February+2013b

Friday February 15, 2013
Day Two of the COSL Winter Conference, and just like yesterday, the entire day was excellent. The conference theme was at the top of my mind today as I attended sessions. "Navigating Change...Embracing the Leadership Constant" was a great theme, and it brought to mind a Skipper at the helm of a tall ship getting ready to face a squall. When it seems like every variable is in play and nothing is constant, then leadership becomes the only reliable constant. People look to the Skipper when they have to navigate change.

I don't think the theme was really a call to heroic leadership though. Changes in assessment practice and the inclusion of social media more broadly in school systems seem to be flattening the strong vertical hierarchies in many Educational contexts. Helpful or not, it is easier and more common now for teachers to directly email school superintendents. Chains of command are being challenged. Strict definitions of pass/fail based on the normal curve are anathema, and authority (the currency of leadership) is more widely distributed. The strong vertical hierarchies and phone lists of the past are giving way to networks and somewhat more egalitarian and horizontal leadership structures within school systems.

MTS President Paul Olson further highlighted the changing demographics: half of all the teachers in Manitoba have been hired since the year 2000. To put it another way, 1 in 2 teachers in Manitoba have been replaced in the past 13 years. While this represents a massive loss of experience, it also ushers in thousands of relatively inexperienced, youthful teachers who belong to the Google age. After all, [|Google's 14th birthday] was September 27th 2012. Half of the teachers in Manitoba have no idea what it might be like to teach in a world where Google does not exist, and half do. This kind of a cultural divide can't help but work its way into pedagogy and teaching practice as well. School leaders in Manitoba are in a squall. There is a cultural storm underway in their schools, and they need to find the way forward.

Full disclosure: I was hired to teach in Manitoba in 1995, so I sort of fit into both crowds. I think that is why I am so fond of blending the old ways with the new. I like blended learning models, access to devices, and paper books in my classrooms. I am not a fan of rote learning or of sims like [|second life] as dominant educational vehicles. There has to be a reasonable balance to find a way forward. If I digress to the Skipper and squall metaphor again, I think the old ways provide the ballast and the new ways provide the thrust. The Skipper directs the crew to set the sails, sets a bearing, holds the rudder and hangs on. Too much ballast, the ship will swamp. Too much thrust, it will keel over. The Skipper has to choose the direction, and find the balance between ballast and thrust. In a ship this is not easy, and lives have been lost when it goes wrong. In schools it is not easy either, and I think lives can be lost there too, but maybe in a different way. The data that [|Michael Fullan] provided in the afternoon about student engagement should serve as proof that many are being lost by school systems right now. Like the rest of us, Dr. Fullan is looking to find a meaningful way forward. His writing in [|Stratosphere] particularly speaks to the need to both improve and innovate to maintain forward momentum at a system wide level.

So, we mix the old ways with the new to find a way forward. [|Cam Symons] and Linda Thorlakson did an excellent job of having all of the leaders in their sessions wrestle with the political realities of informed assessment practice. We still use percentages for grades in high schools. That is an old practice, and applying new assessment methods immediately creates dissonance. How can we move forward? One moment, one situation, and one student at a time. Steady as she goes, Skipper, steady as she goes.

While assessment practice is one of the "dangers" that Dr. Fullan exhorted school leaders to move towards, the other "danger" was technology. As always, Dr. Fullan was marvelously impressive with his erudite research evidence ready to back his position. I also noticed though that he plugged the book [|What Technology Wants] by [|Kevin Kelly]. Have I read this? No. I have read 2 chapters, standing in a bookstore. Maybe that's theft, I don't know...anyways, if the good Doctor Fullan is willing to plug this book then perhaps I ought to read the other chapters as well. How does this fit within this post? Poorly, but maybe it will help me to figure out how to blend the old with the new.

I know that I blend the old with the new every day in my classroom. The ballast of experience, the thrust of innovation; these are exciting times at [|Dakota Collegiate]. I teach in a Bring Your Own Device, One-to-One program in a public high school. I have to live out these theories daily, and I can't just leave it all at the Hotel after the Conference is over. [|John Finch] did two sessions on the future of BYOD in Manitoba, and if I had a nickel (given the demise of the penny) for every time Dakota was mentioned I'd have at least enough to go to Tim Horton's for a coffee and doughnut. John's session was an accurate and informative glimpse at the recent past, and the way forward for so many schools who will welcome students AND their devices (cell phones, tablets, computers) as more and more teachers are hired after the year 2000.

So, The Council of School Leaders Winter Conference was fabulous. The Conference committee, [|Ken Hoglund], [|Spencer Clements], [|Lia Baksina], [|Michelle Procter], [|Laura Perrella] and [|Myles Blahut] created a top-notch world class event, and they should take credit, for it is due. They helped us all to ask, and begin to answer, a very important question: what kinds of leaders will schools need moving forward? Schools will need leaders who understand the challenges ahead, instill confidence in their staff, and embrace changes...while they navigate the leadership constant. (I know, I flipped the important words in the theme. Call it an old English teacher trick. I learned that one back in the 1900's.)