uLead 2019

Clearview schools have embarked on a district wide initiative to increase effective literacy instruction and improve results for students through the systematic implementation of a comprehensive balanced literacy approach for all.  The development of a district wide literacy plan which focuses on instructional leadership for administrators as well as professional learning series and coaching support for all schools will lead to student success. Collaboration at all levels is a key component to ensure common literacy beliefs, and expectations are embedded in classroom practice.  The team will share their successes and challenges as well as next steps of their journey.

Education is a living practice (Friesen and Jardine, 2009) that requires us as professional educators to continuously examine how we can improve teaching and learning for today’s students. This session addresses the principal as a teacher leader “reimagining school leadership” and leveraging distributive leadership to effectively provide optimal learning for every student. The Calgary Board of Education’s collaborative leadership development model has been intentionally designed to promote systemic coherence and leadership practice to improve student learning. The collaborative model is transforming leadership practices and administrative teams in a large school jurisdiction to better action shared priorities, values and provincial standards. We will share evidence showing the relationship between leadership actions and impact on teaching practice and student learning.

Principals of two former rival high schools share their journey through healing wounds, building staff and student capacity and building bridges between the two schools, resulting in a unique and rich partnership.  Hear how an action mindset, which enables individuals and groups to reach beyond present limitations and realities, transforms barriers into frontiers.

President Ramsankar will share in this session, some of his experiences as an Federation/Association leader in education.  He will use examples of activities and actions taken as the Education Sector has changed with impacts from successive governments.  What is the role of a Teacher, an Administrator, a Union Leader?  He will share his views while in the roles he has had in the education sector and the impact they have had on his personal and professional development as a leader in education provincially, nationally and internationally.

Alberta teaching professionals are in the unique position of being able to reimagine their practices through the enactment of the new professional practice standards, each statement professional practice is based on the professional’s reading of the context and the application of the professional’s judgement about the professional knowledge and skills that will most likely lead to optimum learning for all students. All three standard documents are structured in the same manner: one standard, six to nine required competencies, and several optional indicators. Our research team from the universities of Alberta, Calgary, Concordia, and Lethbridge believes that a comprehensive, longitudinal research study can play a significant role in assessing, deepening, and extending the implementation process.  Our  4 -year longitudinal research study will utilize a concurrent, embedded mixed methods design. to gather insights from both quantitative and qualitative methods and report results on a yearly basis to Alberta Education, participants, and stakeholders.

Clearly articulating the dimensions of quality learning environments is essential to ensuring strong universal instructional practices across Northern Gateway Public Schools.  The development of NGPS Quality Learning Environments is being guided by a divisional Steering Team coordinating an iterative process built upon the guiding principle that NGPS has outstanding educators who can collectively define the common tenets of highly impactful and effective instruction.   Come hear about this journey, focused on ensuring that division-wide quality instruction is clearly articulated, co-constructed, supported by research and embedded in the culture of NGPS.  By collectively articulating the domains of quality pedagogy through a generative process, NGPS has established a shared understanding of what quality instruction looks like in every school, with an intentional focus placed on how school leadership engages their school community in an ongoing dialogue about quality pedagogy.