The Vortex Known as the Lost and Found

The Lost and Found (LAF) has always been a little of a mystery to me I admit. Having some experience with this as a principal in an elementary school, I do know growing bludgeoning Lost and Founds. Never could I figure out how students could lose their hats, mits and other articles of clothing.

How could parents not keep track of their kids and their clothing?? Well.......

Since my second child has entered school I suddenly understand. Next year we are buying hats and mitts in bulk and keeping a spare pair in the trunk of the car. All the fancy stick on labels in the world cannot help us here. The Lost and Found is a vortex where many items are never found and are sucked into what I like to call the LAF Dimension.

Yesterday, the LAF Dimension actually came in handy. I could not believe it. The other morning there was a big snowstorm and we took a different vehicle to school. What I did not know was that my oldest left his mitts in the other vehicle and we did not figure this out until we got to his school.

In a split second it was decided to enter the LAF Dimension and rescue a pair of mitts for the day. Within seconds we had a matching pair from the overflowing mountain of articles.  At the end of the day the mitts were returned and words of thanks were whispered to the LAF Vortex.

Lesson learned: Sometimes the Lost and Found can indeed help you out.

To all the parents out there:

As a principal, this parent understands.

The New Communication

The other day I was asked to take a look at Michael Fullan new paper called: 

Great to Excellent: Launching the Next Stage of Ontario's Education Agenda. 

After reading this paper I was asked to reflect and provide a description of how the school I am at is adapting to the changes in education. Specifically in regards to technology, social media and communication.

Fullan identifies the 6Cs that are necessary in education today:

1. Communication
2. Citizenship
3. Character
4. Collaboration and Teamwork
5. Creativity and Imagination
6. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Over the past number of years the way school leaders interact, lead and communicate with their school community has changed greatly. The way information is shared and distributed has evolved to keep up with what is happening in technology, learning and communication outside the walls of our schools.  Not only that, we have to address how students learn in the 21st Century and how teachers open up the curriculum for the students to best meet their learning needs.

One of the challenges we all face is: How do we get these new technologies and and methods of communication to meet the 21st Century needs of our students? Here at St. Rita we are working hard to meet these challenges. The way I have decided to go about implementing these changes at St. Rita is to first know, understand and use these technologies myself.

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By focusing on areas such as the 6Cs myself, I am trying to lead from the middle and modelling and encouraging the use of new technologies and ways to communicate with a wider audience. The idea is that teachers will transfer these skills, concepts and ideas into their classrooms and teaching.

Some of the thing that we have done at St. Rita are:

Communication

• St. Rita Twitter account: Used for announcements, to showcase student work and to provide resources for parents. This account is also linked to a St. Rita Facebook page so all the tweeted links go to Facebook.
• St. Rita Staff Room: A place to share information and an effort to use meeting time more effectively by not dealing with small administrative items. This allows for more discussion for school improvement at meetings.
• Using screenr.com: St. Rita Flipped Parent Announcement - This was used at the beginning of the year to be an alternative to the traditional paper announcement.
• St. Rita website: constantly updated and the first thing that parents often see. Therefore, this communication tool is the face of the school.

Citizenship

• Eco-Squad Blog: Our Eco-Squad has worked to create their own blog and they have been working with a school K-5 in New Jersey.
• My own blog is a good way to contribute to the educational community what I am doing. We are now in an age where we are all getting ideas from blogs, Twitter and Facebook. There is also a responsibility to share what you are doing with your Professional Learning Network (PLN): The Education of an Elementary Principal

Character

• We are also looking at the importance of teaching students the value of creating a positive digital footprint.

Collaboration and Teamwork

• As a staff we use Google Drive for a variety of purposes. Including making class lists for the following year: Class List Template
• Surveying staff using: St. Rita Winter Wishlist  -  Wishlist Results
• We know have Junior students collaborating together on Google Drive with each other and with teachers to complete their work.

Creativity and Imagination

• Using Google Forms to survey the students and give teachers a gateway to different opportunities for learning opportunities: Help Mr. Slack Name His Fish and The Results
• Having students use different ways to demonstrate their learning and what we are doing at our school: Hope - YouTube Video

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

• Making use of my Professional Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter has been very valuable to be in solving problems and accessing new and innovative ideas.

Hopefully, some of these things that we are doing here at St. Rita are going to take root in our teachers classrooms and move into their teaching practice. I believe that leading from the inside out is the best way to implement the 6Cs in our schools and that leadership in our schools is a critical part of making this work.

Art and Math Fusion: Our Geometric Museum

This Friday the hallways of our school are going to be transformed into a Geometry Museum. Parents have been invited to take a walk around our gallery to see all of the interesting and creative work that students have done.

As a staff we decided to have math as a focus this school year to help us increase student learning. The first thing that we did was have a 'Math Assembly' which was extremely successful and resulted in some amazing conversations between student and teachers alike. There is no question that everyone in our school learned from this activity.

Here is a link to the post I did on the 'Math Assembly': Math Assembly: A Success!!

The next area we decided to focus on was Geometry and to have teachers look at the big ideas in the curriculum for their grade. We took part in a PLC Day where we discussed where we were in regards to our math goals for the year and to move forward to the next part of our plan.

It was amazing to listen to the discussion and to hear the enthusiasm of our teachers as they brainstormed what direction we should be headed in with our geometry goals and student work. From the discussion came the idea to pull from the Arts Curriculum and the Mathematics Curriculum for our next focus.

THE IDEA

Turn our school into a geometry museum for a gallery walk.

THE RESULTS

Every teacher and student would dive into the curriculum and produce a piece of work that was cross-curricular. Parents would be involved by coming into the school and seeing what their children have created.

Some of the resources we used are listed below:

• Guide to Effective Instruction: Geometry and Spacial Sense K-3
• Guide to Effective Instruction: Geometry and Spacial Sense 4-6

Once the Geometry Museum and the gallery walk is complete I'll share the results!

WELCOME! Branding Our School

What do you think about when you see some of the logos above? 

More importantly: What do people think about when they see your school logo?

When I was asked I immediately thought about asking parent and students how they see our 'brand'. After some reflection I began to realize that it starts with the school. This led to the following questions:

• What do you want parents and students to think about our school?
• What do we do to make our brand one that is attractive to parents in our school community?
• Have you had the discussion with your staff about how we want our school to be see in the community?

Since this week is the official Kindergarten Registration week, I have been thinking a lot about how new parents see our school. Last week we had a work shop at the school board to talk about our school brand and creating a welcoming environment for everyone. Not just students.

There are so many ways to create positive and powerful brand for your school each and everyday:

1. The website and social media tell a lot about the school. Keep them updated!
2. When someone comes in to the front office, are they greeted? Is it welcoming? How parents feel when they come into the front office plays a huge role in whether or not they want to send their kids to your school.
3. Answering the phone - Can they hear a smile on the end of the line or does it sound like they have interrupted something? 
4. How fast are you at returning phone calls and emails to parents?
5. What do your newsletters look like? Do they come out on time and at the start of each month?
6. What kind of progressive discipline policy does the school have?
7. As an administrator, are you visible to your school community?

What matters most is "Who are you?"

If you have a positive brand for your school in your community the benefits are enormous. There is a connection with parents and they will be inspired knowing that you are making your school the most welcoming place you can. Those connections you made, they will go out and spread the word.

My goal this "Kindergarten Season" is to make a personal connection with every parent that comes into our school to register their child or to inquire about our school. I personally meet and talk with each one and invite them to contact me if they have any questions whatsoever. 

Is anyone else working extra hard to make connections with their community and to build relationships? I'd be interested in collaborating and brainstorming ideas.

Fish Naming Ceremony Turns into a Learning Experience

You never know what is going to happen when you try something new. 

Not too long ago I decided to buy another fish for my office. I don't know what happened. Usually I have a fish to start off the year, but this year my office space was totally fish-less. 

With fish ownership comes the great responsibility of naming the fish. Normally someone would choose a name for me. This time I decided on another approach.

I created a Google Forms survey:

What happened over the course of the week was totally unexpected. Students were talking about this survey  everywhere in the school. It be came a learning experience where I least expected it. Often, these are the best kinds of learning experiences.

I announced the survey on the Monday and told the students that they would have until Friday morning to submit their response for the fish.

Over the course of the week it was very interesting to see how the results were shaping up. Early on it was the primary students that were voting for their favourite choice: Mr. Bubbles. Once the Junior students got involved the results and the survey really began to take off. OK ........ the results were getting tampered with by our Junior students. This lead to some interesting conversations in the staffroom.

In the end:

• 1652 votes were cast in a school with a population of 305
• Sushi was the name that ended up finishing with the most votes

Learning Implications:

• there were many opportunities for purposeful talk in class, at home and in the hallways and school yard
• students were learning about Data Management and were interpreting information in a way that did not even seem like school work
• students who were never exposed to google forms had the opportunity to use them from JK - Gr. 6
• parents had the opportunity to get involved in this survey with their children
• teachers in the classroom had the opportunity to use google forms. If they had never used them before it was a great opportunity for them to try something new.

A next step for myself is to use google form in a survey that will go out to parents on our website. I think this will be a great way to communicate with parents and to get a feel on what they are thinking on different topics that are important to our school.

Math Assembly an Educational Success!!

This week we had our very first Math Assembly here at St. Rita Catholic School in Ottawa, Ontario. Every single class in the school put together something that demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of the Patterning and Algebra curriculum.

Some of the presentations included:

• growing and extending patterns with kindergarten students modelling
• using tableau's to demonstrate patterns
• using music to show the pattern and showing their understanding with drums
• short skits with props

There was an unbelievable amount of time, effort and creativity that went into these presentations. Once the assembly was finished there was absolutely no question that the students here benefited from this experience. The purposeful talk that we could all hear in the gymnasium was very empowering and without question it has carried on in the classrooms here in our school.

Staff members here also had so many positive comments about this new learning experience. One thing that was quite interesting was that every teacher in the school could see what the students were expected to learn in Patterning and Algebra from Kindergarten to Grade 6 and how they did it. This has lead to quite a bit of informal professional development right at our school and we are excited to look towards a new idea and a new goal.

Following the assembly we had a school wide assessment and we gathered in divisions the next week to moderate the student work. Teachers had great discussions and ideas to help increase student achievement in this area.

Here is our school wide assessment that covered K - 6 and met the big ideas of the Patterning and Algebra Curriculum from the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum.

School Wide Assessment

In the new year we are going to have a school wide focus on Geometry and Spacial Sense and are brainstorming ideas of how we can demonstrate our learning to the entire school.

A Math Assembly?

My first reaction was that of surprise and intrigue. Had never thought of doing this before and when a group of teachers presented the idea to me I had to admit I thought it was very original with many possibilities.

Numeracy is an area of focus here at our school and we have been using school wide math problems to help get the students a little more excited about math at school. If there is more excitement surrounding numeracy at school I would hope this would would help change negative attitudes some students have about math.

We have developed a plan to have out first "Math Assembly" in three weeks time. Each teacher has looked at the big ideas for Patterning and Algebra in the Ontario Curriculum as it relates to their grade level. They will have their students present this big idea in a creative way to the rest of the school. The staff here is very excited to see what everyone comes up with!

I read an interesting quote on Friday at our Numeracy PD Day:

"Math is right up there with snakes, public speaking, and heights."

Math and numeracy should not be a phobia. If students leave our school with a numeracy phobia have we let them down? Trying new and creative things to help students develop an interest in numeracy should be a priority for all teachers. Regardless of the subjects they teach.

Let me know if you have any similar experiences with this sort of idea. I'll post an update on how things go and we are already looking forward to February 2013 when we look at Geometry and Spatial Sense.