Leadercast 2014

On Friday May 9 a group of my colleagues from the Renfrew County District School Board and myself had the opportunity to attend the Ottawa simulcast of the Leadercast. Approximately five thousand people attended the live event in Atlanta, Georgia and another 115,000 people watched via satellite in 750 locations around the world. In Ottawa there was about 200 people participating in the one day conference focused on excellence in leadership. Listening to the insightful and inspirational speeches was reminiscent to the ‘WE day’ experience I was fortunate to participate in with our intermediate students about a month before. The theme of the event was “Beyond You Leadership” and it challenged leaders to turn their focus outward. Among the televised guest speakers were Randall Wallance, Laura Schroff, Desmond Tutu, Dr. Henry Cloud, Laura Bush, Malcolm Gladwell, Andy Stanley, and Bill McDermott. The local Keynote Speaker was Harley Finkelstein, Some key takeaways from the speakers include the following: Harley Finkelstein – local Ottawa keynote speaker CPO of Shopify. -started his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Is work a craft or is work a job? Job should be a part of your life not a means to an end. What do they look for in their employees? Resourcefulness “Draw an owl commercial” - Fail gracefully: learn from failures. Compensation is more than money. Perk: Hack days: what can you accomplish in 2 days? Share at the end of the time. Shopify regularly holds town hall meetings so his team always has a forum for compliments and complaints -Work life blending Andy Stanley, Leadership Communicator and Best-Selling Author Andy Stanley – To become a “Beyond You” leader you must fearlessly and selflessly empower leaders around you as well as those coming behind you. If your leadership is not all about you it will live beyond you. What is empowerment? How can I leverage my power for the sake of the other people? The value of a life is always measured by how much of it was given away The value of your leadership will ultimately measured in terms of how much of it was given! We celebrate generosity and selflessness. Get in the habit of making as few decisions as possible “You Decide.” Work for your team…as a team What can I do to help? Empty Your Cup If your leadership isn’t all about you, it will live beyond you. Dr. Henry Cloud, Clinical Psychologist & Leadership Expert What drives and sustains our influence? A boat has a wake on two sides: Relationships and results are two key factors of leadership. All influence is driven by trust. You will develop trust to the degree that people feel connected to them. It’s the connection that builds trust that comes basically from the human heart that wants to be known and understand. Leaders who go past themselves are leaders who give up the hardest thing – “control” Archbishop Desmond Tutu – Nobel Laureate & Human Rights Activist 1984 – Won the Nobel Peace Prize How you treat others is a measure of you as a human being. We must always be respectful & grateful for others. Respect, gratitude, believing in others & recognizing other's gifts. Nelson Mandela’s number one characteristic: magnanimity. Imagine a world in which human interests outweighed national interests. A person is a person through other persons – you are you because of others. I can never be who I ought to be, until you are who you are ought to be. The art of leadership: Listen not just to the voices they like - Not blinded by power - servants, - accountable -Lead, guide, direct, support because they know the way -Know when to retire Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States (2001-2009) If you are a leader, model the behavior you want others to imitate. People are not very good at listening to other people but they are very good at copying them. So…if you are a leader… be a leader worth copying. Calm is contagious. Treat people with respect…Don’t be mean. Don’t be sarcastic. Malcolm Gladwell, Award-Winning Journalist and Best-Selling Author Effective leadership is not explained by the deterrence theory but legitimacy Three elements of legitimacy in leadership: 1) respect 2) fairness 3) trustworthiness It matters not just what you say, it matters how you say it. Create a trustworthy system for dealing with people. When people disobey leaders, the question shouldn’t be what’s wrong with the people, but what’s wrong with the leaders. Responsibility begins at the top. Randall Wallace, Screenwriter, Director, Producer, and Songwriter Honour matters. The secret was in giving in secret. “What happens to your soul when you give is what matters. Give in secret, stand up all, and when you give, give you all. Final Reflection: In all, it was a very inspiring day and caused much reflection and after- thought. One of the common themes consistent in all the speakers was the theme of respect. Leaders treat others with respect. Leaders empower others. These words resonate through me and give me fuel to continue my journey. Harley Finkelstein showed respect to his employees and empowered them to take the lead in some way through his development of ‘Hack Days’. His ideas could be related to a vision of our future of education which I find myself reviewing over and over as I try to make sense of what I have learned and try to articulate the model as it is taken shape in my mind. First if we begin to look at our role as educators not as a job but as a craft…a place where our staff wants to be and a place where individual talents and skills are valued and cultivated, shared with others. Walkthroughs to me would not only be done by Admin, but regular walkthroughs by all staff to be able to see the continuum of learning and models of best practice. A time when our staff can act as leaders/mentors to their peers and conversation can start between educators focusing on their valuable work. A hack day could also be a time for a staff member to try out a new strategy and with the help of the team look at the value. Staff could also be team teaching frequently to allow those with expertise to share. At the same time, if students were given a ‘hack day’ once every few months to incorporate their passions to learn about what they are interested using their particular learning style, driven by their own intrinsic desire to learn, then share with others; school would become a much more engaging place for some of our learners. He spoke about having young students come into his workplace to learn about the work, which seems to be part of what I see as the Ministries move to educate our students about the various career pathways into the future. Finally the idea of ‘resourcefulness’ as a trait to be embraced and revered, can be linked to our character education something for both in our staff and in our students to pursue. Lots to think about, as I continue on this adventure into the world of the Leader.

Walk throughs Friday May 16, 2014

On Friday May 16 I took a walk though the school and look at the exciting learning I witnessed

Exciting Update on Sk Intervention

Although we have not completed all the data collection for our senior kindergarten, we are so excited we needed to share an update of three more students that continue to achieve exceptional results since our English intervention was put into place. Student 21 has jumped from PM 7 to 13 since last reporting. Student 22 has jumped from PM 14 to at least 17 and still climbing. Student 23 has jumped from PM 6 to at least 15 and still climbing. Well done team!

Update on SK intervention results May 14

General Lake Senior Kindergarten Results -May 14, 2014 The following 20 Senior Kindergarten students were marked as ‘at risk’ because of their reading development by the teachers. The students from 1-10 were in the English Senior kindergarten program and the remainder were in the French Immersion program. In March a focused intervention was put in place to address the needs of the English Senior kindergartens. This intervention took the two classes and divided them into three ability groupings. The SERT teacher worked with one group, and the other 2 teachers worked with the other two groups during the first 2 out of 3 blocks of the day in language and math. A similar focused intervention has also been put in place for the French Immersion students during their 300 minutes of Core English class in late March to address those students identified with reading concerns. It has been noted that the French Immersion students traditionally progress slowly initially in their reading achievement but by grade 3 they catch up. It was reported by the teachers that the other students involved have shown tremendous progress in the groupings because of the focused interventions and have benefitted greatly from using the high yield strategies. Gains have been slow, but steady for the identified ‘at risk’ students in the focus group as you can see in the following data. Recently tutors have been added to work daily with the focus group. *A Communicative Disorders Assistant has also begun working with some of the students twice per week. *indicates student receiving CDA support 1. Letter and Sounds Letter and Sounds March 24 Upper Case Letters 18 Upper Case Sounds 17 Lower Case Letters 16 Lower Case Sounds 14 May 1 Upper Case Letters 20 Upper Case Sounds 20 Lower Case Letters 19 Lower Case Sounds 19 Pre-Primer Sight Words March 24 3/40 May1 7/40 PMs 1 1 Has not moved, still at a PM1 Next step: Tutor started May 12 for daily reading support 2. Letter and Sounds March 24 Upper Case Letters 20 Upper Case Sounds 11 Lower Case Letters 14 Lower Case Sounds 11 May 1 Upper Case Letters 21 Upper Case Sounds 17 Lower Case Letters 22 Lower Case Sounds 18 Pre-Primer Sight Words March 24 2/40 May 1 5/40 PMs 1 3. Letter and Sounds Letter and Sounds March 24 Upper Case Letters 18 Upper Case Sounds 13 Lower Case Letters 15 Lower Case Sounds 14 May 1 Upper Case Letters 23 Upper Case Sounds 21 Lower Case Letters 24 Lower Case Sounds 20 Pre-Primer Sight Words March 24 9/40 May 1 14/40 PMs 1 1 Has not moved, still at a PM1 Tutor started May 12 for daily Echo reading 4. Letter and Sounds Improvement in letter /sound Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs March 24 0 PMs May 1 1 5. Letter and Sounds Improvement in letter /sound Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs March 24 0 May 1 1 6. Letter and Sounds Improvement in letter /sound Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs March 24 0 May 1 1 7. Letter and Sounds Improvement in letter /sound Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs March 24 0 May 1 1 8. Letter and Sounds Improvement in read behav Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs March 24 0 May 1 0 9. Letter and Sounds Recognizes all Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs March 24 0 May 1 1 10. * Letter and Sounds most Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs March 24 0 May 1 1 Cda support 11. * Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 23 Sounds 16 May 1 Letters 25 Sounds 19 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading –CDA support 12. * Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 24 Sounds 20 May 1 Letters 26 Sounds 20 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 0 uses finger tracking and picture clues Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading –CDA support 13. * Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 20 Sounds 14 May 1 Letters 21 Sounds 15 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 Lacks attentiveness/ Tutor began May 6 daily reading CDA support 14. Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 25 Sounds 15 May 1 Letters 26 Sounds 20 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 uses finger tracking and picture clues Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading 15. Letter and Sounds Letters 20 Sounds 20 Letters 24 Sounds 21 Pre-Primer Sight Words Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs PMs 0 0 uses finger tracking and picture clues Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading 16. Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 10 Sounds 13 May 1 Letters 18 Sounds 13 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 continues to be a concern Tutor began May 6 for daily reading 17. Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 22 Sounds 17 May 1 Letters 24 Sounds 21 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 uses finger tracking and picture clues Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading 18. * Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 21 Sounds 10 May 1 Letters 21 Sounds 14 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 uses finger tracking and picture clues Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading-CDA Support 19. Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 20 Sounds 15 May1 Letters 24 Sounds 19 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 uses finger tracking and picture clues Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading 20. * Letter and Sounds March 24 Letters 15 Sounds 8 May 1 Letters 21 Sounds 10 Pre-Primer Sight Words PMs 0 uses finger tracking and picture clues Continue to work on sight words Tutor began May 6 daily reading CDA Support

If The Walls Could talk...PART 2

On April 30 I went on a tour of the school to look at the walls for evidence of all the wonderful work in Math the students have been doing. This is what I found:

Welcome to the Learning Blog- Charting the waters

Welcome to my blog of learning. I established this as a reflective piece to look at my journey as a Principal. I started this journey in familiar waters. I joined the Lake family in 2010 as an English teacher, moving into Administration as the Vice Principal in 2011 and finally in 2013 appointed as the Principal. Together I have worked with the staff honing my skills as an administrator, setting the path towards the inevitable destination of the new K-12 Valour school. A former colleague described being the Principal as much like steering a ship. You have a destination in mind but winds, currents, squalls and the odd sandbar make the path less predictable. The advantage is that it is the trip that becomes more important than the final destination. This analogy seems particularly applicable to the journey I have undertaken. We started our trip year together discussing our goals for improvement related to the data we had collected from the previous year. The Kindergarten and Primary divisions meeting for conversations were focused on Language and the junior intermediate divisions focused on Math. From there the teams met and refined their destination to meet the needs of their individual classrooms and taking into consideration the profiles of the students. We met with each individual teacher to discuss their goals as they related to their classroom. We looked at the data and set clear targets. At this time we also self assessed our use of data placing ourselves on the ‘School Continuous Improvement Continuum’ evaluating our approach, implementation and outcome. (Education For the Future (http://effcsuchico.edu) As a Board our guiding principal is to promote a safe, caring and respectful learning environment and as a staff we looked at what this might look like and how we would deliberately promote character development in all that we do. We looked at our ‘Tell Them from Me’ data and created our action plan to promote the eight virtues, establish anti-bullying initiatives, participation in the Champlain Healthy schools initiative with a emphasis on creating opportunities for physical fitness, and finally promoting social change through our Free the Children initiatives. As the year progressed the course continued with some adjustments and refinements. Many of the teachers found as they began their set course with their classroom goals they realized they needed to adjust and refine and even in some cases book a different trip altogether to meet the needs of the students. As an Administrator, I began refining my skills using walkthroughs to monitor progress in student learning and school improvement. I documented the walls as evidence of the learning, as well as used the Observational Tool for Metacognition (Adapted from Leaders Connect Observing Literacy Learning Fall 2013 LiteracyGAINS). I have adapted this tool for my own purposes to observe classroom instruction and provide constructive feedback. Mid year we met with most teachers again as we examined their learning together where they had been and what they needed to do to reach their destination. One exciting developments came when our Early Learning and Primary teacher team in the English division met just prior to the March break to develop a focused intervention in the areas of language and math. The students were divided into three learning groups and programs were developed to meet their individual programming needs. It is now May and we have begun to gather our final assessment of learning as well as document the results of our Collaborative Inquiry Process as we make our final assent. We are gathering the evidence to co construct a plan to continue to meet the needs of the students as we move into Valour. Charting the waters for me was definitely a steep learning curve and one that I am excited to revisit again. I look forward to sharing the evidence of our learning, reflecting on our practice and engaging in more evidence-driven, focused professional learning conversations and set our course for more adventures.