Adminfo - BCPVPA · member — of the four-legged vari-ety. Angel, a six-year-old Goldendoo-dle, team teaches with Kindergarten teacher Tammy Neuman. “Angel’s part of the school

AdminfoVolume 24 • Number 5June 2012 BCPVPA Journal

From the blogs:What educators are writing online

June 2012 • Adminfo • 2

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BCPVPA President Jameel Aziz reflects on two yearsof changes and challenges and theimportant work of principals and vice-principals.

On your leadership roles

2011 — 2012Board of Directors

President Jameel Aziz (Kamloops/Thompson)[email protected]

President-Elect Shelley Green (Nanaimo-Ladysmith)[email protected]

DirectorsJessica Antosz (Qualicum)[email protected]

Parm Armstrong (Kamloops/Thompson)[email protected]

Laurie Birnie (Coquitlam)[email protected]

Susan Clough (Surrey)[email protected]

Reid Findlay (North Okanagan-Shuswap)[email protected]

Rod Giles (Kootenay Lake)[email protected]

Brian Jackson (Burnaby)[email protected]

Bryan Johnson (Sooke)[email protected]

Jim Mah (Peace River South)[email protected]

Elaine McVie (Greater Victoria)[email protected]

As my term as President of the BCPVPA winds to its end, I

cannot help but to reflect on the past

two years and the changes within both our Association and BC’s pub-lic education system. It has been a

period of change and there have been times of tumult. We know that education cannot and should not be a static endeavour, but the challenges and demands that you, as school leaders, have faced have grown to such an extent that I know some of you are considering early retirement.

You have written to tell me that the school leader-ship roles of the principal and vice-principal are be-ing eroded and that the motivation that many of you had to take on those responsibilities is taking a beating. You have said that as other factors and condi-tions dictate what you do on a daily basis, your ability to focus on a healthy culture and create the best atmo-sphere to build and sustain student achievement has diminished. You have said that when your time and involvement focuses more on the system’s politically inspired “new reality” that a toll is extracted on school

culture and student achievement.Adding to your confusion, you

have told me, is the inconsistency around communication and the ap-plication of practice from school dis-trict to school district. I would love to say otherwise, but the road ahead looks anything but clear.

During the past two years, I have been impressed by the level of en-gagement from BCPVPA members. Our members have told me they want to be kept informed about the latest developments and they want to share their opinions about them. As such, you have shared your concerns about how the work requirements of FSA testing is treated, about how Bill 33 deadlines interfere with the start of the school year and you are begin-ing to react to the changes outlined in Bill 22.

BCPVPA members have called on the Association to continue to pro-vide a public voice about how the new reality is undermining faith in the public school system. In our mes-sages to members, the public and the media, we have taken a balanced and measured approach, bringing forward your observations and experiences. Regardless of our measured com-

When I ran for President, I spoke about transparency, advocacy and enhancing the instructional role of our members. I have tried to focus on those items and have always asked ‘is what we are doing good for our members?’

(continues page 17)


An angel, an ally ... a dog in the classroomA Kindergarten teacher’s assistance dog provides a helping ear … and students and staff welcome a new staff member with open arms.

by Leslie Dyson

A year ago, Boundary Park Elementary School in Sur-rey welcomed a new staff

member — of the four-legged vari-ety. Angel, a six-year-old Goldendoo-dle, team teaches with Kindergarten teacher Tammy Neuman.

“Angel’s part of the school commu-nity,” said Principal Caroline Mat-thews. “She’s an excellent role model for the kids. She has good listening skills and excellent manners.”

Neuman, who is hearing impaired, was matched with a Pacific Assis-tance Dog Society (PADS) dog in June 2011. Angel’s main purpose is to assist Neuman, but the benefits of having a working dog in the school extends far beyond that.

“Our students have an opportunity to see how animals can make a dif-ference in our lives and help us out,” said Matthews.

Although having a working dog in a school was new to her, the princi-pal insisted that Angel take her place in the school staff photo. “She goes everywhere Tammy goes — the staff-room, the photocopier room, for

meetings in my office. Everyone is so supportive.”

The school community was notified last year that a dog would be joining the staff, but there was little concern. “It’s such a welcoming community,” Matthews said, “and many families have dogs.” Even so, she made sure everyone had information in case of allergy or phobia concerns. A special

assembly was held to introduce Angel to the students and staff and to show all the things that the dog could do. During class placement discussions, parents of Kindergarten students are notified that there is an assistance dog in the classroom.

Neuman, a Kindergarten teacher in Surrey for 22 years, said her hear-ing difficulties weren’t an issue until


Adminfo is published five times per year by the BC Principals’ & Vice-Principals’ Association. Subscriptions for non-members of the Association are available for $33.60 per year, including HST. Adminfo welcomes your editorial contributions and student artwork. All material should be sent to: Richard Williams, Editor, Adminfo, #200-525 10th Avenue West, Vancouver V5Z 1K9 [call 604-689-3399 or 800-663-0432, fax 604-877-5381 or email: [email protected]].

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Admin fo VOLUME 24NUMBER 5

about six years ago. She had to de-velop several strategies to overcome the problems. “I’ve taught for so long that ideas come to me.” She tried an FM system that had others wear a transmitter that relayed sounds to her hearing aids. That worked for awhile, she said, “but I’m beyond that now.”

Neuman’s young students have learned to speak one at a time, to put a hand up if they want a turn to speak and not to interrupt. “They are good at coming around to my right side, which is marginally better,” she said. “When I’m talking to someone else, they can put a gentle hand on my shoulder so I know they want to have a turn.

“They have to look at me when they’re talking, but that’s difficult for some cultures if they have been taught not to look directly. Kids, and adults too, are apt to turn away to point at something,” she said.

“I do speech read, but speech read-ing takes a lot of effort and energy. In a Kindergarten class, sounds are coming from all directions constantly and they don’t always make sense. So sometimes I borrow ears. Some people you can’t speech read because they don’t move their lips very much or they have very quiet voices. So, I will ask certain children to pretend to take off their ears and I put them on mine. I choose someone who speaks clearly. They listen and relay back to me what was said.”

Added to these adaptations, Neu-man has an ally in Angel who alerts her when the school bell rings and when someone’s at the door.

Before Angel arrived, Neuman said she’d hear unidentifiable sounds and not know whether to act or be con-cerned. “Now, I just look at her. If she hasn’t responded, I know I don’t have to worry.” At home, Angel alerts Neuman by jumping up, touching her leg and running to the source

of the sound, whether it is someone calling her name, the phone ring-ing or a knock at the door. She even alerts Neuman whenever the neigh-bour burns his morning toast and the smoke alarm goes off.

Angel is also trained to tell Neu-man when she hears someone calling Tammy. She doesn’t want the dog to respond to Mrs. Neuman. “If she did, can you imagine what it would be like in a Kindergarten class? She’d have to alert me all the time!” she laughs.

Angel is one of 76 working dogs in western Canada owned and trained by the PAD society. Another 57 pup-pies are in training, according to Ex-ecutive Director Lori Watamanuk.

There are three types of working dogs in the province: hearing, service and canine assistance intervention (CAI) dogs. Burnaby School District has a CAI dog in its schools. The dog has proven particularly helpful for troubled students who have diffi-culty talking to counsellors and other adults. “But they will talk to a dog,” said Watamanuk. CAI dogs are also used by Canuck Place, Children’s Hospital, the Dr. Peter AIDS Centre and the Delta Police Department.

The society has learned that it has better success selecting puppies with the right qualities at a young age than accepting donations. It’s looking for

dogs that are healthy, calm, confi-dent, willing to work and comfort-able moving through a range of situa-tions and environments. Most of the dogs are purebred and crossbred Lab-radors, retrievers and terriers. Hear-ing dogs are usually smaller and high energy because they have to run back and forth and jump to communicate.

Training takes two years and the dogs learn through praise and small treats.

There’s a waiting list and a compre-hensive program to match dogs with clients. Then comes two weeks of team training for the dog and client.

Treats are only supposed to be giv-en when the dog is working. Wata-manuk relates a story of a hearing dog that repeatedly told the client that the phone was ringing. However, when the man checked the phone, no one was there. He put it down to a series of crank calls. However, that changed when he got call display. He learned that often no one had called. His dog simply felt it was time for a treat.

“The dogs like work,” Watamanuk said. “Service dogs do tasks like pick-ing up. For people in wheelchairs they become extensions of their arms.” Back strain is a common problem for paraplegics so this type of assistance can extend the health of these clients for many years. In addition, those


Leslie Dyson is a regular contributor to Adminfo. She can be reached at [email protected]

paired with a service dog appreci-ate the enhanced sense of safety and independence that comes from not having to ask strangers for help.

PADS stays in close contact with clients and makes yearly visits to en-sure that their dogs haven’t developed bad habits, gained too much weight or forgotten their lessons. The society also helps clients prepare for the dogs’ retirement. Retired dogs go to good homes.

Angel receives a small treat every time she carries out her duties. “She really works for her treats and loves to work,” said Neuman. “On Mon-day morning, when I ask, ‘Want to see the kids?’ she’s so happy and wags her tail. But by the end of the week, when I ask the question, her enthusi-asm wanes a little.”

When asked if Angel is more like a student or a teacher, six-year-old Tanvir said, “Angel is like a teacher because she works!” Sarah said she’s learned from Angel not to be afraid of the dark. That’s because the dog

sleeps in a kennel in the classroom when she’s not on duty. And Angel has helped Taranveer understand that he doesn’t have to fear all dogs.

“Angel teaches us how to behave,” added Matteas, “like you don’t talk when the teacher’s talking.” At the beginning of the year, Neuman uses Angel to demonstrate good listening skills. The dog knows how to sit qui-etly and make direct eye contact.

Angel also knows the words gym and dance and is an enthusiastic par-ticipant. But Tanvir will tell you that the dog’s favourite activity is eating.

Neuman calls her students Angel’s angels. They know they have to clean up any food that falls on the floor, especially grapes which are toxic. “If you drop food, Angel will eat it and get sick,” explained one child.

Angel’s presence also fits well with several Kindergarten prescribed learn-ing outcomes, Neuman pointed out.

Identifying the purpose of classroom and school expectations are demon-strated as all students in the school understand why they have to ask permission to pat the dog. Although she loves the attention, Neuman has explained that it’s not good for Angel to have a multitude of hands on her all the time. The dog has also helped students understand appropriate and inappropriate ways to touch and the role of following directions in our lives.

Showing responsible behaviour and caring for the environment and iden-tifying individual needs and potential hazards is demonstrated by the stu-dents’ care in keeping the classroom floor clean.

Neuman said, “I do like having Angel in my life as a person and as a teacher. She takes pressure off of me. I no longer have to pretend I can hear or guess what people are saying. Be-ing hard of hearing is an invisible dis-ability.

“When Angel has her vest on, peo-ple stop me all the time and ask what she does for me and why I have her. I tell them, matter of factly. I don’t want them to say ‘I’m sorry’ because it’s nobody’s fault. I don’t leave space for them to feel bad.

“Angel doesn’t belong to me and a lot of people want to know how I could give her up when she’s ready to retire. But I’m not allowed two dogs and I might need another dog to do the work for me. [So] I tell them, ‘I’ll have to make a hard decision.’

“But I’m told that poodles live a ‘ridiculously long time,’” she added. “She’s a constant companion. I can’t imagine my life without her.”

Get short, timely updates from the BCPVPAhttp://www.twitter.com/bcpvpa


To Dance … Perchance to LearnA dance teacher in Nanaimo helps her students develop self-reliance and then engages the high achievers to bring the weaker students along using 21st Century principles

by Ricki Bartlett

Recently, it dawned on me that if I want students to be more engaged in their learning then I need to start having conversations with them about their learning. I started a dance program at an inner-city school four years ago. The reason I started the program was not

to merely teach students how to dance, but to build a community within the school that fostered connection, positive self-identity, a sense of belonging, self-regulation and leadership. My inten-tions were truly to teach students to be, to know, to do, and to live together (Kaser & Halbert, 2009) yet until this point I believe my lack of sharing these overarching learning intentions with my learners has not allowed them to truly connect with their learning. For reasons I cannot ex-plain, I have kept these intentions secret … but why? (continues next page)


curriculum that met the needs of all students. Students ranged in grade level and dance ability, and each les-son I taught seemed to overwhelm some students while it barely chal-lenged others. I learned quite quickly that for our program to flourish, and still remain an inclusive learning en-vironment where all students could work together toward the learning intentions of leadership, connection, identity, self-regulation and a sense of belonging, I needed to re-frame the program to “demand hard work and challenge from all without excessive overload” (Istance & Dumont, 2010, p. 323).

I began to separate students into two groups, students of high rhythmic and creative ability, and students who needed to be guided through the foun-dations of rhythm, timing, and creative practice. The first group was given a space, their own equipment and a set of criteria in making their own choreog-raphy. The second group worked with me on the foundations of dance, and they were guided more closely through creative and cooperative group work. At the end of a unit we would come together and perform our dances so we could share and celebrate our progres-sions and learning together. It was clear that all learners were “sufficiently chal-lenged to reach just above their existing level and capacity” (Istance & Dumont, 2010, p. 323). Their learning was ex-ceeding my expectations. But still, something was missing.

lation can help us in other classes, in the hallways, in the work place and among peer groups.

When students began making these connections I could see how much more meaningful it became for them in understanding the link between their learning and the ability to self-regulate. Students are now able to explain what self-regulation is, how it will help them learn in a variety of areas in their lives, and they have even become able to identify specific actions that they need to take in or-der to self-regulate and get the most of the daily learning activities in class. Further, I believe an important part of this exercise is to also reflect daily on the success of their self-regulation strategies, and re-frame if necessary for the following day. Providing more time for students to have the oppor-tunity to reflect, and for me to pro-vide immediate formative feedback on the daily learning intentions is one of the current goals for my practice.

Early on during the implementa-tion of our dance program I became challenged in my ability to offer a

Throughout the few years of imple-menting this dance program I have witnessed students meeting and ex-ceeding these learning intentions but I have been the only one internally celebrating their successes. I have come to realize the importance of a learning environment that “operates with clarity of expectations and one that deploys assessment strategies consistent with these expectations” (Istance & Dumont, 2010, p. 324). I realize now how powerful it is for stu-dents to be able to identify the spe-cific nature of what they are learning, and what my true learning intentions are for them, so that we can celebrate their learning together. Therefore, my strategy to ensure that this takes place has been to begin each class sharing with my students the learning inten-tions for the day, as well as, sharing where I hope this learning will take them into the following weeks ahead, and beyond.

For an example, in the past where I have ‘secretly’ intended for self-regu-lation to develop over time, it is now something we discuss and reflect on as a group regularly. Discussing ways to self-regulate to ensure that learning takes place has be-come a daily occurrence in the dance studio. Influenced by the fact that a learning environment is optimal when it “strongly promotes horizontal connect-edness” (Istance & Dumont, 2010, p. 325), we have even begun to discuss how self-regu-

Students are now able to explain what self-regulation is, how it will help them learn in a variety of areas in their lives, and they have even become able to identify specific actions that they need to take in order to self-regulate and get the most of the daily learning activities in class.

Know MoreThe Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire PracticeEdited by Hanna Dumont, David Istance, Francisco Benavides.Published by OECD Publishing, 2010

Leadership Mindsets: Innovation and Learning in the Transformation of Schools By Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser.Published by Routledge, 2009


Although the two groups were com-ing together as one to demonstrate and celebrate their learning, I felt the initial inclusive learning intention I had for them was lost. Since “the posi-tive impact of co-operation [strength-ens] the bonds among students from diverse backgrounds,” (Istance & Du-mont, 2010, p. 321) I wanted to cre-ate a structure where these two groups of students could work together and excel. How could I create opportuni-ties for an inclusive dance environ-ment and still hold high expectations for all my learners? Aha!

I met with the ‘high-achievers’ and explained the new criteria for their next assignment. These ‘student lead-ers’ were to choreograph a dance to teach to the weaker students after pre-assessing their current abilities. These students-leaders were also facilitated through discussions around strategies that motivate students to learn, and how to give encouragement and for-mative feedback. Watching the “high-achieving students learn through sup-

porting the learning of their weaker classmates” (Istance & Dumont, 2010, p. 324) has been astonish-ing. The most rewarding experience in my practice thus far has been to witness a weaker student progress to the position of a student leader, as it has allowed me to understand how powerful “activating students as in-structional resources for one another” (Istance & Dumont, 2010, p. 320) can be. Students leading students has become central practice and it is the culture of our dance program. Together we “actively encourage well-organized co-operative learning,” (Istance & Dumont, 2010, p. 320) and work together toward common goals that benefit the development of each individual learner.

After reflecting on the connections

Ricki Bartlett has been a teacher at John Barsby Community School in SD#68 (Nanaimo-Ladysmith) since September 2008, which was the year the dance program was developed. She currently teaches Dance 8-12, Dance 8 and PE-Dance 9/10. She earned her Bachelor of Education in 2006 and is enrolled at the VIU Masters of Educational Leadership program and is scheduled to graduate this June. She can be reached at [email protected]

between these 21st Century learning principles and my own current prac-tice, I am left curious to explore ways in which I can create opportunities for an inclusive, academic learning environment. Due to declining en-rollment, I will most likely be teach-ing an academic course next year. Witnessing the successful develop-ment of students within the dance program has inspired me to create a similar learning environment for stu-dents in an academic setting.

How will I create an inclusive, academic learning environment that develops each child through high ex-pectations, but that fosters connec-tion, positive self-identity, a sense of belonging, self-regulation and lead-ership? I am so excited I can barely stand it!


Education and the social mediaThe Superintendent of the West Vancouver School Districtconsiders some of the possible reasons to explain why BC educatorshave so readily involved themselves in the social media.

by Chris Kennedy

I believe that British Columbia is leading Canada (perhaps even the world) in the professional use

of social media in K-12 education. I freely admit I don’t have the statis-tics to back up the claim — there are simply more teachers, administrators, parents, trustees, and others here, who are logging into their blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube ac-counts in the name of professional learning, than any other jurisdiction.

In the past year we have moved from several dozen blogs around K-12 edu-cation, to numbers in the hundreds,

I could go on, and there have been many others who have covered the ground about the value of social me-dia for educators, and how Twitter and blogging can be extremely pow-erful in professional development. This is true for those interested in education in BC, but it is also true of other professionals around the world.

So why has BC moved so quickly and taken such leadership in this area? As mentioned, I have no statis-tical proof, but a series of ideas as to why BC is the leading jurisdiction us-ing social media to engage in the pro-

with representation in every area of the education system. The #bced tag on Twitter is one of the most engaged with conversations about the ever-changing education profession, and there are many other social sites hav-ing these conversations as well.

The conversations around the pro-fession itself are interesting. In social media, ‘role’ becomes less important; there is a flattening of society and it is ‘ideas’ that have increased value. There are also incredible opportuni-ties to reflect, share, and learn with-out the limitations of geography.

From the blogs: What BC educators are writing online


fession of education, but I do have some sense of why. I believe:

1)Social media is not as “new” here as it is in many places:

Five years ago, as a principal in the Coquitlam School District, I was see-ing that for my colleagues, blogs and the social media were already routine. For instance, Brian Kuhn (district), David Truss (vice-principal) and James McConville (teacher) were all engaged in social media. So, it is not a novelty here, but rather a mature and developed practice. We have a long history of models to look at and are in a much deeper place with this type of learning and professional develop-ment than in other jurisdictions.

2)Networking is a core element of BC’s education scene.

Since 2000, Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser have been working with teach-ers, principals and vice-principals and other educators through The Net-work of Performance Based Schools. This network, which I have blogged about, has been a model for jurisdic-tions around the world. The culture of face-to-face networking moves naturally to social media networking, and connects an ever broader audi-ence interested in learning and ideas. This social media networking is an extension of the face-to-face conver-sations that Halbert and Kaser have long sponsored.

3)The traditional media “plays” in social media. Most nota-

ble is the Vancouver Sun’s Education Reporter, Janet Steffenhagen, who has the popular Report Card blog

and is a regular tweeter. She is not the only one. The Globe and Mail, CKNW, and most local newspaper reporters covering education regu-larly engage in social media. Often, we now see what will be “news” on a nightly newscast or morning news-paper make news first on Twitter or in a blog. Social media has become fertile ground for education reporters researching their next story; it is seen as a place to break and make news.

4)Organizations and govern-ment “play” in social media.

I knew Twitter was part of the estab-lishment and no longer on the fringe when I saw the Minister of Education join a debate online one night. Of course, that is not the only example. Almost every organization involved in education is on Twitter including the BCTF, BCPVPA, CUPE, BCS-TA and BCPSEA. Not only are these organizations out there in a corporate sense, but many in their leadership have their own accounts. One can look at examples like the recent Face-book campaign by the BCPVPA, or the revamped and expanded BCSTA social media presence on the value being placed on social media.

5)There are some regular and thoughtful voices: There are a

number of individuals with a profile well beyond our borders. From Bruce Beairsto who blogs on the Canadian Education Association site, to well-known edu-bloggers including Chris

Wejr from Agassiz, David Wees from Vancouver, Cale Birk from Kamloops and many more, there are some regu-lar contributors who are seen as “go to” people for interesting reflections and ideas.

6)We are at a time when we are examining the profes-

sion. Even before the BC Education Plan, the last several years have been full of discussions within the system about how a high-performing system should evolve. With some high-level direction from the province, but not a lot of prescription, the time is ripe for sharing ideas and innovations within and across jurisdictions.

7)We have an amazingly dedi-cated profession. Even in

challenging times, it is stunning to see the number of teachers, school princpals and vice-principals and other educators spending time in their evenings and weekends to reflect and share through their blogs, Twitter and other venues. The reason why we have one of the highest performing jurisdictions in the world is because it is accompanied by an equally talent-ed and dedicated group of educators. As social media has grown, so has our educators’ need to harness it for pro-fessional growth.

This is far from an exhaustive list. But, I am often asked by other juris-dictions why those who are involved in the BC education system have tak-en to social media at such a greater rate than anywhere else? I believe it is our ability to see around the corner to where we need to go next that is part of our success story, and that is what we have done by engaging in social media.

BC educators who embrace social media click into incredible opportunities to reflect, share and learn without the limits of geography.

This article was first posted on Chris Kennedy’s blog The Culture of Yes. He is the Superintendent of Schools, West Vancouver. You can follow his blog at http://cultureofyes.ca, read the original post of this article at http://bit.ly/Knjdnl or follow him on Twitter @chrkennedy.


It was one year ago and I only did it because someone dropped the gloves. The Director of Information Manage-ment Services (@dj_turner) challenged me. How can you

lead a portfolio with technology when you don’t know anything about social media? About Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etcetera? It was something like that — perhaps not phrased quite as nicely. That was at the stage when he, and the IML Helping Teachers, were still drawing diagrams on paper representing this wireless thing. The whole technology piece was foreign to my world. If you drop the gloves on me, however, you better look out (I am a wee bit competitive). I effectively tossed it back, pointing out that I would have more followers than him in short order. And then, I jumped in. Here’s what happened:

Dropping the gloves

An educator in Surrey is challenged to know more about social media.One year after the gloves dropped, she reflects on the journeyand how it has helped to re-shape her concept of networking.

by Elisa Carlson



The First Six Weeks:Boring

At first, Twitter didn’t make sense and I wasn’t impressed. After I was given the hands-on demo at work, I went home and signed on to Twitter while my 12-year-old supervised over my shoulder. I read the Tweets, found a few followers, and then sent a few Tweets. I really thought it was a bit of a waste of time. It wasn’t until six weeks later, after I made a personal

commitment to check in and Tweet at least once daily, that I begin to see some possible value. I was find-ing links to articles and research that were both interesting and timely for my own learning.

A Pivotal Moment:Useful information

Probably the most helpful moment came when Heidi Gable (@HGG) set me up with Tweetdeck on my desktop and laptop. Finally I could

have meaningful columns designed for my personal needs and interests. I followed the Superintendent list and columns that were specific to my school district along with topical hashtags that were of interest to me. We set up a column for my mentions and direct messages. Everything was easy to see at a glance and required a minimum investment of time. I repeat, “a minimum investment of time.” I was converted. Why hadn’t anyone shown me this sooner?

Real Understanding:Power

I had heard about hashtags because our IML Helping Teacher, Orwell Kowalyshyn (@Kowalyshyn), spoke about them at our district sessions and gave me a list of the most popular ones. I put it to the side of my desk because I didn’t really get it. I kept moving this paper around to a dif-ferent corner of the desk wondering

Imagine if we could use Twitter to forward ideas about best practices in teaching all across the province? How might we transform the work we do? How might we provide the best possible learning experiences for our students? Could we do this in our district? Could we all learn together? I am now intentionally living the dream.

JI_BCPVPA_7.5x4.9_CMYK_F12_FINAL.ai 1 06/03/12 3:28 PM

Could we all learn together? I am now intentionally living the dream.

The Leadership Piece:It’s all about the influence

I have some background and train-ing in leadership, formally it is a Doc-torate in Educational Leadership. I simply see social media (of which Twitter is one example) as a way to change the world. We spread good ideas that connect to the passion of others to make a difference. For me, in my corner of the world, I will use it to “live the dream” and support the work of schools — teachers, prin-cipals and vice-principals who are pushing their practice forward. Re-gardless of our positions, we all have the potential to exercise leadership. For us in education, it is a hand in glove fit for the work we do.

With one year under my belt, I can say that dropping the gloves was truly an effective motivator for me. And as for the challenge, if we are looking at the head count for followers, I am winning. But really, the head count doesn’t matter. The real win is what I have gained. I have learned so much. I have connected to real people. And I am a better educator, a better leader, and a better human being for having done so. I have won indeed.

gone for a run together. I could add many other people to this list, prin-cipals, vice-principals and teachers. I never anticipated connecting to people through this media in a way that would result in building what I would consider meaningful relation-ships. There are no barriers on Twit-ter. I have a network and it is real.

The Moral Purpose:Best (& next) practice

There was this strange exchange of tweets with David Wees (@david-wees). Then I think I sent him a direct message and said I would like to meet him (which was a bit bold of me) but I was engaging in a faceless conversa-tion and actually wanted to meet the author of these Tweets. He came all the way out from Vancouver and met me in my office in Surrey. We had a thought-provoking conversation about math and many other things. But the singular most important mes-sage he left me with was his vision of Twitter for BC Educators: Imagine if we could use Twitter to forward ideas about best practices in teaching all across the province? It echoes in my head. Can you imagine? How might we transform the work we do? How might we provide the best possible learning experiences for our students? Could we do this in our district?

when I would get around to figure it out. I had too many other things to do and it didn’t seem all that signifi-cant. And then somewhere there was the “aha” moment and I understood the power of the hashtag both for sending out information and finding it. When I Tweeted, it only went to my limited followers. When I Tweet-ed with a hashtag, it was going out on a list to others interested in following that topic. Ideas were moving to those that most wanted to hear and act on them. The power is in the hashtags.

Crazy & Unexpected:Real relationships

I didn’t anticipate the “social” piece of using this media. I met Tia Hen-riksen (@henriksen) via Twitter. That may sound funny given that she is a vice-principal in my own district, but since we have more than 225 princi-pals and vice-principals, it is difficult to know everyone. Somehow our Tweets connected and I invited her for coffee in my office at the end of last August. We birthed a few district ideas through that coffee conversa-tion and I have an ally in the work I do. Others, like @sheilamoris, @ab-vendramin, @dchila, have also played a similar role. It is also through Twit-ter that I have connected to teachers in my district and actually have some perspective on what is happening in the field. I met Karen Lirenmans (@Lirenmanlearn) via Twitter and be-sides visiting her classroom we have

This article was first posted on Elisa Carlson’s blog Innovative Learning Designs. Elisa is the Director of Instruction, Surrey. You can follow her blog at http://innovativelearningdesigns.ca/, read the original post at http://bit.ly/J5MMfc or follow her on Twitter @ECSD36.

ShortCourse 2012 • UBC, July 9 – 13

Leading for Learning

Information www.bcpvpa.bc.caRegistration: https://www.eply.com/ShortCourse2012


What is authentic par-ent involvement? Last evening, I was pleased

to host more than 400 parents and students to our Welcome Night for our incoming Grade 7s. It is one of my favorite nights of the year. And while I do spend some time giving information about our school and the opportunities that are available, information dissemination is one of my lowest priorities for the evening. My main goal is simple: when they leave that evening, I want them to feel good about their child coming to our school. Whether this is through their feeling a personal connection to

something in the presentation, or see-ing other parents and students in the gym, or just coming into the school and sensing the excitement from their child about making the jump to high school, I want them to leave feeling better than when they came.

Driving home after the Welcome Night, I began to reflect on parent involvement in schools. Earlier this spring, I was privileged enough to see Larry Rosenstock, from San Diego’s High Tech High, speak to a group of district and school based administra-tors in British Columbia. During his address, he alluded to something that surprised, and then later resonated,

with me: he talked about how he be-lieved that parent involvement pro-moted inequity in education. At the time, I was a bit shocked and stunned, and there was a strange and tangible ripple that flowed through the room of more than 400 people. It seemed to be such a bold statement. But as Rosenstock explained, if you were to take his context in San Diego as an example, he would predict that the majority of parents that would choose to be significantly involved would be parents from areas such as La Jolla (one of the most expensive zip codes to live in the United States), and less (if any) from the impoverished areas

Authentic Parent Involvement

An educator who regularly and warmly welcomes parents into the school reflects on what constitutes real parent engagement

by Cale Birk


of the city. And as a result, he felt that the values that would be promoted at PAC meetings or forums for parent involvement would be those from a small and select group of people that was not representative of his school community. He felt that the parent involvement that was most impor-tant was to have parents come to the showcase evenings that take place at his schools so they can see the work of their children.

Tonight, I read a thought-provok-ing post by Will Richardson called "Getting Bold with Parents" in which he details the efforts by a particular Superintendent to involve parents in conversations about education. Within this post, Mr. Richardson states:

"Parents are the most important con-stituency to engage in conversations around the shifts we are experiencing. We have to be willing to provoke and engage in those conversations on an on-going basis."

From where I sit, in some small way, this flies in the face of what Lar-ry Rosenstock was saying at HTH. Wow. Two 'educational heavyweights' on different sides of the coin. What to do?

Just to be sure, I want to articulate a few things I find true about par-ent involvement in schools. Firstly, I think that parents (and students) are our clients, and we need to be

insatiably curious about their percep-tions and feelings about education and the service that we provide in our schools. This might put me more on the end of the continuum that Will Richardson describes. Conversely, having been in education for 16 years in three different school districts, and having read dozens and dozens of blog posts and articles about the subject, I am still struggling to find a model that gets authentic parental in-volvement from a truly representative group in a school community. This puts me more on the other end of the continuum where Larry Rosenstock was coming from.

Yet there is another piece to this. What is the parent involvement that we want? Have we really quali-fied this? I believe that if you asked District staff, school-based princi-pals and vice-principals, teachers, students and parents what effective parental involvement in schools and school reform looks like, you would likely get a wide range of answers that each have an equal amount of valid-ity. Do parents need to be involved in administrative things such as budget-ing and staffing? In pedagogical issues such as teaching methodologies and assessment? In policy discussions that govern our schools and school per-sonnel? In the macro-issues of educa-

tional reform? In all of these, some of these, none of these? What is the right amount? A lot? A little? And perhaps the most important question of all — do parents want to be involved in these things? In schools and educa-tion, where the pace of change can be oft-regarded as two paces slower than glacial, do parents want to commit the time and effort to helping us do our jobs when they have jobs of their own?

I ask these questions without pre-suming to know the answers. But one thing that I am sure of is this: I want the support of our parents in our school community. To this end, I need to be insatiably curious about their perceptions of our school and the education that their child is re-ceiving from us. I want parents to support our teachers, and our teach-ers to over-communicate with them about their student's progress. I want them to support our programs, to come to games, performances, assem-blies and art exhibits so they are part of our tribe. And I want parents to support their child so they feel loved and happy each day when they come to school.

Of course these supports are not as far-reaching as what Will Richardson describes in his post with respect to engaging parents in the quest to make sweeping changes in education. How-ever, until each of us is able to clarify the purpose and process of authen-tic parent involvement by answering some of the questions above, I fear that this parent involvement we are striving for will remain hit and miss at best, and at worst, perpetuate some of the inequities described by Larry Rosenstock.

This article was first posted on Cale Birk’s blog the Learning Nation. Cale is the Principal, South Kamloops Secondary. You can follow his blog at http://thelearningnation.blogspot.ca/, read the original post at http://bit.ly/JGzZgJ or follow him on Twitter @birklearns.

I need to be insatiably curious about parents’ perceptions of our school and the education that their child is receiving from us. I want parents to support our teachers, and our teachers to over-communicate with them about their student’s progress.

Cover Art

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ments and our best efforts to reflect a consensus of the views of princi-pals and vice-principals, I know that 100% agreement with any policy, statement or program, is impossible. Still, our members have overwhelm-ingly approved our public positions and understand the important role the Association can play when the significant leadership role of the prin-cipal and vice-principal is threatened.

When I ran for the position of Pres-

(Aziz, continued from page 3)ident, I spoke about transparency, advocacy and enhancing the instruc-tional role of our members. All of my conversations and decisions have tried to focus on those items. My bot-tom line has always been, is what we are doing good for our members?

I appreciate the support of the Board and the staff of our organiza-tion and I hope that the direction, en-gagement and involvement we have had as an organization continues.

Our membership has changed, in both vision and need since the orga-nization was founded 25 years ago. I am proud to have played a small part in moving the BCPVPA in a direc-tion that is endorsed and embraced by members.

To each and everyone of you, I ex-tend my best wishes for your health, happiness and strong leadership roles in your schools. Your work makes a difference everyday.

Our cover art this month is by Hazel Rueger, a Grade 7 student at Big Lake Elementary, which is a small, rural school located east of Williams Lake in the Cariboo Chilcotin School District. Our thanks to Hazel, Trish Fushtey (Hazel's art teacher, who has recently moved to the Cariboo) and Principal Judy Vanderzwan.

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Picture Day 2012In February more than 500 BCPVPA members completed an online survey, which documented their day in 15-minute increments. The results are in and the final report will be available over the summer. In the meantime, the following comments will offer a glimpse of some of the respondents write-in comments. In all more than 50,000 words were added by principals and vice-principals. (Comments may have have been edited to ensure privacy.)

Are there any significant issues you dealt with today that were not reflected in your time log:

Discussions today regarding a boy who is talking about suicide and/or harming himself. Several team members involved; however, behaviour unchanged. How do we get him the help he needs, how do we support the family and how do we ensure a safe environment for other students? All questions we spent time discussing today.

Several students returned from suspension for being under the influence of marijuana. Dealt with a student overwhelmed by her sciences course by helping her with options and came to a solution together. Dealt with students leaving in the middle of a class. Talked to another administrator about a student who has been away for an extended period and discussed an educational plan for this student.

What was the most difficult issue you had to deal with today:

A child with significant behaviour challenges having to be removed from his classroom and making threats. Getting support and parental involvement to help him. This was ongoing while trying to do supervision and run intramurals in the gym at the same time. Not to mention trying to maintain relationships with staff in the current (BCTF) situation going on at the same time.

If the day was not at all typical please explain:Over the past 6 weeks, I spent quite a bit of time with the FSA. Today I downloaded the individual student results and printed them off to be sent home to parents. I have tried to keep track of how much time it has taken me including administering the practice test, the real test, communicating with parents about the test, catching up students who missed the test, marking the test, entering the marks on the computer, and sending the tests home: it has taken over 30 hours of admin time to deal with the FSA.

My days are complex and involve teaching, counselling, school administration and district administration. On this day, I have district meetings, am supervising and marking FSAs, and am working on budgets. It’s also the school board meeting tonight. Not necessarily atypical, but reflective of the many hats I wear.


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quality leadership in education Rod Maclean is a former Surrey principal.Visit Rod’s website at www.justkiddingcartoons.com

What changes could be made to better help you deal with difficult issues:

A counsellor in the school more than two days per week in a school of 500 students. More administrative time for the vice-principal. Currently the vice-principal gets released less than .5 day per week to learn the job and support the administrative needs of the school.

What changes would you like to see which would increase your career satisfaction:

I would like more autonomy over my schedule. I would like to connect with students and teachers in classrooms. I should not have a teaching load assigned to me as part of my

What changes could be made to help you be more effective in your job:

Clear, consistent policies and follow-up for bullying, intimidation and harassment. We have students who are coming from difficult situations and often they bring these situations into school and download their frustrations on other students or staff. Though thankfully not daily, they take a great deal of time and energy to resolve.

administrative duties. I would like more time to focus on educational leadership such as instructional leadership. I would like to know that advancement is expected.

If you were working before 7 am or after 7 pm, please describe those activities: A compilation answer: marking for my math class, grad parent meeting, teaching prep, email, Ministry of Ed meeting, phoning parents, assessments and preps, paperwork, supporting a family in crisis, reading articles for SPC.

BC Principals’ & Vice-Principals’ Association

Connecting Leaders:Learning for Changing TimesOctober 18-20, 2012Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel • Richmond7551 Westminster Highway

David Warlick (author of four books on instructional technology)Saturday Keynote Harnessing the Perfect StormFor decades education has consisted of acknowledged literacy skills, definable bodies of knowledge and pedagogies for teaching willing students within information-scarce learning environments. Today, as we adapt to a world that is changing faster than our ability to react, we are struggling to rethink what it is to be educated, to reinvent where it happens, and redefine our roles as educators — as the line between teacher and student appears to blur.

Breakout sessions by leadingBC educational practitioners.

Register onlinehttps://www.eply.com/ConnectingLeaders2012

Conference strands:technology • Social Media

community engagement • global ContextBC leadership • work/life Balance

school structures to support learning teaching and Student Learning

Liz Wiseman (author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter)

Friday Keynote Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter There are two dramatically different types of leaders. Diminishers drain

intelligence and energy from the people around them, while Multipliers use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around

them. Liz Wiseman will share the research behind multipliers and illustrate the resoundingly positive effect they have — how they get more done with fewer

resources, develop and attract talent, and cultivate new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. She’ll introduce the five

disciplines that distinguish multipliers from diminishers and provide practice tips for leading like a multiplier.

Documents

Adminfo - BCPVPA · member — of the four-legged vari-ety. Angel, a six-year-old Goldendoo-dle, team teaches with Kindergarten teacher Tammy Neuman. “Angel’s part of the school