Connecting Leaders: - and Vice Principals

On behalf of the2013 ConnectingLeaders: Beyond Innovation& Change organizingcommittee, I am honouredand delighted to welcome you to our conference. Giventhe importance of our work, the need for innovationand creative problem-solving, and the implementationof best practice, staff development and capacitybuilding, it is critical that we meet together andnetwork. This event is designed to allow principals andvice-principals to join colleagues from all over BC forsome unique professional learning. I believe we havea program that is rich and varied with internationallyrenowned keynote speakers and breakout sessionspresented by your BCPVPA colleagues.Our keynote speakers, Simon Breakspear and GeorgeCouros, will share their insights and innovative ideaswith us each day. In addition, there are workshops,exhibits from local educational companies, and anew feature, our Open Space which will facilitatesharing ideas. We also expect to provide technicaldemonstrations, and numerous opportunities forinformal networking.As conference chair of CL 2013, I know that thesuccess of the conference depends ultimately on themany people who have worked hard on planningand organizing the program, our delegates who bringexcitement and knowledge to each session, and oursponsors who have given us such generous support.I look forward to seeing you all in the exhibit area,the meeting rooms and breakout sessions, the formalkeynote presentations, and the casual meetings andsocial gatherings that bring our worlds closer together.Welcome to theBCPVPA’s 2013Connecting LeadersConference: BeyondInnovation & Change.We are excited to host this dynamic and innovativeconference for our members from across the province.You will find the conference strands highly engagingand pertinent to current pedagogy and change.Simon Breakspear, our Friday morning keynote, is aninternationally recognized thinker on the future oflearning and educational innovation. Following Simonwill be George Couros, who is a leader on the effectiveuse of social media to improve student learning. Bothdynamic leaders will engage in a frank panel discussionabout education and leadership on Saturday morning.Breakout sessions by leading educational practitionersfocus on topics such as: harnessing innovation, useof web tools, RTI, systems thinking and redesign,assessment practice, innovation through collaboration,school culture, and Aboriginal Academy.Members of the organizing committee deserverecognition for their time, energy and commitmentthat will make this conference an amazing learningopportunity for leaders from across the province.Through your deep listening in keynote sessions,interactive involvement with the conference strandsand networking with colleagues you will discover anexceptional learning experience that will ignite yourpassion and support your leadership journey.I look forward to meeting you at the conference. Anopportunity like Connecting Leaders is rare and theinteraction and engagement between members is bothmeaningful and energizing.Anne SmithConference ChairPrincipal, Heritage ElementaryPrince GeorgeShelley GreenPresidentBCPVPAConnecting Leaders: Beyond Innovation & Change

FRIDAY BREAKOUTSThe Engaging Administrator: How to Use Web 2.0 Tools toMake Day-to-Day Operations More Engaging for Your StaffFRIDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:Do you like when a presenter tells you to power off your laptop, tablet andsmartphone off while they are speaking? Do you enjoy sitting through longand boring meetings? Do you look forward to sifting through paper surveys,collating data, and creating graphs? Do you get fired up about writing andpresenting School Improvement Plans? Do you appreciate one-way, didactic, lecture-style professionaldevelopment sessions? If you answered YES to any of these questions, this interactive session is NOT foryou. By using various Web 2.0 tools, we can gather meaningful input from students, staff, and parents,we can create engaging and relevant staff meetings, and we can engage all stakeholders in writing acollaborative and dynamic School Improvement Plan that can actually be used to educate and model21st century skills. By the end of the session, participants will have been exposed to: setting up a blog,creating collaborative staff meeting agendas, creating online surveys for student, staff and parent input,and to collaborative tools using Google Documents. This session is designed for new technology usersand digital natives. Laptops, tablets and smartphones will make this session more interactive, but arenot required.Presented by:Cale Birk is the Principal of South Kamloops Secondary School, a large dual-track high schoolin Kamloops. He has presented numerous topics including Implementing Professional LearningCommunities, Restructuring Schools For Student Success, Parental Involvement, the BCPVPA SupervisionFor Learning series and now The Engaging Administrator. He is passionate about effective assessment,collaboration, and the use of social media as a tool to engage learners. An avid user of social media,Cale currently publishes The Learning Nation (www.thelearningnation.blogspot.com), and has been acontributor to the North American Association of Secondary Principals (NAASP) Bulletin.You can follow Cale on Twitter (@birklearns).Making Innovation Happen: How to generate and harness new solutions,reimagine schooling and radically improve student learningFRIDAYBREAKOUTAre you ready to build an innovation workplace culture in your school? Are youlooking to exploit the opportunities that new models may provide for studentengagement and deep learning? This strategy-rich workshop will equip you to:Generate a compelling vision, challenge the status quo and set an innovationagenda; Build a creative culture that cultivates innovation, embraces diversity,facilitates interdisciplinary thinking and scales-up best practice; Apply the process of design-led innovation tosolve specific learning challenges in your context; De-risk failure, and adopt a rapid prototyping approach totesting new ideas; Move beyond theory with an approach that is grounded in the real change that you are aimingto lead in your school or system; Develop a bias towards action, take intelligent risks and embrace permanent‘beta mode.’Presented by:Simon Breakspear our Friday morning keynote speaker (see previous page).Connecting Leaders: Beyond Innovation & Change

Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI 2 )FRIDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:As a Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI 2 ) pilot school, we will shareour inquiry of the problem-solving model and the action taken to create aschool community that systematically responds to the learning needs of allstudents and staff. This initiative has positively impacted student achievementthrough systemic and purposeful methods. In this session, we will outline the flexible structures that areresponsive to emerging successes and challenges of Tier 1, 2 and 3 instruction and intervention. Key toour implementation has been the use of universal screeners, tiered instruction and intervention as wellas collaborative problem solving. We will also share our systematized referral process that is driven bystudent data and continually monitored to adjust student support.Presented by:Taryn Dixon has 25 years experience in the Chilliwack School District as a teacher on call, classroomteacher, vice principal and a principal. She is currently in her 3rd year as principal of Watson ElementarySchool. In her present role, she has been working closely with the Vice-Principal, school and district staffto develop an increased understanding of solid Tier 1 instruction. She will be able to share with youwhat happens at Watson Elementary School when Tier 1 is not enough and will clearly outline the steps,strategies and structures that are in place for Tier 2 and Tier 3 support.Nicole Driscoll has 15 years experience in the Chilliwack School District as a classroom teacher andis currently in her 3 rd year as the Vice-Principal of Watson Elementary. In her present role, she hasbeen working closely with teachers to help support, practice and model Tier 1 and 2 instruction tosystematically respond to the needs of students. She will be able to share the steps taken to create acollaborative problem-solving model and systematized referral process.Shawna Petersen has 22 years experience in the Chilliwack School District as a classroom teacher,Literacy Helping Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and currently as the District Vice-Principal ofCurriculum. In her present role, her department is responsible for supporting teachers in understandingand strengthening Tier 1 instruction and intervention throughout the district. She will be able to sharewith you the implementation of RTI 2 through the District lens.Systems Thinking Redesign Made SimpleFRIDAYBREAKOUTTwitter#BCPVPA13Session Description:Our job as administrators is to lead, to affect and negotiate change. However,leaders all around the world are facing a number of challenges: To whatdo you orient your organization’s transformation efforts when the futureis indeterminate? How do you lead a heterarchy? How do you redesignsomething such as a school that has a history and momentum of its own while it’s moving? Althoughthere are neither any short, nor universal answers, to these or similar questions, common leadershipapproaches and patterns exist. In Systems Thinking Redesign made Simple, participants will explorehow continuous design, change theory and the strategic, systematic use of cognitive tools are makinga difference to the ways in which schools are transforming themselves. In addition, participants willexamine their own leadership initiatives in light of the BC Ed Plan and the driving need to personalizeeducation. Expect to return to your school and district with a synthesis of systems thinking redesignConnecting Leaders: Beyond Innovation & Change

ideas, working examples and relevant frameworks to add to your BCPVPA Organizational CapacityLeadership Standard “toolbox.”Presented by:Will Eaton is vice-principal of Youlearn.ca, Okaganan Similkameen School District’s continuingeducation, alternate and distributed learning (DL) schools. Since acquiring a Masters degree in Learningand Technology with a focus on systems thinking, Will has implemented a number of technologyinitiatives in both brick and mortar and DL environments, presented to various groups on redesigningschools for the 21 st century and worked with organizations such as the BC Educational Leadership andPremier’s Technology Councils in the areas of professional and personalized learning.Currently, his collaborations are focused on distributed leadership, continuous reporting and embeddingopen education ideas in K-12 schools.Twitter#BCPVPA13Letter Grades, Percentages and Exceeding Expectations:How Current Are Your Assessment Practices?FRIDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:Assessment can be a hot topic as well as controversial and, at times,frustrating. This session will outline, for elementary administrators, thenecessary changes needed for practices within their buildings to better alignwith what the research shows to be best practices for improving studentlearning. Some of the topics discussed will include Assessment for Learning, Differentiated Instruction,Student Ownership, Motivation, Grades, and Reporting. Many administrators are not in a formalteaching role. This session will help equip all Principals and Vice Principals with the knowledge neededto ensure that the teaching and assessment going on in their building is effective at improving studentlearning. The goal of this session is to help administrators build capacity for best practices in this currenttime of change. Participants will also get to see the innovative approach to reporting currently underwayin Prince George.Presented by:Linda McGraw is .5 VP and .5 Support Teacher at Heritage Elementary School in Prince George. Theschool population is a diverse one consisting of 400 students. Linda has been in this position for twoyears. Prior to coming to Heritage, she taught at Heather Park Middle School, (HPMS) for its 10-yearduration and for one year when it was changed to an elementary school. It was at HPMS where herpassion for assessment, teaming, and collaboration developed and thus the journey began. For twoyears she was a part of an assessment learning team. The work done there led to the development ofan Intermediate Report Card Pilot Project for the School District which is currently underway.Laurie Bryce is a .5 VP and .5 grade 6/7 classroom teacher at École College Heights Elementary schoolin Prince George. This is a dual tract French Immersion school with a student population of 370. Shehas been in her current position for two years. Prior to coming to ÉCHE, she taught at WestwoodElementary for one year and Heather Park Middle School for its 10 year duration. She was in a teamteaching situation with Linda in a pod of four teachers where they shared four classes of students ingrades 6 to 8. She was also a part of the assessment learning team with Linda as well as the ReportCard Pilot Project currently underway.Connecting Leaders: Beyond Innovation & Change

Innovation Through Collaboration, the Benefits of Working Within andAcross Networks: Success Stories from the Network of Inquiry andInnovation, the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network, and theHealthy Schools NetworkFRIDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:This session will be hosted by representatives from the Network of Inquiry andInnovation, the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network, and the HealthySchools Network. These collaborative Networks work to foster the social,physical, emotional, and intellectual engagement of the 21 st century learner.Attendees will experience some of the work of these Networks in influencing the wellbeing of learnersusing a whole-child approach to address health and learning. Attendees will learn about the benefitsof membership in a collaborative Network. Representatives from the Networks will demonstrate howmaintaining a high level of sharing and collaboration between and across the networks allows for greatercapacity to build new and deeper connections at all levels. It is through collaboration and partnershipthat innovative practices are most effectively diffused into schools and the community. Showcased in thissession will be examples of how these Networks have worked to create healthy schools, ensured AboriginalEnhancement Agreement goals are met, and made learning central to schools across the province.Presented by:The presenters will be one representative from each of the Networks of Inquiry and Innovation, theAboriginal Enhancement Schools Network, and the Healthy Schools Network.Roles, Duties and Responsibilities: A Legal ContextFRIDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:Presented by members of the BCPVPA Legal and Contracts Department, thissession will include discussion around the following topics: searches; policeinvolvement; bullying; child custody; parents; expected standard of conduct;and duty of care. All discussions will be grounded within the context ofthe Charter of Rights, the School Act and other laws and legislation.FRIDAY AFTERNOON KEYNOTE : The Networked LeaderGeorge Couros is the Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning for Parkland SchoolDivision (Alberta). He has worked with all levels of school from K-12 as a teacher, technology facilitator, and schoolbasedadministrator. He co-facilitates Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results leadership training and is the creatorof the Connected Principals blog site and the founder of Connected Canada. His focus is to help schools createoptimal learning environments for innovation. His focus is on the development of leadership and people and what isbest for kids. His session deals with how the role of school/district administrator is essential to what happens in theclassroom, yet they often are unaware of some of the opportunities that social media provides to students, teachers,and administrators. George will show how to effectively use Twitter and blogging to find some of the best ideas inthe world, bring them to your school, and to share the amazing things happening in your own organization.Connecting Leaders: Beyond Innovation & Change

SATURDAY PANEL, BREAKOUTS & CLOSING COMMENTSSimon Breakspear and George Couros in a panel discussionSATURDAYPANELSession Description:Simon and George engage in a frank discussion about education andleadership.Follow-up and build on George Couros’ keynoteSATURDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:George will lead a follow-up session that builds on his keynote address onsocial media.Using Edmodo to Develop a Framework forSupporting and Leading Innovation in Your SchoolSATURDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:Despite the ubiquitous nature of HHDDs (Hand Held Digital Devices) andthe multitude of online social and professional communities, educators andeducational leaders typically struggle to find relevant learning connectionsand uses for these powerful tools in schools. This session will focus on the useof Edmodo as the bigger-picture framework for a school community looking to coordinate, integrateand effectively implement many of today’s digital literacy innovations. Participants will be introduced tohow Edmodo can support school-level communication between educators (principals, vice-principals,teachers, counselors and education assistants), a safe social network for students, communication withparents, integration and independence for students with written input and output challenges, accessto powerful professional learning networks, a framework for online distribution of blended learning, ascheduling tool for co-teaching initiatives and the answer to, ‘what to do with students who bring theirown digital devices to class?’ We will use an interactive presentation model to facilitate educationalleaders as they develop strategies to harness digital technologies for powerful learning. Participants willhave post-session access to visual resources and a discussion forum. They will also require an HHDD orlaptop, an Edmodo account and the desire to lead change.Presented by:David DeRosa is Principal of J Lloyd Crowe Secondary in Trail. As the principal of a grade 8-12 highschool, he is actively engaged in the support, guidance and coordination of the use of innovative andeffective educational practices and strategies. His background as a grade 7-12 education and formerDirector of Technology, provide him with unique perspectives when it comes to harnessing digitaltechnologies for powerful learning. As hand held computing and social media grow in their use andfunctionality, the purposeful integration of these powerful tools in diverse learning environmentsrequires knowledgeable, skilled and willing leader-learners.Connecting Leaders: Beyond Innovation & Change

Building an Uncommon School CultureSATURDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:This session will focus on growing and developing relationships in thesecondary school setting using digital tools as well as in-person experiences.While it is true that technology is playing an important role in transformingeducation, we must continue to ensure that developing empathetic citizensis a primary focus of our system. This session will examine examples of how social media can be usedin positive ways to build community and develop empathy and engagement amongst students. Aswell, we will look at ways to build empathy and community in more traditional ways such as the useof student activities, guest speakers etc. We will examine how to extend the impact of these moretraditional activities by incorporating social media. Participants should come ready to share their ownideas about community building.Presented by:Grant Frend graduated from Simon Fraser University’s PDP program in 2001. He started his teachingcareer at Thomas Haney Secondary, a self-paced, self-directed high school in Maple Ridge. He thenworked on the leadership team to open Samuel Robertson Technical Secondary School in Maple Ridge.Grant taught English, Social Studies, Physical Education and Leadership as well as serving as a literacysupport facilitator. He moved from Vice-Principal to Principal at Garibaldi Secondary School in August2011. Grant has a strong belief in fostering empathy amongst high school students and his involvementin leadership activities is one vehicle he uses to achieve this. Grant blogs at schools.sd42.ca/tpoTwitter#BCPVPA13Implementing an Aboriginal AcademySATURDAYBREAKOUTSession Description:In the spring of 2012 Merritt Secondary ran its first Aboriginal Academy forgrade 9 students. This one-semester program became a First Nations culturalimmersion through which students gained course completion for English 9,Social Studies 9, Science 9, PE 9, and First Nations Art 9. Parent, student andcommunity responses have been so positive, that we are now looking to expand to the grade 10 level.The approach we’ve taken to implementing this Academy is unlike anything else we currently offerin the school. We are working to reconnect students to the land, their culture, and their language.In addition to embracing the Principles of First Peoples’ Learning, First Peoples’ Pedagogy, and 21stCentury Learning, Aboriginal Academy 9 reflects other current educational thoughts, including Project-Based Learning and Blended Learning. If you are interested in knowing about what we’ve done, howwe’ve developed and implemented our Academy, things we’ve learned, and things we are lookingahead to, this session will address your questions. We are not only committed to the success of ourstudents through this Academy, but also to sharing with others who feel that, like us, a differentapproach to First Nations education, for some students, can make significant differences that result inimproved sense of self, cultural awareness, health and wellness, and academic progress.Presented by:Karen Goetz, a Vice-Principal at Merritt Secondary, in addition to her other administrative roles hasbeen working on the development and implementation of Aboriginal Academy 9 and 10. This workhas included development of curriculum, collaborating with local First Nations individuals and groups,Connecting Leaders: Beyond Innovation & Change