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Leading During a Pandemic

 Never thought I'd EVER type a title like that.  Pandemics were only events I had taught about during my History classes. The experience thus far can only be described as surreal. It's been a part of our reality for nearly 10 months now and the fear and uncertainty is still not lost on me with the reporting of daily infection and death rates. It has been my single greatest challenge as a leader to date to show up to work everyday imbuing optimism that we're going to be ok, that school is a safe place to be. I have to say that on 98% of those days, I have believed just that. We have be so very fortunate not to have experienced any positive diagnoses of COVID-19 so far. Implementing the new health and safety protocols, while tedious and laborious, has not been all that  difficult. Sure, the work up front was a lot - signage, taping arrows and cues on the walls and floors, rearranging classroom furniture to establish social distancing in the classrooms ... as the Principal, th

Catholic Education Week 2020

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Catholic Education Week. It is truly a gift to be able to work in a publicly-funded Catholic school, where we can be free to express our faith so freely and unapologetically. It's a bit sad that we are presently in quarantine and cannot gather in community to celebrate this wonderful gift but my staff and I decided to capitalize on the marvel that is social media to stay connected to our students. We wanted to inspire hope and encourage them from our homes, to theirs. I challenged my staff to select a favourite Scripture passage that they felt evokes a great sense of hope and each day on our school's Twitter feed, I feature a staff member with their quote. I also posted these photos into all of the Google Classrooms that the staff were running for  distance learning. In our special community, where relationships are so key to student success, we thought it was important for the kids to see our faces. We called our little project #motivatedbyfaith

Where Has the Time Gone?

I've not posted anything in more than two years.  I just realized that only recently when time slowed right down into our current distance learning situation. I supposed not being fully immersed in the harried and hurried pace of a typical school day has allowed me the benefit of time to more intentionally collect my thoughts. I have been working as a Principal for the past two years and I've not formally reflected on or consolidated the tremendous amount of learning I've undergone. I have missed this very necessary exercise and so I will endeavour to be more regular. It's always been my experience that when I consolidate any learning more formally, I remember better and I apply more consistently. I have spent the last two years in the very last place I ever expected to begin my journey as Principal and that is leading a very special community of educators, support staff and students in our system's alternative education program. At the same time, it's the mos