Technolandy

Day 9 (of SOL 2025) Summer of Learning… Dear Dr @chrkennedy re adults

In his annual year end blog, Chris had some good questions… here is question  (and a spoiler of a comment I think Chis could like to see: I also wonder if we ought to investigate the year-round calendar (ooh, and maybe promote students at the right time rather than after 9ish months of learning… consider reshuffling students three times a year… sorry, pushing too far again!)

9. How do we create schools where every adult loves coming to work?

1. Gotta model what we see – I try to embrace the ‘culture of yes’ even though my secretary treasurers over the years wish we didn’t quite so often.

Good question as we enter another time where the teacher and support staff contracts are… in negotiation…  But I know that there are a couple of key things:

Waking up knowing you are safe and supported (even if it may not be the way you hoped when you talked to yourself in the shower) and that the struggle is worth it.

Sense of belonging (not just for the students) – my staff and I don’t always agree on everything, but we (at least me) enjoy the discussion and debates about different pedagogies and philosophies that create our individual and collective schema. Together we are more than just the sum of our individual parts.

I know other regions are jealous of our greatest strength (and sometimes biggest weakness) in BC: teacher autonomy. I will always defer to it’s power though (and why sometimes we are our own worst enemies when we bring up concerns about work/learning conditions, but continue to do so well on external measurements…)

Compassionate Leadership has been a module that has been taking hold in BC, and I think this is good as it helps school leaders focus on more than just management, but also cultural stewards – and modelling the importance of being visible, approachable, and deeply invested in relationships – checking in… listening… leading with empathy and purpose.

Things to add:

We have prep-time built into our schedule – might be nice to also build in more time for peer-coaching, inquiry-based projects (20% time?) and reflection times to show that there is a value to this (beyond those of us who do daily blogs <— a bad habit… don’t even think about doing this!! And note that the pro-d days we have in our BC Calendar were added by teachers for teachers decades ago…

Maybe more dedicated ‘model time’ – model reading; writing; mathing in real-life applications (read Thursday Murder Club, not just the latest Tom Hierck education book, or even better – read comics!!)

While I like research-supported practices, I still believe that all educators need that opportunity to be more… jazzy [my metaphor is that research proven things are great, but like classical music… when all the parts are in harmony, it is beautiful and wonderful… but sometimes we need to listen to, and play jazz – a format that may not ever be repeated quite the same way… and you’re not always sure where it’ll end up]

I also wonder if we ought to investigate the year-round calendar (ooh, and maybe promote students at the right time rather than after 9ish months of learning… consider reshuffling students three times a year… sorry, pushing too far again!) ask me about my year-round school concept. It’s not cheap but it is 365.25 days of learning…

Overall:

1. Cultivate a culture of trust and belonging – people don’t leave jobs – they leave cultures 

2. Protect time for purposeful collaboration and learning – we rise together or not at all

Support the well being with real action, not just words – you can’t pour from an empty cup