About Richard Williams

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So far has created 14 blog entries.

Excellence in Education

Nominations are now open for the Premier’s Awards for Excellence in Education. The Awards are an opportunity to recognize the enormous contributions of education professionals who go above and beyond to make life better for students in British Columbia. “B.C.’s talented teachers, administrators and support workers deserve to be honoured and celebrated for the important work they do,” said Premier John Horgan. “We are focused on investing in British Columbia’s education system, and developing new relationships with our education partners that are built on trust and respect.”

Shortlisted nominees will be announced in late August. Finalists will be invited to an awards ceremony at Government House in Victoria on World Teachers’ Day, Oct. 5, 2018. Premier Horgan and Fleming will be in attendance. Winners will receive a $3,000 personal bursary for professional learning, and a $2,000 contribution to their school community for professional learning.

To nominate an education professional, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/excellenceineducation

BCPVPA election

BCPVPA Election for 7 Directors

Nominations are now open for the upcoming election for BCPVPA Directors. Members will elect six Directors to two-year terms and one Director to a one-year term. The one-year term will fill the one-year term left vacant as Kevin Reimer becomes Executive Director on July 1. The successful candidate with the least number of votes assumes the one-year position as Director.

Nominations close at 5 pm, May 4.
Download your nomination form here.

The timeline for the election is as follows:

  • May 4: Nominations close (5 pm)
  • May 12: Candidates speak at Chapter Council
  • May 18: Election statements published/distributed with eNews and on website
  • June 5-7: Election held via secure electronic ballot
  • July 1: Terms begin.

Candidates currently standing for election (as of April 25):

  • Mike Franklin (Cariboo-Chilcotin)
  • Heidi Grant (Nechako Lakes)
  • Brett Johnson (Greater Victoria)
  • Read Jorgensen (Greater Victoria)
  • Lee Karpenko (Prince George)
  • Carol-Ann Leidloff (Kootenay Lake)
  • Brian Leonard (Coquitlam)
  • Des Sjoquist (Central Okanagan)

BCPVPA appointment notice

Kevin Reimer named Executive Director

The BCPVPA Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Reimer as BCPVPA Executive Director, effective July 1. The Board looks forward to continuing its work with Kevin, who has served as President since May, 2016. Kevin was first elected to the Board in 2013. During Kevin’s term as President, and working alongside current executive Director Kit Krieger, he has driven the Association forward on compensation and benefits, the implementation of the MoA, and its initiative to secure status as a negotiation agency. Kevin has championed the Association’s mentoring program, promoted principal and vice-principal well-being, and expanded and revitalized outreach to members via webinars and video-conferencing. Throughout his career, Kevin has focused his leadership on creating collaborative cultures and has presented across Canada on professional learning communities. He began his career as a teacher in Delta in September 1989. He has been an Adult Education Principal, and Vice-Principal and Principal since 1998 in Delta and the Comox Valley. Kevin has a B.Ed from the University of British Columbia (1988) and an MA in Leadership Studies from San Diego State University (2003). Kevin was named one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals in 2013 by the Learning Partnership and completed an executive leadership development program at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management.

The Board of Directors and BCPVPA staff congratulate Kevin on his new appointment and look forward to working with him through the transition period and over the years ahead.

Professional Learning Registration Links

REGISTER
HERE

for BCPVPA Professional Learning and Development programs for 2018:

Register: Connecting Leaders 2018

Register: Culture of Learning: Level One

Register: Culture of Learning: Level Two

Register: Short Course I

Register: Short Course II

BCPVPA/SOGI webinars in January

The BCPVPA and SOGI presented two webinars in January.

 

SOGI Education in BC (Part 1)

Why and How (and parent rights)

This webinar will focus on the why and how of SOGI-inclusive education along with the issue of parent rights.

SOGI Education in BC (Part 2):

Building and Integrating

This webinar will provide guidance on how to build inclusive learning environments and integrate SOGI education into a classroom program.

Both webinars are presented by Matt Carruthers, BC’s SOGI Education Lead.

 

Partnership Awards 2018

The BCPVPA Partnership Awards are now accepting nominations from Chapters who wish to recognize and honour the valuable support provided to principals, vice-principals, teachers, and students by individuals and groups who have, over an extended period of time, shared their time, energy and expertise to support schools.

Nominations must be submitted by 5 pm, Friday, March 30. Awards are presented at the May 2018 Chapter Council meeting.

Download a nomination form.
Read about previous winners here.

Ministry of Education/BCPVPA webinars

View all presentations now
Ministry of Education/BCPVPA webinars

The Ministry of Education and the BCPVPA presented, in September and October 2017, a series of half-hour webinars designed to provide BCPVPA members and guests with current information and developments about specific Ministry initiatives. All webinars are available for viewing below:

The BCPVPA thanks the Ministry of Education’s Superintendent of Transformation, Suzanne Hoffman and all the presenters.

Updates on Ministry initiatives and changes for the 2017-18 school year

  • Foundation Skills Assessment with Nancy Walt and Janet Powell.

View the presentation.

  • Arts Education with Melanie Bradford

View the presentation.

 

  • Career Education with Jan Unwin, Angie Calleberg, and Nicole Arklie

View the presentation.

  • Classroom Assessment with Angie Calleberg, Acting Director, Classroom Assessment and Nancy Walt, Executive Director, Curriculum and Assessment

View the presentation.

  • Math and Science with  Angie Calleberg, Acting Director of Classroom Assessment and Nicole Arklie, Mathematics Coordinator.

View the presentation.

  • Social Studies with Nick Poeschek,Social Studies Coordinator and Brent Munro, Director, Curriculum.

View the presentation.

  • Graduation & Numeracy Assessments/ with  Markus Baer, Director, Graduation Assessments and Nancy Walt, Executive Director, Curriculum and Assessments.

View the presentation.

Visible Learning Institute

Visible Learning Institute
with John Hattie & Ainsley Rose (Exclusively from Corwin and in partnership with the BCPVPA)

July 7 and 8 Richmond (Pacific Gateway Hotel)
US $449 (with the $50 BCPVPA discount code applied)

The Vancouver Visible Learningplus Institute is a two-day conference with John Hattie and Ainsley Rose. This institute introduces you to the core concepts and research of Visible Learning. You will learn to systematically examine effective instructional practice to make the greatest impact on student achievement and learning. Ainsley Rose will provide the BC context and application.

  • Recognize and implement high effect instructional strategies and make adjustments to focus on what works best in light of what the research shows
  • Discover why a culture of effective feedback is essential in a school and district, and learn strategies to make learning visible by giving and receiving effective feedback
  • Learn to use the Visible Learning plus framework, share learning intentions and co-create success criteria for every lesson, giving students the tools they need to recognize success and track their own progress
  • Learn how to integrate student voice into planning, evaluation, and developing curriculum
  • Learn how to create assessment-capable learners   

+ Register http://bit.ly/2kOhZMU (BCPVPA members please use the discount code: BCPVPA)

+ A limited number of rooms (at $325 per night) are available for BCPVPA members at the Pacific Gateway Hotel, using this link http://bit.ly/BCPVPAGatewayVL

Podcast interview with John Tyler

This week, I sat down with New Westminster Secondary Principal John Tyler. John is a member of the BCPVPA Technology Committee, has been instrumental in launching the recent professional learning webinar series and is the author of the recently released book, Networked Youth: What Every Parent Needs to Know about Online Behaviour.  In this episode John and Kevin talk about John’s book, the webinar series, and his involvement as a facilitator at Short Course.

Outside the comfort zone

With the encouragement and support of my daughter I recently joined a CrossFit gym as she had done the same. In addition, fellow Board member Darren Danyluk took up CrossFit a few years ago and he has been my role model as I continually bother him with questions and ask him to share his stories of how he overcame the challenges of becoming a CrossFit athlete.

I joined Kitsilano CrossFit a few weeks ago and try my best to attend classes four to five times per week. For those of you who don’t know a great deal about CrossFit I can tell you that despite being a month into my journey I still have a great deal to learn about the system and their approach. Despite that I will try to summarize my journey to this point.

As a fitness enthusiast who had been a regular boot camp participant for the past few years I was quite fascinated by CrossFit and I wondered if I was up to the challenge. Short answer – I am not. Rather, I should use a phrase that my wife teaches to her Kindergarten students. Instead of saying, “I can’t” as they often do in five-year-old fits of frustration, she teaches them to use the phrase, “I am not yet able.” Three weeks into my CrossFit experience I can tell you that the majority of CrossFit activities, skills, and understandings fall into the, “not yet able” category.

What have I learned to this point? First off, the exercise areas are referred to as boxes and not gyms. Exercising in a box tends to make me feel that there is no escape and I have had those moments from time to time during particularly intense Workouts of the Day. The CrossFit approach to fitness is highly competitive but only with yourself. The language in the box is filled with acronyms and phrases that need a great deal of explanation not unlike the eduspeak that we use to communicate in education. An acronym like TTB means toes to the bar and requires you to hang from a pull-up bar while pulling your legs up, without assistance, to touch the bar. A series of Olympic lifts that are to be carried out as an EMOM means that you do the exercise every minute on the minute. In short, the longer the acronym the more likely that the next day I will be lumbering my lactic acid locked frame into work in a manner reminiscent of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. Advil has become my oilcan.

comfortzoneA good friend and a highly respected colleague of mine used this graphic as part of his email signature. He is right – the area outside of our comfort zone is the area where the magic really happens. If that is true, then my CrossFit experience means that I could be the next David Copperfield. With these, ‘where the magic happens’ experiences I often reflect on the parallels to our school leadership experiences. I tend to think about these connections during the Workout of the Day because focusing on something other than my burning lungs and uncooperative body helps keep my fear at bay.

In my CrossFit classes, I am 20 – 25 years older than most of the other participants. They have been training for years, have dependable bodies, and understand the philosophy and the context of the work in the box. While there are varying degrees of strength they can perform the majority of exercises without having them scaled. Scaling is a way of performing something similar to the but at a more approachable level so that it can be done successfully. I may never be able to do a handstand pushup but I can perform a similar exercise with my toes on a box and my body in a jackknife position. CrossFit provides numerous adaptations for those lacking the full strength and mobility to perform the prescribed exercise. Often, the coach will explain the workout of the day and the prescribed exercises to the class and then will take me aside and tell me what he wants me to do instead. So humbling.

As you read this I am certain that you are making numerous connections to all of the different metaphors that CrossFit and educational leadership have in common. However, there is one perspective on this that has helped me greater appreciate the focus of the work that we do in schools. At this point, I am very much like that student in any classroom in the province who is struggling to understand. All around me I see fitter, stronger, and more flexible athletes who perform at what seems to me to be an impossibly high level. They understand the environment and they excel in it. They often hang around the box afterwards giving each other cues or comparing notes on the workout of the day in order to help each other get better. What is fascinating to me and the biggest takeaway to date is that they are truly a community of learners.

I struggle with the exercises, watch others perform them so that I can try to take my cues from them, try to find shortcuts or strategically plan breaks in the exercises so that I can keep going and keep up. If this were a classroom I would benefit from a well-thought out IEP. There are a variety of reasons as to why I keep going and most of your guesses would be correct but the most important reason that I continue is that I am encouraged to do so. Regardless of my lack of ability, strength, and mobility at this point, the other athletes and coaches are extremely encouraging. They pull me aside discreetly to offer pointers and check into see how I am doing. I get fist bumps and high fives and a great welcome each time I show up. In part, that may be their collective surprise that I keep coming back however, I do feel that the encouragement offered is genuine and they seem to be as invested in my success as I am and that is motivating.

I know that every day in schools around the province, struggling students are encouraged and supported by their principals and vice-principals. Like CrossFit coaches, school leaders adapt and scale to ensure that the learning for struggling students is relevant and personalized. That work is not always easy and some of our students may not be at a place in their lives to readily accept the encouragement and support that is offered. However, I believe strongly that the investment we make now makes a difference for them as learners later in their lives.

Last year, as a middle school Principal I created a self-assessment rubric for our Inquiry students and one of the pivotal questions I asked was taken directly from the work of Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser from their book, Spirals of Inquiry. I wanted to hear from our students how many adults believed in their success at school as we know that a strong sense of belonging to school and a close connectedness to the adults at school can positively influence their success trajectory. As I continue on this CrossFit journey, well outside my comfort zone, I am fortunate and encouraged that within the Kitsilano CrossFit community of learners many believe in my success.

At some point along the way I will become comfortable with CrossFit and the expectations of the program. That is not to suggest that I will excel, it only means that I will better understand the philosophy and context. When that happens, I will keep going but I may need to find another, “where the magic happens” environment. Having said that, there is a dusty old guitar in the corner of my house that reminds each time I walk by it and fail to pick it up that musical instruments are meant to be played.

[Posted July 24, 2016]

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