ISL Module 1: Principal Leadership for School Improvement Online

The key challenge of school improvement today, then, is for school administrators to become leaders who develop and raise high level achievement by working with, learning from and influencing the behaviours of others within and beyond their schools. Instead of being managers who implement policy, school administrators will increasingly need to become leaders of their schools who can also exercise leadership in the environment beyond their schools, and articulate the connection between the two. The educational leader of the future, therefore, will increasingly be a system leader as well as a school leader. OECD December, 2007

Core content: In this module participants will

• examine attributes of an effective school leader for 21st Century teaching and learning, using leadership frameworks
• explore management duties and leadership responsibilities of the principal
• use common elements of effective school leadership as identified by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), the Wallace Foundation, and researchers such as Ken Leithwood, Michael Fullan, O.C., Andy Hargreaves, Lyn Sharratt, Avis Glaze and Karen Edge
• discover practices to create a shared vision, goals and high expectations for all
• understand effective practices for building relationships and developing others within your school community
• review practices to advance your school in order to achieve goals
• evaluate components of successful student-centred leadership
• examine key conditions to ensuring a safe learning and working environment
• explore practices of direct, indirect and shared leadership and
• identify methods of quality, evidenced-based classroom instruction.

Your Instructor: Joni Heard

Joni’s career spans 30 years as a teacher, consultant, principal and staff development / leadership education officer with the Durham District School Board. As Staff Development /Leadership Education Officer, she planned, designed, coordinated and delivered leadership focused professional development for teachers, support staff, administrators and parents .

Most recently, Joni was a Senior Specialist with the Leadership Development Branch of the Ministry of Education in Ontario where she supported school board leadership teams in implementing the Ontario Leadership Framework and served as the Lead for the Mentoring for Newly Appointed School Leaders initiative.

Joni currently facilitates OPC online learning for Aspiring Leaders and is a Sessional Instructor and Faculty Advisor with the Faculty of Education , University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

Registration Deadline: December 22, 2014