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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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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Podcast Guest – Rise & Fall in Organizational Culture

In late November, I was invited to be a guest on a podcast called “Wicked Problems, Magnificent Solutions” hosted by Dr. Johanna Pagonis. This was the inaugural episode and I was honoured to be a part of the discussion alongside Michael Hauptman.

Instead of writing about the podcast, take some time and listen!

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