Turner Valley School News

Grassroots

(Page 4)

A Message from the Administrator

March is upon us and we are thinking of spring just around the corner, and farewell to winter. Turner Valley School continues to be a hub of activity for staff and students with many activities on the go.

We have completed round two of Parent-Teacher-Student interviews before the break and will be issuing report cards on March 18th. We are committed to keeping parents “in the loop” and invite parents to contact their student's teacher at any time to discuss their child's education. To further enhance this communication the web based learner profile (Students Achieve) will be going “live” in early April.  We look at this as an invitation to parents to watch their children grow. Stay tuned for specific information on how to access Student's Achieve.

During the family day week in February, staff engaged in a professional development session at the school level and attended teacher's convention. The staff at Turner Valley School continues to work with great passion to provide a multitude of possibilities for students at school.

Staff also continues to work on reading as the focus of our AISI school improvement plan. We are proud to announce that this project has received recognition at the provincial level as we were invited to present at the AISI conference in Edmonton early in February. Our school has also received a number of visitors from other schools to observe the Tigers Reading Improvement Program.
“It takes a school to build a community” ~ Dr. Pamela Adams

The staff at Turner Valley School would like to recognize the passion and support that the community has extended to our school. Your proactive and positive support helps keep Turner Valley School at the center of this community and striving to be the best it can be.
Education together,
Rob Bennington

Ask the Principal
How did you become a school principal?
School principals are teachers who have an interest in leadership and have been given the opportunity to lead a school community. Leadership experiences that lead to the position of principal vary depending on the interests and talent of different individuals. In my case becoming a school principal came from my experiences as a teacher, coach and athlete. The reason I got into education was to have the opportunity to coach. I have coached students in school sports in each of my 34 years in education. The most important coaching work I have done was to be the head coach of the Senator Riley Mustangs high school football team. For the first 19 years of my teaching career I led the football program.

Leading 40 players and 4 or 5 assistant coaches requires a number of leadership skills, including organization, motivation, vision and communication. I have also coached many other school teams as well as community based soccer, baseball and hockey teams. I was a Math teacher for several years at Riley and when the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement started in 2000, I was a “lead teacher” who worked with (coached) other teachers in various math projects. My first school administrator position was at Blackie School where I was the vice principal. During this time I completed my MEd at the University of Lethbridge. This gave me an opportunity to study school leadership. My philosophy of leadership has been shaped by being exposed to colleagues in the Foothills School Division and studying great leaders like Sir Ernest Shackleton and “Level 5” leaders described by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great.