Looking Forward to 2017-18!

The 2017-18 school year promises to be exciting in the Kamloops-Thompson School District. We have recently completed our District Strategic Plan, our District Learning Plan, and schools have co-created their Learner-Centered School Learning Plans for the upcoming year.  As District Principal of Innovation, I am looking forward to supporting our learners (students, educators and parents) in meeting their goals.

As a District, we strive to be a dynamic district through our commitment to equity and excellence, to connect our students to their future by creating innovative and adaptive learning environments, and to create a collaborative and instructionally innovative culture that is diverse and values diversity.

Right...so now what?

Let's try that again.

Background

Our schools are like elite, skilled athletes that play on a contending team. A team that is good. Really good. But they want to get better. A lot better. They know they have potential to do amazing things.

The team members are diverse in strengths and abilities, in weaknesses and vulnerabilities as well as motivation levels and moxie. They are our team.

So one might think that a laudable goal for the District Principal of Innovation is to be a coach, and perhaps it might be. However, to continue the sports analogy, my goal this year is to become the best TRAINER I can possibly be for our team.

The life of a trainer for a sports team is not so glamourous. They ensure that the real stars, the athletes, have what they need. They get equipment ready for practice. They make sure there are balls, cones, targets, pads and nets to simulate match conditions. They tape people up, and deal with injuries big and small. They do research to ensure the athletes are using the best research-based workout techniques so they are fit and ready to meet the demands of the game. They motivate the athletes, help them set up training programs, and even go so far as to get their athletes out of bed if they need to because they know that the season is a grind, and even the very best need a boost every once in a while. And after practices and games they put away the practice gear, wash the equipment, and listen to the athletes talk about how they did--sometimes in celebration, and other times, well, not so much. And after everyone is gone, the trainer turns out the lights and heads home so they can be back in the morning to start all over again before the team returns.

At the end of the day, the success of the trainer is in the success of the athletes and the team. Period. The trainer is not in the spotlight--they are there to serve, and to ensure that the athletes can do their best work.

As District Principal of Innovation, I am here to serve our educators in our schools so that they can do their best work for their learners. With my design team, I need to create authentic learning opportunities that will help our schools and educators be ready for the 'big game' in our hallways and classrooms. I need to make sure that I am current in terms of the direction of our schools and the district through our school-based and strategic plans. I need to be well-versed and fluent in research and practical techniques that best serve our 'training cycle'; in this case, our Professional Learning Cycle. I need to motivate our team, but not by the occasional pom-pom and rah-rah, but rather by giving our educators quick dopamine-style hits of success using rapid, iterative learning cycles (such as our Learning Sprints) during collaborative meetings (within our collaborative time models) as a result of school-based ethnography (like our Instructional Rounds) to inform our instructional practices around our work in deeper learning. And I need to help our schools tell their story (through our work with Visible Thinking Routines and Presentations of Learning).

In other words, I have MUCH to learn.

Through the lens of the BCPVPA Leadership Standards, I will be focusing on improving my Organizational Capacity over the 2017-18 school year in order to serve the SD #73 District Strategic Plan Priority #4 -- "To strengthen partnerships to enrich the way we lead, learn and work."  Within this priority, SD #73 staff will

• practice effective collaboration at all levels of the District
• build effective teams and networks to facilitate partnerships and support students
• engaged in community-based and job-embedded professional learning and training.

As a result, I am going to focus on two inter-related areas:

1.  To build collaborative teams, structures and processes that support student learning
2.  Model and support continuous inquiry and professional learning for self and others

This year, I am going to focus on my work with our district and school families to develop professional learning cycles that will include the school plan development cycle, development of a vision of a learner, Instructional Rounds, Learning Sprints, and Collaborative Time. Each of these structures can be used to

• help our schools meet the goals of their school learning plans, the District Learning Plan, and the District Strategic Plan
• continue our journey to implement the re-designed BC Curriculum

Goal: To help each of our schools develop a professional learning cycle that works for their context, and that is grounded in specific and descriptive observation, empathy-based design, and rapid, iterative cycles that inform teaching and learning.

Rationale: Each of our schools has just presented their co-created School Learning Plans in May, so now the real work begins!

Over the last four years, our District has had more than 300 of our educators trained in giving and/or experience specific, descriptive and non-judgemental feedback based targeted on a co-created problem of instructional practice, and 40% of our schools do Instructional Rounds. In each Rounds visit, teachers and administrators have come away saying that it has been the most intense and impactful professional development that they have done (don't believe me, watch the video). It has also helped to direct improvement efforts and has actually made a difference to instructional practice and learning! However, not all of our schools have done Rounds, and doing an Instructional Round takes time: we have nearly 40 schools in our district, we need a mechanism and set of tools to enable schools to get more rapid feedback (from those who teach there) on what is working and what is not for their students.

We piloted a small cohort of Learning Sprints through the Agile Schools network in May of last year, and our educators we're very positive about how it impacted their teaching and student learning (again, don't believe me, watch the video).  A few schools also are also beginning to look at Spirals of Inquiry from Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert so this year, I (along with our design team) would like to continue to proliferate these types reflective mechanisms in our schools. However, I need to continue to learn in these areas.  As a result, my Professional Learning Plan and School District Implementation Plan is:

Plan

Instructional Rounds:

• to create three network teams of Instructional Rounds, each comprised of teachers, administrators and District Staff that have done/experienced/facilitated Rounds in our District (late September)
• to develop the capacity of each of these teams to begin the Rounds process with a school, help them develop a Problem of Practice, to guide them through the Rounds visit, to help them develop and execute their Next Level of Work plan to further their School Learning Plan efforts, and to monitor and assist their progress toward their School Learning Plan goals
• to have each of these teams do 3-4 Instructional Rounds in School District #73 schools

Learning Sprints:

• attend the Day One Learning Sprints workshop with Dr. Simon Breakspear on September 20th in Calgary, AB
• execute the Day One Learning Sprints workshop with an additional 15 pilot schools in our District (early October)
• attend a two-day training with Ricky Campbell-Allen and Nelson Gonzales on Learning Sprints in Marin, CA on Monday, October 24th and Tuesday, October 25th
• execute the Day Two training with our pilot schools in our District (early November)
• building capacity for educators in our Families of Schools in our District to lead training by helping facilitate Learning Sprints in the Delta School District (November 24th)
• create a SD #73 Learning Sprints Network (much like the Rounds Network above) in our District that can facilitate Learning Sprints in all of our interested schools
• have 20 schools doing Learning Sprints and documenting their improvement in their school goal areas 
• showcase our School District #73 Learning through Learning Sprints and Instructional Rounds  at the Western Canada uLead Conference in Alberta (late Spring).

Measures of Success

District Level Measures

• each school will have a graphic organizer/representation that describes the professional learning cycle that reflects of the needs of their school. (Winter, 2017)
• our District will have Rounds and Sprints teams and structures that support/demonstrate student and educator learning in school goal areas that support the District Strategic Plan and the District Learning Plan (Fall/Winter, 2017)
• school-based Presentations of Learning that reflects their progress in student and educator learning as a result of their professional learning cycle (late Spring)

Personal Growth Measures

• I will be able to present the learning and progress that our District has made as a result of Learning Sprints, Instructional Rounds, and other strategies that schools are using in their professional learning cycles