My "What If?"s

       I've recently been engaged in an ongoing learning conversation with educational leaders from across Ontario, through OSSEMOOC. These leaders are offering up their opinions and thinking around the George Couros book, "The Innovator's Mindset". In addition to the book review, there has been a challenge issued for participants to blog hop each week around a specific question. This week's challenge is to write about our "What If?"s, based on the questions that are asked in Couros's book.
       This post is my response to 3 of those questions:

       "What if we believed that everything that we had to make great schools was already in our organization, and we just needed to develop and share it?"
       This question is the foundation that supports our PLC work this year. In recent memory, my VP and I have run PLC's based on a deficit model. That is, we start by looking at what the school or staff are not doing particularly well and then we come up with a plan on how we can make it better. In the past couple of years we really wanted to create rich conversations (discourse) in our school, both with staff and students. It was forced, or at least it seemed forced. This year, after both of us read "The Innovator's Mindset", we met with our School Leadership Team and indicated that we wanted to start from an assets model. What a difference!!! The work that we are doing is invigorating, inspiring, innovative and has had impact, because our teachers are starting with what they currently do well. They've been asked to take a practice that they are comfortable and confident with and then attempt to 'innovate' it. The answer to all of our questions can be found in the room. We have first year teachers sharing their expertise with 26 year veterans and vice-versa. They are equal partners in the learning experience and I can honestly see the excitement in all of their eyes. At our staff meetings, we spend very little time talking about administrivia. Instead, we share our learning during the "App"etizer session. We deepen our thinking through the "Dis"Course and then celebrate each other and learning during "Dessert". This shift in thinking has lead to deep learning with our staff and we can now see this excitement filtering through to our students.

        "What if  everyone in our organization, not just our students, was encouraged to pursue his or her dreams?
        In this most recent educational discourse, we are seeing a strong shift towards student voice and choice. Allowing students to pursue or direct their own learning is becoming more prevalent in schools. In the SCDSB, our Innovation Team has encouraged teachers to pursue their own PD interests. There was a Numbered Memo that was sent to all educators in the fall and teachers could go through the myriad of choices so that they could choose and direct their own learning. What an amazing transformation in teacher engagement and empowerment!! I've got a steady stream of teachers heading off to sessions that they are wanting to go to. I used to have to plead and strongly encourage people to go to workshops. Today, two of my teachers were at an NPDL session and they were sending out streams of inspired 'Tweets' as they were learning. This allowed me, as the principal, to share in their learning, even though I was miles away. Other colleagues were 'looking' in on their work throughout the day, despite being in their classrooms. Enough excitement was generated through that learning, that other teachers were asking to have these two colleagues present during the "Dis"course session of next week's staff meeting. We've likened our inquiries to student "Genius Hour" projects. So much fun!!

        "What if we focused on connecting and learning , both globally and locally?
        This has been my professional pursuit this year. I have made it my PD to engage in the learning that is taking place in my building and in the province. Being a part of the OSSEMOOC and the "Innovator's Mindset" book talk, has been eye-opening. Making my learning visible to other educational leaders is scary, but powerful. People from around my own board and around the province are challenging my thinking, supporting my initiatives, offering new insights and cheerleading as I take my school to places they've never been before. The power of technology to bring educators from all over the world into my office to share their thinking with me, is incredible.

        As I said at the end of my last post...What a great time to be in education!!