Approaches to Professional Learning #2: Reflective Practice
“Reflective Practice” is a professional learning approach that is not unique to education, but used in various forms in other professions as well. It is generally conceived as a cycle of practice/experience, assessing...
Approaches to Professional Learning #1: Professional Learning Community
The “Professional Learning Community” approach to professional learning has become well known – so much so that the term is now used to describe almost anything teachers do in teams. The term originally gained popularity...
Approaches to Leading Professional Learning
Most school leaders who I have the privilege to interact with highly value professional development. They wish to learn and grow themselves, and to support the learning and growth of the staff they lead. But deciding how to...
Assessing Expected Student Outcomes
If your school has developed and committed to a list of expected student outcomes (ESOs) then assessing the growth of students towards these outcomes is a high priority. The integrity of the school could be in question if it...
How can Expected Student Outcomes contribute to School Improvement?
Having a list of expected student outcomes (ESOs), collaboratively developed by your school community, can be a great help to your school improvement efforts. They can be a tool to help identify needs for growth, and help the...
Developing the School’s Expected Student Outcomes
If your school has decided to embark on the process of adopting a statement of Expected Student Outcomes (ESOs), it is worth considering carefully the process you will use to identify and communicate these. It will be important...
What are “Expected Student Outcomes”?
What do you want a student who graduates from your Christian school to “look” like? That is, what important skills, character traits and habits do you desire that students develop during their time at school? This...
Reviewing Your Foundational Documents
Foundational documents are not static, “set in stone” things. They are best if they are dynamic and living. Integrating them into the daily life of the school is an important step in achieving this. Another step is to...
Integrating Your Foundational Documents into the Daily Life of Your School
Having some great-looking foundational documents that have been created collaboratively with your school community is one thing… bringing them to life in the day to day business of the school is quite another. But this is a...
Creating Your Foundational Documents
Foundational documents are an important tool for your school’s development, so creating them needs to be done with care. Here are three related ideas to help you work through the process… Collaboration If your...