21st Century Leadership

What is the role of a principal in the 21^st century?

There are multiple roles – The 21^st century principal creates, leads, inspires, collaborates, learns, fosters innovation, empowers, creates partnerships, problem solves, communicates, and supports. 

Under which headings would these qualities fall under? Visionary Leadership, Collaborative Leadership, Instructional Leadership, or Organizational Leadership?

This blog will explore the many aspects of and challenges faced by the 21st century leader.

Link to our blog, 21st Century leadership: http://21rstcenturyleadership.blogspot.ca/

Managing School Budgets

Budget Case Study

You are the new principal in the school. Although you have a copy of the old budget that the preceding principal has left for you, there are no notes on promises made to staff or School Council. It is not clear that there has been any transparency in budget decisions in the past or if decisions have been made unilaterally. The office manager is new to the school this year as well, so she cannot advise you on what’s happened in the past. You have a budget of $21,000. You have some ideas on how to spend the money to bring the school up to grade in technology because currently there are too few iPads to share in the school of a population of 225. In the first week of school in September, a teacher approaches you and says, “I was just wondering when those resources are going to arrive that the last principal promised me.” (Horseshoe table @ $750, 30 Pilates balls @ $15 each, new area carpet @ $375). Then the Primary division comes to see you to ask about all the new math manipulatives ($875) and the laminator ($750) that were promised to them. Then the parent chair of the school council comes in and says, “Just wondering when construction on that gazebo will start that the last principal promised us and that we have been fundraising for.” ($7500 built by Board contractors).

Discuss in groups of 3 or 4:

·       Take the role of one of the teachers, the School Council or the principal and defend your requests for money

·       Refer to the attached budget sheet

Consider:

As the principal who must make the ultimate decision…

Ø What is the dilemma that has emerged?

Ø Think about what principles or values are guiding your decisions.

Ø What are the consequences of your decisions?

Ø  Will filling in the attached “Needs – Wants” form help?

Some Ideas to Keep in Mind when you are a new principal:

·        You are not alone

·        Ask for clarification from the office manager first and other staff too

·        Encourage input from staff, especially concerned staff

·        Think about the culture and reputation of the school and make sure change is welcome

Protecting the Student Module 6

Model 6 Protecting the Student

Many Acts, Procedures and Memos exist to help protect students,

• Education Act
• Youth Criminal Justice Act
• Bill 157, Keeping our Kids Safe at School Act
• Bill 13, Accepting Schools Act
• Bill 14, Anti-Bullying Act

Throughout the past few weeks we have explored many different aspect of what it means to protect students, from duty to report to CAS, to reporting to OCT.  It is easy to become overwhelmed with amount of knowledge you may be expected to know.

Please refer to our Learning Story,

We also explored the differences between three different School Boards, Code of Conduct

Module 6 was completed by Lauren, Amy and Jeremy O

Resources to Support the Supervision of Staff

Resources to Support the Supervision of Staff:

Prepared by: Jennifer Hussey, Alison Chornobaj and Jeremy Levan



Initially we began with an extensive list of elements surrounding the Supervision of staff.  However, we soon found we had lost focus and were not considering all the intricacies of the Supervision of Staff.  We were gravitating towards finding solutions to Case Studies we had developed, the approach to solving them and the resources, policies, and guidelines that would inform an appropriate solution in doing so.  As such, we created a Mindmeister document that consists of an extensive list of resources, including but not limited to: Collective Agreements, Board Policies, and Ministry Regulations and Professional Advisories, to support a new administrator as they begin their journey of leadership.

Attached is a link to our Mindmeister mind map with resources as well as a link to our Learning Story over the course of this module.

Leading Mentally Healthy Schools

Leading Mentally Healthy Schools
Allison, Dana & Wendy

Throughout our learning, we have come to conclude that the most important point of leading mentally healthy schools is to advocate and be a support for our staff and students. Listening, observing and allowing people to talk begins the process of leading mentally healthy schools. We can't fix the physiological brain development or the circumstances with which the brain is developed. But we can provide resources and link supports to our students and staff, promoting mental well-being. As an educational leader, you'll be called up to make sure that students can access and be aware of the supports that are available to them.

What's important to remember is that we're not doctors. But making sure that students and staff are aware of, and can access supports is what is key.

Check out our learning story here

Connect with your local health unit to get access to the excellent mental health supports they offer.

Year 1 card

Year 4 card

Year 8 card

Building Relationships

Our topic was about creating and building relationships with parents and the external community around your school.  We focused on different resources on the learning journey.

One resource focused on the Principal of Change by George Couros, that talks about four ways to connect with parents.  

Another resource investigated, Partnering With Parents To Ask The Right Questions, focused on the question formulation technique which involved a 5-step process.  

OTF/FEO also offers another resource called Parent Engagement, focusing on establishing positive relationships with parents, and how to model effective communication while managing and resolving conflicts with parents. 

In addition to these resources, a podcast on parent engagement from the OTF/FEO website is provided in the slide deck. 

Check out the slide deck

Building Relationships

~Craig, Natalie, Jacci

Evidence Based Decision Making

 “The goal is to turn data into information and information into insight” ~ Carly Fiorina

Data, data, data, we are increasingly inundated with data.  As a school administrator, how do you decide which data to use to make key decisions?  How do you know when to look at what data set?  Does your data reflect student, staff and community voice? How can you set a clear direction for your building knowing that you have used the best available data given to you at that time?  These are questions that administrators, both experienced and newly minted, are faced with each school year.  To help navigate through the seas of data here are a few points to consider:

You can’t do this alone

The amount of data that is available for schools can be overwhelming. Many principals head directly for EQAO/OSSLT scores and try to create a learning plan based on this data alone. However, as with our assessments, triangulating data will offer a more accurate picture of what is going on while meeting the needs of our students and staff.  For example, additional sources of data may come from a variety of sources including board collected data (attendance, school climate survey, incident reports, workplace safety/violence data), survey data or feedback from school/community events and even the number of community partners the school is involved with. It is important to form a team to discuss what kind of data you want to collect and when you involve a variety of team members you bring additional perspectives and create buy in from your staff. Create a survey, poll your staff, poll your students, observe classrooms in action….  Truly hear all the voices in your building and listen to them!  Once you have this wealth of information, analyse the data as a team. A group analysis will be far more powerful than completing this step on your own.

Key Questions When Analysing Data:

• Purpose - Why are we looking at this data? How might this be useful?
• Description - Where the patterns/items of interest that you notice from this data?
• Limitations - What are the limitations of this data?
• Inferences and Questions - What further questions does this data generate for you?
• Next Steps - what other data do we need to help frame future actions?

More than one type of data gives us a clearer picture

You wouldn’t build a house using only a hammer, so why make decisions using only one type of data? The best information available to you is data that has been triangulated. To fairly and accurately assess a student’s learning, teachers are using triangulated data, so why wouldn’t an administrator do the same for their school? By combining hard data such as EQAO scores, pm benchmarks, and CASI levels with student/staff surveys, student/staff interviews, classroom observation, etc. you will get a more complete view of what is happening in your building. Creating your School Learning Plan and setting direction with goals will become a team effort and much more meaningful. Rather than achieving buy-in at best, you will be creating believe-in amongst your staff.

This process is cyclical

A school that has collected triangulated data together, analysed it together, and set a clear goal together, is going to be hard to stop.  This process may not fit nicely into a school calendar, so don’t be afraid to stretch the timeline.  Staff need to know they are in this for the long haul and you are all working toward a common goal.  Since this goal has been co-created, if you were to be placed at another school the staff would be able to carry on without you.  When this repeating cycle becomes part of your school culture, internalized, it impacts student and staff learning by continuing to create the growing edge - it’s meaningful and it’s self sustaining.

Intentional interruptions

Data and bringing evidence to the table is essential for collaborative inquiry. We are natural problem solvers but we are not natural thinkers. As Steven Katz argues, this natural aversion to thinking creates a series of barriers that we need to interrupt if we are going to influence professional learning. Naturally, we focus on confirming our hypotheses and not challenging them. We need to interrupt this thinking and think through all the possibilities. An example of this is the confirmation bias or the human tendency to only look for things that confirm rather than challenge our beliefs and practices as we naturally want to preserve and conserve what we already know, believe and do. Our brains are wired to find patterns instead of looking for things that don’t fit and this is why collaborative inquiry is hard because it challenges thinking and practice. We need to find ways to interrupt this because if we ignore disconfirming evidence, we fail to become aware of the limitations of our understandings. We often surround ourselves with people who think like us and we don’t go looking for people that challenge us. Using data and bringing evidence to the table during professional learning can help us to stay focussed on being objective and problem focussed not people focused. It helps us to transform professional learning into a meaningful learning experience that takes our thinking deeper and sticks.

By remembering these points - you can’t do this alone, more than one data type gives us a clear picture, making intentional interruptions and the process is cyclical, you will be better equipped to make evidence based decisions that have an impact on school culture and learning. You will be using data in a targeted, prescribed way to co-creating a common goal and take actions that are meaningful for all.

~ A collaborative blog post by Jeff, Kelly and Marci

"One of the most valuable management tools is data. Make sure you make decisions based on research. Consider what do on a daily basis to improve student achievement. Remember to put data in context." Dr. Alvy