uLead 2019

As a leader, you’re responsible for shaping and nurturing your school culture. One of the most effective and overlooked ways to do that is through rethinking the spaces in and around your school, from the signs out front to classrooms, from hallways to the faculty lounge. Each physical space is a manifestation of your culture and an opportunity affect it. In this interactive keynote we’ll explore practical ways to redesign your school spaces so they align with your vision. And you’ll walk away with simple, fresh ideas to shape your culture.

We are all leaders, and as leaders we have the ability to unleash talent and capability by focusing on the 4 essential roles we play. The roles are sequential in that one builds upon another, and simultaneous—meaning that we must constantly pay attention to all four in order to sustain outstanding performance. Great leaders consciously lead themselves and their teams in alignment with these roles, laying the foundation for effective leadership.

ROLE             OUTCOME/OBJECTIVE
Inspire Trust     Trust starts with a leader’s own character and competence—the credibility that allows leaders to intentionally build a culture of trust.
Create Vision     Effective leaders create a shared vision and strategy, and communicate it so powerfully that others join them on the journey.
Execute Strategy     Leaders must not only think big, but also execute their vision and strategy all the way through to completion, with and through others.
Coach Potential    Effective leaders develop the leadership potential in others and improve performance through consistent feedback and coaching.

In this inspiring, interactive session, you will learn a new leadership paradigm based on release, not control and develop practical skills and tools that you can apply tomorrow.  

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)

Training for “Principal Teachers” is not an exact science. Across North America many school districts require certification and often a graduate degree for aspiring school principals. Programs across Canada and the U.S have similarities and differences. What should a Masters or Doctoral degree in Leadership include? A panel of faculty from Universities in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Portland (Oregon) will provide their perspective and then facilitate a discussion among attendees about what should be “core” curriculum for principal leader training.

Tension #1) Securing the Foundation and Developing 21st Century Capabilities
Tension #2) Securing Public Accountability and Cultivating Innovation
Tension #3) Delivering Short-Term Targets and Setting the Conditions for Sustainable Change
Tension #4) Doing What our Parents Want and Doing What Our Students Need

Fort Vermilion School District leadership team have embarked on a collaborative process to provide systematic and responsive support for their school teams.  This approach focuses on district priorities and supporting school leadership to enhance their skills in those priorities which in turn builds capacity with teachers and results in a greater degree of success for students. Just as schools design and implement processes to support students, districts can set up similar processes to design and implement support for schools. The systematic and responsive processes and structures at the district level provides an excellent platform for monitoring, communicating and deploying the supports provided by districts to schools in achieving their strategic plans and improving student learning.

Based on his new, best selling book, Education: A Manifesto for Change, Richard will explore some of the issues, experiences and challenges we face as educators and leaders as we move deeper in to the 21st Century. He will stress the importance of a more collaborative and constructive vision for the future of education as we move forward in to the unknown; highlighting the importance of human leadership, expanded thinking and positive action. Richard will share insights gained from his own career as an educator and the work he has done in elite sport and dynamic, global organisations.

Collaboration is the new chorus line of educational improvement.  Whether educators should collaborate is no longer an issue. Any profession worthy of its name depends upon people sharing their knowledge and expertise. The key question now is what are better and worse ways to collaborate? How do we design collaboration? What do we know about the relative merits of professional learning communities, lesson study, data teams, or school networks, for example? And how do we take promising designs from one place and use them effectively in another?

In this keynote, based on his recent book, Andy Hargreaves will inspire us not just to collaborate, but drawing on his research on different ways of collaborating in 5 countries, he will show us how to collaborate effectively with depth, focus, boldness and purpose.