Reflection on growth from the 2021/2022 school year

Even though the school year still has 3 months left, I have been reflecting on my professional growth throughout the year. If you read through my past posts, you will see a number of reflections on activities and projects that have taken place in my school to enhance student learning. There have also been a few unexpected events that have forced growth upon me (and my staff).

Overall, I feel that this year has been a year of positive growth and development. Who I was as a principal in September 2020 is very different to the instructional leader that I am now. My targets and goals for the school year have been focused around LQS 2 (Modeling Commitment to Professional Learning) and LQS 4 (Leading a Learning Community). Below, I have outlined the breakdown of my work in each area:

Leadership Quality Standard 2

A leader engages in career-long professional learning and ongoing critical reflection to identify opportunities for improving leadership, teaching, and learning.

Goal – To engage members of the school community to build a shared understanding of Bon Accord Community School educational priorities.

Strategies

Evidence
(b) actively seeking out feedback and information from a variety of sources to enhance leadership practice
  • Development and implementation of a “touch point on student learning” survey – sent to all families
(d) engaging members of the school community to build a shared understanding of current trends and priorities to the Education system
  • Discussions at Parent Council about educational goals for BACS
  • Invitations for families to join school assemblies and literacy/numeracy events

Performance Measures/Outcomes

  • 50% response rate to the survey sent to families
  • Maintain Parent Council attendance of at least 10 participants
  • Over 50 people participating in monthly ‘celebration’ assemblies at the school

Analysis

  • Successes
    • There were 71 respondents to the survey, which is approximately 48% of the school family population.

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PDF Survey Results

    • Our school hosted a virtual Christmas Concert. This video has been seen across Canada with 865 views.
    • Parent Council attendance has been, on average, 10 to 12 people per meeting, which I feel is a success considering the limitations on meeting together. As these meetings have been hosted online, there has started to be some reflection and discussion around if meetings should stay online post-COVID. More talks about this will happen in the near future.
  • Opportunities for Growth
    • Follow-through with the survey results.
      • I met with the chair of the school’s Parent Council and we reflected on the results collected.
      • The one item to seemed clear to us was about accessibility of supports for families. Specifically, about creating a location for families to access resources to support them at home (online learning, mental health, etc)
        • We will be starting work on creating a dedicated page on our website for family and student resources and supports. This work will continue into Fall 2021.
    • Due to COVID-19 protocols, family members and volunteers have not been able to enter the school. As well, school-wide assemblies have not been taking place. Continued work surrounding family engagement via online tools remains a priority.
      • During the month of April, BACS will be hosting a ‘Literacy Celebration’ for all students. It will include a variety of activities which will include:
        • Reading Bingo – for every row/column/diagonal that students complete, they will be entered into a weekly draw. This is a great opportunity for families to engage in reading activities together.
        • Family and celebrity reading – family members and local ‘celebrities’ (firefighters, etc) will record themselves reading their favorite children’s books and then send their videos in. Videos will be shown during the first 2 weeks of April in all classes.
        • Dress like your favorite character day. There will also be a special treat that day for the students!
        • Book Fair (in-person & virtual) for all students and their families.
      • Some staff and I are talking about what a year-end online assembly could look like. Traditionally, a Grade 4 Farewell assembly takes place and we would still like to have this. We will be developing plans to include as many family members as possible for this.

Reflection

The work to engage with the school community has been challenging but rewarding this year. COVID-19 protocols has provided additional challenges to our school’s ability to take on more ‘traditional’ ways of interacting with family and community members, but we are developing new and innovative ways of having the community connected to the school and for the community to understand what we do at BACS.

As I move into next year, this will continue to be an ongoing effort to educate family and community members about our priorities in learning, strategies for learning, and how family and community members can be connected to BACS. With the same Parent Council executive, this will be already a step ahead as they understand my goals and intentions, and they will be able to continue to promote the work we do into the community.

Leadership Quality Standard 4

A leader nurtures and sustains a culture that supports evidence-informed teaching and learning.

Goal – Increase Project Based Learning (PBL) strategies being used by teachers within classrooms.

Strategies

Evidence
(c) developing a shared responsibility for the success of all students
  • Team-teaching a unit using PBL strategies with multiple teachers
(d) cultivating a culture of high expectations for all students and staff
  • Focused PLC (Professional Learning Community) opportunities for staff
(e) creating meaningful, collaborative learning opportunities for teachers and support staff
  • Professional Development with all staff (not just teachers) about PBL (Project Based Learning) and UDL (Universal Design for Learning).

Performance Measures/Outcomes

  • Plan and team-teach with at least 3 different teachers throughout the school year, focused on Project Based Learning strategies.
  • Host at least 4 PD sessions with staff regarding PBL and UDL (school-based and division-based) throughout the 2020/2021 school year.
  • Formal, weekly PLC time for teachers to meet, discuss, and plan teaching strategies.

Analysis

  • Successes
    • 4 team-teaching events have taken place (Grade 4, Grade 3, Grade 1, and Makerspace).
      • Grade 4 – Design a toy train that can move under its own power
      • Grade 3 – Sound, Pitch, and micro:bit coding
      • Grade 1 – PBL Penguins!
      • Makerspace – variety of PBL activities in each class every Monday
    • During the weekly makerspace time (Monday afternoons), teachers were provided with time to meet with a colleague to actively plan and implement learning sprints (PBL, literacy, numeracy, etc)
    • Multiple Professional Days were focused around Project Based Learning (and Universal Design for Learning)
      • August 2020 – Introduction for the year’s work on Universal Design for Learning & Project Based Learning
      • September 2020 – Bringing together Literacy & Numeracy results with Project Based Learning
      • October 2020 – Universal Design for Learning, Project Based Learning, and Differentiation
      • November 2020 – Universal Design for Learning: Engagement and Representation
      • January 2021 – Work with Ochre Park School on developing Project Based Learning projects by grade
      • March 2021 – Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Project Based Learning
      • April 2021 – Division Wide Professional Development on UDL: Action and Expression
  • Opportunities for Growth
    • The opportunity to work with every teacher to develop and implement a Project Based Learning task did not happen. This work will need to continue into next year ensuring that I work with, at minimum, all the other teachers in my school. This will be important so that all staff see and experience my vision, outside of professional development sessions.
    • All teachers choosing to engage in PBL units within their classroom without being requested to attempt.
    • Continued and focused Professional Development for multiple years. This would allow for a deeper understanding and engagement with the process.

Reflection

The target of the work around Project Based Learning is to have all staff actively engage in this learning strategy without the request coming from administration.  The work to adjust teacher pedagogy can require multiple school years as well as regular support and engagement from the educational leaders in the school. Even though there has been significant growth by all staff, the work is far from complete and must continue as we move forward. Even after one year, there are already teachers who are champions of PBL, and those who are resistant to change. As we continue to work as a team to develop the implementation strategies, intentional and active work will be necessary to support all staff on this journey. I have enjoyed my work with my teachers so far and I look forward to continuing this next year. It has been a wonderful opportunity to take part in active classroom teaching and learning. I have been able to get to know my teachers better and they have continued to understand and appreciate my educational leadership abilities. The growth that will continue to take place next year will continue to solidify the learning strategies of our school.

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PBL Penguins!

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During the 2020/2021 school year, the new strategy and goal for teachers has become how to create the most normalized learning environment regardless of COVID protocols. After a year of impacted learning experiences, everyone seems to be at a breaking point and even my most veteran teachers are having times of struggle to help our students learn.

Traditionally, the grade 1 students in our school do a big penguin research unit that brings together their reading, writing, and learning strategies that they have learned throughout the school year. But this year has been different – student literacy ability is significantly down compared to other years, and the spread of learning ability is far more diverse within the classroom.

I was able to work with my Grade 1 teachers, and team-teach our modified Penguin project this year! I worked with my teachers to develop some wonderful activities that allowed for differentiation based on students ability, and provided opportunities for students to work on their literacy abilities regardless of their level going into the project. We also incorporated some digital work for all students!

I worked with the teachers during the first week of March, and they had some follow-up activities they were going to do with their students over the following days. Earlier this week, I visited the class, and a small handful of students showed me their final projects, which included some typed activities, labelled drawings, and some written personal reflections, which they read to me. To see how far the students grew in the course of 2 weeks was spectacular and I’m so proud of them. The teachers were able to create a learning opportunity that was fun, engaging, and effective, regardless of the safety protocols in place for COVID. I found it very enjoyable to be a part of the development and learning process working with the grade 1 classes. Now that the project has concluded, I have discussed the project with the Grade 1 teachers and they are already discussing how they can tweak and improve it for next year, which for me, is exciting that they see the value in project based learning. Great success!

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Coding and Sound in Grade 3

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Through my work this year engaging with teachers to encourage a Project-Based Learning strategy in their classrooms, I have had the opportunity to work with one of my grade 3 classes this week!

The grade 3 class is currently learning about sound in science class and the teacher wanted to bring in some hands-on coding and technology use to help the students visualize the pitch and the sounds that they are hearing. I was able to work with the teacher to develop a plan to have students first learn about different types of pitch, and then figure out how to visualize high and low pitch using micro:bit units connected to their Chromebooks. The teacher and I did some preliminary work to help students and then had them develop ‘code’ that when a specific button was pressed on the micro:bit, a visual representation of the high or low pitch appeared on the screen, and the tone was played through their headphones (which they had to figure out how to connect to the micro:bit).

The biggest joy that came out of this activity was the “ah-ha” moments that many students were able to experience as they accomplished a number of tasks.

  1. Students being able to successfully connect all the specific hardware together correctly
  2. Students successfully building the code and transferring it to their micro:bit
  3. Students experiencing all of the pieces of the project coming together, and seeing the visualizations match the sound and them understanding the relationship between everything

Overall, it was a wonderful project to be a part of and to see the genuine understanding come together for so many of the students. Since they were the ones who had to the majority of the work and the content was not “spoon-fed” to them, the learning became much more memorable and authentic.

There are already some follow-up activities planned, including using tuning forks and engaging in more coding options to visualize the pitch and sounds that they are exploring and learning about.

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Unexpected experience on the coldest day of the year

Yesterday will be a memorable day for my staff and myself for many years to come.

Part way through the morning, I was working with someone from our maintenance team on a classroom that was too cold. It was approximately -35 degrees outside and a classroom was not able to get above 12 degrees. While we were investigating, the fire alarm for the school went off. Normally, in much more pleasant weather, classes would calmly move outside to a safe location, attendance would be taken, and the cause of the alarm would be investigated. But at -35, different considerations need to be taken.

As I ran out of the cold classroom, I saw classes begin to exit their rooms and start to move towards the exits of the building. I started telling teachers and EAs to grab jackets for everyone as it would be unsafe to transport students outside at -35. I promptly went to the fire alarm panel and determined the location of the alarm. Once I discovered it was coming from one corner of the school, made the decision to move all students and staff to the gym.

Once the firefighters arrived, they informed me that we would need all students removed from the building as soon as possible. Busses were contacted and brought to the school to transport students to a nearby school. As busses arrived, we started by moving our youngest students, and moving up to our oldest students.

Once the firefighters had completed a full investigation, we were given the ‘all clear’ and then transported students back to our building. The entire event took approximately 90 minutes from start to finish, and classes resumed for the afternoon.

I had never been in a situation where students were required to be transported off-campus due to an emergency before, or dealing with the evacuation of a school at -35 as well! The biggest takeaway from today for me was how important our safety drills are for our students and staff. When the fire alarm went off, it was clear that everyone knew that they needed to exit the building regardless of the cold outside. When I provided updated instruction, everyone followed it without question. Even though there was anxiety and concern, the plans were trusted, and in the end, everyone remained safe at all times and there was no incident.

As I have reflected on what occurred, I have realized a few things that are important during an event such as this:

  • Regardless of how I am feeling, I need to ensure that I maintain a calm and collected composure. As the leader, everyone is looking to me for guidance and my demeanor will impact how others can feel. Me demonstrating calmness will help others remain calm.
  • Whenever I had moments of ‘pause’, I ensured to be visible with my students and staff. While they waited in the gym for busses to arrive and transport them, I made sure to have ‘facetime’ with as many as possible. If I am able to maintain that personal connection with my staff and students, they will feel reassured that everything is going to be fine.
  • It is important to know who your ‘go-to’ team members are. As we were starting to transport students to the other school, I quickly realized I need a ‘point-person’ at the other location so clear communication could be maintained. This ensured that we knew were everyone was at all times and once everything was resolved, we could communicate to get all students back to our building.
  • It is important to have safety protocols updated at all times. When our current safety plan was put into place, it was based around having 4 staff members in the front office (2 admin, 2 administrators). For this school year, we have one administrative assistant, and myself (principal). Reducing our point staff by half has caused a number of holes in our safety plan tasks. It is essential that these roles are all accounted for so nothing is missed.
  • Debrief with staff. At the conclusion of the day, I had a meeting with all my staff to go over the events of the day and provide them with a chance to express thoughts, feelings, and anything else to do with the event. Regardless of outcome, it was a traumatic day for many

I am sure that as time moves on, I will have more ‘ah ha’ moments connected to this event and I need to ensure that I take some time to reflect on how I can continue to improve in dealing with similar events.

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Education Plan & Community Engagement

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This year I have been working on engaging with members of the school community to build a shared understanding of the school’s educational priorities. This has been an ongoing process through this school year with multiple strategies being implemented as to interact with the largest and most diverse group possible.

As I prepared for this work, I developed the following strategies to accomplish the overall goal:

  • Have school community members complete an online survey (called Touchpoint on Student Learning) with a target response rate of 50% of possible responders
  • Engage with the school community as to maintain attendance at the parent council meetings of at least 10 people (excluding myself and the trustee)
  • Host monthly ‘celebration’ assemblies for students and school community members with at least 40 school community members in attendance.

In order to obtain the best possible results, I knew I required substance to what I was offering to school community members. For the survey, I worked with the chair of my Parent Council to develop the questions. This provided a well-rounded perspective to the questions. The survey was open for approximately a month and we received 71 responses! I was very pleased with this result. My next step is to break down the survey results and determine what aspects of it I need to act on as well as what results are relevant for our parent council. This will help guide my work for the remainder of the school year and into future years.

To support the work done with my parent council and community members, I am intending to share with them a presentation I gave to the Board of Trustees about the school’s Education Plan. I want to ensure that the school community is very aware of our successes, our growth areas, and our path for moving forward. This will also be shared, and discussed, with my staff and used to guide our work for the rest of the year. You can see the presentation below.

 

 

One of my goals this year has been a challenge to tackle is the continued work surrounding parental involvement within the school. As it has for everyone, COVID-19 has had a serious impact on the running of my school – specifically, the ability to have parents and other family members into the school. We have attempted to get creative and some of the classes have done a variety of things, such as Google Meets with family members, or recorded videos that can be sent home. As well, we made sure to have a Christmas Concert this year, but via YouTube. This was a huge success and we are already planning other virtual events to have families feel ‘attached’ to the school.

We are only half way through the school year, but I am looking forward to the work that I will be able to continue to accomplish with the entire school community. The survey results will provide some wonderful insight into the thoughts and feelings from the community and I’m sure it will lead to further conversations with multiple people. As well, I am excited for some of the conversations that I will be able to have with those who attend parent council and who reach out and speak with me about the path forward for the school.

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Transitioning to a Project-Based Learning strategy

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As my educational vision states, “my goal is to provide my staff and students with an encouraging, innovative, and challenging environment”, which in helping students engage in learning is through Project-Based Learning. There is a great deal of books and articles written on this topic and it is a well known strategy for student engagement and learning within educational circles.

I have been focused on encouraging my staff to engage in Project-Based Learning (PBL) since the fall of 2019, but this year I have increased my focus on this with a goal of increasing PBL projects in classrooms in order to see PBL taking place without my initiative.

My strategy right from the beginning was not just to educate my staff, but to be “in the trenches” with them as this strategy was implemented. I wanted to work with my staff through team-teaching, joint planning, and group learning. This was (and is) an ongoing and regular topic and aspect of our monthly staff meetings. I am also continuing to target a class at a time to work with a teacher to implement a project. So far this year, I have worked with a teacher developing and implementing a makerspace program (which was for multiple classrooms) and a Grade 4 class who had to design, budget for, purchase, build, and test toy trains constructed out of graham crackers, plastic wheels, elastic bands, and a variety of other items.

Both projects have gone very well. The makerspace project is ongoing, but continues to be a success. The Grade 4 train project was a hit and students couldn’t wait to show off their creations to anyone who would listen or watch! You can see some pictures below. As well, check out some of the pictures from our Makerspace program!

 

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This year has seen some excellent success from this work. Teachers are in the process of planning future projects and I will be working with some of them to help the projects happen! But most of all, I am hearing excitement from my teachers as they talk about what they want to do. They do not see attempting PBL as an extra item they have to do, but rather they see the validity in it and they recognize how student engagement and success can be achieved through it.

As I move through the remainder of the school year, I will continue to monitor (and be a part of ) the projects going on in various classrooms. As well, once projects are complete, I’m excited and curious to talk to a number of students to get a sense of what their feelings and attitudes are towards this style of learning. I look forward to the time when teachers are actively using the PBL model with no push from me.

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Year two is up and rolling!

The school year has had a great start! All of the work that we put into preparing for the school year paid off. Parents are following our guidelines, and respecting our requests. I have even had discussions with some parents where they have expressed appreciation and gratitude for the work we have done to make the return to school successful!

This all started with my staff buying into the process. They have become champions of the messaging and structures that we need to keep everyone safe while the school day is on. My staff are working hard to be innovative and find effective ways to help students learn and overcome the challenges that 5 months away from school has created. My teachers care. They care that all of our students show growth and resilience despite the pandemic going on right now. I am incredibly proud of every one of them. They have made my job so much more manageable. We have already started to discuss how we are going to slide back into our work with Concept Based Learning and what this can look like with the current restrictions in place. I’m optimistic for this year. We’re over the first major ‘bump’ and we are doing well. It’s tiring work, but it’s rewarding.

As I reflect on my own personal growth as an instructional leader, I need to continue to enhance on the work that took place last year. With so many distractions and a reduced staff in the building, effective time management is going to be instrumental is accomplishing everything that I need to do. I’m really looking forward to being in classrooms, engaging with students, and working with my teachers to having a year of many positives and increasing student achievement.

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The start of year two

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Tomorrow students will be back in the classroom after approximately 5 months of not being in the building. We have been working hard and I have been doing what I can to help all of my staff prepare. There have been a lot of hours put in to get things ready and to alleviate as many concerns as possible from school families and students. I have spent a great deal of time helping teachers prepare their classrooms to create the most welcoming and safe environments possible for our students.

I’m anxious but excited. Nervous and curious. We have done so much planning, but until our processes are tested, we won’t know that it will work. I’ve had to reassure many teachers that what they have prepared is excellent and that we have all done the best we could. I’m guessing that tonight will be sleepless for many. I’m already planning on a very busy day tomorrow ensuring that there is a positive energy everywhere I go and that families see an active, positive, and well-planned school environment, despite the many restriction we have in place.

I feel that my staff believe in what we have put together. I have had many discussions with my team and I know they are being open and honest with me. I demonstrate transparency and honesty with them and they reciprocate. It feels like we are a team, not just individuals doing similar jobs, and I’m incredibly proud of this. Our school culture is one of community and positivity and this is what will help us have a strong start to the year. It’s going to be a fantastic adventure. Here we go…

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First year finish line

Next week marks the successful completion of my first year as a school principal. I’m glad I’m not a betting man because there is no way I would have guessed what this past year would have included. It has been a year of growth and successes, but also a number of missteps. I have worked hard to develop a strong and cohesive team of professionals that are all focused on the same goal. I am proud of what I have accomplished and I look forward to what comes next. The hard work engaging with all of my teachers and working with them proved to be positive and I’m pleased with some of the adjustments that most of them have begun to make. I know that change can take a while, and I have to remain focused on working with these teachers again in the fall to keep us all navigating down the same path.

It has been interesting to navigate through this unprecedented time with COVID-19 having such an impact on all of society. The debate whether schools will open up again in the fall is yet to be seen, but it definitely has started quite the discussion around the importance and necessity of the role of schools in day-to-day life. I have already found myself reflecting on how I will best lead my team into this unknown. I am anticipating a great deal of questions from staff over the summer, and that is okay. I know that I will be thinking about how I can help ensure that my staff’s well-being is looked after, but at the same time that we are doing what is best for our students. I need to continue to be the rock and support point for all my staff if we are to be successful.

I feel like I have just run a marathon and I’m ready for a break. I’m tired, exhausted, and out of juice. I think it’s okay to admit this feeling. What I (and my colleagues) have been through has been a challenge and I’m happy to be coming out the other side. I will make a point of resting and relaxing this summer because I know September is going to be exciting.

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The ability to pivot

The last few weeks have been interesting. Not just for me or my staff, but for everyone. The amount of uncertainty about what the future holds has created a great deal of anxiety and stress for my staff and school families. The amount of questions I am getting and that I don’t have the answer to has caused even more frustration for everyone. I do understand that the frustration is not directed at me, but rather the situation as a whole. The problem is that no one has a crystal ball. At this time, there is no clear understanding for what the future holds in education.

I recognize that my role at this time is not to worry about the long game but to provide as much support as possible to my teachers as they learn to pivot and quickly adjust their pedagogy for an online learning environment. Regardless of a teacher’s experience with online learning, the pressures facing us right now make everything so much more difficult and the confusion and questions from families makes it difficult to get a clear message out. A calm and clear plan from me will help my staff handle all the ‘external noise’ coming at us on a regular basis.

This is a very unexpected journey to take this year. I truly believe in my staff and I know that we will make it through this. It will have it’s challenges, but as long as we stay working as a team, we can adjust what we are doing, and make it through.

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