INNSIFAIL - New professional leadership training now underway in Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) will allow teachers and administrators to be “agile, adaptive and flexible” going forward, says superintendent Kathleen Finnigan.
The training includes how to best conduct threat assessments in the school community.
During the recent board meeting, trustees were told that school team leaders and others have been taking part in the new training, including in a new reporting learning system called Schoology.
“Based on our leadership development approach, our goal is to implement impactful leadership practices,” said Finnigan. “It is our hope that these practices will allow school administrators to be agile, adaptive and flexible, as they learn the complexity and challenges of their leadership role toward a focused vision of sustained, positive impacts on teachers and students.”
“A critical goal of providing these professional development opportunities is to support our administrators with the roll-out of key structures and processes, ultimately increasing overall professional practices and the continued learning of administrators and educators.”
The Red Deer-headquartered RDCRS includes schools in Olds and Innisfail.
Implemented for the 2022-23 school year, Schoology is a system for reporting learning in elementary (K-Grade 5) as well as a platform for online learning in middle and high schools.
Division professional development leads, the director of alternative programming and the director of technology have been in 19 of the division’s 20 schools to work with teachers and administrators in support of implementation and understanding of the new platform, she said.
A Schoology help site has been developed as a resource tool for teachers and administrators which includes information videos.
Teachers and administrators have also been involved in collective leadership training, which Finnigan says has a “stronger influence on student achievement that does individual leadership.”
“Collective efficacy is about fostering leadership, independence and interdependence among teachers, and is also about elevating the power of the collective,” she said.
“School leaders have an impact on student achievement primarily through their influence on teachers’ motivation and working conditions and collective efficacy.”
Training has also been conduced on trauma informed practices, with 90 per cent of administration and counselling teams having now been trained on comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines.
That training involves storytelling and scenario practising, allowing time for participants to “figure out if the scenarios are transient (ie: not serious) or substantive (ie: posing a continuing risk to others). This type of professional development allows for teams to think together and learn with and from each other,” she said.
Responses to substantive threats can include taking precautions to protect potential victims, contacting law enforcement, warning intended victims and their parents, and determining appropriate intervention such as counselling or dispute mediation, she said.
