{"id":1840,"date":"2015-05-03T21:52:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T04:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2015-05-04T18:51:07","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T01:51:07","slug":"a-parting-gift-an-outsiders-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1840","title":{"rendered":"A Parting Gift: An Outsider\u2019s Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Post<\/em>: Special thanks to Sarah Garr (@garr_s) for being my assistant in organizing our Ignites<\/em> for the Engaging the Digital Learner Series<\/em>. She innocently offered her assistance last fall and I immediately put her to work! It is with appreciation for her service to all of us in #sd36learn that I asked her to write a post on what she has learned from her journey in our district. Her parting gift, this post, is the outsider’s perspective.<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5313\"I tend to write from the heart. And for that reason, I must admit this is a somewhat challenging post for me to write. Because for the past 17 years, my heart has ben with the Surrey School District, and at the end of June, I will be leaving it. I am pleased to share that I have accepted a Vice-Principal position with the Richmond School District (SD #38). I am simultaneously thrilled to be able to take on this new challenge, and a little saddened to leave behind the district that has made this incredible opportunity possible.<\/p>\n

Over the past 17 years, I\u2019ve been able to plan and participate in numerous school, district and provincial initiatives, which have resulted in transformative personal and professional growth, and as such, has allowed me to better support the diverse and complex needs of my students. I have been fortunate to belong to a unique community of educators who inspire, support, challenge and celebrate not only their students\u2019 learning, but that of their colleagues. I\u2019ve always known that the #<\/a>sd36learn<\/a> community is extremely special. But ironically, it\u2019s only as I\u2019ve been able to share some of my most formative learning and leadership experiences with individuals from other<\/em> districts, that I\u2019ve been gifted with a fresh perspective of what it means to be an educator in this<\/em> district. Through this process of sharing, I have been gifted with an \u201coutsider\u2019s\u201d perspective.<\/p>\n

As educators, we understand that one of the most effective methods to allow our students to fully integrate a new concept is by providing them with an opportunity to share that learning with others. When students are able to reflect, synthesize and then share, they often come to a new level of understanding. In the same way, as I made my way through the application and interview process with other districts, I was able to come to a new level of understanding by reflecting, synthesizing and sharing some of my most transformative experiences as a teacher leader in the Surrey School District.<\/p>\n

\"#dreambig\"<\/a>Over the past several years, I\u2019ve been able to speak at conferences where the audience was comprised of individuals from a variety of school districts. However, I was still somewhat unaccustomed to speaking with groups who were largely unfamiliar with Surrey programs and initiatives. I was used to \u201cpreaching to the converted\u201d, so to speak. As such, I was able to give a slightly abbreviated overview of various initiatives, such as my participation in the iTunes U course development<\/a> partnership with Apple Canada, my involvement with the “Engaging the Digital Learner”<\/a> series, and the creation of a Learning Partners<\/a> program, and it\u2019s associated “Teacher Drop In”<\/a> and online Collaboration Calendar,<\/a> to list but a few. But by moving beyond district boundaries and meeting with individuals who were less familiar with the Surrey School District, I was challenged to more clearly and carefully articulate the multi-faceted intricacies of these projects. And just as we look for that flash of understanding in our students\u2019 eyes, I learned to judge my success by the nods and smiles of understanding of my interviewers. Even more profoundly, as I moved through this process, I began to \u201csee\u201d the Surrey School District from a fresh perspective, an \u201coutsider\u2019s\u201d perspective. At the same time, it was incredibly invigorating to gain a deeper understanding of the great, innovative work that is also occurring in other districts.<\/p>\n

And so as I make my way through my last few months in Surrey, I am grateful to Elisa Carlson for allowing me this opportunity to reflect on and share the enormous personal and professional learning and growth that I have
\nexperienced as a member of this inspiring and supportive community. I am by no means suggesting that it is necessary to leave one\u2019s district to fully understand and appreciate its unique character. But from time to time, I would argue that it is indeed necessary to broaden the scope of our conversations, to seek out new audiences, different perspectives and fresh insights, to view the \u201cfamiliar\u201d through an \u201coutsider\u2019s\u201d lens.<\/p>\n

\"Wheels<\/a>I look forward with great excitement to being able to continue to learn and grow, in a leadership role with the Richmond School District. But I also hope to maintain my strong ties to the #sd36learn community.<\/p>\n

To those who saw my potential before I could see it in myself, to those who inspired, supported and celebrated each new step, my heartfelt thanks and gratitude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Post: Special thanks to Sarah Garr (@garr_s) for being my assistant in organizing our Ignites for the Engaging the Digital Learner Series. She innocently offered her assistance last fall and I immediately put her to work! It is with appreciation for her service to all of us in #sd36learn that I asked her to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[226,23,192,220,7,8,230,1],"tags":[272,183],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1860,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions\/1860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}