Technolandy

Day 111 (of 2025/26) on growth plans

Very happy with a step forward our district made… this year our growth plans were delayed a bit… I still have my draft PDF working copy,  

…but we have also shifted to having our growth plan template focus on including a connection to the competencies of our provincial organizations (Specifically BC Principals Vice Principals Association and Superintendents Association), but also to our district strategic plan and school goals as well as the First Peoples Principles of Learning…  so here is my draft beta version of my 2025/26 Growth Plan – feel free to give me ideas!

Current Context:

As Regional Principal of Partners in Education, a Provincial Online Learning School, my leadership work centers on designing flexible, inclusive learning environments that responds to diverse learner needs across British Columbia. I believe my big thinking ideas (as per my blog at technolandy.com) are around embracing technology and AI in education as an integral part of personalizing education in an inclusive manner while also offering some strategies to better decolonize “big education” by leveraging things such as Adult Dogwood, Asynchronous Project Based Learning, and a Club mindset similar to what they do in Finland 

Goal:

To deepen and implement & evaluate inclusive, personalized learning models that ethically integrate AI and digital technologies while advancing decolonizing practices and flexible graduation pathways, fostering learner agency and multiple routes to success. 

Inquiry Question:

How might we redesign school structures so that technology amplifies human agency rather than standardization? 

Primary Competency:

Fostering a Culture of Curiosity and Inquiry (coming from BCPVPA / BCSSA competencies) 

This inquiry is grounded in cultivating curiosity and reflective practice by exploring how emerging technologies and artificial intelligence can be used to enhance, rather than replace, human relationships in learning. The work emphasizes evidence-informed decision making, professional dialogue, and experimentation with new instructional and organizational models such as asynchronous project-based learning and portfolio-based assessment. 

*more thoughts below 

Secondary Connections:

Growing the Capacity of Self and Others (BCPVPA / BCSSA) 

Through ongoing reflection, professional writing, and collaboration with colleagues and community partners, this work contributes to shared professional growth. Mentorship, inquiry groups, and collaborative exploration of ethical AI practices strengthen collective leadership capacity within the school and district. 

*more thoughts below 

FPPL Alignment (First Peoples Principles of Learning)

• Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational – Asynchronous PBL and portfolio-based assessment 
• Learning involves recognizing consequences of one’s actions – Ethical AI use and digital citizenship 
• Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story- Student-driven projects, local community narratives 
• Learning requires exploration of identity – Personalized pathways and flexible graduation options 
• Learning involves patience and time – Competency-based pacing vs. seat-time models 

qathet School District Strategic Plan Alignment

• Cultivating an Ethic of Learning – strengthening learner engagement through personalized and competency-based approaches 
• Cultivating Curiosity – transforming learning environments through innovative use of digital tools and AI 
• Cultivating Connection – fostering belonging and mental well-being through flexible, student-centered structures 
• Supporting Self-Determination – increasing access to alternative pathways and culturally responsive learning opportunities 
• Cultivating Truth and Reconciliation – examining systemic structures and embedding Indigenous perspectives beyond symbolic inclusion 
• Cultivating Integrity and Responsibility – promoting (and modelling) ethical technology use and sustainable, future-ready educational practices 

PIE Guiding Principles

My professional growth work aligns tightly with the PIE motto, vision, and guiding principles, which emphasize flexible, relationship-based, learner-centered educational experiences. Partners in Education defines its mission as supporting students and families to develop and carry out educational programs that meet provincial standards while incorporating lived experiences and honoring individual strengths. PIE explicitly embraces the First Peoples Principles of Learning, valuing learning as sacred, relational, and experiential, acknowledging that it “takes time and requires patience.”  

Where Life and Learning Meet
My work with emerging technologies, AI integration, and flexible pathways such as Asynchronous Project Based Learning and Adult Dogwood honors learning as something that happens within the lived realities of students and families rather than in isolated institutional silos.  

Relationship- and Community-Driven Practices 

PIE’s guiding principles describe a supportive, respectful, and collaborative learning environment where teachers, students, parents/caregivers, and community partners co-design holistic individualized learning programs. This resonates directly with my focus on mentorship, inquiry, and co-design as leadership practices, and with my use of professional learning communities and partnerships to explore ethical AI use, flexible assessment, and culturally responsive innovation.  

Flexibility, Respect, and Individual Potential

PIE’s emphasis on being flexible “in all aspects of our shared educational experiences” connects with the spirit of my inquiry into alternative pathways, personalized pacing, and competency-based experiences that meet learners where they are. My growth plan, which emphasizes expanding access, honoring diverse ways of knowing, and strengthening learner agency, mirrors PIE’s value of developing learning opportunities that reflect unique interests, passions, quirks, goals, and abilities, including defining and refining their personal definitions and celebrations of scholastic success. 

Resources (people, other) needed

Local knowledge keepers (forward thinkers as well as those who understand the origins of key ceremonies we perpetuate); our PIE AI PLC; access to pilot digital tools/platforms; case studies re clubs as learning;  data showing the evidence to the statement that the Adult Dogwood is used in ways to lower expectations and ‘make things easier’ for key demographics of graduates, rather than empowering learners to know that their neurological successes don’t need to look identical with the same courses as everyone else that are believed to establish the ‘educated citizen’… 

For ongoing reflection, I am consulting Kevin Reimer’s “A Year of Leading” for ongoing reflection; Shane Safir’s “Pedagogies of Voice” for consideration of what may be done different; along with ongoing regular reading of submissions from Solution Tree.  

Also leaning into making use of my collaborative Partner, my goto AI: Ada Otter. 

What I am deepening this year: This year’s growth has me focused on aligning emerging technologies with enduring human values, ensuring that innovation in education expands access, honours diverse ways of knowing, and strengthens learner agency rather than narrowing it. My technolandy.com “Days of Learning” blog (as well as new video supports) functions as a continuous professional inquiry journal, ensuring transparency, reflection, and knowledge sharing that extends this growth work beyond my immediate context.   

Artifacts so far:

October:

AI/Cultural considerations reflection blog: https://technolandy.com/2025/10/20/day-33-of-2025-26-diwali-a-reminder-about-the-fine-edge-between-cultural-appreciation-and-appropriation/ 

Diwali influenced bowtie Tuesday share : https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSaxpwLMR/ 

January:

The power of Nostalgia reflection blog: https://technolandy.com/2026/01/22/day-90-of-2025-26-techursdai-thought-on-nostalgia/ 

Introduction to Body Doubling (to meet supports that work for ADHD+ learners) in non-traditional support mindsets: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTdn-zIEsRr/?igsh=YzlzcWNyOTJyM3Ni 

February

Reflections and thinkings about how to re-engage students with a graduation mindset: Communication & Connection (qSD); Learning requires exploration of identity (FPPL) and being flexible (PIE)