A few days ago, @MmeBergevin posted a visual of the True Colours quadrants and the accompanying personality traits associated with each colour.  Seeing that graphic took me back to the spring of my last year as a classroom teacher.  In those days, there was a selection of off-site professional learning opportunities available to educators, as opposed to our current model of site based school improvement focused learning days.  I knew at that time that I would be transitioning into a vice principal role in the upcoming fall and I was intrigued by this session.

I can clearly recall the two presenters ~ one whom I immediately connected with and the other, whose style seemed unorganized and frustrating to me as a participant.  As we went through various activities and learned about the four quadrants and how knowledge of our colour could influence our interactions with others, I learned that day that I was drawn to presenters who shared a similar personality colour.  As soon as I had determined my dominant colour of Gold, I knew that when it was time for the presenters to reveal their colours I could easily identify the one who was Gold and the one who was Orange.

Oh, what a simplistic, single-minded view I had of myself and those around me….  Such an embarrassment when I think about it.  I was dismissive and jealous at the same time of others because I had not learned to appreciate the value within each quadrant.

Fast forward to today and add 15 years of learning about differentiation, multiple intelligences and emotional/social intelligence and now I find myself looking at the same quadrant with an entirely new lens.

I wonder how 15 years ago I landed solely within the Gold quadrant and could not imagine myself identifying with many of the traits within the other quadrants.  As I look at those same definitions today, it is amazing how many of the traits within all four quadrants I know see evidence of on a regular basis.  Is this simply as a result of life experiences and being in the role of a school leader (which creates the conditions for interacting with so many individuals) or have I done something intentional to move from monochromatic to polychromatic?
I can’t help but wonder if I were to have the opportunity to return to the scene of the original professional learning session if I would now see the strengths of the presenter who identified herself as Orange.   I hope so…

Take a look at the graphic.   Do you have a dominant quadrant?

Come write with me…

The past two evenings we have had the absolute pleasure of meeting educators who are currently in the process of transferring schools and are considering Sir Arthur Currie as their next step along their teaching/learning journey.   I am continually amazed and impressed with their preparation and their passion as they take all of 20 minutes to try to condense as much as possible into the body of their responses. I never underestimate the courage that it takes to put yourself out there.

When creating our interview experience, we want to ensure that candidates feel a sense of ownership for both the beginning and the end of the interview.  Once we complete the questions, there is always an opportunity for candidates to share something that we did not capture within the body of the questions or specific questions that they may have for us ~ about the assignment or the school.

One of the most frequently asked questions seems to always centers around the SAC school culture.   When we first opened, we committed to making our practice public and to that end, there is not a day that goes by that something is not posted on social media.  There is a sense of pride in the day-to-day learning activities and there is a sense of collaboration that is easy to highlight.

However… inquisitive, prospective candidates all want to know the same thing, “Is what we see on social media and hear ‘throughout the valley’, genuine?”

The easy answer could always be, “Of course”. However, we find that those asking the question are looking for something more substantial ~ a concrete example of what makes our SAC crew so incredible.

In addition, as always seems to happen, those examples are never hard to find as they occur regularly.  The example that we shared last night was one that had just happened that day.

One of our Intermediate teachers posted a message on our Outlook Group site ~ “We are in the process of figuring out numbers for Graduation, please let me know if you are planning on attending”.  One would expect to see a thread of, “I’ll be there” or “Sorry I can’t make it”

However, our thread read like this…

“I’ll be joining! Let me know what you’d like help with”
“I’ll be there! Please let me know if there’s anything I can help with”
“Count me in! Willing to help out wherever needed”
“I’ll be there! Let me know if you need help with anything as well J”
“I’ll be there and would love to help out again this year”
“I can help too”
“I will be there and am happy to help any way needed”

That is only one-half of the responses that were shared within that thread.  It is important to keep in mind that as a brand new school ~ none of those educators, who so willingly stepped up to lend a hand, have taught any of our Graduates.

This is just one example of what happens each day at SAC.  There are no pockets of excellence. Instead, there is an entire community of excellence where everyone demonstrates kindness, exceptional practice and a desire to learn as much as possible from each other.

To those candidates who have interviewed with us ~ Thanks for asking the question.

When determining if you want to join a school community, what is the one question that you ask?

Come write with me….