ENGAGE AND ACT (ACTIONS) Our C ommitment to Job-Embedded C ollaboration

1. ENGAGE AND ACT (ACTIONS) Our Commitment to Job-Embedded Collaboration All Learners Collaborating to Meet the Needs of 1 Central Okanagan School District - Achievement Contract

2. Collaborating to Meetthe Needs of All Learners “How can the purposeful and collaborative alignment of our work build the instructional leadership capacity of our Principals and Vice-Principals to meet our District’s one goal (to improve student achievement)?” We collaborate…..District-wide Our District’s commitment to collaboration began with the formation of the Education Leadership Group which includes the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent and Directors of Instruction. This group has facilitated the development of structures designed to enhance staff collaboration to meet the needs of all learners. Their focus is guided by the following question:

3. Collaborating to Meetthe Needs of All Learners We collaborate…..with the Central Okanagan Teachers’ Association (COTA) Together the District and the COTA partner to support the Teacher Inquiry Project which has positively impacted classroom instructional practices. Through the Joint Pro-D Committee, the Summer Symposium and various events have been planned to collaborate around best practice (Understanding by Design, Kagan Structures, Critical Thinking, etc.).

4. Collaborating to Meetthe Needs of All Learners We collaborate……to guide improvement • Structures have been implemented to facilitate professional networks. • Instructional Leadership Network (ILN) meetings are held with all Principals and Vice-Principals to build capacity as instructional leaders. • Creation of an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT). • Development of the Collaborative Model of Support (CMOS) structure in all schools. • Establishment of collaborative time for all teaching staff. • “The Instructional Leadership Team has been successful at powerfully transforming teachers’ professional learning this year because we have worked with teams of teachers and administrators in a job-embedded context to identify an area of focus that is important to them and have involved them in a recursive cycle of co-learning, co-planning and co-teaching. We have been humbled by the willingness of teachers to reflect upon and revise their practice in order to create powerful and purposeful learning for students.”Lindsay Gibson, Instructional Leadership Team Member

5. Collaborating to Meetthe Needs of All Learners We collaborate……to guide improvement • Bi-monthly Instructional Leadership Network (ILN) meetings are held with all Principals and Vice-Principals. • ILN Purpose • To plan and facilitate meaningful and powerful learning that results in the development of instructional leadership skills of ALL school administrators. • ILN Core Learning Values • Instructional Leadership • Time • Collaboration • Choice

6. Collaborating to Meetthe Needs of All Learners We collaborate……to guide improvement • The District supported the creation of an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) which is comprised of master teachers with expertise K-12. The purpose of this team is to: • “The Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) works alongside teams of teachers and administrators, at all levels, to create, plan and implement tasks that engage all students in POWERFUL AND PURPOSEFUL LEARNING. We believe that learning becomes powerful and purposeful when students are engaged in relevant and meaningful tasks that require them to think deeply about the big ideas of curricula, require them to work collaboratively with others, to innovate and to authentically contribute to the world around them. To accomplish this, we work through a collaborative learning cycle, with teams, in a job-embedded manner. We believe that in COLLABORATIVE LEARNING we learn best by doing the work together, watching the work together and reflecting on the work together. A cycle of co-planning, co-teaching and co-learning therefore guides everything we do.”

7. Collaborating to Meetthe Needs of All Learners We collaborate……to guide improvement • The rationale for developing a Collaborative Model of Support in our schools is to ensure students who struggle with literacy acquisition have equitable access to instruction that meets their individual learning needs. • Strategies that have been adopted include: • .2 FTE staffing for a CMOS designate in all 30 elementary schools; • identification of literacy support teachers in all elementary schools; • structured District CMOS inservice sessions which include leadership from District staff and University personnel to assist school teams in designing coordinated responses to intervention; and • - release time for school-based collaborative planning for all teachers. • “Programming is best provided when the classroom teacher and other support teachers collaborate to meet the diverse needs of the class.” • Brownlie, Fenink & Schnellert, 2006

8. “Our District is committed to job-embedded collaboration as the vehicle to help us adapt and change in order to help our students acquire the attributes necessary to be successful in the 21st Century.” Hugh Gloster, Superintendent of Schools Innovator Contributor Learner Thinker Collaborator 8 Central Okanagan School District - Achievement Contract