Trust, Connection and Kindness

Headmaster's Message - Staff Opening

August 28, 2014

Yesterday I had the immense honour and privilege of addressing the outstanding faculty of Rundle College Society.  In true Rundle College form and fashion, we took some time to talk about our program's potential and to celebrate with our colleagues.  In particular, our community took the opportunity to salute Bob Foreman and Pietro Sarro for serving Rundle College for 20 Years!

Perhaps the most touching moment of the gathering was a standing ovation that was given to Mr. Dave Hauk as he officially stepped down from being our Headmaster.  Mr. Hauk has been a tremendous inspiration to all members of our community and his day to day contributions are going to be dearly missed.

Much of the inspiration for my closing comments came from the image of one hiker helping another up a cliff of a mountain.

For me, this image is really the embodiment of who Mr. Hauk has been for the Rundle College community.  Each person he has come into contact with has learned to Trust him to help them up when they needed it, he reached out to each of us and made the Connection you might feel as one hand grasps the other and every step of the way we all realized the Kindness of his being.

Given this inspiration, I put the challenge of trusting, connecting and being kind to our faculty.  Asking them what we can do on a daily basis to embody these characteristics and values.  Knowing the calibre of our staff, I have no doubt that they will live up to the challenge.

As we move forward, I will ask the same of our parents and students.  Rundle College Society is a strong team and will only become stronger as we consider these values in the coming year.

To close, I know our teachers are filled with optimism and enthusiasm.  We cannot wait to see our students on this coming Tuesday and we genuinely hope they are excited to see us too.

All the best,

Jason B. Rogers

The Gift of 'Wonder'

Book of the Month

July 11, 2014

In the last week of school I had the opportunity to sit down for coffee with Mrs. Danis, the principal of Rundle College Primary School.  The topic of our conversation was wide ranging; from a review of the school year that had just past, to our summer plans, to family updates, to great movies and books we had recently seen and read.  As always, I took an opportunity to share about the wonderful year Rundle Academy had just had.   A key component of this sharing involved the success of our school's focuses.  Rundle Academy had keyed in on the core values of 'Grit' and 'Responsibility.'  Students, staff and parents all seemed to embrace the idea of 'true grit' and I think it helped us all reach our potential.

As our conversation continued, we eventually started talking about the 2014-2015 school year at Rundle College Society. In time, we mused about what Rundle College, as a whole, might focus on next year.  It was obvious that we would continue to emphasize a 'safe and caring environment' and we would continue to help students discover their potential, challenge them to do their best and celebrate with them when they do.  Beyond the mission of Rundle College Society, we discussed values such as 'courage,' 'friendship,' 'character,' and 'creativity.'  After a short while, I asked what she thought about simply asking our students to consider 'kindness' as a key core value for the upcoming school year.  It was at this point that Mrs. Danis  asked if I had ever read the book 'Wonder' by R.J. Palacio.  

I had to admit I had not heard of the book but would see if I could find it this summer and give it a read.  Needless to say, I picked up the book 3 days ago and have now completed reading it.  I am so very happy that Mrs. Danis suggested this read.  Even though it would be classified as a young adult book, it is filled with universal truths that every person can learn from.  R.J. Palacio does a spectacular job of telling the story of the main character, August, through multiple perspectives that demonstrate an uncompromising empathy for all things that are true and good.  Beyond this, I am going to refrain from saying too much more because I believe everybody should give this book a read.  

I'll just leave you with this teaser.... if you want a preview of the Headmaster's 2014 Key Precept.... make sure you get to the last chapter.

All the best to you and yours during the summer of 2014.

Jason B. Rogers

The Courage of a Mountaineer

Lessons from CAIS Heads Institute

July 6th, 2014

This past week, I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to sit down with a dozen Headmasters from across Canada, Dr. Robert Evans and Dr. Michael Thompson.  

As one might expect, these meetings are inevitably filled with insights, big ideas and worldly viewpoints.  In spite of the vast amount of information that is shared, whenever I am away at any type of session like this, I’m always asking myself the question:

How will this session improve the experience for our students at Rundle College?  

In the nearly 30 hours of conversation, there were quite literally hundreds of take-away learnings.  Of the most impactful and pertinent was a conversation around courage.  Even though much of the conversation revolved around courage in school leadership, there is much that can and should be transferred to our student’s experiences in growing and learning.  

The five domains of courage as described by Dr. Michael Thompson are:

Courage of the Mother - the kind compassionate courage we all feel when we are in the care of another.  The acts of strength that come when you love something so deeply that you cannot imagine a life without it.

Courage of the Mountaineer - the courage to undertake the long, arduous journey.   

Courage of a Comedian - the courage to put yourself out there and be prepared for your ‘set to flop.’  When your set does flop, it’s the ability to have the strength to continue on.

Deliberative Courage - the courage to make a tough decision when it is necessary.

Courage in the Face of Pain - the courage that is required to overcome moments where you or others are suffering or in pain.

Each of the five domains are easily explored in the context of an excellent K-12 education.  Our teachers, students and families encounter and overcome multiple situations during these years that require us to leverage each domain.  However, for obvious reasons, I think it is appropriate to focus on the second principle, “Courage of the ‘Rundle’ Mountaineer.”  

The Rundle community prides itself on supporting students in their pursuit of becoming a renaissance learner and an ethical citizen of the world.  These lofty goals are never attained without first, a long journey that is fraught with peril and punctuated with celebration.  We could easily surmise that this journey is much like ascending a mountain.  At Rundle we hope that our students experience the occasional non-catastrophic failure, understand that there is a team of educational and emotional sherpas that will steward them through the challenge and ultimately through these experiences and this tutelage they will develop the ‘Courage of a Mountaineer.’  

As a community we will all be stronger together if we remind ourselves that life is a long and gratifying climb not a downhill sprint.  Collectively we need stamina, we need to remain patient, in the difficult moments we need to remember to be kind and more than anything we we need to develop courage if we are going to summit each mountain we face.

What Innovative Leaders Do June 19, 2014 | Volume 9 | Issue 19 Table of Contents

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Trust Your Staff's Ability to Create and Innovate 

Through Spark Meetings

Jason Rogers and Jamie Burla

Rundle Academy is a small school for students with learning disabilities that has a large track record of success. The school graduates 100 percent of its students, 80 percent of whom go on to university. A number of factors account for the success of their students. Rundle Academy boasts small class sizes, empathetic teaching staff, and supportive parents; however, we could argue that the number one factor in the school's success is its approach to professional development.

In its 15 years of existence, educators at Rundle have successfully and sustainably adopted differentiated instruction and assessment, universal design for learning, and the Understanding by Design^®framework. Since Rundle's inception, educators have scheduled one-and-a-half hours a week for teacher professional development. Initially, this time was used for "stand and deliver" teacher inservice training led by the school leadership, but this evolved to include direct workshops, differentiated professional learning communities, and outside conferences on topics of interest.

Despite overall school success, at the end of the 2011–14 school year, leadership sensed that staff had reached their saturation point for traditional professional development. As school administrators, we were left with the question, What next?

We spent the summer before the 2012–13 school year reading books such as Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink and Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer. These books, along with our strong beliefs in the power of teacher autonomy, distributive leadership, and collaboration, motivated us to try something different.

Knowing that most good ideas come from the teachers themselves, we decided to open our professional development time for teachers to develop even more good ideas. Thus, Spark Meetings were born. These are brief, teacher-led presentations on a topic of interest or relevance. Spark Meetings leverage teachers innate abilities to come up with solutions that work for them and that make learning better for students.

The true beauty of Spark Meetings, therefore, is in their simplicity. Our guidelines are that Spark Meetings must

• involve more than one person,
• be collaborative,
• focus on a topic that will improve instruction and learning, and
• result in a working group comprised of attendees.

Teachers share potential session titles via a Google Doc, and throughout the week, other teachers sign up for the meeting topic that interests them. Meetings need at least one attendee to take place, and if no topics interest the teachers, we encourage them to create their own. Because collaboration and innovation are central to the success of these meetings, leadership also attends.

Session topics have included the following:

• Understanding school law
• Teaching introverted students
• Using fuel cells in our science classes
• Identifying student learner outcomes for test self-assessment
• Helping students with difficult social situations
• Creating a drama production
• Designing and implementing e-portfolios in the classroom
• Demonstrating math skills with 3D printing

The final piece in the Spark professional development puzzle is a twice-yearly staff meeting called "Sparks to Flames." At this meeting, staff members disperse into small working groups of six to eight and share useful discussions they've enjoyed during their Spark Meetings.

These biannual meetings have proven to be a breeding ground for further creativity and innovation, while providing insight and reflection that often enhance each project. For example, a "Sparks to Flames" group influenced our approach to formative assessment. Like other differentiators, the teachers at Rundle Academy use strategies such as class polling or exit cards to guide the progress of their classes; however, we desired a better whole-class assessment with immediate results. A Spark group used and evaluated high- and low-tech ideas—everything from online polling to such immediate options as students chalking their responses to verbal surveys—to address this challenge. Eventually, a small group of teachers settled on asking students to write answers on personal whiteboards. Less messy than chalk, this strategy still allows students to participate in the feedback process as a group activity, while teachers can scan their responses quickly before making a decision in real time. Through collegial "Spark to Flames" discussions, only months after it was first tried by the small group of teachers, all teachers at Rundle Academy had adopted this formative assessment strategy.

Another collaborative success from Spark recently evolved in our math department. Teachers had held Spark Meetings about developing better kinesthetic and critical thinking strategies for engaging students in real-world math. The idea of 3-D printers came up, almost in jest, but the more they discussed the possibilities, the more it sounded like the right answer. Teachers began to problem solve, research pricing, and write grant proposals. After six months of hard work, the teachers had secured enough funding to purchase two 3-D printers. As a result, students can now design and print any number of creative objects, while applying various math skills toward an authentic purpose.

Through the "Sparks to Flames" process, our staff embodies design thinking. As different perspectives converge, new ideas form, and before long, new Sparks ignite.

Jason Rogers is a principal at Rundle College Academy, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Jamie Burla is head of instruction and learning at Rundle College Academy.

ASCD Express, Vol. 9, No. 19. Copyright 2014 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.

Principal's Address

Grade 6 Celebration

June 23, 2014

Special Guests, Faculty, and Grade 6 Celebrants.  It is my honor to be able to provide today’s toast to the students.

A quick question for the students before I begin…. how many of you know of the story of David and Goliath?  

Just so we are all on the same page - one could summarize the story by saying it is the ultimate underdog story.  In the duel of David & Goliath, Goliath was the overwhelming favorite.  He was a giant who had the most sophisticated body armor and weaponry.  David, on the other hand, was small in stature and had no body armor and simple weaponry.  It was because of David’s belief in himself, his creativity, and his ability to think out of the box; that he was ultimately able to overcome the odds.

Now, Grade 6 Celebrants, does David’s journey remind you of anything or anybody?

I hope David’s success makes you think of yourselves.  In your first 6 years of formal education, you too have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.  With the support of your parents and your teachers you have moved mountains by being resilient, creative, gritty and outside the box thinkers.  Your Goliath was ‘learning’ and with success in each grade level you are conquering that Goliath.  

 

As you move forward into Junior High and beyond, remember the things that have helped you succeed so far:

• you have asked for help when you needed it - and when the help came you accepted it
• you have advocated for yourself
• you have embraced your own creativity and the creativity of others
• you have used your accommodations to ‘level the playing field’ - and as result, you are reaching your potential
• you have had pride in yourself, pride your learning and pride your school
• you have never given up - and it is my hope that you never do
• and more than anything else… you have been kind to each other - you will never go wrong if you focus on being kind each and every day

Grade 6 students, I offer you a heartfelt congratulations and wish you all the best as you move into your Junior High years.

Thank you.

What makes up that feeling?

Principal Update - June Newsletter

Recently at the Academy Awards I had the opportunity to share a few closing words with those in attendance.  These short comments sought to answer the question, “What is it about the Academy that makes people ‘feel’ as though they are in a safe and caring environment.”  My modest attempt to define this feeling included 3 key items:  Community, Culture and Faith.

‘Community’ can be defined as those moments when we come together and share our successes.  The Academy Awards Day is just one example; others include Moves Mountains Breakfast, School Rallies, PAC Meetings and Graduations!  Our students and staff support each other in these endeavours and this is, in many ways, unique.  You will see students and staff cheering for each other, even when they themselves are not the winners!

A ‘Culture of Caring’ permeates all we do here at the Academy.  This culture can be observed in our classrooms, in our hallways, on our stages and on the playing fields.  It starts with the staff, continues on with the parents and ends with the students.  Each member of our community understands what it means to be kind and they live this virtue each and every day.

Finally, we have a ‘Faith in each other’ and the program and ultimately, we all believe that Moving Mountains is possible.  It is this belief that allows our students to break down stigma and perceived barriers and succeed beyond even their own expectations!

We have had a fantastic year here at Rundle Academy. Through athletics, fine arts and leadership this was a year that embodies the spirit of Community, Culture and Faith.  This year’s athletic highlights were city championships, league championships and record rates of participation.  Many of the real victories were not ones marked by medals or banners but by those students who have reached outside their comfort zone.  In the arts we had one spectacle after another.  From Music Monday to Oz, our students dazzled us with their unparalleled creativity!  Finally, our students found many ways to give back through volunteerism.  Groups such as Kids Helping Kids and initiatives like the Duke of Edinburgh Program and Volunteer Day had each student in the building thinking about leadership and how to give back!

To conclude, a big thank you to all people in our community who have made this our best year yet!

Have a wonderful summer that is filled with family, fun, rest and relaxation.

Jason Rogers

Principal’s Address

Grade 12 Graduation Ceremony

May 28, 2014

Honoured guests, fellow principals, faculty, parents, special guests, students of Rundle Academy and the graduates of 2014.  I am honoured to deliver today’s principal’s address.

Through this meandering tale, I hope to help answer the question, “How will you, the Graduating Class of 2014,  find success in the next chapters of your life?”  To illuminate a path to a successful and fulfilled life, I hope to evoke the spirit of science and nature of sport, of technology and of the arts.  We will consider the lives of ants, the number 99, an empty chair and the most successful band of all time.

However, before we get too serious, let me digress.  I thought that before I try to share words of wisdom about how to be successful, I should first figure out what our senior students would define as ‘success.’

To this end, late last week I had the opportunity to sit with some Grade 12 Rundle Academy students.  I had one simple question for them to answer.

I asked them to finish this sentence:  “When I grow up, I want to be…..”

Nicolaj, Cole, Ally and Bryce went with those established careers that we all know and many of us aspire to.  They responded with ‘an actor,’ ‘a police officer,’ ‘a firefighter’ and ‘a businesswoman.’  One very creative and unique response came from Paul, Paul stated he wanted to do ‘paul o tics’.  Love it!

Matt and Maryn, on the other hand, went with the unconventional - yet highly evolved.  They said, ‘wise’ and ‘happy.’

One last insightful, ‘anonymous’ graduate who wishes not to be named said (initials LR), when I grow up,

I want to be… eeeee, um… eeeee, um…. I don’t know’.

This answer, I really love, because really, who does know what they ever want to be.  It can all be a little scary!

To help round out our exploration of options for the future, I consulted many sources for future careers.  Among the top jobs in the future, reported by these sources, are:

Rewilder, Simplicity Designer, Robot Therapist, Vertical Farmer, and Smart Dust Programmers.

I suppose the point I am trying to make, as cliche as it may sound, is that whether you are preparing for the known known (a doctor or dentist) or the unknown known (wealthiness or happiness) or the unknown unknown (a robot therapist or smart dust programmer) - we all need guiding principles to work within.

So, for you, the Graduates of 2014 - here are four key elements I’ve learned while at the Academy that will hopefully transfer to your success “when you grow up.”

Key Element #1.
Recently I was inspired by a book by Stephen James Joyce titled, “Teaching an anthill to fetch.”  Without belaboring the point.  The author conducts an insightful exploration of ant colonies and what we can learn from them.   In essence, he shares that because Ants work together, they are able to overcome insurmountable odds.  Essentially, it’s collaborative intelligence that allows them to organize and to move seemingly insurmountable mountains.   Sound familiar?  Graduates of Rundle Academy, you have worked together with your teachers and each other to Move Mountains.  Do not forget how valuable this collaboration has been.

While we have a moment, students, why don’t we show our Academy staff, the best staff on the planet, how much we appreciate them and their hard work, dedication and never ending support of the students of the Academy!

Key Element #1 - whether you become a researcher or a rewilder, you will always be stronger if you work with others.

Key Element #2.
To illuminate this point, I first need to take you back to the year was 1979 when a 18 year old, 160 lbs rookie was trying to break into the NHL.  The player in question had a confidence that people couldn’t quite understand;  this was because they didn’t understand his preparation or his frame of mind.  He had spent his first 18 years gritting it out on backyard practice rinks and training his mind to think differently.  That player’s, as unpopular as this might be to say in Calgary, was my childhood idol and his name is Wayne Gretzky and he changed the game forever.  Over his 20 year NHL career, he literally broke nearly every record that existed.  Notably he scored 215 points in one regular season.  Early in his career he was anointed ‘the Great One’ and upon his retirement he was inducted into the hall of fame immediately following his last game. Graduates, all these stats about the Great One, might leave you asking - okay - Gretzky was great - but what does that have to do with me and my big day?

Which brings me to a recent Globe and Mail interview of a top Google executive titled “habits of highly successful people.”  The executives closing comments of her article on how to be successful in today’s day and age.  She states, “I’m the last person to use a sports analogy, but Wayne Gretzky said, ‘Skate to where the puck is going,’  and I don’t think there is better professional advice.  We spend so much time thinking about the past and not enough imagining about what the future is going to look like.”

Graduates, you don’t need to be skilled in hockey like Conner or Miraan to understand Key Element Number 2.  In the future you will need to not skate to where the puck is, but to where it is going.  Rundle Academy has always succeeded, much like the Great One,  by being ahead of the curve, and you too, will be successful if you follow this model.  Each of you is blessed with a creative and divergent mind.  You are the thinkers our world will need to solve the problems we do not yet know exist.

Key Element #3.
As each of you leaves Rundle, you will undoubtedly be leaving an ‘empty chair.’  This metaphorical image originates with Steve Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com.  Mr. Bezos insists that during each meeting he attends, there is one empty chair in the room.  This empty chair represents the customer which Amazon is attempting to serve.  With your graduation, you too will be leaving an empty chair at Rundle Academy.

Each of you has left a distinct mark on our program and your memory will live on in the minds of our faculty and in the pictures and on the awards in our hallways.  You each have been a key element of our success and us too of yours.  As you go on and leave us, I encourage you to remember where you have come from.  Let there be an ‘empty chair’ that reminds you of your times at Rundle Academy.

Furthermore, please take a second to remember to thank your parents for making your education a priority.  Because invariably there was a time in your life when you doubted yourself and wondered if you could do it, your parents may have entertained that thought but never once allowed it to be reality.  They have always believed in you and through their own journey, they found Rundle Academy and knew we could help you learn to, once more, believe in yourselves.  I am certain there will be an empty chair in their homes when you leave.

Please join me know as we thank them for supporting your past and for continuing to support your ambitions as you move forward.

Graduates, your key element #3 is to Remember Where You Have Come From and those who have supported you.  Those people will be your support network moving forward.

Key Element #4. 
As the Beatles put it so well - all you need is love.  This principle is as simple as:  Doing what you love.  Love what you do.  Cherish those who you surround yourself with.

As Confucius said: Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.

To conclude.  As we move into an ever changing world, remember to:
- Work Together
- Think Ahead
- Never Forget Where You Came From
- All You Need Is Love

If you do those things, you will all invariably be happy and wise no matter what you ‘job’ up doing!

Congratulations Graduates of 2014!

Jason B. Rogers