Today, I am presenting at the Ontario Public Supervisory Officials’ Association Annual Conference (an equivalent group to the BC Superintendents Association) on their theme of Leading and Energizing Learning.
My presentation includes passages from my Opening Day presentation last fall in West Vancouver, the TEDxUBC presentation in October and a talk on personalized learning I gave in November. It is a wonderful opportunity to highlight some of the current, innovative practices in our district. It is also about revisiting where we have been over the past 12 months, and an opportunity to begin specifically mapping where we need to go in the next 12. Hopefully, the presentation will pull together a range of themes I and others in our district have been talking about, writing about and working together on over the year.
While I know sharing the slides of a presentation never really does the presentation justice, here is the slidedeck:
Here are the key messages I want to convey:
- While we have a very strong system which produces excellent results, the status quo is not an option
- West Vancouver — with its strong history of private schools — creates a unique set of circumstances different from most other areas of the province
- We talk a lot about technology, but the first step is to develop learning plans and then we can determine how technology will support these plans
- We have made tremendous strides with supporting teachers, but a lot more needs to be done
- The biggest change for us over the next 12 months will be giving students greater ownership of their learning
- We (as leaders) need to model the way
And, as the title of this post states, it IS about the team and not the tools. We have an exceptional group of teachers and administrators leading the way in West Vancouver, with a supportive and progressive Board of Education, actively engaged parents, and students who are thirsty for relevant and engaging experiences.
It is truly an honour to tell our story.
cultureofyes.ca 
I’m interested to hear what your argument is about the effect of the private schools in your district on your public schools.
Hi David – I have argued that having very strong private schools in West Vancouver has helped push innovation in the public system. We spend quite a bit of time looking at “market share” and take great pride that we are retaining more of our residents in the public system now than at any point in the last decade. The students don’t come to our schools by default in West Vancouver, and this competition pushes choice and innovation. We can’t keep doing what we have always been doing and expect students will come to our schools. We need to offer quality programs – where students have choice – in order to meet the needs of the community. It is this attitude which has led to programs like PYP and MYP IB in West Vancouver, single-track French Immersion, Montessori, a series of sports academies and other choice programs. It has also encouraged innovation around assessment, inquiry based learning and the use of technology.
Enjoyed the post and the slides. Wish I could have heard the presentation.
I am left with a question … in the slides literacy comes up in slides 20 and 22 … where do you see numeracy? In particular in light of slides 20 and 22.
This is certainly a case where not being there does not help to get the full flavour.
Yes, I do worry that when sharing the slides for a presentation, much of the context is lost. I admit I spend a lot more time thinking about “literacy” than “numeracy” in the digital era. Maybe it is my humanities background, but I have tended to work on projects that emphasize the key role that literacy is continuing to play; and that good writing is continuing to play.
Some of the interesting work I have seen around numeracy in the digital space is:
1) technologies that allow students to progress at their own pace (this is my plug again for Dreambox – a topic of a previous post)
2) the use of blogs as a reflection tool for numeracy for students
Thanks for the comments.
I see a lot of connections between literacy and numeracy as the digital era moves forward. One of the teaching resources that I find helpful is the “Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who?” (http://www.mcrel.org/product/11/) by McRel which has a supplement Teaching Reading in Mathematics, 2nd Edition (A Supplement to Teaching Reading in the Content Areas) (http://www.mcrel.org/topics/products/48/). Note: I have not read the second edition so I am not sure it is totally the same so I say the next line thinking it can not be that different … The use of concept maps, Frayer diagrams, etc. is great and many of these things can be done digitally using tools and sites that exist.
I must admit that I am not familiar with Dreambox but I will certainly check it out. I did read your post and I was glad to see the what it does do and what it does not do sections. With mathematics I find that people are often looking for the “magic pill” that solves all and I am pretty sure it does not exist.
Thanks for sharing your slides. The bit about your district prepping teachers in digital literacy makes so much sense for the direction (and potential) that learning is taking. (It probably reduces anxiety and fear of the unknown that some have around technology/social media use.)
Hi Jamie – While we are trying our best, we are still not doing enough. We need to have more just-in-time support for all staff with technology – both the “how the tool works” and “what tool best supports this learning objective” need support. If we say we are going to move strongly – we need to show support on the journey.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for this post. My Principal and I were just talking about where to take our upcoming Pro D day. This gives me tons of inspiration. Keep up the great work. Your blog always gives me something to aspire to.
Thank you kindly for the response. I am always happy to connect if there are other ways that I can assist.
Chris: I was forwarded a link to your presentation. I enjoy your perspective and look forward to a future presentation.
Thank you very much.