2011 – 2012 – Mid-Year Round Up In my last post, I discussed the whole New Year thing and then began a reflection of where we are as a school. This is a mid-year round up of life thus far at PPCS a brand new K – 12 school in rural Saskatchewan. The school is…
Sharing your PLN with Others – explaining Twitter and other social media Eventually One of the things that use to keep me from doing things was the fear that I’d make an idiot of myself when I failed. Then I became a father – 8 times. I’m now cured of that since I’ve made an…
It’s time to change something! Changing in mid-stride This past few weeks, I’ve been dealing with a few students in the MY and HS who have hit the mid-year wall. They’ve fallen behind in assignments, aren’t really interested in redoing anything and just have a “mad” on. One of them ended up in my office…
Student Led Conferences Student Led Conferences (SLC’s) might seem to be new but they’ve been around for awhile, at least 18 years – that’s when I first encountered them as a newbie teacher. Since that beginning, I’ve had the professional pleasure of working with a number of school staffs and communities in adopting and growing…
The ride might be gentle but the road to change is usually a rough one! In my role as an administrator who has been tasked a number of times with moving schools along and bringing about improvements and changes, I’ve learned a few things about the change process and working with teachers to bring…
Over on twitter tonight, there has been a few discussions about professional development, what and when and how and …… Why? Why do we continue to discuss the best type or the best way or the best method or ….. Professional development is a frame of mind. As a professional, I don’t decide when I’m…
There have been a few discussions going on about staff PD and the need to change things and make them more relevant for teachers. So, I figured I’d share a few things that our staff decided to do to enhance our PD, a few things that we’ve “made our own” from division directives and how…
I’ve been reading the discussion on the blog post “Why “I Don’t Do Technology” Isn’t Acceptable” over at Connected Principals and it’s very interesting and there are some good comments that have ensued, sign that the topic is very much on people’s’ minds. I also happened to follow a link to this post by Doyle…
As a leader, there are so many different things that pull you in all sorts of directions from the paperwork that is required to the custodian that needs to talk to you about a situation in the bathroom to a parent who wants to talk to you …. the list goes on. As learners, we…
I’m on Vacation One of my favourite movies is City Slickers (1991). In this movie Mitch Robbins, Billy Crystal, and his two friends decide to take their vacation on a dude ranch. There’s a scene part way through the movie that begins with Crystal’s character causing a stampede by firing up his electric coffee grinder. The ensuing chaos…