As evidenced by the blogposts made this schoolyear by Flipping the Focus, there has been a tremendous amount of work, productive challenge, learning, and impact from professional learning for myself, colleagues, school teams, and our district--all of it made possible by the collaborative professionalism exhibited by each of the "lateral units" of the instructional core one finds in Ontario's School Effectiveness Framework (2013; image below, PDF embedded for webviewing). A list of links to these posts has been provided for your convenience in the final section of this post.
With a clear vision articulated by both the Ministry of Ontario and our district of Upper Canada, leadership committees, schools and their learning teams have leveraged autonomy, choice, time, and instructional leadership to crafting and following collaborative inquiries in service of meeting both provincial and district calls to action--working to improve student achievement and well-being.
"Voices From the Field" summarizes deep reflections from UCDSB teachers & administrators regarding system-wide, continuous school improvement in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The video chronicles educators' experiences with school-level improvement practices through the lens of whole-school approaches to school improvement, supporting the vision of the mathematics learner, building math community, and growing success through assessment.
Following viewing, I invite you to ask questions and/or comment on highlights from your own district's improvement practices. Comment on this post and/or use the "Contact" form provided on this page.
I encourage you to take some time to share your thanks and gratitude for the professional (and personal) relationships you have in your educational "circle."
All the best for a great year-end and a safe & relaxing Summer.
Sincerely & Professionally Yours,
Chris Stewart, OCT
Learning Partner, UCDSB
Student Achievement Officer (New-Sep 2018; granted leave by the UCDSB to the Ministry of Education, Ontario)
I wanted to take a few moments to share with you a message of gratitude and thanks—a message regarding our collaborative professionalism in learning.
I believe that we are better together. Our best ideas come through consistent and ongoing collaboration.
In part, talking with you about the teaching and learning that goes on in your classrooms is at the heart and soul of what I've been able to do as a Learning Partner. And on the other hand, collaboration has also come from both planned and serendipitous moments in the classroom, as students shared their thinking with us, and in our shared experiences through learning teams and participation in system-wide professional learning days (e.g., Renewed Math Strategy (RMS) Days). In these moments, I found that there was nothing more satisfying and productive than deciding how we, including our students, would respond to moving learning forward.
In closing, it has been a pleasure learning with you and your students this year.
Although we are not yet there, please accept my best wishes to you, your colleagues and families for a great summer. All the best for next year, as you continue to dig deeper—digging in as a system and school teams to exploring the intersection of the physical, mental, social and emotional domains of learning and how, together, we can further improve student achievement, engagement and well-being.
Although I will be in a different role moving forward (new Student Achievement Officer in the Ottawa Region; on secondment to the Ministry of Education), please feel free to reach out with questions and sharing what you would like to learn/have been learning. I deeply value the relationships we have built thus far, and as I stated earlier: ...we are better together. Our best ideas come through consistent and ongoing collaboration.
Sincerely Yours,
Chris Stewart
June 2017 - LEARNING TO LEAD, LEADING TO LEARN (PART 1/3)
Aug 2017 - LEARNING TO LEAD, LEADING TO LEARN (PART 2/3)
Jan 2018 - LEARNING TO LEAD, LEADING TO LEARN (PART 3 OF 3): EXPLORING THE ROLE OF STUDENT VOICE IN SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PRACTICES
Feb 2018 - GETTING TO & ENACTING OUR 'HOW': COLLABORATIVE SPACES FOR OCCASIONING THINKING ABOUT SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
Mar 2018 - CREATING CONDITIONS FOR OCCASIONING THINKING & SUPPORTING STUDENT WELL-BEING IN MATHEMATICS CLASSROOMS