Archive for Shared Leadership

greystone | May 19, 2013
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Getting the Right People on the Bus

My Greystone office team colleagues (Assistant Principal – Tracy Lachman; School Support Coordinator - Jesse McLean) and I held a marathon session of teacher interviews this past week. Our school community is growing in size and we needed to add an additional five teaching positions and two temporary assignments for the 2013/14 school year.

I consider hiring new staff to be one of my most important responsibilities as a school leader. Creating a positive, strengths-focused school culture where our staff are committed to improving their teaching practice, in the company of peers, and where they see themselves as designers of learning in a collaborative, interdependent school community means that each and every time I bring someone new onto the team, I better get it right. Jim Collins, author of the book Good to Great, calls it “getting the right people on the bus”. Todd Whitaker, author of the book What Great Principals Do Differently, claims that the biggest impact a leader can have on school improvement is to hire “super stars”. I have come to understand, through my experiences in staffing over the past several years, from mistakes made, lessons learned and successes achieved, that Jim Collins and Todd Whitaker are absolutely correct – hiring the right people is key to ensuring that a school community continues to improve.

As I began our Greystone “Star Search” and sifted through the hundreds and hundreds of on-line applications, resumes, and letters of reference that were submitted, I kept coming back to one key question…what are you looking for? In my opinion, the “super stars” we hire at Greystone need to meet the following criteria:

1. Be a good person – do the right thing, be a positive influence and role model for others, support and serve others, build strong relationships and demonstrate a hopeful optimism for today’s youth. If we can connect with each other and our students, we will be successful in creating a place where all of us feel we belong, where we can discover our unique gifts and talents and where we can make a difference in the lives of our young adolescent learners.

2. Be a hard worker – never give up, persevere, take student learning seriously and do everything possible, inside and outside of the classroom, to support the success of our kids. Think critically about all of the initiatives and programs out there to determine what is the best fit for the vision we have as a school community and keep working hard to bring our vision to life. We expect our students to work hard – we must also expect this from ourselves.

3. Be a learner – take risks to try new things, be open-minded, reflective and willing to grow, recognize the importance of continuous learning from a variety of sources – books, articles, students, colleagues, twitter, workshops, courses and apply the learning to the work we do with our students. Understand that learning requires that we make mistakes, fall down, get back up and learn from the experience.

The other qualifications a teaching candidate brings to the table are important, but if these three things are not in place to begin with, quite honestly, all the understanding and experience related to curriculum, literacy and numeracy programs, new technology, assessment and inquiry based learning won’t get us where we need to go. What I am looking for is good people – the rest can be learned.

The challenging thing about using the above criteria to determine a candidate’s potential for being hired at my school is that these qualities don’t necessarily pop out while reading an on-line application. This is why it is extremely important to pay attention to the recommendations of trusted colleagues, to follow my intuition and the intuition of my office team during the interview and then to thoroughly check the references provided. When I discover that the candidates I interview are people that their current colleagues and employers are sadly disappointed to see leave, I know I am on the right track and that these “super stars” will contribute their talents to make Greystone Centennial Middle School an even stronger community of learners. They will help us on our journey as we continue to move from good to great.

We have hired an amazing group of “super stars” this week – genuine good people. I believe we have the right people on the bus and I am so excited to see what will be possible next year and beyond.

I am curious about what criteria other school leaders use to get the right people on the bus…what are you looking for?

 

Category: Community Building, Professional Learning, Reflections, Shared Leadership |
greystone | April 13, 2013
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Professional Learning is a Priority in Parkland School Division

 

I just came back from two days spent with my colleagues – members of our School Division’s “Lead Team”. Our Lead Team includes Principals, Assistant Principals, Learning Services Facilitators, Directors from our Finance, Transportation, Learning Services, Transportation, Human Resources and Communication Departments along with members of our Senior Executive. Gathering such a large, diverse group of School Division leaders together is no small feat. It meant that every individual who attended needed to leave the busy schedules of their day to day work behind and for those of us in schools, it meant trusting that our schools’ teacher leaders would “hold down the fort” during our absence. On behalf of our Senior Executive of Superintendents, it demonstrated that in spite of challenging financial times in the world of education, the importance they place on the value of our team’s professional growth and collaboration so that we can lead our schools effectively for our students will not be sacrificed. A few of us said we felt almost guilty for taking time away from our schools to head west to the beautiful mountain community of Canmore where we gathered for our learning.

Now that I am back home and have time to reflect on the experience – I can honestly say that I am grateful that our Senior Executive made the decision to provide all of us with this uninterrupted time together – away from the demands of our professional and personal lives back home. The Lead Team Retreat gave us an opportunity to learn from and with each other both formally during our scheduled meetings and presentations, but also informally as we shared best practices with each other, discussed some of our challenges, offered suggestions to each other and had long conversations on the road as we were encouraged to car pool with our colleagues. I have found that some of the best learning can come from the conversations that just happen when we spend time together talking about our students and our schools.

A few of the highlights for me were:

Mental Health Presentation

We were reminded of how significant an issue mental health is in the workplace. Research tells us that 1 in 5 Canadians between the ages of 18 – 65 will experience mental illness and that this will have an impact on their work. It was shared that of the people who face mental illness challenges, very few will be diagnosed and even fewer will receive successful treatment. We learned about the symptoms of mental illness and what to look for among our employees. We learned about what we can do to support those who are experiencing mental illness so that they can be successful in getting the help they need to improve their health. What stood out for me was how important it is to remove the negative stigma associated with mental illness so that our staff members know they have our non-judgemental support in order to seek treatment.

“Speed Dating”

This is simply an organized, yet highly effective, way to ensure that we got the opportunity to listen to each other share some of the amazing things we all have going on in our schools. In small groups, we moved from table to table and heard all kinds of new ideas for things we may want to bring back to our own schools. What I will be bringing back to Greystone are some great suggestions around technology from a couple of schools. Muir Lake School shared experiences and insights around their one to one technology pilot project. Meridian Heights School shared how they “trained the troops” on the use of google docs by scheduling chunks of time for the students to be taught the process by the tech “expert” on staff.

The most important “take away” from this valuable time spent together with my colleagues was that I continue to feel non-stop support and the power of collaboration from our Lead Team. Knowing that we are in this together allows me to return to the challenges and opportunities that await back at the school with a huge boost of renewed energy. For me, this was time well spent and reminds me that our School Division really does put its people first!

 

Category: Collaboration, Community Building, Professional Learning, Reflections, Shared Leadership |
greystone | February 18, 2013
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While the Cat’s Away…

This cat has been away from Greystone for quite a while recently. First, I joined our grade nine students and two of our teachers for our SEVEC Student Exchange in Quebec and then I took a couple of personal days so I could head up to Alaska to take part in the annual parents’ weekend events for my son’s college hockey team. By the time I get back to work after the Family Day long weekend on Tuesday, I will have been away from the Greystone School community for almost two weeks.
What I noticed during my absence is how completely confident and relaxed I felt about how things were being taken care of back at the school. This does not mean that while I was away I did not care about the daily life of students, staff and families at Greystone. In fact, I care deeply, but I was able to be away without concern for the decisions that were made during my absence or the day to day teaching and learning or numerous other initiatives and projects taking place at our busy middle school. I was able to do this because of the strong trust I have for our staff. The Greystone team has demonstrated, time and time again, that they are capable of doing the right thing. Our staff is committed to the vision, values and purpose of our school – we are about kids and we believe in the promise of each and every one of our students. Does this mean that our staff won’t make mistakes? Absolutely not. However, I know that their intentions are good and that they always act in the best interest of our students. The staff has demonstrated the ability to lead by example, make great decisions and step up when called on to deal with difficult situations. Everyone on staff, from first year teachers to seasoned veterans; from Educational Assistants to our Office Leadership Team; supports one another in ensuring that our kids come first.
Leading a school community reminds me, in some ways, of parenting. For purely selfish, ego gratifying reasons, it can be extremely re-assuring to feel needed. As a parent, there is no better feeling than to be able to help your kids whenever possible – when they are young, it is incredibly fulfilling to be the centre of your child’s universe – loving and supporting unconditionally – jumping in to help them whenever they are struggling. In the long run, this kind of selfish parenting does not help children develop into confident, capable, independent, interdependent adults who are able to direct their own lives and learn to roll with the challenges that life presents. Children need to do things for themselves in order to grow. They need to stumble and fall in order to learn how to get back up and try again. The same is true when leading a school community. While it feels great to be needed by so many people within the school community, creating a school culture that is dependent on me is selfish. A strong school environment thrives when individuals interact interdependently and recognize that everyone contributes their strengths to the school’s overall success. In a highly effective organization, every individual has the capacity to be a leader when needed, and a follower, when needed. My time away from Greystone this past few weeks reminded me that this school community is made up of a strong team of highly collaborative, talented individuals who certainly don’t depend on me to ensure that the work carries on in my absence. For a leader, this is humbling – to know that it isn’t all about me – nor should it ever be. One of our Greystone teachers recently shared this quote. It describes the kind of leadership I strive for at our school:
A leader is  best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.
  ~Lao Tzu
While this cat was away, the mice may have played…but the mice at Greystone play every day, whether the cat is there or not. I trust the mice to play and work and learn and lead at Greystone. In fact, I hope that during my absence, the mice barely knew I was away.
Category: Collaboration, Reflections, Shared Leadership |
greystone | November 13, 2012
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What Do F’s Stand for at Greystone?

Five Fabulous Females Facing Fears!
 
 
 
 
 
Our Greystone Team just finished sharing a presentation in Portland, Oregon at the Association for Middle Level Educators’ National Conference…and we are fired up! It’s amazing how energized you feel when you face fear head on and figure out that all the time, effort and energy you put into moving out of your comfort zone can pay off BIG TIME!We planned, prepared and practiced for the past several weeks so that we would make our school and our school division proud of the incredible learning journey we have been on at Greystone since we opened the doors of our middle school eight years ago. We wondered, would our story be worthy of sharing at a conference of this magnitude? With 400 breakout sessions, many big name presenters including experts on Middle Years Education (Rick Wormeli); Differentiation (Carol Ann Tomlinson); and Brain Research (John Medina) we were feeling a little out of our league. Seriously…who would be interested in hearing about our little school from Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada?We decided that the theme of our Greystone story would be our movement away from traditional practices – practices like grading student learning with F’s. At Greystone, the letter F refers to practices that better meet the needs of today’s learners. Our F’s stand for:
 
Familyof learners that are part of a school community where there is a high level of trust and strong, supportive relationships.

Flexibility in designing authentic, meaningful learning using an inquiry approach to engage learners.

Feedback for growth where students play a central role in co-creating criteria, assessing themselves and each other and understand what they need to do to improve in their learning.

Did we know in the beginning that the process of putting together this presentation would actually result in all of us facing our own fears and growing from the experience? As adult learners, we actually achieved the kind of learning that we strive for with our students. Our team of five from Greystone, Joan Papp, Claudia Scanga, Trish Spink and Lindsay Thornhill and I each took a giant step out of our comfort zone to face individual fears including the fear of flying, the fear of public speaking, and the fear of working with new technology. We challenged ourselves to learn through this experience. Was anyone interested in what we had to share about our little school from Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada? We think so…people stayed after we were finished to ask us more questions (and no one left the room during our presentation – another one of our fears!) We even heard one attendee tell us that our session was her favourite from the whole conference – wow!!! If others can get some ideas from what we have done at Greystone to share at their own schools – then all of this will have been worth it – and we are ready to share some more!
Category: Assessment and Reporting, Collaboration, Learning Through Inquiry Projects, Professional Learning, Shared Leadership |
greystone | September 28, 2012
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Design Team: Building Our Dream Together

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

- Anatole France 

One of the cornerstones of our school community is our dedicated group of teachers – Design Team – who commit time, regularly, to keep building on the Greystone dream. Over the years, it has been these teacher leaders who have pushed our school’s vision of exemplary teaching and learning forward.  Teachers, representing all grade levels from our school, have come to the table to share successes, hopes, frustrations and challenges in our work of leading a school community with vision, passion and creativity. When this group comes to the table, the expectations are made clear:

  • we construct and de-construct our knowledge and understanding together
  • everyone’s voice is heard and respected
  • decisions are made collaboratively based on what’s best for our kids
  • the work is often messy, the conversations tough, but there is trust in the process and in each other
  • no idea is too crazy and this is a safe place to make mistakes and figure things out together

Our Design Team has been instrumental in pushing our school community to take on projects, pilot new initiatives and share our learning with others. Here are some examples of what we have accomplished:

- highly collaborative learning teams at every grade level that have adopted an inquiry approach to teaching and learning via the Galileo Educational Network

- assisted all staff develop a balanced assessment program that focuses on Assessment AS, FOR and OF Learning. This means our school practices align with best practices in assessment – no awards assemblies recognizing the accomplishments of a few; growth is the goal for each and every learner and is recognized and celebrated by all teachers, students and parents.

- continued development of excellent home/school communication and partnerships through classroom blogs, student-led conferences, development of student portfolios and sharing other evidence of student learning

- submitted a proposal and were awarded with a Community Project Grant to purchase additional technology for use in supporting a school-wide inquiry into our Spruce Grove Community

- job embedded Professional Development opportunities where we meet in subject discipline groups to generate authentic learning tasks that see students focus on the process skills of thinking like a Scientist, Mathemetician, Writer or Historian.

- planned yearly Staff Retreats to focus on collaboration and professional learning with colleagues

- piloted new outcomes based report card focused on performance assessments and process skills

- shared examples of exemplary teaching practice with school board and senior executive guests on several occasions

- developed open practice of feedback/feedforward loops, professional dialogue and looking at student work; shared this practice at an international conference in New Zealand

- regularly evaluated, designed, adjusted our school’s focus related to our School Education Plan – and continue to look for meaningful ways to  measure success

This past week we had our first meeting of our new school year and welcomed a number of new teachers to the table. It is inspiring to see so many individuals wanting to contribute to the growth of our school community as we continue to work towards bringing the best learning to our students. We have a number of school initiatives starting up this year along with lots of support and ideas coming from our School Division. Our first task was to make some sense of it all for our school community and continue our conversation (and ACTION) around engaging all learners at Greystone. We’re livin’ the dream, building on the dream and pushing forward…always!

 

Category: Collaboration, Community Building, Professional Learning, School Vision and Planning, Shared Leadership |
greystone | September 22, 2012
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Unleashing the Magic at Greystone

I have been among the middle school magic at Greystone and have been reflecting on my role, as the leader of this amazing school community, over the past few weeks.

First of all, what’s the magic?

For me, magic happens when I see student and adult learners engaged, curious, self-directed, reflective, thinking critically, collaborative, compassionate, confident (yet humble and open to opinions and ideas of others) throughout the school.

Who is responsible for making this magic happen?

I believe that it is the staff who model dedication to continuous learning and growth in meeting the needs of our students who are most responsible for making magic.

So…what’s my role in all of this?

I must not only believe in the magic, support the magic, look for the magic and share the magic – most importantly, I need to get out of the way so that the magic can happen!

Over the past seven years as an administrator at Greystone, I have learned, and continue to learn, so much about leadership – from mistakes made, lessons learned, conversations had and courses taken from and with respected colleagues and mentors. One of the best lessons on leadership that I was provided with came from a workshop I attended where Todd Whitaker shared this simple but powerful bit of wisdom –  the best way to create an excellent school community is to hire superstars!

I have come a long way in my teacher hiring, supervision and evaluation practice as a school leader. I now only hire staff who knock my socks off in an interview; who have been highly recommended by trusted colleagues; who have been in our school as student teachers or temporary contract teachers and have demonstrated the ability to make magic happen. Once these people are in our school, I observe, listen, coach, support and get to know each individual. I make sure I am 100% convinced about the superstar qualities and potential of a teacher before I give him or her a permanent seat on the Greystone bus. As a result of my learning in this area, our school is filled with many superstars and the culture that has been established at Greystone is one where excellence is not the exception, it is the expectation.

Leading a school full of superstars is not a simple task. It requires high levels of trust and the ability to let go of control in order to empower others. Stephen Covey refers to this skill in his book The 8th Habit:

Empowering – focusing the organization’s talent on the results needed rather than the methods used and then getting out of people’s way. Empowering is all about execution. In an empowered organization, leaders give help and direction only when requested. Empowerment unleashes human potential without externally motivating it.

This means that I need to provide the resources, support, time and space to unleash the energy and passion of my high-flying staff. Eliminating the roadblocks and clearing the path for others does not mean that I don’t care about what they are doing or that I don’t want to find out about their plans. In fact, the opposite is true. I care deeply and I am always interested in their ideas. I just don’t micromanage the details and I try my best to reduce the red tape and hoops they need to go through in order to get on with their plans. The most important work I need to do is to ensure that everyone is aligning their plans and ideas with the vision, mission, beliefs and goals of our school – then it is up to them to make the magic. In addition, I need to create an adult learning community that mirrors their classroom learning communities – places where learners are safe to explore new ideas, take risks, make mistakes, learn and grow in the company of caring, trusted peers. When the staff is pointed in the right direction for our school, and are given the time and space needed, they can think big, dream big and make magic together.

Here is some of the new magic happening at Greystone this year:

  • Softer Approach to Learning with New Furniture Arrangements being Piloted in Two Classrooms
  • Health and Wellness Team
  • SEVEC Sports/P.E. Student Exchange with a School in Ottawa
  • iPad Project with Support from the Galileo Educational Network to Develop Critical Thinking Inquiries
  • Learning Coaches Supporting Teachers in Developing Inclusive Classroom Communities
  • Innovation Week
  • Making Learning Public Through Social Media and Exploration of New Technology
  • WE DAY Care Team Developing Community and Global Social Action Initiatives
  • Technology to Support Collaboration via GoogleDocs
  • Technology to Support Self-Assessment via ePortfolios
  • Morning Mentoring
  • Teacher Invited to Attend National Social Studies Parliament Workshop in Ottawa
  • Teachers Sharing Work at Local, Provincial and National Conferences

I am humbled to be leading such a talented staff at Greystone. They are an incredible team who are dedicated to bring the very best learning to our students. I look forward to sharing our journey this year as the magic unfolds!

~ Carolyn Cameron

 

 

 

 

Category: Collaboration, Community Building, Professional Learning, Reflections, Shared Leadership |
greystone | March 23, 2012
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Breaking Ranks in Florida

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of taking a team of educators from Greystone Centennial Middle School down toTampa, Florida to take in the National Association of Secondary School Principals NASSP – Breaking Ranks K-12 Conference 2012.

Our team decided to take in this conference as one of the keynote speakers was Sir Ken Robinson, Professor, respected advisor to governments in Europe, Asia and the U.S. and author of the book Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative and The Element.   His message about cultivating divergent thinking to get our students becoming imaginative, creative learners fit well with the Breaking Ranks theme of the conference.  In addition to Sir Ken, I sat in on some sessions provided by two of my favourite speakers – middle years expert, Nancy Doda, and the highly entertaining presenter on leadership, Todd Whitaker.   The common theme which stood out for me from these two speakers was the importance of developing a highly collaborative, supportive school community –  a positive school culture that believes in the promise and potential of every single learner in the building (both adults & kids!)  This is the foundation for creating a place where students will experience success.

In addition to sitting in on an excellent session about gathering qualitative student data to inform practice (a welcome change from the high stakes state-wide tests that were talked about during most of the sessions we attended), we were able to take in the school showcase highlighting high performance “turn around schools”.  One school, M.O. Ramay Junior High School, reminded me of Greystone because we share a fundamental belief about what is important in the continuous cycle of school improvement:

Improve your school by focusing on each adult who will, in turn, improve your school by focusing on each student – hire eagles! 

Ramay Junior High School and Greystone Centennial Middle school place a strong emphasis on developing the capacity of all the teachers to embrace collaborative, shared leadership. Teachers take an active role in their ongoing learning and growth.  Both of these schools are not seen as places where you can get comfortable or complacent – there is a always a push for professionals to engage in continuous improvement.  We do this by making common teacher collaboration time during the school day a priority.  Grade level teaching teams meet regularly and at Greystone, we organize our school improvement around teacher leadership teams.  These teams include:

Design Team – a team of teachers with representation from each grade level.  This team is focused on improving instructional practice through the lens of inquiry/critical thinking/assessment.

Tech Team – a team of teachers with representation from each grade level.  This team is focused on integrating technology to transform learning, again, through the lens of inquiry/critical thinking/assessment.

Subject Discipline Teams – teams include all members of our faculty.  These teams meet during every PD Day to develop authentic, powerful learning tasks and assessments across the grade levels. Once again, the lens of inquiry/critical thinking/assessment is used to guide the work.

Teachers at both schools are opening up their practice to learn from each other.  PD Days and Faculty Meetings are opportunities for teachers to engage in dialogue, look at evidence of student learning in order to improve the quality of student work and share ideas so that we can learn and grow together.

The highlight of this conference for me, besides the warm weather, taking in some Spring Training Baseball and Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey, sharing many laughs with our amazing Greystone team and enjoying some magnificent sunsets…

…was being reminded that the things we believe in at Greystone Centennial Middle School – setting a high bar for hiring new staff, expecting the adults in the school to be the lead learners in a collaborative, supportive school community, looking at evidence of student learning to improve the work and developing a positive, engaging school culture that believes everyone can be successful – are the key components of an exemplary school.  We are on the right track as we continue to “break ranks” and create a place where we do what’s right for today’s learners.

~ Carolyn Cameron

Category: Collaboration, Professional Learning, Reflections, Shared Leadership |
greystone | February 14, 2012
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Looping: Moving Forward with the Best Decision for ALL Learners

 

What’s this I hear – you are talking about no more looping at Greystone?  No way – you can’t change this!!!!

This comment came from a panic-stricken parent after her son came home from school and talked about a class discussion he had that day.  His teacher was seeking the perspective of her students as we prepared to make a shared decision about our current looping practice at Greystone Centennial Middle School.

Our structure sees students remain with the same team of teachers in our lower loop for grades 5, 6 and 7 before moving to our upper loop where they stay with the same team of teachers for grades 8 and 9 before transitioning to the High School.

We established this structure when we opened our brand new school, over six years ago.  Since that time, we have experienced two full cycles of the lower loop.  I made a commitment to our teaching staff that we would re-visit the looping structure, after we had enough experience with it, and after getting feedback on how we felt we were meeting the needs of our students.

When we first began organizing our school in 2005, we had many teachers who were not necessarily committed to the practice of looping with students.  Now, in 2012, we have seen the powerful relationships that are created when teachers have the opportunity to work with their students for more than one year.

Teachers were asked to share their opinions about looping when we gathered together at the start of this month for our Professional Development Day.  On the agenda for the day was a commitment to make a shared decision about the future of looping at Greystone.  We began the conversation by sharing feedback from our grade 7, 8 and 9 students.  They completed the Tell Them From Me Survey this Fall, and on this survey were specific questions related to staying with the same teacher for more than one year.  The majority of our students responded with a strong agreement about the benefits of looping.

Over the years, I have heard from our parents – with the majority of comments being in support of the looping practice.  NOT in the beginning, for sure!  However, six years later, I have only heard positive feedback from our parents.  When there have been concerns about individual students needing a classroom change, we have accommodated these requests.  In recent years, there have been very few requests.

Now it was time to talk with teachers about their experiences and suggestions.  We opened the dialogue with a Four Corners Activity.  Teachers were asked where they stand on a couple of key questions designed to elicit debate around our looping practice.

On the agenda, we had planned for this activity to take approximately 30 minutes…2 hours later we were still having discussion!

This was one of the  most powerful experiences I have had as an administrator - sitting back, for the most part, to observe the open, honest sharing among the teachers at Greystone.  Everyone contributed to the discussion and everyone’s perspective was heard.  Teachers talked about reaching that hard to teach student, and how this could only happen over time spent together.  Teachers talked about the relationships that are formed over time and how they are able to recognize and program for the unique abilities and challenges of students when they spend more than one year together getting to know their learners.  Teachers were in agreement that the two year loop was ideal for our students; however, most felt that the three year loop was too long – too much time spent with the same group of students and too much curriculum for teachers to learn making it challenging to provide their students with optimal learning experiences.  The next question we needed to figure out was what to do about our three year loop?

Since we have five grade levels in our school we would need to either continue with the three year loop or have one grade level not looping.  There was a lot of discussion about this and in the end, we ran out of time to make the decision.  Teachers were asked to submit their suggestions via e-mail and we would go with what the majority felt would be in the best interest of our students.

Throughout the remainder of the week, teachers shared their perspectives.  This was another eye-opener for me.  Such incredible, thoughtful insights were shared with me.  In fact, several teachers shared their reflections with our entire teaching staff.  One teacher even deferred her decision to what the teachers of the lower loop wanted as they were the folks most affected by the decision – wow!  The common thread through each of the messages I received was first…no one took this decision lightly – there was much thoughtful reflection prior to sending the e-mail.   Second…the comments shared clearly indicated that doing what is best for student learning was at the centre of the decision-making.  In the end, the majority of our teachers felt that the looping structure should be as follows:

Grades 5 and 6

Grades 7 and 8

Grade 9 students will not be part of a loop – but teachers of this loop will need to teach grade 8 students at some point in the year (possibly an option class) so that they can begin to build relationships with these students prior to the grade 9 year.

How do I know we have reached a point, at Greystone, where shared decision-making is possible?  When I see the teachers all acting in the best interest of our students and when I see them valuing the range of perspectives that each of us brings to our school community.  Was it easy for me to sit back and let the dialogue unfold so that a decision could be reached – absolutely not!  Do I trust the judgment of these professionals who are carefully, thoughtfully, making this decision for ALL students at Greystone - absolutely!

This process was amazing and I continue to be inspired by the dedicated team of teachers who work at Greystone – many thanks to all of them for taking the time to be a part of this important decision.  Next step – sharing this decision with our Parents!

~ Carolyn Cameron

 

Category: Collaboration, Community Building, Professional Learning, Reflections, School Vision and Planning, Shared Leadership |
greystone | September 14, 2011
4 comments

Greystone…Not Such a Lucky Place?!

 

I have been thinking about this word – LUCK – a lot lately.  I really don’t believe in luck…I don’t think anything happens by chance.  I read this message in a card that one of my sons received from his friend as he was getting ready to head back to rejoin his college hockey team in Alaska at the end of summer.  It sums up what I have been thinking about luck but have not, until now, been able to articulate:

I wish you luck on your upcoming athletic, academic and personal endeavors and leave you with the following…

Luck is the place where preparation meets opportunity – we make our own luck.

After the most amazing school start-up that I have experienced in my career, I can’t help but feel “lucky” to be working in a school that I love – no kidding – I love my job!!!!  Is this luck?  Not so much.  It is definitely the result of preparation meeting opportunity.

How did I get so “lucky”?  There are many factors that have contributed to the success of this school year and they have grown out of preparation and opportunities that came about long before the doors of Greystone were opened.  Most recently, over the past six years,  I had the opportunity to work alongside my former principal, a former assistant principal and our current assistant principals,  as together, we devoted much time and effort into putting together an incredible staff - our Greystone ”Dream Team”.  I have read, and I believe, that great leaders surround themselves with people who are more talented than they are and that these leaders “clear the path” for others in order to unleash their potential.  Not only do I believe in this, but I have seen the results!   Building an amazing, high flying team takes years of working together, being inside of classrooms, taking part in team meetings, getting to know the strengths and areas for growth of each and every individual, and then, when opportunities come to hire new members for our team, making the time to “get it right” and find individuals who will fit into the collaborative dynamic of our school team.  Clearly, a school culture that is about growing, learning and improving in the company of peers takes time to develop. It takes trust to give individuals the freedom and support to take risks, to speak up and challenge ideas.  It takes humility, courage and honesty to admit when you’ve made mistakes and to let others see that you don’t have all the answers.  Nobody does. It takes confidence in the power of teamwork to recognize that we will get things figured out, together, if we keep on doing what we believe is best for our kids.

Todd Whitaker taught me one of my most important lessons in leadership, during a conference I attended a few years ago.  He said that the biggest impact a leader can have in a school is through the hiring process.  Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great, calls it getting the right people on the bus.  I am happy to say that the “Greystone Bus” has got all the right people on board and we are moving full steam ahead this 2011-12 school year in providing exemplary teaching and learning for our kids.

I felt the energy on board our ”Greystone Bus” after school today during our monthly faculty meeting.  On the agenda was time for conversation around how we are going to organize ourselves for our annual meet the teacher night coming up this week.  I wanted to check in to see how our teachers would be connecting with families regarding home/school communication, our beliefs about homework and how we would be addressing our school’s new report card.  Many voices were heard and all of them very much focused on making sure we were being thoughtful about doing what’s best for our kids…ALL of our kids.  Teachers talked about spending time connecting with as many parents as possible in a positive way, while ensuring that families understand how important ongoing communication between home and school will be in order to support student learning.  Each grade level has set up a blog to keep families posted on what is happening at school and teachers will be spending time reviewing these blogs with families. When it came to the question of what we will be sharing about our new report card – the common message will be:

It is nothing really new and different for us at Greystone.  A new report card format is coming as the rest of the school division is moving forward with the kind of reporting that we have done for the past three years.  Now, we need to have a standardized report card that will be used in all of our schools in Parkland School Division.

As the school leader at Greystone, I feel “lucky” that I have the opportunity to be a part of the insightful conversations that take place when this staff gets together to figure out the way forward at Greystone.  Our students and families are ”lucky” that they have the opportunity to be at a school where there is such a dedicated team leading the learning.

Are we “lucky” at Greystone?  Does all of this “luck” happen by chance?  No! We make our own luck through hard work and preparation so that when a new challenge or opportunity comes our way, we are ready to take it on.  This is what fuels our “Greystone Inferno Pride”… and this is what keeps us inspired to move forward together.

~Carolyn Cameron

 

 

 

 

Category: Shared Leadership |
jmacdonald | May 14, 2011
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No One Goes it Alone

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Collaborative teaching, learning and leading ~ it’s what we believe in at Greystone Centennial Middle School.  This belief is built upon an understanding that together, we can accomplish bigger and better things than any of us can achieve on our own. 

We began this school year with our Annual Staff Retreat, spending time revisiting a set of beliefs about what it  means to be collaborative.  Using bits of wisdom from Stephen R. Covey and an article I picked up at a Leading for Learning Workshop, we reviewed the school culture characteristics of a learning organization dedicated to exemplary teaching and excellence in learning.  Key attributes  included the following:

 

  • High trust – team before self
  • De-privatization and de-personalization of instructional practice – transparency
  • Committed to learning individually, collectively and continuously
  • Learning with and from each other in context – on the job
  • Instructional leadership is distributed
  • Reflective practice in learning communities is common
  • Exemplary teaching is the norm

 At Greystone, we value the importance of building capacity and sharing leadership among all of our staff (and students, too!)  The goal…to become a learning community where there is no one individual leader who has all of the right answers – but rather, an empowered team of collaborative, interdependent individuals who have the confidence and trust in self and others to seek creative solutions to challenges and understand that the collective wisdom will provide the guidance and answers we need to continue to make a difference for our students.

Evidence that collaborative, empowered, shared leadership is alive and well at Greystone? 

1.  Teachers taking on roles of leadership in these areas :

- Participation in School Division initiatives for innovations in assessment/reporting

- Piloting technology projects including student blogging and the use of personal devices for learning

- AISI Critical Thinking Project ~ Galileo Inquiry

- Development of extensive school-wide supports for students experiencing personal, emotional and behavioral challenges

- Planning Professional Development Days

- Organizing educational trips (ie. SEVEC Exchange) and out of school experiences for students

- Sharing best practices and learning experiences with each other

2.  Different teachers within the school taking on the role of Acting Principal when our Administration Team is out of the building with the school community pulling together and carrying on without missing a beat ~ in fact, some days I don’t think they even notice when one of us is gone! Staff don’t look to the leaders of the school for all the answers, wisdom and direction – they are able to find answers from within themselves and from each other. 

3.  Teachers learning in community through ongoing, reflective time spent both with their teaching teams and with “critical friends” on staff.

4.  Honesty and openness during our Faculty Meetings, Professional Development Day discussions, Design Team Meetings and Team Meetings where colleagues are encouraged to share perspectives, challenge existing “norms” and debate vigorously in search of the best answers.

We have come a long way in our growth as a collaborative learning community and while we know we will never “arrive” at having everything figured out, there is a calm confidence that permeates our school, a growing trust in the power of otherness…

 ~Together We Are Better~

 Carolyn Cameron

 

Category: Collaboration, Shared Leadership |