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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
