EIPS Leadership 2012-11-21

EIPS Leadership stepped up to the plate this week and explored the use Social Media tools. Table groups used Twitter to tweet out a communication strategy for sharing student survey results. The Twitter feed is available here EIPS Leadership - Social Media

For the above link, I used storify.com. (then type in EIPS Leadership) It's a tool worth exploring and there are several features that make publishing a story quite easy.

There is no shortage of social media sites, but one that our department recommends most for school use is available at Edmodo.com

Edmodo is a 'walled garden' educational tool designed for teacher and student use.  This particular tool is easy to use and applicable for students in any grade.  By invitation, parents can view their child's posts and assignments. Teachers moderate the site, which means that student comments or photos cannot be posted without teacher authorization. What a great way to show parents how well social media can work in the classroom setting.

Remember to follow the EIPS Social Media Guidelines (available on Staff Connect/Division Documents/Educational Technology) and obtain written parent consent prior to setting up a school or classroom account.

EIPS Technoganza

The annual EIPS Technoganza is held each year for school administrators, over a period of two days.  This year our theme was Connecting with Community: Building on Social Capital.
We were pleased to welcome back Facilitator Dean Shareski http://ideasandthoughts.org/
One of our challenges was to think about what we want to communicate and why. We need to be 'curators' of information and should really think about what we are saying. Each school has its own unique story, and there are different ways we can share.  Some quotes,  in(sites:) and books referenced at Technoganza:

If there is no sharing, there is no teaching (David Wiley)
Communication needs to be 'transparent more than gloss'
From the book Finnish Lessons, Pasi Sahlberg writes

"I wish we could stop talking about the word accountable and instead talk about responsible"

If we don't tell our story, then someone will.
(The Incredible Story of Martha Payne)

http://bowlingalone.com/

Putnam warns that our stock of social capital – the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities...

food for thought..

available at amazon.com








To view comments posted duringTechnoganza, go to the following links:

http://todaysmeet.com/eips (Day 1- Principals)
http://todaysmeet.com/eips2 (Day 2 - Assistant Principals)


Also shared:

Haiku Deck - an application for the iPad. Simple to use, library of pictures to choose from, or use your own, the application is designed for presentation use, with an emphasis on photography rather than text

Paper.li  - quick and easy way to start an online 'newspaper'

See you on twitter
@faye_mcconnell

EIPS Ed Tech

Its time to talk about Ed Tech in EIPS. We have a number of new and 'ongoing' initiatives for 2012-2013:

• Social Media
• Develop Social Media Guidelines and Tutorials for EIPS staff (available on Staff Connect)
• Twitter, Facebook and Edmodo training
• Develop (in consultation) the EIPS Digital Citizenship Policy
• Create Digital Citizenship resource lists (per grade)
• Google Apps in Education
• how to use a variety of Google apps, and how these can improve 'workflow'
• Professional Development for School Administrators (e.g. EIPS Technoganza October 24, 25)
• Teacher support
• how to set up collaborative sites, social media training, digital literacy, and more based on school requests
• iPad deployment for schools
• 'best practices' e.g. apps for the iPad
• Apple Volume Purchasing program
• oversee Educational App deployment
• Apple TV
• how to set up
• usage by school administrators, teachers, and students
• Ed Tech/Tech Services collaborative work
• solution-focused approach to technology issues related to:
• educational sites/security
• Apple VPP procedures
• Website block/unblock procedures
• revise as needed
• form located on Staff Connect
• Copyright and video/media
• guidelines for schools
• EIPS Evergreen(ing) plan
• provide educational input 
• Partnerships with Alberta Education, Student Technology Sector
• EIPS PD Day
• provide a variety of Ed Tech offerings
• include teacher experts in this plan
• School Based Professional Learning Days
• offer our expertise to your school staff 
• Parent evening sessions - available on request
• Hardware research - best mobile devices for students? We explore the options on a regular basis
• Blogging - we will provide ongoing blog posts with EIPS Ed Tech news
• Video tutorials - coming soon! Our own EIPS Ed Tech Central video presentations will be made available to EIPS staff. We will highlight the 'best of' collaborative sites, apps and hardware
• EIPS Academy - available for students (and parents) on the EIPS website - specific to Senior High courses - we continue to update this site
• EIPS Virtual Library - update and inservice school staff
• Last but not least, our work is to support and action the EIPS Education and Technology Vision document

School administrators: please contact us. We are available to meet with you about your school Ed Tech needs. For school/teacher support requests, please contact one of our Ed Tech Consultants: 

• Donna Griffin
• David Hay
• Aaron Tuckwood

School based Professional Learning Support PD/requests (for Ed Tech pd) and Parent Evening session requests please contact:
Faye McConnell (Director, Educational Technology & AISI)

A note about Technoganza:

EIPS welcomes Dean Shareski once again to our annual Technoganza event.  Dean worked as a Digital Learning Consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan until January 2012. He currently works with Discovery Education as the Community Manager of the Canadian 'DEN' or Discovery Educators Network. Our theme this year is : "Connecting with Community; Building on Social Capital". I look forward to our time together, learning and sharing: What's your school story?

EIPS Leadership Retreat Day 2

8:30 Am

Our Fall Leadership Workshop 2012 theme is 'All Ahead Together'.

Facilitator Stephen Murgatroyd opened yesterday's session by talking about accountability reporting vs education planning...yes there is a difference!
Currently, we have an 'overprescribed curriculum' that is under review. What stakeholders are telling us is that we must move beyond a 'one size fits all' and consider curriculum that meets the very different needs of very different students. Knowing this, what role does goal setting, or school development planning play as we prepare all students for 21st century learning?

One of our first tasks (Tuesday) was to identify key stakeholder groups who should be engaged in the development of schools plans. Leaders were asked how they will engage stakeholder groups in plan development.  Our school and division plans are living 'resources' and we must consider the development of goals that are tangible, and understood by parents and students.

We must also consider sources of data, and what good quality data is in relation to student engagement. We will soon gather this type of data when schools ask students to respond to the Tell Them From Me Survey. This survey tool will provide meaningful data to each school in our division. The data gleaned from this tool will include student response(s) to Intellectual engagement and Quality Instruction measures. Schools can use this data to help inform goal setting and school plan development.

1:15 pm

Of significant importance yesterday was the fact that school Principals had time to delve deeper into the development of School Education Plans with colleagues. The time spent sharing together allows school leaders to think of ways how to connect with other schools. There are common goals and work that will be best served by providing collaborative opportunities for school staff.  As a central office staff, we must look at ways in which we can support schools without creating redundancies discussions will continue when we return to EIPS.

Day 1 EIPS Leadership

Day 1 EIPS Leadership Retreat


8:30 AM

Our day began with an opening address from Superintendent Beliveau, who not only welcomed us but emphasized the importance of our work over the next several days. The purpose of meeting together is to take a close look at the 3 year plan, and determine strategies that support the 4 goals and develop methods to best implement these goals in our schools and departments. A student video presentation helped to frame our day, thanks to the effort of Marianne Barrett, Les Sereda and students at Salisbury Composite and Lakeland Ridge School.

Facilitator Stephen Murgatroyd challenged us to think 'what do we want'? Our work is what we do in schools, kids talk about what school they attended, not what division they attended. How do we build a lifelong passion and make sure we have high performing schools? We need teachers we can retain, who are satisfied and we help to develop skills and expertise over time. Our teachers and staff need to be supported.

We were challenged also to think about how we can 'leverage' technology in classrooms and at the same time move past the notion of testing and diagnosing kids and reflect on our teaching and instructional practices.

Do kids and teachers know our plan? We have to deliver on:

• commitments made by the district in its 3 year plan
• commitments made when securing AISI resources
• commitments made in School Education Plans
• commitments made to teachers when they were hired
• commitments made to students all the time

Our first task at table groups was to establish our top 10 list of Challenges and at the same time redefine these challenges as Opportunities. 

We must consider also,  that there are multiple ways or many solutions to a problem. As leaders, we have to create a 'felt need' and of course have some fun in school development planning:)

In all of this, we must talk about what we should STOP doing, and what we should do better; and consider what we need to rethink completely (REDESIGN) and what do we need to START doing - something we currently don't do at all.

In our afternoon session, principals and directors had time to review the 3 year education goals and consider how these would be the basis of school education plans. It is important that school and department plans link to the 3 year plan.

Professional Development was a topic of interest for the central office leadership team. Are we being intentional and using the best model for professional development in our jurisdiction?

At the end of a long day, we were asked to look at our own 'lists' and develop 'SMART' goals and return to the discussion table on Day 2.

EIPS Leadership Retreat

The Elk Island Public Schools Leadership team will soon embark on a journey to Jasper for a 3 day retreat at the Sawridge Inn Jasper. Retreats of this nature are at times scrutinized by the closer community so I have decided to share my reflections with the hope that EIPS stakeholders gain a better understanding of our work, and perhaps contribute or comment to my blog.

Our time away will include discussion about the EIPS 3 Year Education Plan. The plan, in draft form was developed with stakeholder input from teachers, parents, students and administrators during the past several months As central office leaders and school administrators, we are charged with the responsibility of 'actioning' this plan through the lens of our division and schools. This will include the development of strategies and measures, all of which contribute to a meaningful plan.

The 3 year plan includes the following goals:

Goal 1
Students have engaging and collaborative learning experiences that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable participants in our global society.

Goal 2
Students have engaging and collaborative learning experiences that prepare them to be critical thinkers and problem-solvers.

Goal 3
Students are global citizens who respect and value diversity

Goal 4
All students have their individual needs met within inclusive learning environments

The EIPS Leadership group consists of the Superintendents' team, Central Office Directors and school Principals. We are fortunate to have consultant/writer Stephen Murgatroyd who will facilitate our working sessions.

Community of Practice Grant 2012

In September 2007, Elk Island Public Schools was the recipient of provincial government funding from the Student Technology Sector, Alberta Education to implement a One-to-One Laptop Learning Initiative at Lakeland Ridge School. Over a period of three years, approximately 80 students and 14 teachers were involved with the project.  Laptops were purchased for students in Grade 7 and were used, primarily during the core subject areas of language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. The project, officially named as the 'Emerge One to One Laptop Learning Initiative', resulted in the achievement of numerous outcomes. Noteworthy was the impact on student engagement in their learning and changes made to instructional delivery on the part of teaching staff.

The story of Lakeland Ridge School and the journey of embracing 21st Century skills and attitudes was soon to be realized in an extension of the Emerge project funding. Jurisdictions who participated in the Emerge project received notice from Alberta Education that funding would continue on a smaller scale but with a focus on 'Community of Practice' initiatives. Knowing this, EIPS proposed a scalable initiative for three senior high schools: (Lamont High, Salisbury and Bev Facey)

In October 2010, a steering committee was established and included Lonnie Hicks (principal, Lamont High), Janice Sundar (teacher-librarian at Salisbury), Karen Ramsey (teacher-librarian at Bev Facey) Peter Barron (principal, Bev Facey), David Hay (AISI Technology consultant) and Aaron Kowalchuk (teacher, Bev Facey). The project was supported also by Tim Knell, Director of Tech Services and his team. Additional thanks to Karen MacDonald, Principal at Lakeland Ridge School and Ali Nasarali (Tech Services Support Analyst) for sharing their knowledge and experience from the Emerge One to One project.

The journey to include senior high schools in a 'Community of Practice'  proved to be challenging, yet rewarding. At the onset of project implementation, we were faced with the dilemma of how we could mobilize student use of personally owned devices and at the same time support teachers with their understanding of 21st century learning for students. Would one method fit all? And what would the process for teacher support include? What would be required from IT to support this initiative?

These questions were answered through our journey and I will highlight key points below:

• Review of access points in the 3 identified schools (Tech Services)
• Steering Committee meetings to determine future steps for students and teachers
• Community of Practice (Alberta Education) meetings
• Development of the EIPS Technology Vision document 
• Development of the EIPS Student-Owned device policy
• April 29, 2011 PD day for Bev Facey, Salisbury and Lamont teachers with Dean Shareski

• Over time, redefining support for teachers and students as per the 'postcard/menu' of learning opportunities under the headings of Student Activities/Products; Teacher Tasks and Personal Competency
• Professional Learning Communities - teachers provided with substitute teaching time to collaborate with a focus on the use of technology based tools
• Support for teachers to attend ERLC workshop sessions
• Pilot of 'flipped teaching' learning environments and VC with rural schools
• Parent Communication using Social Media tools
• Superintendent's team commitment to invest in a robust wifi system to supports all EIPS schools and departments 
• Tech Services effort to support the increasing demands of technology in our school system

What did we learn? 

There is no one stop shopping solution in planning for the integration of technology in the classroom. Teachers require flexibility and time to collaborate in teams. While a variety of  professional development opportunities were made available to teachers, the most requested support was substitute teacher time.

In February 2011, a select  group of students from EIPS Junior and Senior High schools met for the day to provide a 'student perspective' on topics such as the division 3 year education plan and the use of technology in classrooms.  Students told us that their connection with teachers was vital and that they needed teachers who were caring, with a sense of humour, have a thorough understanding of the  content they teach and demonstrate a desire to use collaborative tools that engage students. From this, we learned that technology is not everything, but it has its place in the classroom environment. My Voice-My Future video can be viewed here.

The success of the CoP project can be attributed to the effort of teachers, support of school administrators and EIPS students who provided their 'voice'.  I wish to thank the Steering Committee for their advocacy, on behalf of the teaching staff at Lamont High, Salisbury and Bev Facey. The EIPS Tech Services department must not go unnoticed for their continuous work to enhance the network and wifi capabilities. Finally, the ongoing support from Ralph Leudtke, Education Manager, School Technology Branch, Alberta Education.