COSL Fall Conference

Event is FULL - Currently not accepting registrations

FULL - Pathways to the Principalship

Vince Bustamante, Ed.D., is an author, instructional coach, curriculum content developer and implementation specialist who resides in Calgary, Canada. He is the co-author of two bestselling books with Corwin Press: Great Teaching by Design and The Assessment Playbook for Distance and Blended Learning. Most recently, Vince has co-authored Leader Ready: Four Pathways to Prepare Aspiring School Leaders. Having worked with schools and school districts across North America and Internationally he brings a wide variety of experience and perspectives when looking at school improvement, pedagogical and leadership development, and implementation of high impact strategies across school environments.

Tim Cusack, Ed.D., has over 30 years of experience in K-12 education as a classroom teacher, school leader, and
superintendent. Having served in rural and urban boards, Tim has robust experience in leading teacher professional development programming as well as leadership formation and training programming. He currently serves as the Dean of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton, supporting pre-service teacher preparation, as well as aspiring school leaders’ programs. He earned his doctorate in Education from University of Portland in 2020 with a focus on aspiring leader self-efficacy. He co-authored Leader Ready: Four pathways to prepare aspiring leaders (Corwin) which was published in May 2023. Tim is also a member of the Royal Canadian Navy serving as a Naval Warfare Officer.

FULL - Legal Aspects That Principals Know and Don’t Know

This presentation will begin with an overview of doctoral research being conducted into the area of principal's legal literacy. Tim Breen will provide an overview of his study along with some of the preliminary findings. Shannon Carson, Partner at Myers LLP, will then discuss some of the important legal factors and decisions principals should be aware of in their work.

Tim Breen is a staff officer in the teacher welfare department at the Manitoba Teacher’s Society. He is also a doctoral candidate in education administration. Tim’s research explores how principals understand and engage with their legal obligations. Tim is also the
treasurer of the Canadian Association for the Practical Study of Law in Education.

Shannon Carson is a partner at Myers LLP in the labour department where she assists unions and associations in all aspects of their dealings with employers. She regularly provides representation in grievance arbitration and labour board proceedings, as well as
mediations, interest arbitrations, and applications for judicial review. On a day to day basis, she provides advice on collective agreement interpretation, employment-related legislation and policies, settlement of grievances, collective bargaining, and general labour relations strategy. She also regularly provides advice on workplace safety and health, employment standards, human rights, workplace privacy and related legislation, workers compensation, and disability insurance disputes. Shannon has a particular interest in pension law, where she represents the interests of unions and employees in their pension benefits. She has provided representation to employees in
professional discipline matters.
She has appeared before grievance arbitrators under The Labour Relations Act and the Canada Labour Code, interest
arbitrators, the Manitoba Labour Board, the Court of Queen’s Bench, the Manitoba Court of Appeal, the Manitoba
Pension Commission, the Appeal Commission, and professional disciplinary bodies.
Shannon is a past instructor of the Labour Law course in the University of Manitoba’s Labour Studies Program. She
has presented to clients and members of the legal profession on numerous workplace legal topics including pensions,
workplace harassment, privacy, workplace safety, drug and alcohol testing, workers compensation, etc..
Shannon sits on the Council of the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers as the Vice President for Manitoba.
Shannon also sits on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Bar Association Labour and Employment Sections as
a member at large

FULL - Radical Advocacy and Indigenous Learning

Dr. Lessard is Woodland Cree from Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Northern Saskatchewan. An award-winning educator and former youth worker, teacher, and counselor, he focuses on innovative educational programs and Indigenous youth empowerment. Currently, Dr. Lessard is a Professor at the University of Alberta, specializing in Indigenous Education, working alongside, relentlessly advocating, researching, and writing about the experiences of Indigenous youth and families, both inside and outside educational spaces. See nametoplace.com for more information.

FULL - Observable Impact

BEYOND ‘BUY-IN’: RE-THINKING RESISTANCE

As a district or school leader, each of us has a bullet point in our job description that says something like ‘be the lead learner’, yet when it comes to the day-to-day realities of being in a district position or running a school, the concept of educational leadership seems to slip farther and farther down our ever-growing ‘to do’ lists and the ‘tyranny of right now’! When we do find the time to be an educational leader, we often have to work through frustration and resistance from those we lead to the changes that can make a difference for each of our students. So how do we move from ‘aggravation’ and ‘getting buy-in’ to ‘co-creation’ and ‘impact’?

Join Cale Birk, former teacher, high school principal, author and imagineer of 'Words on the Wall', “Navigating Leadership Drift”, “PLC 2.0 - Collaborating for Observable Impact”, “The PLC 2.0 Toolkit”, and “Changing Change Using Learner-Centered Design” for this practical, hands-on workshop. Participants will examine the concept of resistance through the lens of what designers call ‘user-experience’, and experience tools and takeaways from The Observable Impact Model. the model Collective Efficacy expert Jenni Donohoo calls ‘the next iteration needed for schools to realize collective teacher efficacy in their context’. Leaders at all levels will examine common challenges such as ‘meeting the needs of each of our diverse learners’, ‘changing practice’ and ‘engaging stakeholders in continuous improvement’’ and use them as drivers for meaningful and effective collaboration. Participants will leave with ready-to-use strategies that model the practices we want to see in our classrooms and leads to observable, impactful change where it matters the most, in our classrooms with our students.