uLead 2019

In the session I plan to give a description of Eymennt, edcamps and a network of six schools in Iceland that focuse on use and development of technology in schools. The Eymennt project will then be analyzed based on theories of professional learning communities and the role of school leaders in motivating and building up a sustainable culture of a learning community.

The population of English Language Learners continues to grow and your schools are becoming more diverse than ever before.Our challenge as school leaders is to capitalize on the intercultural mix in our schools along with celebrating the gifts of diversity that benefits everyone in our schools. Join us as we explore tried and true research based practices that can that can be implemented to reflect cultural diversity in your inclusive school environment.

School transformation is built on the foundation of healthy relationships and communication.  This session guides participants on how to collaboratively seek effective solutions to challenging issues and problems while maintaining, and even strengthening, the relationships that are at the heart of any conflict. Based on the moral imperative of leading and learning and the research from the Harvard Negotiation Project, participants will leave better understanding their preferred conflict management styles and how to engage in an explicit solution-focussed process specific for education leadership.  Through understanding "4 ways of listening" and leading authentic engagement, diverse perspectives are respected and are key to seeking positive solutions that are at heart of school transformation.  "Seeking Positive Solutions" is all about strengthening robust, healthy relationships – both within our professional and personal lives. 

Precis:

How can leaders lead to deliver equitable outcomes for students with disability in a system spread across a huge, decentralised geographic area? Like Alberta, Queensland is a state with a huge geographic footprint with great diversity of educational settings. This workshop looks at some key principles underpinning support for students with disability, and how leaders can enact these across diverse settings.

Our pitch:

Instructional and relational leadership interact to do what needs to be done to allow staff and students to reach their full potential. With students with a disability representing 30% of our student population (verified by national data), Queensland has been plunged into an explicit inclusion agenda over the past year. The experiences of leaders at the system and school level will inform actions for principals in many systems in leading teachers and learners down a new path of expectations not always supported by resourcing.

As leaders we have the ability to unleash talent and capability by focusing on the 4 essential leadership roles we play. The 4 essential roles are to Inspire Trust, Create Vision, Execute Strategy and Coach Potential. Great leaders consciously lead themselves and their teams in alignment with these roles, laying the foundation for effective leadership.    

In this inspiring, interactive session, you will learn how, effective leaders can develop the leadership potential in others and improve performance through consistent feedback and coaching. 

Without leaders who can connect the efforts of their team to the critical objectives of their system or school, no system or school has ever become great.

This session supports the following professional practice standard competencies: 

•  Building / Fostering Effective Relationships (SLQS, LQS TQS ) 
• Modelling / Engaging Commitment to Professional Learning (SLQS & LQS & TQS) 
•  Embodying Visionary Leadership (SLQS & LQS & TQS) 
• Leading a Learning Community (SLQS & LQS & TQS ) 
• Providing Instructional Leadership (LQS) 
• Developing Leadership Capacity (LQS) 
• Managing School Operations (LQS) 
•  Understanding and Responding to the Larger Context (LQS) 

Safe and Caring Schools & Communities is a non-profit organization that exists to support schools and school communities to become safe, caring, respectful and welcoming; where each child can grow to be a respectful and responsible citizen. Safe and Caring Schools & Communities has developed a service that is available for all schools across Alberta to support school leaders in determining to what extent their schools are safe, caring, respectful and welcoming.  This service is in the form of a Safe and Caring School Audit, where the school goes through a process that results in data that evidences and provides celebrations, areas for growth and recommendations in each of the categories of safe, caring, respectful and welcoming.   The Audit process in comprehensive and engages school leaders, staff, students and parents.  It is comprised of surveys and interviews that elicit the current reality in the four areas (safe, caring, respectful and welcoming.)   Data is collected then collated by the University of Alberta and reports are generated for schools.  The audit process goes a step further and  provides best practice, current recommendations for school leaders, staff, students and parents.   Alberta Schools have been given a strong mandate regarding ensuring that schools are safe, caring, respectful and welcoming but these are areas that are difficult to measure.  The new Alberta Education Professional Practice Standards also require teachers, leaders and system leaders to "create a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments."  The Society for  Safe and Caring Schools & Communities School Audit can  support schools along this journey.   Those who attend this session will get a deeper explanation of the components, process and deliverables of the Safe and Caring School Audit.

Research has proven the connection between school leadership and the considerable improvement which can occur to the learning and achievement of students. For educational leaders to make a positive contribution to the teaching and learning among their staff, they must first be able to inspire their teams to reach higher and work harder. Decisive leadership can energize and create a sense of direction. A successful lead teacher knows how to guide and provide staff with varied opportunities to meet diverse needs. They help infuse team energy and enlist commitment to school goals by fueling individual passion and purpose. More importantly, they know how to cultivate relationships to impact the school culture, help promote distributive leadership and encourage the innovative practice. We will explore our professional influence and ability to cultivate and maintain positive relationships to influence school development, asking questions such as:  How do we inspire and build our teams? How do we recognize the professional needs and advance necessary changes? How do we adapt and maintain flexibility to educational challenges? How do we gain insights into driving factors to harness a growth mindset within our teams?

This presentation tells the story of one school’s attempt to draw upon its progressive values and traditions to develop a new approach to schooling based on holistic, real-world learning. Woodleigh School is a three campus, pre-K to Year 12, co-educational school on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia. It is a school over 150 years old, yet most strongly associated with a radical approach to experiential education first implemented in the 1970s. The presentation will explore three lines of inquiry central to this process: the use of appreciative inquiry to engage all members of the school community in the development of a shared vision for the future; the creation of a whole school teaching and learning framework, with an emphasis on experiential learning; and the development of innovative programs and creative teaching practice designed to prepare students for the future.