Principal Connections

Since I arrived at my school, I have overseen Special Education. It is my favourite portfolio, albeit the most time-consuming and challenging. It is one of the few aspects of my new role that allows me to reconcile no longer being in a classroom on a regular basis. Plainly put, in this capacity I can help kids who need it the most without anyone running interference. One of the new protocols that I implemented from day one is that I attend all of the transition meetings with the Department Head of Special Education of the grade 8 students with exceptionalities planning to attend my school in grade 9. I developed a checklist for our feeder schools of the information we would be seeking so that the elementary teams would be prepared with the requisite information. When you look at the list, it is somewhat long - ish. We don't even get OSRs in a decent amount of time and when it comes to these students, we need as much information about them as early on as possible so that we are re

I love memes and would be elated at the day when I see an exercise that involves re-purposing images like these in classrooms. Here are some I thought I'd share:

Recently I hosted a day-long drop in session for teachers called " Leveraging Social Media ". In June of the last school year, I made a year-long commitment to the teachers on my staff who indicated in great numbers, that they wanted more in-house PD to support the various technology needs on staff. I decided that the last Tuesday of each month would be dedicated to Tech Tuesday. I don't allow for field trips to be booked on this day to eliminate the need for on-calls, which frees up all teachers to come to the conference room on their prep (yup, you read right... they agreed to it...) and receive bite-size PD that they would find practical, yet manageable. I don't determine the focus of these sessions. I use Google forms to generate ideas and the last round indicate a huge number of staff expressing interest in social media and how it could be integrated into the classroom. Staff expressed specific interest in Twitter and blogging and I added in Pinterest and Insta

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks that Chromebooks are here to stay. This morning I caught an article by Eric Sheninger on Twitter, and he outlines  6 reasons why Chromebooks have staying power. It's short, to the point and makes loads of sense. At my school, we received three separate shipments of Chromebooks, courtesy of the school board but we decided to put them into the hands of teachers first. We wanted teachers to "muck around" so that they would be more encouraged to integrate the technology into their curriculum. We didn't want access to the be road block. Teachers have been given a Chromebook for the year. The last Tuesday of each month at my school is Tech Tuesday and I plan to use Chromebooks exclusively. Now that our Board has gone Google, I also want to show teachers that the need to use a desktop computer and/or a tradition laptop has gone by the wayside. The strategy, simply put: put it in their hands and model, model,

Chromebooks are all the rage at the moment. I  have one. I like it. It does what I need it to do. It fits in my purse. At my school, many seem to feel that now that they have access to a free device, they are "21st century teachers". It's sad really, because like all other trends in education, pedagogy always seems to fall by the wayside. Our school board has invested huge financial resources in devices because certain people feel that if we want teachers to integrate technology, there can't be any road blocks to access. Each school was given a class set of Chromebooks for teachers to use. I think the thought process behind it was that as long as the Board was providing access to the technology, teachers would be more inclined to use it. Instead, I have had requests for certain software to be loaded onto the device so that marks can be done at home. Teachers want the Microsoft Office applications loaded, not understanding (and clearly missing the point entirely) that

This I decided that three of my portfolios would become totally paperless: managing the master calendar, field trips and excursions and staff meetings. With the whole of our system converting to GAFE I thought there was no reason why this couldn't work. I've also been pretty patient in the last few years that I've been at my school to really go gang busters with technology so I thought I'd seize the opportunity. So far, not too bad! The calendar has been shared with everyone and many have commented that they appreciate the access as it allows them to plan more than just a week at a time. I still prepare a weekly, informing staff of the comings and goings around the school, but as people get even better at keeping me in the loop, I see that as a thing of the past very soon. Using Google Calendar has allowed me to provide even more information: specific times and locations, notes about which staff is going out on a given day and when its provided, I can copy and paste a l

I cannot believe how nearly impossible it has been to find 10 minutes. An entire month of school has come and gone and I haven't come up for air. There has been loss after loss after loss in my family, my grandmother most importantly,  that has completely taken the wind out of my sails. Yet, when I come to work one would never know. I have a new appreciation for the need to be resilient. There have been times when I have wanted to shut my office door and have a good cry but my grade 9s are so needy and emotional this year and I need to spend my time with them. It's been difficult trying to find time to process my own feelings so that I don't bring my personal baggage to school. My kids need me at 100% and the few days I haven't been quite there, I have left work feeling so guilty... Life at work has been further complicated by the work-to-rule job action taken by our CUPE members. It has been difficult to keep my own emotions and anti-union sentiments at bay when enga

We tend to begin new projects with the best of intentions and then Life throws us a curve ball or two. I had wanted to post more but have been spending time with my 88 year old grandmother who has been in the hospital for the past six days with congestive heart failure. She is one of the strongest people I know. It is one of the greatest gifts in my daughter's life to have a relationship with her great-grandmother. Nonna Rita was one of my earliest influences, especially when it came to what it meant to be a strong woman, a leader. She came to Canada in 1962, alone, with six young children in tow. She had no family here except her in-laws. We all know what that dynamic can be like... Her family remained in Italy. She didn't know the language and she was a stay-at-home mother, which didn't allow her to meet a lot of people. She ran a tight ship  - there were A LOT of mouths to feed and clothes to wash and lives to help manage. She took care of finances and maintained the h

Perhaps I am still naive to think that I could carve out some time in my day for reflection, introspection, looking back on the learning that took place...   If nothing else, I have learned in the past four years as a vice principal that time is precious, I rarely spend it in ways that I plan. In my former life as a classroom  teacher, I blogged with my kids all the time. I even taught teachers to blog and it was amazing to engage in the process of communicating and publishing thoughts and ideas. So I thought with the upcoming school year and the new challenges that lie ahead - working with a new principal, potential job action and all it entails, helping staff through a major technological changeover, to name a few... - there would be much to reflect on and a whole lot of learning going on. I am fortunate to have a great partner in the other vice principal I work with but sometimes there just isn't the time or energy digest all that is going on. I figured this was just as good a p