Superintendent of Wolf Creek School Division

Superintendent Wolf Creek Schools

What continuity do you see between some of your readings, other presentations, and this presentation?
Shared Mission and Vision pervasive througout the jurisdiction.
They have a learning vision that learners are learners for a lifetime.

Salience (Why is IT in education important to this person)
It is a powerful tool that underlies all things in the jurisdiction
Focus on improving student learning.

Outcomes (What are the specific IT in education outcomes sought through your organization?)
Excellent Learning Environments because the technology is integrated into all aspects of learning. It's an integral part.

Processes (What processes are used to achieve these outcomes?)
Principal council and school(teacher) councils to provide feedback and inform the jurisdiction.


Characteristics (What are some of the characteristics of IT Leaders that make them effective in achieving their goals?)

This was not covered today but will be covered on Monday when the Director of IT presents to us.


Today's notes - July 10th, 2009
Organizational structure is important
Traditional Hierarchical model
Pyramid approach – top down
Consistency in operations
Slow to change
Not a lot of innovation and creativity

Flat model
Each segment operates with maximum speed
Each person is responsible for their own decisions
Solutions can be out of touch with the direction of the organization
(Schlechty’s silo paradox.. the alignment issue)

Vision directed model
Each component of the organization to make decisions closest to where the problem is.
Takes a long time to build
Requires collaboration and monitoring

The Vision directed structure is preferable.

The Wolf Creek Model
-Organization cannot be told what it’s mission or vision will be
-All staff asked what the central purpose should be
-Debated questions ie What is our focus teaching or learning? What should WCPS look like 5 years? What are you prepared to do to get us there? Try it

“Committed to learning for our students”
Two points
1. We want opportunities to collaborate
2. We want to learn new skills, or see how other teachers are creating learning environments (Learning was paramount to our thinking)

Mission Statement
1 We believe that students should be “learners for a lifetime”. This focuses us on the fact that we have to teach students how to learn.. in other words to become their own teachers.
2 We promised to learn the skills to create powerful learning environments for everyone in our school division… but especially our students.

The mission statement leads you to the shared collaborate vision.

Vision
Is a 5 year plan for the community, staff, students, central office and borad
To freeze it in everyone’s mind we created a mnemonic graphic called the “two pillars” (Marzano’s work on memory) And, as Fullan points out, we have to highlight it constantly!
We aligned everything around it … technology, budgets, PD, mentorship, directions for AA, AISI, Board Initiatives, our reading materials etc.

Focus was on improving student learning

Principal council
One third of the schools present to the board where they’re going every year.
AISI – Assessment for Learning
- Improving student learning – Instructional design
-Everyone needs an opportunity to be involved
All the pillars work together
Create success for all learners.

Sub goals
7 C’s
-Creating a culture of Assessment and Instructional Design
-Creating an Environment of Live Collaboration
-Creating A Knowledge – Capture and Knowledge – sharing culture.
-Creating Strong Professional Learning Teams
-Creating Appropriate Roles for all Stakeholders
Creating Capacity for Leadership
-Creating Appropriate Measures of Student Success and Involving Students in our Learning Environments

Learning Environment Model
Technology is pervasive in all areas.

Assessment model
1. Outcomes have to be clear to students
2. Student will demonstrate their understanding
3. Where are the students relative to an outcome
4. What does good learning look like (Rubrics and exemplars)
5. Revisit outcomes to think about instructional design
6. Selection of input structure
7. Student opportunity to interact with new knowledge
8. Student opportunity to experiment or use new knowledge
9. Constant Assessment feedback so students can modify learning efforts
10. Final evaluation on authentic completion of assessment devices
11. Plan to assist students when the outcome is not being met … a new course of action
12. Classroom structure, peer relationships, culture of school and student strategies

Technology is a powerful tool and a driver for the vision. It is ubiquitous throughout the jurisdiction.