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Instructional leadership is a ubiquitous term. There are no end to the number of books, journal articles, websites and blogs dedicated to this topic, each underscoring the critical importance of the instructional leader’s role and offering tips and hints for today’s busy school principals. Easier said than done I suspect.

Regina Catholic Schools and local artists recently worked together to provide diverse dance and music programming to kindergarten students at St. Kateri Tekakwitha School.

The school has a large number of English as an additional language students. “Self-expression through dance and music transfers to their vocabulary development,” Regina Catholic School Arts Education Consultant Sophia Yannitsos observed. “Students learned literacy outcomes, but instead of doing it through books, they did this through kinesthetic awareness and music.”

When Ferrah Graham and Kelly Gerein embarked on their journey as administrative leaders last year at Milestone School, they had a shared passion for revamping the standard practice of professional development for the 15 teachers at the K-12 school.

Graham, the principal of the school, indicated that both colleagues are very much proponents of deep learning. They envisioned forsaking teachers going to the occasional big-ticket, costly professional development event in favour of much more frequent, staff-led professional development initiatives at the school level.

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation maintains its position that classroom complexity must be addressed through provincial collective bargaining to ensure accountability and authority in the process, the committee and its membership. It is only after the Teachers’ Bargaining Committee raised the issue of classroom complexity in bargaining and remained steadfast on its position at the table that the Education Minister decided to strike a committee to address it. As proposed, the Federation is gravely concerned government will fail to take action on any solutions identified by the committee.

There we have it people–the culmination of the Re-Imagine Education initiative. Well, at least sort of. For as much as they might have tied a bow to the 10-month process in a swanky Regina hotel, the litmus test will be what happens now that the widespread consultations have been formally presented to Education Minister Gord Wyant and his colleagues.

Reading through the presentation, it’s readily apparent how much of a general consensus there was when you consider there were 19 various partners involved which covered a pretty wide spectrum. And it would be fair to say not everyone has the exact same interests as their focus, yet there was no doubting that the folks who poured their heart and soul into this came away convinced that, above all else, our schools need to present a safe, inviting learning environment for all students.