Tag Archives: leadership

To Westdale’s Class of 2016

30 Thursday Jun 2016

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Dear Westdale Class of 2016,

I feel like I am one of you. On Tuesday, September 4, 2012, we all walked into the castle together for our first day at Westdale. For me, it was the beginning of my fourth year of teaching, and I was already entering my seventh school. I was especially hopeful, though, that that would be the year, that Westdale would be the school where I would finally be able to lay down some roots and stay for longer than one semester. I was beyond thrilled to teach French Immersion for the first time, combining my passion and love for each of my subject areas by teaching them in French. And I was surprisingly delighted to be entering a timetable of entirely grade 9 classes, with the hope that you would be the first students I would see through from the first day of grade 9 to your grade 12 graduation.

Watching you all walk across the stage last night filled my heart with pride. The intensity of emotion I felt was almost overwhelming. I’ve taught grade 12 classes in the past and attended grad every year at each school where I worked, but last night was so very special for me. To have even played the smallest part in your passage through the halls of Westdale has been the greatest honour and privilege I may ever know. To have witnessed you learn, grow, and become accomplished young adults has been the most gratifying journey I have ever travelled. To have learned so much from you about teaching, coaching, and mentoring, and about myself, are some of the most important lessons I will ever learn.

From day one, with my Grade 9 French Immersion Drama class on the fourth floor, to my Grade 9 French Immersion Geography class on the third floor, and my Grade 9 Girls’ Physical Education class on the second floor, you kept me constantly on the move and on my toes. I had at least one class of your grade and coached at least one sport for your age level each year. Some of you I have taught two, three, or four times, some of you I have coached in one or many sports, and some of you I have met only briefly. Each one of you has made an impact and holds a special place in my heart as my first group of students I’ve followed all the way through.

I ran early morning and after school practices with you; offered morning, lunch, and after school help sessions for you; chaperoned every one of your school dances, formals, and your prom; took you on athletic and extracurricular field trips; spent hours pouring over, evaluating, and commenting on your inspiring work; spent countless more hours planning lessons, units, and courses. I’ve invested four years in you, and I would never dream of taking back any of those hours for myself. There were wonderful days celebrating your successes, and there were difficult days where I wasn’t giving you my best self. You made me cry both tears of joy and frustration. You made me laugh every single day. You’ve given me more confidence as a teacher and as a leader than any group of students I taught before you. Each and every one of you is beautiful, intelligent, unique, and important.

To the class of 2016: I would wish you good luck in your next endeavours, but I know that you don’t need it. You will all achieve your best wherever you go and in whatever you choose to do. Thank you for being my first true graduating class. You have defined my experience at Westdale since we all started there together in September 2012. Thank you for teaching me so much.

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Blog Series – Transitioning to Ontario’s new FSL Curriculum

06 Monday Apr 2015

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Last month, I presented at my school’s School Council Meeting, and it was a new and interesting experience for me. Our principal has initiated the practice of inviting a different teacher each month to present to parents what they have been learning and working on. Parents have heard about Problem-Based Learning, new Assessment & Evaluation practices, and even the learning goals of one of our Vice Principals. I was surprised when the principal reached out to me and asked me to be the presenter for the March meeting.

It took some time for me to settle on what to present. As the title of this blog suggests, my personal philosophy and mission is to always be learning. In addition, with teaching such a variety of courses at the school, I have quite a range of experiences and different learning that I do with each discipline. My principal’s suggestions to help me narrow my focus were to concentrate somehow on my recent Leadership 1 course, and to talk about current learning with the classes I have this semester.

I was able to springboard from there to the very broad topic of transitioning to the new FSL curriculum in my FIF2D classes (this semester), and in general with the French Immersion Learning Team (as a potential informal leader on the team). I was nervous to so openly speak about my learning and how I am experimenting with new activities and ideas, but it was a rewarding experience to hear support and engagement from the parents in attendance.

Based on my presentation, I’m starting a new series of blogs about my foray into Ontario’s new FSL curriculum in a secondary French Immersion classroom. Each entry will be based on one of the seven “Enduring Ideas” identified in the front matter of the new curriculum:

enduring_ideas(From page 8 of the 9-12 document)

Stay tuned for the first post later this week!

Facilitating Learning Teams – Reflection on my Eighth Session of Leadership 1

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

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The eighth session last week centred around learning teams, collaborative inquiry, problems of practice, and how to facilitate, lead, and share leadership within learning teams and communities.

During our first main activity I decided to be brave and volunteer for the unknown! Each group needed someone to volunteer to be the red personality (the details of which were not disclosed before the activity), and then everyone else in the group received other coloured personalities. We each read our information (without sharing with each other), and then were given the scenario that we were a team planning our final leadership course session celebration, including guest list, budget, menu, seating, greetings, etc. It turned out that the red personality for which I volunteered was the facilitator of the group. At first I was pleased, as working on my facilitation skills is a personal goal of mine. However, I quickly realized that all the other personalities around the table were going to be very difficult to bring together and actually facilitate once everyone took on their roles. We had a snacker, a very intense time-checker, a constantly distracted member, someone constantly on their cell phone, basically every nightmarish behaviour that we have all experienced (or maybe even participated in!) during staff meetings. I actually found that I used some of what we learned in the previous session about managing conflict, as the time-checker and the distracted person were losing patience with each other. I also tried to redirect my phone user to actually look things up for us to try to make their phone use valuable to the task. I will say that it was almost exhausting trying to keep the whole ship afloat and make decisions within this group, and we only worked for 15 minutes. I did however very much enjoy the opportunity to attempt to hone my facilitation skills, even with such a difficult group!

One other takeaway from this session is the different types of questions that facilitators or team members can ask each other to resolve cognitive conflicts and move towards solutions. We looked at examples of clarifying, specifying, and exploring questions, specifically in the context of a problem of practice or inquiry question to expand or refine thinking as necessary. They were great question starters for teacher teams, but they also reminded me to focus on my questioning techniques with students when they are engaging in collaborative and inquiry-based learning in class.

Another thought-provoking session, as always, with only two more to go!

Cognitive Conflict – Reflections on my Seventh Session of Leadership 1

09 Monday Feb 2015

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The title of this session was “Managing Conflict”, and I think many of the course participants (myself included), came into the evening with a preconceived notion of what the session would entail. I personally was a bit apprehensive and excited to discuss this topic as I know that conflict is not something I deal with in the best way. I tend to either avoid conflict entirely when possible, which often simply exacerbates the situation, or if avoiding is just not in the cards, I tend to retreat into myself and become very uncomfortable but also unable to extricate myself from the situation.

However, I was surprised and intrigued when personal or affective conflicts were only a small part of the agenda, and that there was a much more clear focus on cognitive conflict. I hadn’t actually heard this term previously, but now I know that I have most certainly engaged in many a cognitive conflict, and always to my benefit. Cognitive conflict was explained as being a conflict of ideas or approaches in which the issues are separated from the people. Cognitive conflict is an essential characteristic of high performing groups and teams because they push each other into new realms of understanding through the challenges of differing perspectives.

We were also given a framework for facilitating cognitive conflict in a group or team, which I want to bring to my learning team this semester to encourage deeper thinking and to clarify the positions of team members. Moving into more facilitator roles is something I want to try as a personal leadership goal, so I definitely see the framework as being an applicable tool for me.

Finally, the next day at school, my department head asked me about the session the previous evening, and I shared with her the focus on cognitive conflict. It was a PD Day for secondary schools and we were having learning team meetings that morning. My department head encouraged me to try to push in our group with my new knowledge of cognitive conflict as we would be discussing some hot topics such as triangulation of data and using professional judgement in determining our final grades. I was reminded how wonderful my department head is and how much she encourages me to take on small leadership roles on our French Immersion Department. Maybe I’m not so terrible at managing conflict after all!

One Word for 2015 – Creativity #oneword

19 Monday Jan 2015

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So I’m definitely a little late to the game (if I can call it that without trivializing the conversation), but tonight I feel inspired to craft my #oneword blog post. I first saw Sue Dunlop’s post on New Year’s Eve, then Aviva Dunsiger’s entry, followed by Vicky Loras, and most recently George Couros. I know there have been other blog posts as well as Twitter statuses by many other educators sharing their #oneword, but these are the four that stand out in my memory so far in terms of diversity of word choice and explanation.

Without much further ado, my word for 2015 is Creativity.

My goal is to continue to be creative in my teaching practice and to push myself even further in this pursuit. My timetable for semester 2 is entirely comprised of courses that are new to me, so this is the perfect opportunity to try new things.

With my leadership course at HWDSB and my participation with my PLN on Twitter I am also hoping to be more creative in a professional and leadership capacity. I am learning creative ways to be a leader and to share my thinking and my growth as a teacher and as a leader with others through conversations, face-to-face or virtual, and more frequent blogging.

Finally, since my students are at the heart of everything that I do, part of my #oneword is to foster creativity in my students to a greater degree. It comes naturally when I teach drama, as it is one of my 6 C’s at the core of the course (Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Concentration, Control, and Confidence). However, I will be teaching different courses next semester and so will be searching out new strategies to encourage creative thinking. I already know that differentiation and student voice and choice will be major factors in this part of my goal, but I am also seeking outside input and ideas for my quest to encourage student creativity in Grade 10 French Immersion and Grade 11 Health and Physical Education.

Thanks to all the #oneword sharers so far, and to all, bon courage with your 2015 goal.

Collaborative Inquiry – Reflections on my Sixth Session of Leadership 1

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

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For once, I’m actually completing a timely reflection blog post, as sessions 6 just occurred this afternoon/evening! Tonight’s session was radically different for me from Session 5 on Leading Change. While the fifth session was mainly new information and concepts that are somewhat removed from my daily classroom and school experience, session six was firmly rooted in my experiences so far in my teaching career. We explored Collaborative Inquiry, the School Effectiveness Framework, and the Instructional Core, all of which I have been engaging in/with for multiple years now.

The learning for me tonight came from the cross-panel and inter-school discussions of the different forms that Collaborative Inquiry and School Improvement Planning are taking from school to school and from elementary to secondary. As well, tonight’s discussions really pushed me more toward the system view and vision of collaborative inquiry through the lens of the instructional core. My group kept coming back to all of these processes beginning with the students – with student need and with student voice. We drew a bidirectional arrow between the classroom level and the school level of the Instructional Core: student learning need informs teacher learning need which informs school leader learning need and School Improvement Plan; SIP in turn informs school leader practice and teacher instructional practice which comes back to student experience and learning in classrooms. Continual re-evaluation and readjustment are necessary, which is why inquiry is a cycle meant to have multiple iterations, in order for student needs to be addressed.

We also watched a short clip of Dr. Steven Katz on curriculum.org in which he talks about intentionally interrupting the status quo in your instructional practice in order to identify and address student learning needs. Our facilitator shared that the school leader can be that interruptor – he or she can provide the time and space for teachers to be reflective about their instructional tasks and to plan with purpose, always keeping the student at the centre.

After tonight’s session, I’ve realized that I need to revisit my developing final project, which is my personal leadership journey based on the OLF, SAT, and my strengths and growth areas. Although it’s my journey, I definitely have not put students and their needs in the forefront of my thought and initial creation of this personal growth plan. It’s been so energizing to see how much this course makes me think, question, and re-evaluate.

Connecting to the OLF – Reflections on my Fourth Session of Leadership 1

05 Monday Jan 2015

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I’m definitely behind the eight ball here as session four was two months ago, but better late than never! This will also be a shorter reflection as I had to leave this particular session early to return to my school for Grade 8 Open House to welcome prospective students and act as an ambassador for Westdale’s French Immersion Program. As such, I was only able to participate in the introductory activities regarding the Ontario Leadership Framework (OLF).

Some highlights that I noted for myself about the framework were that it is evidence-based and backed by sound research. It also provides all members of Ontario’s education system a shared vision and common language with which to discuss and engage in leadership activities. After a brief introduction to the merits of the document, we were asked to skim the chart on School-Level Leadership and highlight or jot down a few points that stood out on a first read-through. The proceeding discussions with the other teachers in the course were very interesting. Although there were some similar threads touched on by multiple people, most of us each selected different aspects which I think speaks to the richness of the document.

It was at this point in the evening that I had to leave, so I had a quick discussion with Beth Woof, a vice-principal and facilitator of the session about what I would be missing. After outlining the coming activities, she said something that really stuck with me. She shared that effective school leaders know the framework and its dimensions so well that they don’t have to think about it. It is embedded in their thoughts and actions and becomes part of how they operate and interact in their school. This has stuck with me as a very profound description of school-level leaders and as a seemingly tall order right now as the OLF is still new to me.

One final piece is that right around the date of this session, I came across a beginning series of blog posts by George Couros analysing each dimension of the OLF from the viewpoint of a non-Ontario educator. He crafted posts on three of the dimensions which you can access here, and I am interested in reading his analyses of the last two dimesions.

Defining The Ideal Leader – Reflections on My Third Session of Leadership 1

17 Monday Nov 2014

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The third session was quite multi-faceted, so I’ll be concentrating my reflection on only two activities. Firstly, as a means of introduction to the SAT (Self-Assessment Tool for Aspiring Leaders), we were asked in our groups and/or individually to define some characteristics, competencies, and practices of effective leaders. Following that initial brainstorming, we were asked to walk around and share our thoughts with people in other groups, in hopes of starting conversations, and perhaps identifying some common threads. On the surface, this activity seemed simple enough (kind of like a think-pair-share), but it ended up being shockingly difficult.

The majority of the brainstorming time in my initial group centered around defining and differentiating between characteristics, competencies, and practices. However, once the walk-around began, I quickly discovered that different groups and individuals had defined each term in different ways. A large part of almost every conversation I had was focused on deciding how to recategorize their information into my framework rather than the free and open sharing of ideas.

Once we returned to our groups, we debriefed and shared the information we gathered from other people. During this time I will admit that I was not the most active participant in the conversation as I still needed to process and categorize everything from my conversations in a satisfactory way before I could move on. Using my own thoughts and those of my group, I see:

Characteristics as personality traits and the heart of a leader

(flexible, passionate, approachable, organized, resilient, honest, humble, optimistic, inspirational, reflective, empathetic, equitable, brave, adaptable)

Competencies as the skills, knowledge, and the head of a leader

(competent in the norms of collaboration, knowledge of high-yield instructional strategies, skills in active listening, emotional intelligence, mediation and facilitation skills)

Practices as the visible behaviours, habits, and actions of a leader

(building trust and relationships by talking, listening, and showing appreciation, modelling effective instructional strategies, setting high expectations, setting goals, reflecting, facilitating, communicating and collaborating positively and regularly)

Would you agree with the definitions for each category? Would you add any other traits, skills/competencies, or actions to any of the lists?

Secondly, the course facilitators introduced the SAT document and invited us to explore and discuss it within our groups, and to begin pondering our own personal leadership growth plan based on our strengths and weaknesses we identified in the document. Again, I admit that this was another discussion period where I was not very active. The first time I am introduced to something, my preference is to study it individually before talking it through with others, so I spent the majority of this time studying and absorbing the various sections of the document.

I still don’t have much more to say about the SAT or my own plan as I haven’t had many opportunities to continue my reflection since the third session, what with a four-day school excursion, midterm report cards, and life getting in the way. Unfortunately, session 4 begins in less than 48 hours and I am supposed to have a rough outline of my leadership growth plan to share with my group facilitator. Based on my (limited) thinking so far, I think I will need to bring a few ideas to be fleshed out and to receive feedback. I have yet to strike the plan that feels just right – not too small and narrow, but not too large and daunting. Hopefully I’ll find Goldilocks tomorrow.

“What’s Your Operating Style?” – Reflections on My Second Session of Leadership 1

15 Saturday Nov 2014

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Between sessions 1 and 2, each course participant was given a login and asked to complete the 4D-i assessment from One Smart World. Our second session together involved examining and interpreting our individual results, connecting with others who received similar results, and learning about those who had different results.

The Assessment

The 4D-i is an inventory of your personal operating style – your preferred methods to solve problems, make decisions, and communicate with others. For the purposes of this blog post, I will be greatly simplifying the 4D-i, but for more information you can visit the website, especially the sample portfolio.

The first part of the results is your colour which indicates your overall preference. There are three possibilities:

Red – Decision-Making

Red thinkers like to stop the process and get straight to making decisions and solving problems. They use strategies such as getting to the heart of issues, relying on past experience to guide actions, and listening to their gut feelings to move forward decisively.

Yellow – Understanding

Yellow thinkers slow down the process to gather data and understand people’s feelings. They collect, organize, and analyse information, express their own feelings and empathize with the opinions of others, and seek clarity on both fronts before taking action.

Green – Creating

Green thinkers delve into the process to generate more insights, ideas, and viewpoints. They brainstorm, seek out alternative problems and solutions, challenge current ideas and methods, and use their intuition to guide decision making.

Along with your colour, you are also categorized as warm, cool, or balanced. Warm thinkers prefer emotional strategies such as expressing feelings, empathizing with others, trusting your own heart, and making decisions based on your personal values. Cool thinkers employ logical strategies, including getting to the crux of a problem, gathering data, asking questions, and using past experiences. Balanced thinkers are equally comfortable using emotional and logical strategies.

The final section is a score of your Personal Spirit, which includes the strength of your outlook on life or challenging situations, your sense of having control to impact others in positive ways, and your initiative in the face of difficult tasks.

The Results

I came out of this process identified as a Balanced Yellow, with a slight edge for emotional over logical thinking, and as high in personal spirit with my initiative being my strongest factor. After discussing with fellow yellows, I found this to be a very accurate description of how I operate. It takes me time to come to a decision. When faced with a difficult decision or problem, my first instinct is to gather, structure, and organize all available and pertinent information systematically. I also take into account how different solutions or possibilities will make me feel. Further, if other people will be implicated in or affected by this problem or decision, then I feel strongly that I need to gather their thoughts, opinions, and feelings, and do my utmost to arrive at a conclusion that will be satisfying to everyone. I would definitely classify myself as a people pleaser – I want everyone to be on board with decisions and action plans when working in a team. On the flip side, I can sometimes find the whole process of making decisions exhausting. As well, because of my operating style, I have been described by friends and family as being very indecisive, which they can find at times quite frustrating. As a future leader, I need to be aware of the way my time-consuming actions are perceived by others.

Red was my second highest preference, with a very strong score in being values-driven when making decisions as well as needing to ensure that my solutions and conclusions are valid. However, I was almost angry at myself that I scored 0 (meaning I have no preference) for following my gut intuition to make a decision. After some reflection, I realized that I do sometimes have a gut feeling at the start of a problem or decision process. And occasionally after my exhaustive information gathering and emotional soul-searching, the conclusion I arrive at is in fact the one my gut told me at the start. Yet I cannot bring myself to trust my gut and just make a quick decision. As a future leader, I will need to work on improving this strategy so that I don’t frustrate my team with the time it takes for me to arrive at decisions.

Green was my lowest preference. It was actually by far the least prevalent operating system in the room. Out of the 30 or so people in the course, I believe there were only two people who showed a strong preference for green creative thinking. As a teacher of Dramatic Arts, a class where I work to foster and encourage creative thinking and taking time to explore during the creative process, I was upset that I scored so low in my preference for using creative strategies in my own life. I also thought with further reflection that the generally low scores among the 30 of us in this course might be a symptom of the school system and of our larger society. Many of us have seen Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk “How Schools Kill Creativity”. Taking the time to brainstorm, seeking alternative solutions or even alternative questions, envisioning new possibilities and scenarios – all of these strategies are often discouraged in favour of taking decisive action and moving forward with initiatives. As a future leader, I need to remember to practice what I preach to my Drama students (and to my students in my other courses for that matter) and take time to explore and experiment, as well as encouraging my team to do so.

Finally, after hearing from my fellow yellows as well as the greens and reds in the room, the importance of shared, team-based leadership (one of my personal goals from my post-session 1 reflection) really sunk in. Successful leadership would come from a team of leaders, each with slightly different preferences, who could bring a balanced approach to challenges.

Now I’d like to hear from you – for anyone else who has done the 4D-i assessment: What were your results? Did you feel that they accurately described your operating style? How are you using your knowledge of your preferences to affect how you approach problems or how you work on a team? For anyone who hasn’t done the assessment: What colour do you think is your preference? Are you a warm emotional thinker, or a cool logical thinker? Which colour preference do you think would be the best for an effective leader to have? Do you see any other advantages or disadvantages to each colour preference? I’m looking forward to your comments.

Why Leadership Now? Reflections on My First Session of Leadership 1

12 Wednesday Nov 2014

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Going into my first night of Leadership 1 through HWDSB, I honestly had no idea what to expect. The facilitators had shared some documents electronically prior to the session that I perused, as well as a list of the groups we would be working in for the duration of the course. Upon first glance, I almost felt disappointed or unsure about my group, as there was only one other secondary teacher, and my group facilitator was to be an elementary principal. My first reaction was worry – would my interactions in this group be relevant enough for my situation? But I took a step back and realized my bias. Cross-panel relationships and connections could be so fruitful and interesting to enrich my perspective, and it is an area in my personal practice that I have not yet truly explored.

I ran with this idea when I arrived at the session and we were asked to contemplate our intentions in registering for this course. Looking around the room, I was easily one of, if not the youngest teacher in the room. So why would a teacher in only her sixth year in the profession be sitting in this course? Here are some of my responses to the questions of Why Leadership? and Why Leadership Now?

1) Networking

Beginning with joining Twitter in October 2012, I have been striving to build a strong PLN. Through the face-to-face contacts made in this leadership course, I can diversify my PLN with cross-panel and system connections.

2) Informal Leadership Roles

I have engaged in some informal leadership roles over my first few years of teaching. I have participated on committees for Numeracy and AER, and I have facilitated PD sessions with small groups and with a whole staff. I am hoping to find more of these opportunities and learn how to better engage other colleagues in the process.

3) Experimenting with Shared Leadership

Coordinated, shared leadership is part of the strategic directions of the HWDSB, and it is a skill that I know that I personally need to further develop. I had several roles as a student leader in university, and as stated above, I have engaged in some informal leadership as a teacher, but my comfort zone is individual leadership. I grew up much preferring to work alone than with others. However, collaboration and working within a team of leaders is essential and is part of today’s educational reality. I hope that through my experiences in this course I can reorient my preference towards shared , team-based leadership.

I am certain that with further reflection I would generate more responses to this question of Why Leadership? , but I landed on the above reasons at the end of my first session. To really address my second question, Why Leadership Now? , I think I would reply that because as a student, I was almost always in leadership positions, and it has felt unusual, and dare I say unnatural, to not be in consistent leadership roles as a professional.