Author Archives: Shannon Smith

Always Learning?

I recently listened to Alan Cross talking about the musical (and business) genius that is David Bowie and how he understood very early on the impact that the internet would have on the music industry.  Remember “Bowie Bonds“?  In 1997, … Continue reading

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Minds on Math – Learning as a Community

This is a cross-post from my school blog here. This past Friday was a Professional Development day for staff at Glen Cairn PS — one of few opportunities we have throughout the year to come together for a full day … Continue reading

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What Do You Want Your Next Principal to Know About ICT?

Beginning this fall, Brent Smith and I will begin leading a webinar for the Ontario Principal’s Council “Principal Qualification Program”, Part II.  We thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to crowd-source some of the content to our network. What … Continue reading

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My “Welcome to School” Letter

Below is the “Welcome to School” letter I posted at our school blog.  I am thrilled to be serving the Glen Cairn community as Principal and look forward to our first official day of learning together on September 4th. Dear … Continue reading

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Summer Reading

Hello, I can hardly believe that we are in the last couple of days of the school year already!  Once again, time has flown by this year.  As we head into the summer months, I wanted to share my summer … Continue reading

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Streaming Live for a Learning Community

Yesterday morning I found this great post in my reader: “Livestreaming from the Classroom” by Jaclyn Calder in which she discusses the use of livestreaming by a couple of teachers in her district.  I clicked the link to visit Cindy Beveridge’s … Continue reading

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Emotional Labour – at the Heart of Teaching

Labor, particularly emotional labor, is the difficult task of digging deep to engage at a personal level.  Emotional labor looks like patience and kindness and respect.  It’s very different from mechanical work, from filling out a form or moving a … Continue reading

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Leader as Host

I recently came across the article, “It’s Time for the Heroes to Go Home“, co-authored by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze.  Like their work in “Walk Out Walk On”, this piece really resonated with my current thinking on educational leadership. … Continue reading

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Parents as Partners Webcast – Building a Learning Network

Many schools are beginning to use social media to send out information to parents.  Examples include twitter feeds and facebook pages.  These initial forays into social media are a first step.  They provide parents and the community with greater access … Continue reading

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Continue Looking

  Our task as educators is to nurture that curiosity.  If our students continue looking, we have achieved our goal. Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Pin it Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this … Continue reading

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