Katz is a 2012 Juno Award nominee and Emerging Artist of the Year nominee at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Katz has sold over 15,000 copies of his discs and performed with notable artists such as The Swell Season (The Frames), Dan Mangan, The Good Lovelies, Joel Plaskett, Bahamas, Royal Wood, Lucky Fonz III, Donovan Frankenreiter, Jordan Raycroft, and Garth Hudson from The Band, members of Levon Helm's band (on stage with Glen Hansard's band). His music is moving and the message in his lyrics will inspire.
During the Sunday evening reception following the opening keynote address at uLead - if you feel like taking time to relax and let some good music wash over you join 250 colleagues in the Theatre room at the Banff Springs Hotel for an evening with Peter Katz! Seats are limited and will be filled on a "first-come" "first-served" basis.
“Try listening without getting goosebumps” London Free Press
“One of the most promising songwriters of our time” B.Y.E. Magazine Germany
“If talent alone ensures success, then Peter Katz will soon be a name of everyone’s lips” The Record
Following the Sunday evening keynote address there will be a no host (cash) bar reception and an opportunity to mingle with colleagues.
Based on the work of Daniel Goldman, this session looks at the complexity and importance of being able to 'FOCUS.' Attending to what's most important first, is extremely challenging as we deal with multitasking, changes and the general demands of the profession. Learn how to look at 'focus' as a key element in moving from being good to being great at what you do as and individual and team.
The importance of developing a strong narrative around leadership practice is critical in the ongoing evolution of our profession. In this Core Conversation session, members of the Leadership and Learning team from the Calgary Board of Education will describe how they are working with the leaders within the district to generate and document evidence of leadership practice. With a focus on impact, the team will describe how they are addressing leadership evidence that moves from a list of ‘what we do’, to asking, ‘what is the impact of our leadership?’. The team will discuss how the Professional Practice Competencies have inspired and impacted the leadership development within the district. This Core Conversation session will appeal to educators responsible for leadership development. All educators regardless of leadership experience are encouraged to attend and participate.
Schools today are called to be Leaders in a World of Change. Leadership skills can be learned and lived by every single child within a school setting, regardless of their age. This dynamic presentation demonstrates how children from Kindergarten to Grade 12 use the power of a Social Justice mind, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Effective Behaviour to become leaders for a lifetime. Using concrete practical examples, this presentation will give the educator a step by step process to support the current culture of their school, and invite every child to practice the habits of effective leadership, setting and fulfilling goals, and working together to change our world.
Technological developments have made it possible to gather and statistically compute vast amounts of data about human behavior and the results of these behaviors. How can the teaching profession take charge of how these possibilities are used in education to strengthen our influence of education policies, our professionality and our development work in schools? Practical examples and assessments from the OECD to the classroom level will be offered.
Leading with your authentic self can be challenging, particularly in developing and sustaining a vision. How can your unique perspective and honoring your most personal values as well as the values of the collective community, lead to an engaged and vibrant school? Let's talk about how we can bring to life, the "Embodying Visionary Leadership" dimension from the Principal Quality Practice Guidelines.
Join Simon Breakspear alongside 3 highly effective change leaders to unpack what it ‘really’ takes to lead deep pedagogical change. This engaging and highly practical session will:
Each day, the average Canadian student aged 8 to 18 years spends approximately seven hours and 45 minutes in front of some sort of screen, such as a smartphone, tablet, television or computer. Researchers from the Alberta Teachers’ Association, Harvard Medical School, University of Alberta, and Boston Children’s Hospital are engaged in a comprehensive and long-term analysis of the impact of digital technologies on Alberta children and youth’s health, development and learning. The primary goal of this provincial research, entitled Growing Up Digital (GUD) Alberta, is to study the scope of physical, mental and social consequences of digital technologies in areas such as exercise, homework, identity formation, distraction, cognition, learning, nutrition and sleep quality/quantity. In this session, Dr. McRae will explore the findings from the first year of this study, and share the themes emerging from the thousands of questions posed by Alberta teachers and school leaders about how technologies are actively (re)shaping our society and learning ecosystems.
The built-in accessibility features and reader tools found within iPad's user interface are key in personalizing the device for one’s own learning, but these features are often underutilized or unknown entirely. When used as they were designed, students who struggle with reading, organization, attention and focus use these tools to reduce sensory overload, organize their thoughts and ideas and ultimately take charge of their own learning.
Built-in iOS features support learning for students who have weak physical and motor skills, vision and hearing challenges, attention challenges and/or other cognitive and learning disabilities. For example, students with specific learning disabilities and/or ADHD have average to above average intelligence and can function extremely well in learning environments, when provided with the tools to do so. This session will focus on specific iOS features that support reading comprehension, speech/oral expression, written expression and organization, time management & planning. iOS accessibility features, such as dictation, speak selection with text highlighting, zoom, VoiceOver, Guided Access and MORE will be utilized with time for exploration, dialogue and application. Participants will also discover how struggling readers can utilize iBooks reader tools (highlighting, notes, bookmarking, built-in dictionary) to help them reach their full potential.
You've delivered an iPad to the Superintendent, all the principals and administrative teams. Now what? String Theory Schools has said goodbye to email maximized the use of iPad at all the administrative levels. Superintendents and principals can create courses in iTunes U that provide their school leadership teams and school boards with up-to-date information all in a single course. Join us to learn how announcements, resources and current districtwide policies can all be curated and delivered for just in time access.
Professional development is an important aspect of practice across many disciplines. Living abroad and experiencing life in another culture with your career can be a life-changing and career-enriching experience. Educator exchanges are a unique professional peer-to-peer development opportunity for teachers and school administrators to collaborate within their profession. The opportunity to experience one’s vocation in a different location opens the door to new practices, perspectives, and ways of knowing. Please join us for a session on short term leadership opportunities to sail your ship in the direction of global citizenship and international community building.
As a leader, when considering your most diverse learners; how do you know who to access, when to access them and for which supports? What structures are most impactful in meeting a broad range of diverse student needs? As a leader, how do I attend to all of this and build capacity with my support staff and teachers so that they feel confident and supported in an inclusive environment as outlined in Inspiring Education? Leading inclusion and attending to the above questions is possible with a well-defined model that clearly outlines a continuum of supports and services from front line classroom to intensive interventions involving multiple partner agencies. Wolf Creek Public Schools will share their continuum of collaborative team structures, an aligned calendar and clearly defined processes to support and lead inclusion. The Wolf Creek Public Schools Inclusive Learning Services staff will present: • dynamic team structures, supporting processes and resources • a method of identifying diverse learners through level of impact • innovative electronic program planning • developing effective collaborative partnerships WCPS Inclusive Learning Services will provide an overview of a variety of roles supporting this model ranging from: school level teams, psychologists, social workers, FNMI success coordinator, inclusive learning coordinators, and leadership.
Each one of us has a story; and it shapes our leadership practice whether we know it or not! Your lived experiences as a learner, teacher and leader shape your values, priorities and leadership practice; and it is critical to take time to reflect on your experiences—good and bad—so that you can mine them for the impact they have had on you. Leading schools is complex work; and it requires us to deeply understand ourselves in order to engage in collaborative, creative work in service of student learning. Living and reliving, telling and re-telling our stories is a powerful way to connect to our identity and values, to give voice to those who are vulnerable, to bring our intellectual and emotional sides together, and to help us connect with one another as leaders at a human level. This session will explore the research on the power of narrative to help you develop as an ethical leader and strengthen relationships. It will also provide practical strategies for digging into your own narrative individually and within a community.
Over the past decade, Holy Trinity Catholic High School has grown from a school with community concerns to a school of distinction. We have grown into a home, a community, a place where students want to and need to be. Join us and share in our journey from great to excellence.
Join Simon Breakspear as he leads a ‘learn-by-doing’ practical session to enable you to have a greater impact on teaching and learning in your unique context. You will be guided through a structured process to reflect on your own improvement efforts and create a ‘roadmap’ for agile action over the coming 6-months. You will clarify your vision for learning, simplify your strategy and accelerate your impact.
How can you engage and inspire a learning community using Instructional Coaching, Cross-Division Cohorts, School-Wide Learning Challenges and Targeted Technologies? Find out how the Learning Team at St. Elizabeth Seton is using a wide variety of strategies, practices and implementation tools to enhance the learning journey for the school community.
Our digital world is filled and re-filled continuously with ideas around what effective leaders should do, should never do, or should be. Whatever leadership style, philosophy or approach you aspire to, the one non-negotiable requirement is that in order to be a leader, you must generate followers. The characteristics of todays followers are shifting significantly, are your leadership skills ready? The Boomers are moving on to re-invent whatever form of retirement that they see fit. The organizational structures that they are leaving behind are very similar to the ones that they worked in for years. However, the followers who will be residing within those structures are different in almost every way. Can you lead them?
The best way of getting started with the Maker Movement is to dive right in and model how we want our students to learn, think creatively, design and build to solve real-world problems. If you're interested in project based learning, design thinking, maker labs, and using instructables to scaffold learning, come brainstorm different ways of transforming your learning environments, curriculums, schedules, budgets and partnerships to make it happen!
The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is an international, large-scale survey that focuses on the working conditions of teachers and the learning environment in schools across the world. TALIS aims to provide timely, comparable and useful information to help countries review and develop policies in support of a high-quality teaching. Alberta is the sole Canadian jurisdiction to participate in TALIS 2013 along with 33 countries/economies. The session will highlight key findings for Alberta in the following areas: Who are our school principals? What formal training/preparation and support do they have? What kinds of professional development opportunities do they have? What is the nature of their work and what do they focus more attention on? What factors impact their work and their level of satisfaction? How do leadership practices in Alberta compare with other top performing countries that participated in TALIS? This will be an interactive session with opportunities for participants to react to the findings and discuss the implications for their own work.
Schools are complex organisations which impact the lives of many. The 'relational temperature' of the school has a significant impact on its effectiveness as a centre of the community. This presentation examines how school leaders can build a culture rooted in values which keeps the focus on building positive relationships across all areas of school life.
“How can school leaders help to build new narratives of school success and rich accountabilities based on the principle of excellence through equity?”
The invited panel members will invite a conversation based on:
“How can school leaders help to build new narratives of school success and rich accountabilities based on the principle of excellence through equity?”
The invited panel members will invite a conversation based on:
Saskatoon’s Schools have experienced tremendous growth and increased diversity in the past few years. Despite this growth and a challenging fiscal environment we have been able to maintain a high level of achievement in our publicly funded school systems. What makes Saskatoon unique is the strong student centered partnership that has been built between the Saskatoon Public School Division, the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division, and the Teachers of Saskatoon. This partnership is the product of a continuing positive and respectful dialogue between the school boards, their respective divisions, and their teachers. While each of us works within our own domain we have developed a shared perspective and vision for student centered learning in Saskatoon based on a culture of collaboration, professionalism, and school improvement.
We’ve all been in a meeting that could have been handled through email. And we’ve all been part of an email chain that, due to its complexity and nuance, really should have been handled in a face-to-face meeting. We’ve all had the experience of getting lost in our work, of forgetting time and restraints, of reaching what might be called an optimal flow state – and then receiving a phone call or receiving a notification that calls us away from that work…to a meeting. Our leaders serve us best when they think about our time and our talents – how to save the former and give us the greatest opportunity to develop, exercise, and share the latter. Meetings often have the opposite effect; executed poorly, organized around the wrong set of tasks, or calling together the wrong group of colleagues at the wrong hours of the day, meetings can waste time, grind good people down, and reduce opportunities for people to share their talents. In this problem solver session, we’ll open by sharing some best practices and ideas around appropriate ‘blending’ of meeting structures. We’ll then jump into a activity that will challenge participants to rethink and redesign the structure of meetings that they are called to or call people to, in order to best serve our colleagues and their time and talents.
Now that mobile devices have become a great tool for teaching and learning, we can think about delivering professional development on the go. With so many great resources in our neighborhoods and beyond, let's move away from sit and get PD to creating the engaging learning experiences in the world around us. In our one to one iPad schools we want to create the kind of learning for teachers that we want for our students. See an example of how String Theory Schools used an iTunes U course and iBook for Learning on the Go at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and how that fostered new learning experiences for students.
Dr. Carol Campbell will share a framework, which presents the central purpose of leadership and educational change as one that develops professional capacity to support improved student learning, engagement, opportunity, equity and achievement. This framework will draw on a variety of inspirations including existing school leadership frameworks, the synthesis of the data/evidence in Visible Learning (Hattie, 2008 and 2011), and participants' personal knowledge of educational improvement gained from experience in classrooms and schools.
In completing her discussion of context, Campbell will expand on this framework by adding the four components which contribute to effective leadership and educational change:
These ideas will be shared through five components to leading effectively with evidence for educational improvement. These five Ps are persuasion, precision, professionalism, partnerships and perseverance.
"I want to be more innovative, but I don't have time!" Each year, it seems as though the position of school leader becomes more complex. Whether it is being a leader in the classroom, school, or district, the challenge of creating dynamic and relevant learning environments that engage our students, teachers, administrators, and school communities grows continuously with the unending changes that are taking place in the world outside of our schools each day. However, as an influx of new funding to education is unlikely, and there are only 24 hours in the day, how is it possible for us to find the time and money to be innovative? The concept of ‘frugal innovation’ encourages leaders to ‘think inside of the box’: to acknowledge and embrace the obstacles that cause us to lose sight of the vision that we have for our students, schools and districts. By utilizing a frugally innovative approach to the expertise and resources that currently exist within our organizations and communities, we can exponentially grow our innovative capacity through the process of co-developing the learning experiences that we want for our student (and adult!) learners at every level. In this interactive presentation, participants will leave with tools to generate urgency, develop think tanks, design compelling questions, co-create interactive tasks, and catalyze an innovative culture that they can use to generate solutions to the issues that arise in their own learning situations. All while ‘thinking inside of the box’!
The overall aim of the session is to discuss an intentional approach to building quality teaching by embedding the practices of Positive Psychology, a strengths-based approach that promotes flourishing. Positive educational outcomes are the core business of all schools. In Australia, a recent focus on articulating what constitutes quality teaching and the development of the AITSL standards for teachers and leaders has provided a clear and constructive framework for enhancing learning and teaching in schools. As learning and teaching are human endeavours, how these frameworks are implemented to ensure authentic and sustainable initiatives requires a major focus on building a positive culture and a clear articulation and alignment of expectations, priorities, goals and intentions that are context specific and individualised. Utilizing a Growth Mindset, collegial coaching and fostering reflective practices are two approaches which clearly position teachers towards achievement of their goals and aspirations. At St Andrews Lutheran College, Queensland we have adopted a strengths-based approach to teacher development that incorporates these strategies. The approach uses the positive psychology framework of PERMA (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment) and an individualised goals-orientated focus. While our journey with Positive Psychology was initially driven by a desire to improve student wellbeing and learning outcomes, we have found that it has also improved our levels of staff engagement and wellbeing. This has led to enhanced learning and teaching practices in line with the AITSL standards and College’s strategic priorities. The format for this session will be highly interactive and will model an Appreciative Inquiry approach.
We call it collaborative efficacy. Marzano referred to collective efficacy. Students call it, "Everyone on the same page." At Catholic Central High School, we strive to create and maintatin a culture where staff rely on each other for instructional advice, share cross-curricular ideas and recognize the value of shared leadership. Results from a School Social Network analysis indicate that we have a strong collaborative culture that benefits student learning. In this presentation, we will share some of the strategies the administrative team has put in place to achieve these positive results.
This session will examine the idea of 'transformational learning,' focusing on the perspective of the adult as the learner. Our profession is full of both formal and informal professional development opportunities. The question that must be asked is; "Is there transformation in the way we practice our skills based on these learnings?” Learn about the characteristics of a 'transformational learner' and the entire school culture required for this kind of thinking to exist.
The only constant in schools today is change. As leaders we are asked to navigate the waters of change when at times it feels like we are moving upstream without a paddle. Our culture often celebrates “heroic leaders” who seem to be everything to everyone. But, for most people, trying to be heroic is a recipe for burnout. In this session, we will discuss what it means to be a transformational leader and create the spark for transformational change in schools through creating inclusive, strength-based school cultures. Together we will explore ways that leaders can build leadership capacity in their schools and nurture the spark of change at the grassroots level. Can transformational leadership come from places other than the principal’s office? How can leaders create opportunities for leadership amongst their teachers and staff? What are the benefits and potential pitfalls of building transformational change from the ground up?
School systems in many parts of the world face growing pressure to provide evidence of the effectiveness of programmatic, instructional, and policy decisions. Faced with limited resources (human, financial, and skill-based), this is a challenging task for educational leadership practice and the development of new leaders. This session presents the conception, roll out, and considerations of a multi-district partnership with a university and non-profit evaluation agency designed to provide real-time research and program evaluation services to local school districts, long-term research support, and build capacity for sustained research by the preparation of doctoral candidates working within these districts. Participants will contribute to conversations around the partnership model, sustainability, and applications in their own local context.
Over the past 10 years, we as youth workers and educators have been striving to: 1) be strength-based in our approach to children and youth, 2) focus on increasing the resilience of children and youth, and 3) use the language of protective factors as a common-sense means to measure improvement and motivate all to share in the responsibility for raising youth. In this workshop we review the research that supports the framework, the political and social ramifications of the work, and provide new insights into how resilience can be taught and how it can be caught. You will learn: The psychological background to resiliency The history of the resiliency research To consider several questions which relate to the field of Integrative Youth Development™ and resilience.
In this session Ms. Appelt will share various thoughts on leadership and how to build highly effective professional teams. The premise of the presentation is that a leader is only leading if team members feel inspired, valued and motivated. So how does one accomplish this daunting task? During this talk strategies will be shared as to how to align with the positive motivational values of various team members. There will be time devoted to discuss common pitfalls in leadership and the unattractive outcomes of their use. This session will primarily be delivered through narratives of Ms. Appelt's experience as the Principal of a new Spanish Bilingual School in Calgary, however the content is easily applicable to a variety of settings.
Student Success is at the heart of all we do in education. Looking carefully at how all decisions in education align with student outcomes is pivotal in ensuring that school division support student learning above all else. Using Simon Breakspear’s model of Agile Schools, John Hattie’s research on effective practice and Reeves Leadership for Learning Framework, school divisions can move ahead to being more strategic in implementation of innovative practice.
Joel Westheimer is education columnist for CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning and Ontario Today shows and University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa. He began his career teaching in the New York City Public School system before obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University. His newest (2015) critically acclaimed book is What Kind of Citizen: Educating Our Children for the Common Good. Other multiple award-winning books include Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools (foreword by Howard Zinn) and Among Schoolteachers: Community, Autonomy and Ideology in Teachers’ Work. Westheimer lectures widely and has delivered more than 200 keynote speeches. He is the author of more than 75 academic and professional journal articles, book chapters, and books. He addresses radio and television audiences nationally and internationally. He is co-founder and principal investigator for The Inequality Project, investigating what schools in North America are teaching students about economic inequality.
This presentation follows from research into the identities of teachers and how these come to play out in practice. We will be reporting on research that looked at teacher's enacted solutions to the challenges of practice and how those reactions make sense in terms of the lives of teachers and the circumstances of schooling. Findings inform how leaders might imagine more individually suited invitations to teacher development.
For decades, Milton Friedman and his disciples contended that private markets could deliver better schooling than governments. In the 1990s, this belief was put to the test in the United States by for-profit educational management organizations (EMOs). While disappointing academic and financial outcomes pushed EMOs to the margins, their focus on results nevertheless helped reshape U.S. and foreign educational policy. In Education and the Commercial Mindset, Sam Abrams explains this evolution and its implications for educational leaders and the future of public education.
Our schools are connected, our classrooms are equipped, and our BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies are in place. These changes require reflection, resources and support that will enable teachers and empower students to make informed decisions so they can be proud of their digital footprints. This workshop provides an overview of resources available to support teachers, parents and students who seek to understand, learn and teach strong digital citizenship skills.
Neuroleadership is an emerging field that can assist administrators in cultivating a culture that capitalizes on strengths. Research driven practice in neuroscience can lead to organizational improvement at every level.
The Digital Human Library (dHL) is a new kind of library designed for your next generation learners. Experience how the dHL is connecting Canadian teachers and students with hundreds of organizations, experts and students from around the world during a live session! Learn how to browse the library and use video conferencing technology to connect learners with global learning partners in all curriculum subject areas. See how the dHL is bringing the field trip experience into the classroom to engage learners and maximize student outcomes (6Cs). Discover how the dHL is delivering authentic experiential learning opportunities across Canada designed to support and further student inquiry, establish stronger relationships between communities and schools, and create a more inclusive and equitable educational experience for all learners.
For school leaders and policy makers alike, it often appears that the popular media never met a crisis in student performance in mathematics it didn’t like. One approach to unpack this challenge is to focus on the transition of students from school to university. Particularly, university academics sometimes suggest schools and teachers could do more to prepare students for university studies and thereby ease the challenges students meet in their first year of higher education. I argue that many of these challenges arise out of the structure and practices of higher education, and that it must be the universities that develop systems to support students in transition. I will also consider the tyranny of high stakes examinations and policies motivated by national and international tests that often interfere with what both schools and universities want – engaged and well educated students.
Everyone wants a world-class education, an excellent education that prepares future generations for success and prosperity. As result, educational systems all over the world have engaged in massive reforms, from redesigning curriculum to enhancing teacher preparation, from improving accountability systems to importing policies and practices from abroad. But are these reforms likely to result in a world-class education we all desire or perhaps prevent us from achieving the goal. In the presentation, Professor Yong Zhao invites the participants to explore two education paradigms--employee-oriented vs. entrepreneur-oriented—and reflect on education reforms needed for providing all children a future-oriented education experience.
