Carmelo Bono
EDUC 4781
March 13, 2022
Dr. Persard
Thank you Vice-Principal Derek Patenaude
In my time as a teacher (currently about 9 years, yes I am rounding up), I have met a great number of administrators-a lot of which were not great to the same extent as this individual. Not to say they were not nice people or that I did not like them, but speaking about an administrator with conviction, vision and direction, Patenaude was the one. I'm sure in my future as an educator I will meet many similar, however they won't amount to him because of the simple fact that he empowered me to make the change. His conviction ultimately pushed me in the direction that I needed to move in to begin asking the questions and making the accusations that I needed to in order to see success not only in my own day-to-day classroom practice, but in my students' success as well. Patenaude was my liason through my teaching year 5 observation and inquiry. The inquiry was more along the lines of a "what do you think might improve the classroom success overall?", "why do you think that will work?", "can you show me how it works?", sort of socrative questioning which ultimately took me down a rabbit hole of rubrics and holistic evaluation practices. Through that year 5 experience it was not only his attention that I was prized with, but his knowledge of the BC Curriculum, the ON curriculum and the direction of directing success.
Being a teacher in a BC offshore school, it was no secret that one had to have knowledge and was expected to use the BC curriculum in their practice. It was 2017 that became a problem for many teachers in Canada and offshore, because it boggles one's mind when considering, how one teaches a redesigned curriculum with no standards, standards of evaluation or even exact content. The administrator with all the answers (but more excited to get the designers on board with the unpacking of it), Patenaude. His study of the curriculum, its changes and evaluation (in general), made him a guru of assessment and evaluation within the school community. Without him, I'd be stressed with questions by students in regards to "what do you mean this is vague?", "what do you mean I only showed learned knowledge?". I think without him the offshore school I was at in those years, would have seen a loss of teaching staff, students enrolment, student success into reputable universities and ultimately have started down a path of closure earlier than it already has.
Patenaude's thoughts were echoed through the addition to another notable administrator (all heart), Jeff Huggins. I didn't have as many opportunities to become as close with Huggins as I had hoped professionally, but regardless he was a big mover in regards to getting the staff in understanding how the school community was going to unpack this new curriculum. I digress, Patenaude's approach in discussions with me about assessment and evaluation of any study within the New BC curriculum was to take what Ontario teachers were already being taught (Growing Success) and apply it to a linear continuum rather than a cyclical process of new starts and stops. Taking the key value curricular competencies/overall expectations and conglomerating them into unit projects that were more inquiry based (big ideas indeed, big preparations indeed-sounds like IB-no? Except we were not shipping papers back to the UK for grading-we had to grade and benchmark ourselves). Understandably this idea of inquiry based units is no cake walk for any teacher, let alone a whole course of inquiry-true inquiry, not the cookie cutter "what is a virus?" inquiry that we can recycle online for 2.99 USD. This means that rather than ensure every expectation is individually and specifically hit, there was going to be clusters as per lesson, as decided by the teacher to show how students were going to reach the BIG IDEA/goal.
Considering the difficulty in this task was interesting. The inquiry I was going to be investigating was then going to be designing a process to demonstrate to other teachers new to the curriculum how to take the ON curriculum's specific expectations (as they resemble BC's former PLO's-but being a teacher from ON, this was proving to be a far more worthwhile study) and apply them to the curricular competencies as they would be used by the lesson or unit (based on which was going to be easier to complete within the given time frame).
In the end of the inquiry, I had nearly finished a grade ten course as a it represented more of the new curriculum, but could be effectively adopted into the classroom and practical use of a teacher's practice with consideration for the ON curriculum. Not only that, but the rubrics that helped this work into clusters was the removal of unclear adverbs that were replaced with distinct and clear cut adjectives, instructions as well as expectations.
Response:
"Module 4 and Reflection 4
Carmelo, Congratulations on your successful completion of the final module. I appreciate the time and effort put forth to submit task requirements and to demonstrate a leadership learning stance in discussion board postings. In particular, I appreciated when you took a critical thinking approach in comments to others. I also appreciate that your reflections really connected the course to your role at your school. Very genuine responses. You successfully provide evidence of your leadership journey in ways that best-suited your characteristics and attributes. Kudos for completing this huge task. You were able to the many facets that are vital for educators who truly want to try on their "leadership legs" and feel passionate about taking their educational journey to the next level.
Note that leaders should stay current with pedagogy, training, ministry initiatives and everything your colleagues and subordinates are working with regularly. This helps you to have meaningful conversations about new approaches, strategies and curriculum. This also ensures you are up to date with what is expected of your teachers when they are struggling to implement something new in the classroom. When they come to you with ideas, questions or looking for guidance, it is important you are aware of the latest and greatest ways to deal with their situation. If you aren't familiar with it, don't be afraid to say so, and make the effort to find out and get back to them.
A good leader needs to be a good follower. They need to understand that they aren't always right and don't always know everything. A humble leader is one who can admit when they are wrong, or when they don't have all the answers.
You are definitely a leader people will follow. Your ability to deeply reflect and apply new skills will serve you well.
As a leader it is so important to take time to reflect so you can see the little changes and progress that happens so slowly that without reflection you really don't notice it. Making time to celebrate is also very important. Teacher leaders do work very hard and make a huge difference in the lives of children, staff, the school and their community.
I hope you continue your lifelong learning in serving the needs of students in our schools in a leadership role whatever that may look like in the capacity you choose.
It's been a privilege working with you. Your contributions in the discussions have added great value and you've provided tremendous insight to myself and your colleagues.
Congratulations, once again. Celebrate your success! It has been a pleasure learning with you. I wish you continued success!
Module 4 and Reflection 4 – Mark A"
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