The RIGHT People (in my opinion)

For the past several years (based on what I can recall) my school board has posted their call for VP pool applications a month or two after the school year gets underway. The same thing happens every year after the posting comes out - emails start getting bounced around between colleagues about whether to apply or not. Part of it is fun and part of it is stressful, but it always gets me thinking about whether I am ready and/or willing to put my name forward to be considered for a formal leadership position in Education.

I recently heard about some of the people that have been successful in making it into the leadership pool. I was ecstatic to hear that some of the people I have been learning with over the last few years were successful in their applications. All of us differ in how we run our classrooms and operate at our school sites but we are all the same with respect to our core beliefs about leadership, particularly in Catholic education.

I feel very good about the time I have spent learning with them and look forward to learning from them as formal leaders in our system. When I think about the experiences I have had with them, and connect those experiences to the Catholic Leadership Framework, I clearly recall the conversations we had and the work we did around building relationships & developing people, improving instructional programs, and developing the organization to support desired practices.

Sean Kritz (Head of Guidance at RCSS) and I moments before recording a webinar about deep learning.
Working to develop the organization and support desired practices.

I feel like they are the RIGHT people for the job and, selfishly, I consider myself fortunate to be connected to them. It makes me think that the work I have been doing and the way I have been thinking are good for the system and that there may be a place for me in formal leadership if I decide to pursue it in my school board.

Don't get me wrong, I have some thoughts and ideas of my own around innovation and disruption that I believe would benefit student learning and achievement but so do my colleagues! It will be fun to see them grow and change as they move out of their current roles and into the main office of a school.

Before I hit "publish" on this post, I want to say thanks to Brian Aspinall for the unintentional nudge on Twitter this morning that led to this post.