Tools of the Trade21st Century Learning for Leaders

Jeannine St. AmandNovember 26, 2010

Halifax, N.S.

We are living in a new economy – powered by technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge.

Futurework - Trends and Challenges for Work in the 21st Century

About Me

About Us

Governance:• The key work of school boards is student

achievement and community engagement (to promote student achievement).

• Boards articulate the educational vision and mission of the district and garner support and resources to achieve those ends.

Key Work of Boards VISION Establish a vision for student achievement shared by the school board, superintendent,

staff, and community.

STANDARDS Set clear learning standards for student achievement.

ASSESSMENT Establish an assessment system that periodically measures individual student progress toward standards.

ACCOUNTABILITY Establish a strong accountability process for the district.

ALIGNMENT Align resources to ensure that students meet standards.

CLIMATE Create a positive learning environment or climate for improving student achievement.

COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS Build and maintain collaborative relationships between the board and the superintendent, and the leadership team with the community including key political and business leaders to develop support for student achievement as a top community priority.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Commit to continuous improvement for student achievement.

http://www.nsba.org/MainMenu/Governance/KeyWork.aspx

Vision / Mission

To create a supportive, student-centred environment, where each student succeeds and all educational partners are

respected and valued.

By 2011, the ABC District will have enhanced achievement and success for all students within a healthy, active, safe, caring, and socially-just learning environment.

District PQR is a learning community that fosters a collaborative, creative, caring, and challenging environment that instils a passion for learning in our students.

We develop independent lifelong learners in a student-centered environment with high expectations for all.

Collaborative Relationships

Leading

Setting a vision and mission, and developing collaborative relationships with parents, students, teachers, administrators and community takes significant leadership – by us as individuals and as boards.

Learning

Image courtesy of 21st Century Learning TeamQatar Academy, http://21c.qataracademy.wikispaces.net/

Leading by Learning (21C)

Until educators and influential people such as parents, school boards, teacher union leaders, and politicians understand what this vision of teaching and learning looks and feels like by experiencing it themselves, our progress will be limited to a few courageous souls fighting the status quo to no significant avail.

Dennis Richards, MA Superintendent (retired)

So…

• In our work of creating vision and mission, of developing collaborative relationships, how are we leading by learning?

• How are we communicating, collaborating, creating, connecting?

Flickr photo by o5com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/o5com/4951006091/

Learning in the 21st Century

• 21C concepts such as communicating, collaborating, and creating, are not new.

• But the ability, and necessity, of making connections and creating networks is changing dramatically.

• As the pervasiveness of technology and tech tools grows, our ability to learn with and from a network grows.

What brings it all together?

A personal learning network – PLN– The people, information and tools you bring

together to help you accomplish your goals.

My PLN development

The Tools I Use

twitter

RSS

blip.fm

google docs, gmail

creative commonsflickr

facebook

wordpress

delicious

netvibes

slideshare

youtube

tweetdeck

android

Microblogging• Connecting, sharing, learning

Blogs, RSS• Learning, communicating, creating, sharing

Social bookmarking• Learning, sharing

Other – sharing with…

• Wikis, google docs – collaborating, creating• Flickr – creating, communicating• Slideshare – creating• Youtube – learning, communicating• …

Online learning collaboratives

• Edtechtalk ~ Parents as Partners• LearnCentral• The Future of Education• K-12 Online• Global Education Conference

Lorna

Heidi

Penny

Connection

Dr. Alec Couros (@courosa)http://www.slideshare.net/courosa/a-tweet-and-a-poke-how-educators-harness-the-power-of-social-networks

The Connected Teacher

Dr. Alec Couros (@courosa)http://www.flickr.com/photos/courosa/

The Connected SB Member

SB Member

SB Member

Imagine What We Can Do

• By experiencing the learning ourselves we will better understand how to transform learning for our students.

• By sharing the transformation with parents in our districts through connecting them to the learning in our schools

• By collaborating with each other to bring relevance to the role of local school governance.

Last words…Building a PLN

There is excellent advice on building a PLN at: http://sites.google.com/site/buildingapln/

Join me!twitter: @jeanninestamand

blog: www.jeanninestamand.wordpress.com

Let’s create some connections, and build some networks to strengthen public

education governance in Atlantic Canada!

Presentation slides available at slideshare:

Delicious: www.delicious.com/toolsofengagement

Linkedin: I’m a newbie