Visioning

At our last staff meeting, I presented a powerpoint on promising practices. I began with a review of our school vision and the belief statement that best related to student learning and instructional practices. I also took some time to explain to staff what my vision for learning would look like.

It can be summed up here:

Vision of learning

Staff/students engaged,

working in their zone of proximal development,

happy to be at school,

reading at grade level,

being successful according to their abilities and

reaching for the AE standards.



Overview of the presentation:

- a connections piece, where staff could take some time to reflect upon an area they have worked on, what they found were surprises, lessons learned, and what they would do next. After some reflection, each staff member was able to share with others. I've done this activity before and the staff are starting to expect it as well as I'm seeing some continuity in the sharing.

I shared the area I had worked on - deliberately planning my day. Lesson learned - that not all things go as planned; unexpected results - I had more time to spend with the people in the school; my next step - to work on becoming a better teacher and supporter of learning in the school.

- reviewing our school vision and beliefs

- taking a look at the definition of promising practices, I let the staff know what I had been seeing in the area of promising practices, and I put out a couple of questions for reflection: if I were to ask your students what they are doing to become better readers, what would they say? and if I were to ask them why they were doing an activity, could they tell me?

- deciding that our key message to the students would be: Our principal is going to be visiting our classes and asking students what they know about becoming better readers.

We did exceed our time by about 20 minutes, and I didn't get a chance to do all of the activities we had planned, but the staff seemed relaxed, happy to be there, and excited to be doing this important work!

After the staff meeting, I made two posters with the summary of the vision and posted them in the common area and in the staff room, so that all entering the staff room would see it immediately as they go in.

I also included the summary of the vision in my staff memo for the next day. I plan to bring up this vision in any subsequent staff meetings.

Northern Tier Leadership

One of the facilitators of the Northern Tier Leadership course I am enrolled in, and a colleague and fellow administrator, came for a visit January 24. We sat and talked about the strengths of my school, my challenges, what I have been trying, my findings, and my next steps. It was extremely helpful to have two outside sets of eyes and ears. I felt quite comfortable with the arrangement of having another administrator come along, as we had worked together in a previous position.

I felt especially supported and affirmed in that meeting. Both visitors commented on the positive - how the school looked in appearance, how the students were engaged in learning, how the staff seemed to be at home with us popping in, and with my vision of learning for the school that I had voiced in our meeting. Our facilitator said he knew the moment I started talking like a leader: I sat up and announced how I saw learning progressing and what I was working for with the staff and students.

We talked about the upcoming staff meeting and my plans for presenting promising practices to the staff. I showed both my presentation powerpoint and was able to get some feedback from our facilitator. He told me that I should begin with my presentation and do the business afterword. Well, I thought I knew better and did the staff business first. Consequently, I wasn't able to spend the time on the presentation that I would have liked and I went over by about 20 minutes. I'll certainly take his advice next time.

I then went to my colleague's school and toured and talked with her and our facilitator again about leadership and learning. This time it was all about my colleague. I seemed to do a fair amount of talking too, but was assured that it was good feedback.

This whole learning experience was the best professional development I've done in a long time. It really helps to be in each other's schools, listening to other leaders and getting expert advice from those who are in the know.

I am grateful to my division for allowing me to take the time for this professional development. I will also say that this is probably the best professional development in building capacity for leadership, not just for principals and vice-principals, but for school staffs too.