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The Art of Staying Relevant

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, SD45, tagged , , on October 17, 2024| 3 Comments »

Staying relevant is an ongoing journey.

This is ground I have in part, covered before. In 2018, relevance was actually my word for the year. As said in that post in January of 2018, “I am desperate to be relevant.” And this still holds true and is even maybe truer. The deeper I have got in my career, the more I have wondered if my thinking is still current. With AI dominating current education conversations, I feel an even greater need to stay relevant—not just as a leader but as someone who has always valued the balance between tradition and innovation.

Staying relevant is about balancing future demands while staying rooted in core values—a balance that has felt increasingly challenging lately. My recent writings on AI are part of this journey, reflecting my effort to understand how these technologies fit into our educational landscape. I want to be in the mix with important conversations for our profession. Whether navigating AI’s rise in classrooms or leading a school district, relevance means more than keeping up with trends—it’s knowing which to embrace and which to let pass by.


Rooted in Values, Evolving with Purpose
No matter the speed of change, certain principles—trust, empathy, and consistency—act as anchors. In education, our work isn’t just to adopt new practices whether it is literacy teachings or physical activity practices, it’s to assess how they enhance the learning experience while holding fast to the human connection that students need. Having worked in West Vancouver for 18 years now, for better or worse, my values and principles are very clear and public. And during this time, I have seen education become far more student-centric and personalized.


Adapting, Not Just Adopting
The key to relevance is thoughtful adaptation. Take AI, for instance: it can enhance lesson planning and save time, but how do we ensure it aligns with our broader goals? I’ve learned in both the classroom and through sports that not every innovation will fit, and it’s okay to be selective. Relevance comes from refining the tools that genuinely serve our values.


Consistency as the Foundation for Innovation
Consistency often gets a bad reputation in fast-moving industries. However, it’s precisely this stability that enables innovation. By creating an environment where trust thrives—whether in the classroom or on the court—we allow space for risks and experimentation. In my recent post Consistency is Often a Key to Positive Change I wrote about how our long-term relationship with Dean Shareski had been instrumental in some of the key innovations in our district.


Learning Across Contexts
One of the most powerful lessons in staying relevant is recognizing how different areas of life intersect. My experiences in education continually inform my approach to coaching, and vice versa. Whether it’s understanding how to motivate a student or an athlete, the principles remain: build trust, stay consistent, and be open to learning. Relevance is about seeing these connections and applying them across all aspects of our work.

 

Practical Tips for Staying Relevant

Learn Something New Every Year: Challenge yourself to master one new idea each year.

Stay Engaged with the Next Generation: Relevance is often about understanding younger voices and perspectives. Having younger leaders in key positions in our district has been healthy for everyone.

Adapt with Purpose: Don’t chase every trend; stay true to what works, and thoughtfully integrate what aligns with your core mission.  I have often said, “If you think everything in schools is important you really think nothing is important.”

Ultimately, relevance isn’t just about surviving change—it’s about thriving in it. When I wrote in 2018 and said, “It is easy to do this year just like last year.  I know that in the long run, that will not work.”  This sentiment sure hits home and even with more urgency knowing that the number of years I have to contribute and make a difference is shrinking (and seemingly faster than ever). By staying grounded in our values and embracing purposeful adaptation, we remain relevant in education and life.

How are others trying to stay relevant with how quickly things are moving in education?

The image at the top of this post was produced through Chat GPT 4.

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Consistency is Often a Key to Positive Change

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, SD45, tagged , , on September 11, 2024| 6 Comments »

Dean Shareski’s recent blog post about his time working with West Vancouver Schools (HERE) got me thinking. He is good at that.  His blog has been pushing my thinking for 20 years.

His recent blog post on his work with our district captures so much of what makes our partnership valuable. In his post, he is generous about the people and schools in our community and the exciting current work around generative AI. But what stands out to me isn’t just the highlights of the week—it’s the consistency of our work together over the years and how that consistency has fostered trust, which has become the foundation for innovation in our district.

 Trust Through Consistency

One of the most underrated factors in educational progress is the value of steady, consistent leadership and support. Dean isn’t just a consultant who drops in and out; he’s become a trusted partner who fully understands our vision and works with us to help move it forward. His ongoing presence has allowed us to build a relationship rooted in trust, which, in turn, has given us the confidence to take risks and innovate in meaningful ways. We have done this with others as well.  You can bring in someone for an hour or a day and you will get some initial enthusiasm – but it is the ongoing connections that move the work.

When you think about innovation, it’s easy to assume that change is the driving force. In reality, constant change without a strong foundation can lead to instability and confusion. What we’ve found in our district is that consistency—having the same voices, the same leaders, and the same trusted advisors—creates the conditions for genuine, thoughtful change. Of course, as a superintendent about to hit 15 years in the position, I am biased towards consistency.  When our team knows that the support they’ve relied on is there year after year, they can focus on pushing boundaries and exploring new ideas, knowing that their foundation is secure.  

In our classrooms, this foundation of trust and consistency has allowed our teachers to embrace innovative practices confidently. For example, our recent work around generative AI is not just a theoretical exercise but one that is being thoughtfully integrated into learning experiences. Teachers, secure in the knowledge that they have ongoing support and guidance, will be able to experiment and refine new methods in a way that directly benefits students. This steady approach ensures that our educators aren’t overwhelmed by constant change but can focus on delivering powerful, meaningful lessons.

This emphasizes the direct impact of innovation and leadership on daily teaching and learning, aligning the broader themes of trust and consistency with the tangible outcomes in the classroom.

Innovation Through Stability

Dean’s work with us around generative AI is a perfect example of how innovation flourishes in stable environments. We didn’t jump into AI because it was the trendy thing to do. Instead, we are laying the groundwork, with thoughtful conversations, professional development, and collaboration. This steady, deliberate approach is what allows us to dive deeper into AI in a way that feels sustainable and aligned with our broader educational goals.  In the end our goal isn’t AI, it is the creation of powerful learning experiences.  

When leadership and external partnerships are constantly shifting, it can be hard to build momentum. But in West Vancouver, we’ve been fortunate to have consistency in our leadership and in those who support us. This has allowed us to move forward faster and more effectively than if we were constantly changing course. With Dean’s ongoing guidance, we are able to focus on refining our work with AI, rather than starting from scratch each time we introduce a new initiative.  

Moving Forward With Confidence

There’s a lesson here about the power of consistency in all aspects of education. While we often hear that change is necessary for growth—and it is—it’s also true that change for the sake of change can slow progress. The real magic happens when consistent leadership and support create an environment where trust thrives and innovation can happen organically.

As we continue our work with AI and other innovative practices, I am grateful for the steady partnership we’ve built with Dean Shareski and others like him. It’s this consistency that has allowed us to push the boundaries of what’s possible in our classrooms while maintaining a clear sense of direction and purpose.

In West Vancouver, we are committed to continuing this approach: building on the foundations we’ve set, nurturing the trust we’ve established, and embracing innovation at a pace that feels both exciting and sustainable.

Thank you, Dean, for your ongoing support and for helping us model a culture of yes—one that is widely shared in its commitment to trust, consistency, and  moving forward together.

 

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28 Reasons To Love Teaching from a 28 Year Veteran

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, SD45, Social Media, tagged , , , on June 24, 2024| 4 Comments »

The last two years I have finished the school year with posts of lists that have been a lot of fun to write. In 2022, I wrote 26 Years, 26 Teachers, 26 Lessons and last year I wrote 27 Ways Schools are Better to wrap-up my 27th year.

As teaching shortages locally and globally have become more common, I have been thinking a lot about our profession and how rarely we share the amazingness that comes from our work.  So, as I wrap-up year 28, here are 28 reason to love teaching, schools and education (in no particular order):

  1. Impacting Lives – Teaching has this amazing opportunity to change life trajectories for young people. Beyond immediate family, it is often teachers who a child will spend the most time with in any given year.
  2. Everyday is Different – No two days are the same.  Each day brings new challenges and experiences.   And this is amplified year to year – even if you teach the same grade or same subject, each year is so different from previous ones.
  3. Mentorship – I have had the opportunity to be on both sides of this.  It is a great profession to learn from others more experienced and then share your experiences with others.  The chance to role model for others is exceptionally fulfilling.  There is a great sense in teaching you learn from those who came before you and pass along wisdom to those who follow.
  4. Make a Difference – It is a bit cliché that teachers make a difference, but it is true.  It is a job where every single day is a chance to make a difference and that stacks up over time.  It is often the smallest thing like a positive comment to a child in class that can have a huge impact.
  5. Using New Technologies – When I started teaching I never contemplated this.  And while some might think teaching is antiquated at times, from calculators, to laptops to VR goggles to AI there is always a chance to see how emerging technologies in our world could enhance learning.
  6. Collaboration – Teaching is a team game.  You are reliant on others to work together in the support of students.  This synergy can be exceptionally fulfilling.  
  7. The Pay is OK – Teachers don’t usually have a summer home in Europe but they make a good salary that is stable and reliable and comes with comprehensive benefits.  Good for us low-risk money people.  
  8. Lifelong Friends – Teaching can create a great network of friends.  Some of those I went through education with and started teaching beside are some of my best friends today.  Teaching draws people who often have a similar view of the world, which makes it an easy friendship circle.   
  9. It is a Respected Profession – Now I know some will point to how jobs in the public sector like in health and education have come under attack in recent years, in a recent poll (HERE) teaching was among the most highly respected professions in Canada (OK – not firefighter level – put still pretty good!).
  10. Sharing passion for subjects – Whether it is a love of Ancient History or of botany or robotics, teaching lets you share your passion with others.  Actually many of the best school experiences are built around teacher passions for a particular content area that they not only teach but inspire.  
  11. Social Impact – Teaching helps contribute to reducing educational inequality.  The power of a great teacher or school can have a dramatic impact on a community.
  12. Family Friendly – We have 4 kids and having similar break times when your kids are in school is amazing!  Watching other parents  try to manage Winter, Spring and Summer breaks while balancing work was a good reminder of how lucky we were to share much of the same time off.
  13. Always Learning – I have learned so much while teaching.   You are in the learning business so you are constantly curious and learning new material, new methods and new ways to approach learning.  As students change and the world around you changes, you change.
  14. Creativity Flourishes – Schools are not assembly lines.  Teachers bring their own style and creativity to the classroom.   Both lesson plans and teacher methods are places where individual flair can come through.  
  15. Community Connections – Teaching is part of the community.  You are often connected to professional in health, non-profits and a range of other community organizations that wrap around schools.  Many times you can bring in experts from the community to support your classroom activities.  
  16. Stimulates the Brain – Somedays in makes your brain hurt.  When every student and situation is different it can be challenging but so stimulating.  It keeps you fresh and always forces you to think about different possibilities.  
  17. Leadership Opportunities – There are so many ways to take on informal and formal leadership roles in education.  From leading a project or initiative at your school, so something more formal with the union or the district or to pursue management options as a vice-principal or principal – it is a job full of ways to lead.  
  18. Travel Options – It does not have travel options like sales or other business jobs.  But if you want to see the world, you can through teaching.  I see many former colleagues teaching around the world – the skills of teaching are universal and the needs for English instruction are global.  Yes, I would like teachers to stay close to home (we need you here) but it is a job with global options.
  19. Sense of Purpose – Teaching makes a difference.  There is this strong sense of moral purpose to the work.  While we try to not take ourselves too seriously, there is serious work, we are making a difference and good teaching really matters.
  20. Kids are Always Changing – Kids today are different than 5 years ago, and 5 years from now they were be very different from today.  Sometimes one thinks of teaching as static, once you figure it out you just repeat over and over.  That doesn’t work with teaching as every group of students are different, the dynamics in the class are different and you get to evolve as those you work with change.
  21. Shape the Future – Lots of people complain about the present and lament the future, but teachers have a chance to help shape it.  The kinds of conversations we have now with students, the citizenship skills we hone in young people will have a dramatic impact on the coming decades in our world.  Many feel helpless in making change in the world, but teaching really can shape the future.
  22. Helps You Stay Young – As I was sitting under a table reading with a student this past year, I was reminded not many other 50 year-olds get to do this and call it work.  Being around young people all the time and all the energy and curiosities they have keep you young.  
  23. See a Range of Perspectives –  Schools are communities and teachers, students and families bring a range of views.  And this is so interesting.  I have had my thinking broadened so often by people with different life experiences.  
  24. Job Security – In an era when many people talk about the jobs that are disappearing or may be disappearing you don’t hear about teaching on the list.  It is a job that can be a lifelong career.  
  25.  Celebrating Milestones – I have had the chance to attend more than 50 graduation ceremonies (in my current role I get to go to several a year).  And they are all special.  Seeing students reach transition points in their life and celebrate with their friends and families is a privilege.  And getting to be a part of these milestones is incredibly special.  
  26. Students Come Back to Say Thank You – This is the best.  Students you may have taught 20 years ago will reach out to you on social media or in-person and say thank you.  That sometimes a little thing you did that you didn’t even realize was a thing made a huge difference in their life.  
  27. All The Stuff Beyond the Classroom – For my dad it was being involved with more than 20 school musicals as a teacher, for my mom it was the music concerts, for me it has been the sports coaching – there are so many connection points with students beyond the classroom that are all volunteering but contribute to the school and community and wildly satisfying while creating life long memories.  
  28. Legacy – A teacher’s impact lasts well beyond their years in the classroom. Let me tell you a quick story about my dad.  Some context, he retired in the late 1990’s and died in 2014.  This past fall there was a best selling book, East Side Story, by one of his former students from Killarney Secondary in Vancouver.  This is a quote from author Nick Marino in the acknowledgements of the book, “As a teacher myself, I want to thank the teacher who inspired  and supported me as a writer while I was a student at Killarney Secondary.  Mr. Barry Kennedy brought joy to his work and to my life.  I hope that some of my students will one day think of me the way I think of him.”  Teaching truly lasts far beyond the classroom.

Teaching is a really hard job.  But there are few ways to make such an impactful dent in our world that through teaching.  As we close the year, thanks to all the teachers present and past who have and continue to impact me.

I would love to hear from others on who you would add to this list.

And thanks to everyone who connects through this blog.

Happy Summer!

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Is School for Learning New Ideas or Confirming What We Already Know?

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, tagged , , , on May 1, 2024| 2 Comments »

As we navigate the halls of our schools – whether those are the traditional ones or the virtual ones, a question emerges that challenges the core of our educational journey: Are we here to discover the unknown or to reinforce what we already believe?

As I read news stories from around North America recently, I have been thinking about this more.  Of course in some ways the answer to the questions is yes – it is both of these things.  As some groups of people become more polarized with what they believe, it does seem that more parents are resistant to their children being exposed to a diversity of ideas.  And some of various political views want to narrow the ideas young people connect with.

Schools have long been celebrated as bastions of knowledge and innovation, places where curiosity meets opportunity. Yet, there’s an underlying tension that merits exploration. Do our educational experiences serve to expand our horizons, or are they subtly designed to validate our pre-existing notions?

In classrooms everywhere, the pursuit of knowledge is often depicted as a linear path towards understanding. However, true learning requires not just the absorption of information, but the ability to question and challenge the status quo. It involves exposing students to diverse perspectives and, perhaps more importantly, teaching them to think critically about their own beliefs.  I think of this in the context of protests right now – across the political spectrum on a variety of issues connected to schools.  Part of the power of schools and learning is this tension – to be able to challenge ideas.

The beauty of education lies in its potential to transform. By encouraging students to venture beyond their intellectual comfort zones, we equip them with the tools to engage with the world in meaningful ways. Schools must strive to be more than just echo chambers of familiarity; they should be arenas of robust debate and discovery.

As we ponder the purpose of our educational systems, let’s advocate for a model that embraces the unfamiliar and the uncomfortable. Let’s prepare our learners not just to succeed in the world as it is, but to have the courage to question and reshape it. In the world of AI, where a few clicks can generate a thesis, let’s continue to push our students to think.  And as teachers let’s be sure we are also doing our part to not limit our classrooms to the ideas we have or hold, but model the openness to ideas we want with our students.

The goal? A generation of thinkers who are as adept at questioning assumptions as they are at confirming truths. Because perhaps the most profound learning occurs not when we confirm what we already know, but when we dare to explore what we don’t.

As I have noted with previous posts, this post was supported through the use of generative AI and prompting through Chat GPT 4.0.  

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Has COVID Changed How Adults Learn in School?

Posted in Personalized Learning, Professional Development, tagged , , , on May 18, 2023| 5 Comments »

I have written numerous times about the impact of COVID on student learning. In 7 COVID Edu Trends That Will Stick I wrote about shifts from an increased focus on equity, to greater digitization of resources to permanent changes to how we think about time in secondary schools.

I have recently been thinking about the shifts we have seen (or not seen) with professional learning for the adults in our schools.  In preparing to be part of a panel for A Cross Canada Professional Learning Conversation, I reflected on The State of Professional Learning in Canada that was published in 2016.  One of the great challenges in education in often being precise when describing why jurisdictions are having excellent student learning outcomes.  British Columbia, and Canada more generally, is widely seen as a world leader in education.  Again, this is ground I have covered before, and don’t want to open debate on PISA or other measures, but it is safe to say, Canada is viewed well across the world for K-12 education.

Three areas of that 2016 report that I still think are crucial today to our collective success include:  our focus on diverse learners, the balance between individual and system professional learning, and the need for leaders to be fully engaged in the professional learning in a community.  I think if anything these three in particular (the report has a longer list) are more important.  The pandemic emphasized the learning differences within classes, schools and across systems.  The need to focus on the diversity of our classrooms is more urgent than ever.  And when it comes to who drives the professional learning, I think of it as a healthy tension between the individual, their school and the system – one needs a balance – to ensure teachers are more than independent contractors who share a parking lot, but also allow for personalization in their own learning.  And if it ever was acceptable to be a school or district leader and not be a learning leader – that time is now over.

So, what have I seen as COVID impacts on the specifics of adult learning?

Content – COVID and other social issues that took place simultaneously have accelerated shifts we saw pre-Pandemic.  We are seeing increased interest in Indigenous learning – particularly related to our local Squamish Nation. In addition, mental wellness and wellbeing, equity, diversity and inclusivity as well as early learning are all areas of greater emphasis.  

Format – I am not sure where the preferred format question will land.  We are seeing a lot of uptake of in-person learning opportunities.  It is hard to know if this is just still the novelty of not being able to do this for several years, or if it is a return to these events which were the cornerstone of professional learning pre-pandemic.  During COVID we saw a huge growth in digital skills for adults, and many are continuing to find professional learning online now.  There is a new balance that is not yet finalized between these formats.

Drivers – Just like with students, staff are looking for deeper personalization and more control over their own learning.  One of the larger societal shifts in COVID was the move to increased remote work.  Of course, teaching does not lend itself well to this.  It is largely an in-person profession with fairly standard hours.  That said, there are more options for remote or flexible professional learning.  And the use of technology (and the dabbling in AI recently) have staff wanting even more precise experiences.  Why go to a literacy workshop with 100 K-12 teachers when you can be connected digitally to a group of educators from across the province working at your grade with similar resources?

There is a digital expectation – just like there is with our students and it is one that we are still working on to support the adult learning.

When it comes to adult learning it is not a surprise their needs are similar to the student learning needs – they want a system that gives them some universal experiences, but also some deep personalization – that provides options for in-person and digital experiences.  It will be interesting to see where we are in 3 years – and if there is a snapback – will 2026 look like the National report of 2016, or will adult learning in schools have been permanently altered by the pandemic.

 

 

 

 

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Last 10, Today and Next 10

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, Professional Development, tagged , , , , on January 14, 2021| 2 Comments »


I was recently part of an interesting national conversation “Future Proofing Education – The Past is a Prologue” with four other superintendents from across Canada. In 2011, early in my superintendency, I joined the C21 CEO Academy which is a national group of superintendents that meet virtually once a month and find other ways to collaborate on thought papers and make other connections. For those outside of Canada, this is always interesting, as education, unlike in most places in the world, is provincial in jurisdiction and not federal – though there are many linkages we have across the country.

At the bottom I share the video with thoughtful comments from my colleagues, Jordan Tinney, Pauline Clarke, Gregg Ingersoll and Elwin Leroux. Here is some of my thinking on the questions we were wrestling with:

What have been the most significant shifts over the last 10 years?

I think our school system has shifted far more than I would have imagined in 2011. If you walk into a classroom today, it very often looks quite different than a decade ago. I can’t be sure, but I am not sure we would have said that as boldly in the past. Did a classroom in 1995 look that different than a class in 1985? In 2011 we were immersed in the conversation of the WHY of change. We would show videos about the world changing around us and act as though we needed to convince those around us that shifts needed to happen. We felt stuck in a world where our system was regarded as one of the best in the world, but many saw the world changing. Flash ahead to today, and even without COVID, things have really changed. And it has not just been technology.

We all probably knew there would be new technology and students and staff would have access to modern gizmos, but beyond the technology, curriculum, assessment and pedagogies have really shifted. Of course this is never ending – we will never be done as the world is always changing. And I have been really struck that across Canada there is far more alignment among leaders. Yes, there are differences between BC, Manitoba, Quebec and the Maritimes but we have similar visions on the future of teaching and learning.

What do you notice about the pandemic shifts?

The first thing I notice is that the pandemic has been exhausting.

I haven’t necessarily worked more, but every day my work has been different than what worked looked like in the past. This is a great reminder for what our students, teachers, principals and other staff have been experiencing – doing new things is taxing. Of course, it is also incredibly exhilarating. We have also seen during this time that we can shift our school far quicker than we thought. We moved from in-person to remote learning over spring break, and since then have had multiple models. We redesigned secondary school timetables in August and we were ready for September. In the past we acted as though any of these changes would take years, but when there is a will and urgency to change shifts can happen.

We have also fully embraced new ways to connect.  Rather than superintendents being filtered by media and others, we have used videos and our written words to reach out to students, staff and families.  Full credit to my colleague from Surrey Jordan Tinney who has modeled the use of video to make a large school district feel like a tight community.  Everyone is thirsting for information, and school and district leaders are seen as honest brokers of information and many have used new platforms to build connections.  

It is also interesting to see the Federal Government now an active participant in education. With a billion dollars invested this past fall in schools, they too have been promoters of a national conversation. And then in classes we have really had to rethink time. With less in-person face-to-face time, what is really important to be done this way, and what can be done other ways. When in-person time is at a premium how does that change our system.

And a final change which I think has permanent ripples in our school system is we have become great partners with the health system. Because of COVID, I talk with, listen to, and share information with doctors, nurses and others in health every day. And I don’t think this should change post-pandemic. This could have lasting positive effects on topics from the overdose crisis to well being and mental health to physical literacy. Our new partnerships should be here to stay.


And what about the future?

My worry is that if we try to focus on everything coming out of the pandemic, we may focus on nothing and snapback to the system we had before. And as good as it was, nobody I talk with just wants to go back. I am curious about what do we need for a future world that is increasingly digitized and automated? If it is my magic wand, we will focus on 1) equity and our most vulnerable in our system and 2) the structures and delivery of secondary education.

And I often get asked what are the three things I think will stick post-pandemic. At least right now my list is:

• Digitization – we are not going to unplug our virtual classrooms – they are forever part of our experience
• Flexibility for students and staff – our kids and adults have had greater ownership over their learning and we have rethought time, this will continue
• Learning is often an outdoor activity – if it was the healthy thing to do to get outside during a pandemic, it certainly is as well after a pandemic


Interesting to see these three in combination as they may not seem to be aligned, but a future system with students outside more, owning their learning, and more digitally connected to the world is a pretty exciting system!

These are those kind of questions with no “right” answers, but are important to think about. We have one of the top education systems in the world, and we will need to keep pushing to keep it that way!

As I said with my last post – I am full of optimism.

Here is the video featuring my wonderful colleagues from across Canada (click on the photo to open the video):

 

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School on a Dial

Posted in Assessment, Change, Personalized Learning, tagged , , on June 3, 2020| 7 Comments »

I want to pick up on the idea of school on a dial that I introduced in my last blog post – The End of Snow Days?

School for a long time has been something you turn on or off.  School is turned off on the weekends, during Christmas, Spring Break and the summer.  And it is turned on from 9-3 Monday to Friday from September to June.  It is a switch.  The day after Labour Day we turn the switch on and across British Columbia hundreds of thousands of students arrive in buildings joined by tens of thousands of teachers and other staff.

Unlike most jurisdictions in the world, British Columbia did not turn off the switch for in-person schooling when the pandemic hit in the middle of March.  We changed this switch to a dial and introduced five different settings on this dial.  Here is one recent image describing the five stages:

Since spring break, and up until this week we had been in Stage 4.  There were a limited number of students attending school – these were largely the children of Essential Service Workers and vulnerable and special needs students.  The vast majority of students were learning remotely.  This week, we moved to Stage 3 and saw thousands of student returning to schools part-time and on a voluntary basis.

Of course, with it already being June, many are turning their attention to September.  We all would hope to be at Stage 1 – and stay in Stage 1 – but we also need to plan for other eventualities.   So, back to this notion of school as a dial and not a switch.  If we think of it as a dial, if there is a second-wave of Covid-19, we can dial-down the in-person instruction, and if BC continues to plank the curve, we can dial-up the in-person instruction.  The challenge for a school system is how do you design learning and schooling that lets you move between the various stages on a dial and not get caught thinking of it as a switch (models are for another post).

This also raises a larger question about the future of education and the idea of in-person instruction being on a dial. Right now, the dial is being controlled by the virus.  The virus threat is lower in BC, so the dial for in-person instruction goes up.  And this will be the pattern in the short term.

But I have heard from both staff and students that they have found more success with partial remote learning than they were finding in the traditional classroom, particularly at high school.  So post-virus, how might we let students control their own dial? Or staff?  How could we design structures that allowed some students and staff to attend in-person everyday, some only a few days a week, and maybe others vary rarely?  It makes my head hurt – but it is a conversation worth having. 

I think of Alan November’s question that has long inspired me when he speaks of the classroom, “Who owns the learning?”, the teacher or the student,  in the post virus world, I think as we look at structures, we may want to ask, “Who owns the dial?”

More to come . . .

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Can I Learn Anything from a Canadian?

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, Professional Development, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2018| 13 Comments »

Interest in the education system in British Columbia and Canada generally seems to be at an all time high. Likely, in part driven by high PISA (International testing) results, edu-tourism is flourishing and the world is very curious about what is going on in Canada.  This week I am giving a talk to an audience of largely American Superintendents, which has forced me to try to crystallize exactly what it is in our part of the world that is so interesting.

When we look at structures, our Canadian system has a lot in common with our US counterparts.  We have locally elected Boards of Education throughout most of the country, we have local accountability, a mix of involvement of different levels of government, generally high community engagement in education and strong teacher associations.  We lack the Federal involvement in education present in the United States and seemingly most places in the world, and generally don’t have the ability to raise any funding locally for the school system.   Throughout North America you can find quite a bit in common with how we organize education.

Our system seems to strive for this highly sought after combination of strong equity and high quality.  We seem to have dismissed the idea that one needs to either have one or the other and instead we have committed ourselves to both.  And we also seem to have this unwavering belief that no matter how “good” our system is, we need to continue to change, grow and get better.  There is a sense that we can always improve.   Trying to tightly describe the BC or Canadian uniqueness is a challenge, but I see these as some of the areas that stand out:

We Are Doing What We Always Say We Should Do

The entire BC curriculum has been redesigned.  The prescriptive nature of the curriculum has been reduced with a greater focus on big ideas and the allowance of flexibility and choice in learning for teachers and students.  Interdisciplinary learning has been embraced allowing the teacher a greater opportunity to be creative and innovative in the design of their learning experiences.  Core competencies are the foundation of the curriculum with a focus on communication, thinking and personal and social competency.  Now these areas that we have always said are important, but often in the background have been pushed to the foreground.  And finally, the curriculum has been Indiginized and a focus on the First Peoples Principles of Learning has been emphasized throughout the province.

A former Superintendent colleague of mine, Mike McKay, would often say, “Will What We Know Change What We Do?” – with our system we are trying to make the answer now.

Curriculum

The shift in curriculum is as much about the how as the what.  The move to big ideas, has seen a move to more inquiry based learning.  The curriculum is seen as relevent and ever-changing.  Rather than being static as it has been in the past, it is seen now as nimble, being able to shift as the world shifts.

Assessment

BC does not have high stakes assessment.  Students in British Columbia write Foundation Skills Assessments in grades 4 and 7 in reading, writing and numeracy and then a literacy and numeracy assessment in grades 10-12.  These results are shared with students and families and inform practice but they do not appear on report cards, nor are they part of any school marks.  Teacher judgement is highly valued and they along with schools and districts design a range of assessments (more than just traditional tests) to support students. Increasingly passion projects, portfolios and capstone assignments are a large part of a student’s program

We Have Learned From Others

When I look at our system in BC now, I would describe it as a “mash-up” of what we are seeing around the world.   One can see elements of Finland, Singapore and New Zealand in our system.  International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement have also clearly been influential.  Teachers have looked locally – to schools in their district and our province, to Alberta and Ontario, to High Tech High in San Diego, and many other places and they have all influenced what we do.  BC has always prided itself on being a highly networked province and this extends around the globe, and our system reflects this.  We have taken good ideas and made them ours for our context

No Franchises

BC has this delicate balance of having a lot common with others but not sameness.  Schools and districts share some tenants but are not trying “scale” work to all be the same.  It is this idea of networks.  We are trying to connect and build networks, focusing on diffusion, not replication.

It is hard to pull the BC or Canadian story together.  I don’t think anyone can listen to someone speak about our system or visit our schools and say, we should be like them.  Just as we haven’t done that as we looked to evolve our system.  We are immensely proud of our school system, and it is wonderful to be somewhere that recognizes the world is rapidly changing, so as proud as we are of our past and present, our future needs to change to ensure we continue to have this pride.

Below are the slides I am using for this presentation this week.  It is a work in progress, so any thoughts to help make these ideas more clear are always appreciated (if you are viewing this via email you may need to go to the website to see the slides).

 

 

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Our Story Told in One Slide

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, Professional Development, tagged , , , , , , , on March 27, 2017| 1 Comment »

Speaking recently in Edmonton, to Superintendents from across Alberta, I shared a slide from Pasi Sahlberg that he used this past December at the Learning Forward Conference in Vancouver:

This slide tells an incredibly powerful and important story – it speaks to our values in education in British Columbia and Canada, and to our aspirations for students.

I have written a number of times in the past about PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results, most recently this past December – It is OK to Be Happy About PISA.   And I always do so with the “it is only one test” caveat, but that said, it is still a widely regarded international benchmark on some key education outcomes.

So, just why is this one slide so important?  It takes the 2015 results and plots jurisdiction based on their achievement in math, reading and science along the Y-axis and based on equity (the weakness of the relationship between family background and achievement) along the X-axis.  So those jurisdictions in the top right of the graph are those with the highest levels of excellence and equity.

The jurisdictions in this sweet-spot that Sahlberg referred to as the “Highway to Heaven”  include a cluster of Canadian provinces – BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec as well as Canada as a whole, along with just a couple other nations.  (Note:  Since education is under provincial not federal jurisdiction in Canada, individual provinces show up separately for PISA).

Strong equity and high quality – this is the story of our schools.  And this speaks directly to our values in our education system. Of course this does not negate the work we need to do – there are a lot of areas to focus, including the success of our Aboriginal learners.  In West Vancouver, we often look at how large the differences are between schools on any given measure – and see the lack of differences as just as much a mark of success as the high achievement.  We want these ideals to run in tandem.

So, if I could just share one slide about “how we are doing” and “who do we want to continue to be” going forward, it would be this one.

And finally, coming back to a notion I have shared before, and shared with our colleagues from Alberta, instead of always looking around the world, we should be looking across the country – the Canadian education story is a good story and one we should tell, and work together to strengthen.

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Beware the Simple Solution

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, tagged , , , , on April 20, 2016| 2 Comments »

solutionThe shifts in the BC curriculum are coming fast. Next fall the “draft” stamp comes off of all curriculum in K-9 across all subject areas. And if the current timelines remain in place, the same will happen one year later for grades 10-12. As I have written here before, the changes have been overwhelmingly well received and the conversations that have come out of them not just about what is covered in school but how it is covered have been outstanding.

As we get close to the September full implementation date, I am nervous that I see some beginning to look for solutions to cover the curriculum.  And just what does that mean?

For many of us growing up, we saw the grade 8 Social Studies curriculum as the Patterns of Civilization textbook.  The Science 10 curriculum was the Science Probe textbook.  I talk to many parents now who believe the Math curriculum in our elementary school is really the Math Makes Sense textbook. The new curriculum does not only shift what we are teaching, and how we are teaching, but also forces us to think differently about resources.  The focus on big ideas, students constructing knowledge and core competencies require different kinds of support resources.  If the era of a single textbook being able to equal a course of study was not yet over, it is now.

We have our second of two days this year dedicated to the implementation of the curriculum this week.  The day will focus on the competencies (communication, thinking and personal and social).   It is a very rich day that schools have planned with teacher leaders at each site leading the work on their staff.  Along with Aboriginal education and resources, the competencies were the number one item that staff across the district have wanted to focus on.  The work in our schools has been exciting and inspiring.  Teachers and administrators are working together looking at all aspects of teaching and learning and what the shifts mean for them, and their students.

As we get closer to September, there will be anxiousness around resources. We need to look to avoid the easy solutions of books or programs that promise to ‘cover’ the curriculum.  There will absolutely need to be new resources over time to support the new content, competencies and inquiry-based focus of the curriculum.  Aboriginal education, in particular, is an area that has not been well covered in previous resources and is embedded across all areas in the refreshed curriculum.

Just as the curriculum has been a process rather than a proclamation over the last several years, so should the work to find resources to support the students, teacher and classroom.  I think we need to think carefully about format – how much digital and how much paper based?  We need to  think about consistency – which resources should be standard across classes and schools?  We need to think of local vs. broad – which resources should be centred on the local community?  We need to think of content vs. process – should the resources be big ideas / inquiry focused or focused on subject content?  And what about professionally produced vs. locally teacher-curated resources?  And do we always need new resources – what do we have now that still works or could be used differently to support student learning?

I see some problem-based experiences that students do to support their learning and I see some other “new”resources that look like the old resources with a fresh coat of paint and where words like inquiry and problem-based learning were sprinkled throughout but little else changed.

And all of this is just the start. The refreshed curriculum is a real chance to also think carefully and differently about the resources we use to support learning.  And we know there is something reassuring when our children bring home backpacks of books – each one representing an area of study.

In our urgency to get up-to-speed with the changes in curriculum we should be thoughtfully looking for resources that help bring learning to life for our students and not ones that cover the new stuff in the older, familiar ways.

As I have said before, exciting times!

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