Okay, this is a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but given that the sun is now out and my three older kids have exchanged their soccer cleats and basketballs for another season of summer swimming, I have been thinking a fair bit about swimming, myself.  I was also reminded of a favourite article of mine, by Herb Childress, Seventeen Reasons Why Football is Better Than School.  While I don’t agree with it all, it does open up some interesting discussions.

So, with some inspiration from Childress’ list, just how could school be more like swimming?

When kids are grouped, age and ability matter

In swimming, levels and groups take age and maturity into account, and blend it with ability.  Five-year-olds and 12 year-olds are not together, but there may be kids within a difference of three years of their age training together; as students improve, the groups are fluid enough to allow stronger swimmers to advance to new groups.  Of course, in school, the December 31st / January 1st boundary is almost impenetrable.

Reporting clearly separates skills and work habits

I have given my life to education, and I will admit that I better understand my kids’ swim report cards than I do their school report cards.  Their swimming report cards clearly indicate skills mastered and those in-progress.  There are often comments about behaviour, work habits and attitude, but these are not confused with the other part of the report.  In school, we often blend achievement and attitudes making it challenging to separate these two equally important, but very different, areas.  Even with my own kids’ report cards, I will sometimes read it and ask “what does this really mean?”

Parents are expected to lend their expertise but not to be the coaches

Every parent in the swim club is expected to volunteer.  We are not expected to coach (coaches coach), but all parents have some skills or expertise that can be transferred to benefit the group.  Parents are more than just fundraisers and they are not quasi-coaches.  In schools,  parents expertise is not always expected, encouraged, or fully utilized.

Older kids are expected to work with younger kids

Kids can’t wait until they are old enough to spend time working with younger swimmers.  Higher-level swimmers return and typically volunteer in the very youngest classes in order to keep coach/athlete ratios low and, over time, some will gain credentialing and transition into coaching roles.  We do some of this in school, but it is often inconsistent, and we have no great laddering or apprenticeship from keen and interested student to future classroom teacher.

Kids work as individuals and as part of a team

Swimming is an individual sport.  Individuals are responsible for their own performances.  That said, there is a collective component to swimming where results are aggregated together for the team.  Teammates cheer for each other’s success in ways we don’t see in classrooms.  It is a rare classroom that celebrates the overall achievement of the students.

There are at least six or seven practices to every competition

There are hours and hours of practices with very few competitions.  Better yet, kids often select which competitions to attend, knowing,  in the end, it is about their own best times, so attending all competitions may not be right for them.  In schools, we often quiz and test on an almost-daily basis in some areas — partly, to continually monitor progress, and for a range of other reasons including a belief that it helps ensure on-task behaviour.

Coaches share a plan with athletes before practice, and then post it publicly

Each practice has a particular focus that is explained to the athletes at the beginning, and then the practice plan is outlined on the board for the swimmers to track their practice.  This is similar to what we see with some teachers and their use of overviews and visual calendars in the classroom, but in swimming, it has a uniformity which kids follow from day-to-day and year-to-year.

Coaches give constant feedback

On almost every length, coaches give feedback to swimmers.  They will stop athletes and re-set them with constructive feedback when necessary.  Coaches are also not afraid to get in the water and model the drills and strokes for the athletes.  Very often, coaches still see themselves as athletes as well and are doing their own training (learning).

While there is competition, most kids are obsessed with their own best times

My kids couldn’t tell you about what they won or how they placed, but they can always tell me if their times have improved.  While there is always a competitive piece to swimming, as in school, much of the competition is focused on individual improvement and not their success relative to others.  I would love my children to have the same passion for their best art work at school, or strongest English composition, as they have for their new PB (personal best) in a given swimming discipline.

Nobody talks about averages

In the end, it is about celebrating the best performance in each discipline. There is never a discussion at swimming that a swimmer swam this much at the beginning of the year and that much at the end; their real level is an average of the two times.  Athletes have multiple opportunities over time to display best results.

Yes, it is a little simplistic.  I also realize I am far from a swimming expert and while I have spent thousands of hours in gymnasiums coaching basketball over the last two decades, my swimming experience is really as a parent in Red Cross Swim Lessons and two summers of Summer Swimming.   And, I could probably write a similar post arguing the opposite about how swimming could and should be more like school.

That said, in education and working with young people, sometimes we need to look around for other models that have some pretty appealing characteristics.

My participation in the event was as panel participant in Young Readers: Strategies for Our Future.  The panel, hosted by Simi Sara, also included Maureen Dockendorf from Coquitlam and Lyne Laganiere from Quebec.  While not my area of expertise, it does hold great interest for me personally (as the father of four young children), and professionally — believing a reading culture, fostered from a young age, is crucial for our society.

So, when it comes to young people and reading, panel participants agreed the state of reading is not as dire as some statistics show (Here is a link to Ontario data which shows a dramatic decrease in young people reporting they like to read), because what we are all seeing is reading for pleasure is, at least, holding if not growing for young people.

A collection of other observations we made:

• The Harry Potter effect – multi-generations in a household reading the same books at the same time, as books for youth, have often become books for all.   Recently this has been seen with The Hunger Games with kids, parents and grandparents reading the same books.
• Books that were banned in schools, even a decade ago, are now being used to engage boys in reading – from comic books to graphic novels, to magazines and blogs.  This is all part of a larger theme, that of choice in what kids can read, either in school or at home.
• Many of the strategies that work with adults to encourage reading, also work with kids — book clubs are on the rise in schools, libraries and the community.
• Technology is absolutely changing reading, but exactly ’how’ is not so clear.  One powerful way is how it allows young people to build community around books — just as movies based on books build community.
• Social media can create networks for young people to connect about their reading. Vancouver teacher librarian, Moira Ekdahl, shared  a wonderful example of how Hazel, a John Oliver student, used technology to build community around her readings.
• One concern is that with all of our well-intentioned literacy efforts, we are losing some of the joy of reading in our over-analysis and scientific dissecting of works.
• Another challenge is ensuring we continue to promote Canadian content (and in particular, Aboriginal stories) to our students as they continue to read and become  interested in mass-marketed books like The Hunger Games, and Twilight series.
• We do need to keep our “eye on the prize” and while there are some boundaries over what we want our kids to read (for example, at the event, the case was made around work that promotes sexual stereotypes) having our students read newspapers, magazines, or even Captain Underpants, opens the door to reading.
• It is really important to not lament what has been (or perceived to have been) lost over past decades — this is a dangerous cycle — it is more important to look for what is needed and what is possible moving forward.
• If we want a culture of reading in Canada which includes our young people, we likely don’t need more of what we used to have, but need to build a culture for our changing, and increasingly digital world.

To close, I want to thank three amazing educators in West Vancouver who have helped me prepare on this topic, are great influencers of my thinking, and are leading the way:  Cathie Ratz, Principal at Irwin Park Elementary School, Jody Billingsley, Vice-Principal at Lions Bay Community School, and Sandra-Lynn Shortall, District-Principal for Early Learning.

My most widely read post ever has been Dr. Stuart Shanker and Self-Regulation, which is a summary of Dr. Stuart Shanker’s presentation at the November 2010, BCSSA Fall Conference.  It was around this time Shanker started to become known in the BC educational community, because of his work in Ontario and from a few presentations he had made on self-regulation in British Columbia.  Since then, he has become an extremely influential figure in early learning, as well as on how we look at students with unique needs, and at student support service models throughout our province. And, last month, he shared centre stage with the Honourable George Abbott, Minister of Education, as they discussed ‘the way forward’ in education to board chairs, superintendents, secretary-treasurers and principals.

So, what is the message he is sharing?

Shanker has presented the marshmallow test video on several occasions to provoke a room.  And, just as the Did You Know videos became synonymous with the changing world of education and Sir Ken Robinson’s RSA Animate video, so directly linked to educational change, it is rare for someone to present now on self-regulation without showing or at least referencing this video:

Shanker argues that approximately 70 per cent of kids cannot wait to eat the marshmallow, and that longitudinal studies done on the kids who do wait show they do perform better in life, have better entrance scores to university, better relationship success, and higher standings on a number of other factors (Shanker does acknowledge there has been some debate about this test and what it represents — but maintains that recent data has supported the original findings).

Using the marshmallow test as a backdrop, Shanker argues there is research to show that we can actually improve a child’s ability to self-regulate — that is, to manage stress (environmental, physiological, emotional, cognitive, and social) and this ability is particularly important for students with special needs, because these students have too many stresses to control themselves and not enough energy to self-regulate.

In the classroom, Shanker says we need to support children so they are not overstimulated or overstressed.  This involves giving students the ability to learn self-regulatory skills so that they can self-regulate when stressed, and this can also include adapting to their learning environment with more opportunities for physical activity (see Spark for more information on this).

Shanker is not afraid to be bold. Here is a collection of other semi-related ideas he has shared at the recent event with the Minister:

• Diagnoses get in the way of student progress.  It is better to identify a child’s strengths and work to mitigate the child’s deficits by focussing on strengths
• Parent education does not work — we need models where parents actually engage (StrongStart was shared as a positive example)
• Since interventions for FASD, ADHS, ASD etc. are similar; don’t focus on the diagnosis; rather, focus on the menu of interventions appropriate to the child

He ended with something I have heard him say many times before . . . . there is “no such thing as a bad, stupid or lazy kid.” These are powerful words with a powerful message.

Over the last 18 months, Shanker’s work has become hugely influential in West Vancouver and around British Columbia. There are three key areas of energy  that I often speak on currently happening in West Vancouver:  digital literacy, inquiry and self-regulation, although, I did not know what self-regulation was just two years ago.

Shanker’s work is exciting, and it offers a new lens on the struggle children have growing up.  We are looking forward at thoughtful research on the success of self-regulation initiatives to better meet the needs of  our most needy learners, as well as the needs of all learners.

I often speak about the need for face-to-face interactions in our changing education system and  increasingly digital world.  I have also cautioned about the proliferation of fully online courses, (in this district or elsewhere) as being an important move forward. There is great power in digital learning to support, supplement, and sometimes even replace face-to-face learning, but K-12 should remain, primarily, a face-to-face enterprise as we prepare our future generations.

Two weeks ago, I had a great reminder of the power of face-to-face.  For more than 20 years the West Vancouver School District has had a relationship with Mejiro Kenshin Junior and Senior High School in Tokyo, Japan.  This has been a very enriching relationship for all involved.  Each summer, Mejiro sends a large group of students to West Vancouver to study English and engage in cultural experiences, and we have teacher and student exchanges on a regular basis. Also, over time, those most closely involved with the relationship have retired. Each year, there have been fewer people to explain the history and importance of the relationship.  I have heard the stories about the relationship, read briefs and have spoken to a number of teachers and students who have travelled to Mejiro, but I did not truly appreciate this relationship and all of its importance until I had spent some face-to-face time with our friends in Japan.

Along with our Board Chair, Cindy Dekker, we were kindly invited to Mejiro, as their guests, to discuss our relationship, renew our bonds of friendship, and build new partnerships. Being the start of the Japanese school year, I had the opportunity to speak at the school’s Opening Day, and to all the new parents at Mejiro. I spoke of how technology will connect our world all the more.  I also spoke about the power of relationships –- the one true strength as a social tool in reinforcing and deepening the relationships we make in the face-to-face world.

After a whirlwind, three-day trip, I left committed to the continuity and strength of our relationship – and, I wonder if I would have felt the same way if we hadn’t connected in person.  We also made some commitments for the future that will see Mejiro assisting with Japanese instruction in our community, and will have our teachers assisting with English instruction at their institution. I also left with relationships that, when I connect with future emails, will mean something more than just an electronic connection.

So for us, as well as for our kids, it is one thing to explore and learn in the digital space, or understand things in theory, but real world learning and real world relationships will still require face-to-face interactions.

I am trying to become a better storyteller.  While some may still believe our way to a new educational model will come through government policies and proclamations, the more likely successful route is through the development and sharing of educational models for a possible future. The models we develop and share can, and will, serve as guides as we move away from the current educational reality.  And, there is an appetite for evolution and transformation — almost everyone I speak with, be it student, parent, teacher or administrator, is excited about what is possible – call it 21st century learning, personalized learning, or just “learning”.

The power, then,  is in the thousands of edu-bloggers sharing their stories; the stories that lay the ground work for others to seek their paths to the future. There isn’t just ’one way’ to the possible future with education and schooling, and it is also the reason why we need so many voices, (at times, seemingly at odds with one another) to offer a range of paths toward what is possible. The next education system will not come in a binder, it will come from teachers, schools and districts embracing new opportunities to grow and create more ‘new’ stories in our schools than there are ‘old’ stories.  As mentioned in my previous post, the system will become increasingly flexible at every level, and the role of education leaders will be to knit these stories and network together.

I have previously cited Dean Shareski (here) and what he describes as narrative champions.  In finding ways to become a narrative champion, Dean writes about subscribing. In West Vancouver, I see this happening as more people subscribe to the Principals’ Blogs (receiving alerts as new posts are published). He describes the retelling of stories, and something I try to do on a semi-regular basis through blogging, and as we also do through the district website and other venues.  Finally, he lists the recording of stories – and this is something we need to become better at — finding ways for those who do not have a public voice to share their learning, teaching and their messages more widely. I have also found Steven Johnson’s book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation to be very influential reading with the notion that radical innovation is very accessible for those who are able to cultivate it by stitching together the ideas of many.

Here is a short animated summary of the book:

In my bid to become a better storyteller, I will be adding three more stories that will continue to weave the West Vancouver story and build paths to the future. The three different, but equally strong, presentations at the April 10th West Vancouver Board of Education meeting included Zoltan Virag sharing what he is doing with iPads in Music (click on the link to find some fabulous iPad music resources) at Irwin Park Elementary School. Then, Jody Billingsley shared (his blog post here) his presentation on the ripples of influence of Lions Bay Community School, in the school, community, and in the world, with the final story of the evening from Liz Hill, Ryan Loewen and Amelia Poitras who shared some exciting findings from their first year of using Fast ForWord at Westcot Elementary.

Some of the most important skills of the digital age, are time-tested, but the power in telling stories has not only stood the test of time, it is more important in this age than ever.

Just as we talk about students owning their own learning as an optimal goal, the same is true for adults;  the more we own our learning (and teaching), the more optimal and powerful a system we will have.  As a leader in a school district, I want all levels of government to grant us the flexibility to allow districts to have their own flavour, or character within a larger framework.  In turn, as district leaders, we can do the same for schools in allowing schools their own signature. It is a given, tensions may continue around central or local control, but flexibility and balance should be a consideration here as well.

The process repeats itself in schools with principals giving teachers the ability to be flexible, and teachers doing the same for students in giving students choice in the what and the how of their learning.  I do often hear, “we just need permission”, and I am not always sure what that means, but it does point to a culture of thoughtful experimentation where those at each level in the system recognize it as part of their role to increase the flexibility, choice and ownership for others in the system.

Granted, flexibility is only part of the equation.  The commitment of everyone in the system (as it becomes less standardized) is to network – pulling people together to pull together key ideas.  Teachers need to network students with similar passions, principals need to assist in networking teachers, district leaders to network schools, and governments to districts. Ideally, governments around the world would network together, because just as it is important that two students network and work together to solve a problem in a Grade 5 social studies class, the same holds true for everyone in the system. We want BC to learn from and with Alberta, Ontario, Australia, Finland and all others who are on this journey to move education forward.

Part of my role as district leader is to encourage flexibility, to be a cheerleader for innovation and then to tell the story, weaving together the different journeys  in the district as part of a shared narrative.

Creating a more flexible system is all the rage right now — who doesn’t favour it? It does need to be more than just letting people do whatever they want to do. It needs to be systemic, across all roles, giving increased choice for others to work within a larger framework, and pulling the different approaches in a network of learning — together.

I find it easier to write and talk about a system with less standardization and control than what we currently have, but it will be part of our challenge going forward to allow passions to be pursued, and permission to be given. Hopefully, we are now at the front end of the era of educational flexibility.

It is with great excitement and anticipation I announce the birth of the Culture of Yes Flog.

We see the statistics and hear about how quickly the digital world is changing –standing still is not an option.  So, over the last few months my team at the Culture of Yes (I understand most people in our district affectionately refer to them as “Kennedy’s Yes Men”), have been hard at work designing our next project.  The project idea was put to seed just a few short months ago, when my colleague, mentor and friend, the Superintendent of Schools for the Vancouver School Board, Steve Cardwell, proffered a challenge in his interview with the Vancouver Courier, “I used to have a blog, probably ahead of most metro superintendents. I discontinued it. I find blogs to be not as useful, but I’m moving ahead of blogs. I’ll probably be the first superintendent to launch a vlog, a video blog.”  Wow! Now that sounds like a challenge. And, this is the why and how we are here today.  Mr. Cardwell, colleague, mentor and friend, I see your VLOG and raise you with the launch of my FLOG.

And, just what is a FLOG?

A FLOG is a fax-blog and combines the innovation of the blog with the safety and security of the facsimile machine.  While some see fax machines as the near-dead technology of the early 1990s, like many things that have enjoyed a renaissance revival, I think the technology is about to make a comeback, and I want to be on the front-end of  that edge with my flog. Once a week, I will be putting pen to paper, editing my work, reprinting it and then sharing it with the world through the power of faxing an exact copy.  If you are willing to share your fax number with me, once a week, I will fax you my latest thinking directly into your fax machine, letter tray.  And if you like my flog, please feel free to share it with others.  As an added value to this innovative service, I will also be encouraging re-flogging.  I hope you will consider sending my flog to others with employing the new old technology –  it IS all very exciting.

Further, in the spirit of Twitter, I will also send a Big Fax of the Day.  I will handwrite the most interesting thing I hear each day, and again fax it directly to you.  Again, please feel free to re-fax to your fax network.

We have lonely fax machines in all of our schools just waiting for this revival, and the hoarding mentality in all of us as educators will ensure we need never (or dare) discard our fax machines, so we ARE ready for this day.  As this movement grows, I can also see engaging others and hosting public flogging sessions. I think there would be real power in seeing all our educators engaged in flogging in all our schools and in the community – how thrilling it would be to be part of a flogathon.

Storing your favourite faxes would be simple – no longer would you need to struggle with saving files on a computer, simply take the printouts from the fax machine and store them in a binder for easy reference.  What better way to display your engagement in the digital era than with more binders sitting on your office shelf.

Now, I know some of you have not used your fax machine in quite a while, so let’s review some fax etiquette.  Always include a cover sheet when you send a fax.  If you would like to subscribe to the Culture of Yes Flog, indicate this on one sheet, and then add a cover sheet with the message “Page 1 of 2 – See other Page”.  If you hear a busy signal,  don’t leave — just wait a couple of minutes and then try your fax again.  Once you hear the dial-up modem tone – you know your fax has been sent  — but just to be certain, be sure to print a confirmation sheet for further reference.  And yes, long-distance charges will apply.

It has been a pleasure engaging with you on my blog over the last few years, hopefully, my flog will take our relationship to a new level and will save the fax machine.  Finally, I hope your first day of April is as good as mine.

I feel like a Twitter veteran with my five-year subscription anniversary coming up on March 23.  And yet, in recent weeks, I have been disillusioned with Twitter — it must be the growing pains of social media.  While the current labour unrest in BC has, at times, brought out  thoughtful discord, too often, as discussions have moved to Twitter, it has brought out name calling, anonymous accounts, idea trashing, and inappropriate language.  Too often, adults have used the power of social media in ways we would never want our kids to.  Too often, I see one of the great powers of social media for educators being misused, instead of fostering its ability to role model for students how we engage in ethical and thoughtful ways.

So, with that said, I stand by the comment that I often make — that learning through social media, and Twitter in particular, has been a most powerful and inspirational learning.   Here is a slide I often include in my presentations describing Twitter:

A recent article by Max Cooke:  Twitter and Canadian Educators,  from the Canadian Education Association, nicely captured the use and potential for Twitter:

An emerging group of leaders in Canadian education has attracted thousands of followers. They’ve made Twitter an extension of their lives, delivering twenty or more tweets a day that can include, for example, links to media articles, research, new ideas from education bloggers, or to their own, or simply a personal thought. At their best, edu-tweeters are adeptly leveraging Twitter to brand themselves, to reinvent teacher PD, and perhaps to accelerate the transformation of our Canadian education systems. Twitter is being used to extend formal PD conferences beyond their venue to followers on Twitter in real time; it’s facilitating informal discussions (“unconferences”) among educators with common interests; it’s allowing best practices to “go viral” on the Internet; and it’s allowing innovative classroom teachers to challenge the status quo.

In his article, Cooke included a list of 30 Canadian Educators to assist new users as they begin to explore Twitter. One of the key ideas about Twitter is to follow a diverse group of people to avoid the ‘echo chamber’ effect. I, personally, have found it very useful to follow a group of people with local, BC, Canadian and International content, and even a few for humour (how else do I explain why I follow @peeweeherman), and I am often asked by new users, who to follow?  My suggestion is you start by following one person, look at who they follow, and build your interest and list from there.  I found Cooke’s list of Canadian edu-tweeters to be very helpful, and it gave me a few great, new people to follow as well.

So, whether you are a new or experienced user, and having been inspired by Cooke’s article, here are 40 BC edu-tweeters I would start with as you look at who to follow.  I understand there are several thousand BC educators now using Twitter, so this list is only a small sample of the connections available. While almost all organizations have corporate accounts, I find following and engaging with people to be much more satisfying. My only rules in creating this list were (and are) that people are directly related to K-12 education, and not in West Vancouver (the West Van tweeters are all great and I encourage you to follow them from this list here).

Aaron Mueller, Secondary Online Teacher, Vancouver

Al Smith - Teacher-Librarian, Kelowna

Brian Kuhn – Technology Leader, Coquitlam

Bruce Beairsto - Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University

Cale Birk – Secondary School Principal, Kamloops

Carrie Gelson – Elementary School Teacher, Vancouver

Chris Wejr - Elementary School Principal, Agassiz

Darcy Mullin – Elementary School Principal, Summerland

David Truss – Vice-Principal, Coquitlam

David Wees – IB Math and Science Teacher, Vancouver

Elisa Carlson – Director of Instruction, Surrey

Errin Gregory – Elementary Teacher, Gold Trail

George Abbott – BC Minister of Education

Gino Bondi - Secondary Principal, Vancouver

Glen Hansman – 2nd Vice-President, BC Teachers Federation

Gregg Ferrie - Director of Technology, Saanich

Heather Daily – Teacher-Librarian, Coquitlam

Hugh McDonald – Elementary School Teacher, Surrey

Jacob Martens – Secondary Science Teacher, Vancouver

Janet Steffenhagen – Education Reporter for the Vancouver Sun

Johnny Bevacqua – School Principal, Vancouver

Karen Lirenman, Elementary School Teacher, Surrey

Kelley Inden - Secondary Humanities Teacher, Nechako Lakes

Larry Espe – Superintendent, Peace River North

Peter Vogel - ICT / Physics Teacher, Vancouver

Mike McKay – Superintendent, Surrey

Moira Ekdahl - Teacher-Librarian, Vancouver

Neil Stephenson – District Principal of Innovation and Inquiry, Delta

Paige MacFarlane - Assistant-Deputy Minister, BC Ministry of Education

Patti Bacchus - Board Chair, Vancouver School Board

Ron Sherman – Elementary Principal, Kootenay lakes

Robert Genaille – Teacher, Fraser-Cascade

Sheila Morissette - Secondary Principal, Surrey

Silas White – Board Chair, Sunshine Coast

Stephen Petrucci – Director of Instruction, Peace River North

Steve Cardwell – Superintendent, Vancouver

Tamara Malloff – Teacher-Librarian, Kootenay Lakes

Terry Ainge – Secondary Principal, Delta

Tia Henriksen – Elementary Vice-Principal, Surrey

Valerie Irvine – Educational Technology Professor, University of Victoria

Looking through my list of who I follow, and checking in on their accounts, has been a good process and an excellent reminder of the passion and curiosity so many BC educators have and are sharing in digital space.  It was interesting to see how different districts were represented — I could have found at least another dozen from Surrey for example (like @rwd01 and @bobneuf ) but tried to share a more provincial picture.  This list should not be looked at as a Best of list (this is relative), but rather a starting point for new users, or users with more experience looking to broaden their conversations. To be sure, even as I go through my list, I know I have missed a number of awesome BC educators I learn with and from on a regular basis.

So, what of the powers of this social media tool? It is the ideas, not role or geography that matter.  And, hopefully, this small slice of my network can help you grow your network.

As a follow-up to my “real-real” learning post (here), last week I had the chance to spend some time with four Sentinel Secondary students, Adam Mitha, Justin Wong, Jun Jeagal and Sailesh Suri, to hear a story, firsthand, of what this kind of learning looks and feels like.

Supported by their teacher, Joel Gibson, the four young men, former classmates in Joel’s Information Technology class, were inspired to develop an “App” for the school that could easily match any created by experts in the field. They didn’t get paid, they didn’t get school credit, but it was some of the best learning they had ever experienced. In my conversation with them, they expounded about the 300 hours of coding, developing and designing that went into the finished product that has just been loaded to iTunes here (it is a free download).

So, just why did they do it?  They wanted to leave a legacy for the school. They described it as a mostly an out-of-school project, but they loved it because they were doing stuff they wanted to do and were interested in learning about. They emphasized the role of their teacher, Joel Gibson, “saying, I believe in you, is the best thing a teacher can do.”  When Joel saw the group needed to obtain more technical expertise for some parts of the project, he connected the students to experts from within and outside the system. Along the way, he connected them to the school PAC and others who could help.

Of course, as I stated at the beginning of this post, we didn’t make it easy for them. We (the system), limited some of their access to computers, were slow to support them technically, and made it challenging to move forward. They said that it was a good thing they had Mr. Gibson to mentor and guide them, but also, that they were part of the hacker culture. The hacker culture, as they described it, is “doing things over and over again. At school, the culture is that you do it right the first time.” One student remarked, ”I had 30 failed projects before this one.”

I have been inspired by their inventiveness, determination and passion. How can we help students balance this kind of work with school, or better yet, how do we make this type of work systemic to the work of the school?  These four students were pursuing their passion, creating real work of value, and they were learning — for the benefit and reward of learning.

Often, this type of informal learning can be incredibly powerful. While our current structure does limit this “real world” opportunities, students like Adam, Justin, Jun and Sailesh, describe these as often the most exhilarating school experiences.

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Each school and school district has their amazing stories about the people who are there, and it is particularly wonderful when those on the outside shine a light on excellence in the system.  While there are many candidates who are deserving of an award, I would like to share the powerful and individual stories of three award winners from our school district; their stories are powerful, but the stories also transcend the winners, and speak to the wonders we see each day in our schools.

Arlene Anderson is a recent winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

I have written a post about Arlene before (here), in describing our technology innovators in classrooms across West Vancouver.  The press release around her Award for Teaching Excellence well describes her as the ”techno-wiz teacher–librarian [who] inspires students and…reinvents [the] school library. If the school is an atom, the library is its nucleus where energy and enthusiasm fuel ideas.”

Arlene is always learning; she has made efforts to be familiar with, and lead, the use of noodle bib to help students create annotated bibliographies, wikis and voice threads. She has led staff in the development of scope and sequence for technology, and in understanding the importance of crediting the correct source, finding the original source of information, as well as understanding how to determine if the source is accurate or not.

She is also a side-by-side teacher with her colleagues, as in working with a science teacher to teach students how to create a wiki, find correct information on the Internet and check sources. In this project, there were five classes: the first group of students wrote out their research on a wiki, the next group checked the sources/accuracy then added information, the third group also checked and added…etc., and when all five classes had spent time working on these wikis, they had created a powerful document on body systems. Each class had a group of students working on each topic.

Arlene models the way for teacher librarians, at the heart of our schools, embracing technology to support students and their learning.

Diane Nelson  has been awarded one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals, as recognized by the Learning Partnership.

Diane is the founder of the West Vancouver School District’s Premier Sport Academies, which include hockey, soccer, tennis, baseball and golf.  Diane is a dedicated, well-respected advocate for today’s youth. Along with her 28 years of experience in education as a teacher and administrator, Diane has obtained her Bachelor of Education, Diploma in Counselling Psychology, and Master’s degree in Educational Administration, all from the University of British Columbia.

In my letter of support for Diane, I wrote:  “In my role as superintendent I receive many accolades for the success of our academy programs. I am often asked what others can do to build these programs. The answer is, they need to clone Diane . . . . Diane’s vision, passion, perseverance, work ethic, and ability to connect to kids, parents and the community are why her programs have been so successful, and why we hear from dozens of families every year that she has changed lives . . . she is leading change in public education.”

I love how Diane has taken her passion for teaching and learning and combined it with her passion for sports.  From an idea, she has built one of the most innovative learning experiences in the province; students and parents regularly rave about how their experiences with Diane have been some of their most powerful schooling experiences.  The letter of support from Hockey Academy parent, Denise Cotton, is further testimony to Diane’s teaching excellence:  “The Premier Hockey Academy developed by Diane has been a life-transforming experience” for her son, who now plays in the Western Hockey League. “Diane Nelson has most definitely made a unique contribution to education in Canada. She is a visionary, developing sports academies that are a perfect blend of academic excellence, personal growth and athletic development. It is no wonder that she has waitlists annually for enrollment in her academies.”

Caulfeild Elementary School received Honourable Mention, for the Ken Spencer Award that focuses on innovation in K-12 education. Caulfeild was selected from well over 100 applications for this recognition.

Caulfeild has been on an intense journey over a very short time. Facing challenges of declining enrollment, and ongoing conversations about its school signature, iDEC was born – a commitment from students, staff and parents to create a school-wide innovative learning experience marrying the best of what we know about good teaching and learning, the student-centric approach of inquiry-based learning, and embracing the technology of the world of today.   iDEC provides a digital environment that supports any technological device and platform.  From Kindergarten to Grade 3, teachers are embedding student ownership into their digital learning, everyday, with the help of Smartboards and iPads. By Grade 4, students will be able to bring their own electronic device into the classroom, and student webpages will serve as a central area for their learning and participation, where they solve problems, are creative, and participate positively in the school community.  With thanks to Principal Brad Lund, the entire staff, and the support of our parent community, Caulfeild Elementary is generating interest around the country for its innovative programming.  When people first engage in the program, what they leave with is an understanding of what ”‘power of the people’ can mean – and people are the key to this educational transformation.

I see excellence in the school system everyday.  The stories of Arlene Anderson, Diane Nelson and Caulfeild Elementary School are repeated across the district everyday. Public education in West Vancouver, and across the province is blessed with amazing people committed to doing great things for kids everyday.