rotating basis, each division is reponsible for the organization of the conference. One of the …
Aug 02
Twitter or not?
I must confess that I am neophyte in the Twitter realm, only really beginning to seriously tweet at the CASA 2011 conference in Niagara Falls. Prior to that I had signed up because: (1) If I wanted my school administrators to engage in 21st century tools than their superintendent should be doing the same and …
Jul 18
In support of differentiated instruction
During the past couple of years, our division, Holy Spirit Catholic Schools has spent considerable energy researching continuums of support for all students. School teams have participated in national and international conferences to learn more about, in particular, Pyramid Response to Intervention (PRTI). This is supportive of our province’s move toward a more inclusive education …
Jul 09
CASA Day 2
Today I began in a session hosted by Hamilton Wentworth District School Board http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/. They provided some excellent information on their strategies that they were implementing to meet the needs of students in the 21st century. An interesting quote that caused me to reflect was, “Learning should never stop, it must be engaging and have …
Jul 08
CASA Conference Day 1
I’m sitting in my room after the first day of the CASA Conference on 21st Century Learning contemplating today’s sessions that I attended. It has been an interesting day on a number of different levels. As a beginning user of Twitter, I began the day with only 7 tweets. Throughout the day I have made it to …
Jul 06
Heading to CASA
Jun 29
From the Desk of the Superintendent
June is here… the last month of the 2010- 2011 school year! There will be a multitude of activities in our schools with closing assemblies, liturgies and field trips. Students, especially in our high schools will be preparing for their final exams. Before you know it, summer holidays will be upon us. At the Regular …