Principal Shadow – A Day at Mother Teresa

Three of us had the privilege of spending the day with the administration at Mother Teresa last week. Our day began with morning prayer in the staff room where we were warmly welcomed by the Mother Teresa staff. After morning prayer we spent some time with Mr. Chauvet and were given a tour of the school which provided us a glimpse of the Montessori world. This was fascinating for me personally as I had little experience with Montessori before this visit. Afterward Mr. Chauvet sat with us in his office and shared his personal administration expertise stemming from his wealth of experience in a variety of different schools. We received great pointers in fostering effective relationships and leading a learning community. He was very organized and provided us each with a copy of his talking point notes which we were able to take back with us. We were free to ask questions and Mr. Chauvet was more than happy to answer all of them. After our morning with Mr. Chauvet, we ate our lunches with the wonderful Mother Teresa staff and learned from them what life is like in this large elementary school. After lunch we were treated with an opportunity to sit down with vice principals Mr. Macmillan and Mrs. Gerein where they discussed their individual roles and experiences at MT over the last year and a half. This was also of great personal value to me in my role as a vice principal in a large elementary school. After meeting with the two vice principals, we ended the day in Mr. Chauvet’s office with him walking us through how he does the managing of school operations and resources. This was most insightful as budgets are not part of my current role.

Coming into this shadow experience I was not sure what it would be like but must say that it was so valuable and worthwhile as I walked away with so much. I can’t thank Mr. Chauvet and his team enough for allowing us this opportunity to come in and for being so open to sharing their expertise.

Leadership Academy Year Reflection

It is hard to believe that the first year of leadership academy is already coming to a close. The insights and knowledge gained toward improving my overall leadership practice whether being through the session topics, reading material, discussions and presenters has been an invaluable gift that leaves me feeling truly blessed for having had the opportunity to take part in it at onset of my leadership career in leadership. The highlight for me has to be the camaraderie and networking among the other fellow participants that has developed as a result of being part of this initiative. It is so beneficial to be able to be connected with others in other buildings and learning from their experiences in addition to one’s own. This district is filled with so many talented individuals and by putting them together in a program such as this, one can’t help but come out of it feeling motivated, inspired and pushed to grow. I am looking forward to what year two brings.

Managing School Operations and Resources

In our PLP leadership group we discussed recruitment within our division and it lead us to the four great questions of conversation within Greg’s August 31st, 2014 blog.

Who are we looking for when we recruit?

What are our expectations of them?

How are we welcoming them into our District?

How are we supporting them throughout their career?

In this blog post, I am going to reflect on the first one but I leave the other questions open for comment.

I truly believe that we need the right people doing the right work. I used to believe that a high school teacher was a high school teacher and an elementary teacher was an elementary teacher and that is how it went. However after spending ten years teaching in a high school setting, I made a huge change and spent the following two years teaching elementary. What that experience taught me although it was quite a shock to the system at first, is that a teacher is a teacher plain and simple. Students may have different needs in their differing stages of development however the fact is that they all need someone who cares for them and takes time to build a relationship with each of them. I have learned from this experience that sometimes leaving your comfort zone is good thing!

To answer the first question, I believe that what we are looking for is people that have experience volunteering or working with children. These people have already demonstrated that they care about kids and have the desire and ability to build those all important relationships. Top academic marks in university and extensive knowledge in a subject area may look really good on paper but are not necessarily what translates into a successful teaching career.