As discussed in Alberta Education’s document on the Principal Quality Standard, a principal that leads a learning community “nurtures and sustains a school culture that values and supports learning.” (Click for blog posts on Leading a Learning Community)
I felt I have met the criteria by doing the following:
- Ensuring that all Professional Development is done in a team setting. All staff must attend PD with other staff members to ensure that they can continue the conversation on how this learning applies to Forest Green School and Connections for Learning.
- Work with all students to ensure that they have ample opportunities to be successful in school.
- Have worked with staff to create opportunities in the area of sports (team and intramurals), as well as opportunities for fine arts. It is essential that students have an opportunity to succeed in areas outside of the core curriculum.
- Through the creation of our school Professional Development program, staff use Professional Learning Communities to not only present their ideas, but to have conversations on their learning with one another. This time for conversation has been extremely valuable to ensure that our practice has become transformational for students.
- Continuously share information through the use of Diigo to share links and important readings. This has led to a weekly email sharing articles that impact student learning.
- Provide teacher replacement time to ensure that staff teams get to work together in the areas of critical thinking, technology integration, and special education. This is very valuable time to staff as they are able to work with instructional leaders in these areas, as well as their grade partners.