Genius in an Hour?
- jmemka
- Mar 26, 2017
- 7 min read
Yes, the title isn't the greatest, but it is where I started with this assignment. At first, I didn't think I knew much about Genius Hour if anything at all. Once I looked into it, I discovered that it is something that I currently practice in my teaching (just under a different title). If you are unsure of what Genius Hour is, please take a few short minutes to get up to speed.
As a classroom teacher, I have ofter felt that I am limited in actually making change happen (real change that is). Upon reflection and learning what Genius Hour actually is (I call it Fed Ex Fridays), I came to the realization that small steps make the difference and while they are not always noticeable or measurable in our classrooms, we do, at times receive some "life changing" feedback from former students years later.
While I thought about how I would present my Genius Hour thoughts and experiences, I still found myself falling back into the "how much can I really do on my own" trap. In hindsight, I am glad I did. It forced me to look for a "big fish".
In an effort to find someone responsible for what I considered significant change within our current school system I inadvertently stumbled upon the Superintendent of the Seven Oaks School Division in Winnipeg. Over the last few months, I have learned that Seven Oaks is making real strides in education reform and is willing to take some significant risks. For me, it started when I learned about the community garden at Amber Trails School, then the MET project, and finally the announcement of building a Sustainable Agricultural school for the division. Clearly this is not the work of a single teacher or even that of a small group.
I sent an email to Seven Oaks Superintendent, Brian O'Leary asking if he could set some time aside and share his experience and recommendations for those that are also pursuing change. To my surprise, he responded with a "yes" within hours. Honestly I really was surprised: I do not work in Seven Oaks, I do not know Brian O'Leary, I sent him an email out of the blue from a strange address, and I assumed it would take days or weeks to get a response from someone who most likely receives emails in triple digits on a daily basis.
I quickly took the first available appointment and headed over to the Seven Oaks School Division Board Office to meet Brian and listen to what he had to say. In preparation for the meeting I did create a list of questions and spent time looking up his history online to see what I could find. While I did have a preset of questions, I did want the visit to feel more organic and see where it might go on its own.
This is the story.
Brian O'Leary is currently the Superintendent of Seven Oaks School Division in Winnipeg. He was born and raised in Winnipeg in the Wolsley area, graduated from Gordon Bell High School, and began his teaching career in the former River East School Division in the late 1970's after completing a student teaching block at Monroe Junior High.
The following year O'Leary had the opportunity to change divisions and work in the cities core area. This was an easy decision for him as, "my heart had always wanted to work in Winnipeg's inner city".
His teaching assignment was at the first "at risk" or "alternative" school, teaching a group of at risk boys. O'Leary remained in the position for 3 years and admitted that, "no matter how hard I worked, there were limits". The turning point came a few years later when O'Leary returned as the principal of that same "at risk" school and he worked with the staff to make it "mainstream".
Although the school was small, they did manage to start a successful performing arts program, had all students participate in music, and started to win "all kinds of championships in sports" as they progressed. O'Leary said that early in his career, he was always able to find money through various grants and initiatives to support the growth and would "throw it at good teachers".
"We started winning championships because we sent poor kids to sports camps in the summer and they found out how good they were.... that experience informed my whole career"
Under O'Leary's guidance, the school transitioned to a true middle school approach, teachers taught all subjects which allowed them to spend more time with smaller groups of kids as well as more freedom within the school day to maintain progress on certain topics or activities. The success that the school and its students achieved guides O'Leary to this day. Connecting teachers with the "idealism of why they joined the profession" and building relationships with students is key. The time, the programming, the opportunity all contributed to building confidence in the students and the teachers equally. The momentum built with the addition of each new challenge created a culture of collaboration and risk taking. I found it extremely interesting that the "taste" for change is older than I thought. It seems that Brian O'Leary has always been looking for ways to improve students engagement and he has clearly been successful at doing so.
As the conversation went on, I asked how do you have the ability to convince parents and trustees to support the risks you take on?
"It boils down to simply having the courage to try"
As an educator, O'Leary has continually built a portfolio of successful initiatives that allows him to "spend some of the capital accumulated with the board". Just last year, the division started an Ojibway bilingual program in the spirit of reconciliation and it has already had a significant impact on the students and community involved. Like all programs, the intent is to eventually generalize it in all schools across the division. Just as they have with the community garden, learn to skate, music, performing arts, practical arts, vocational training, etc. O'Leary was very clear that public school education needs to be "equitable for all" and Seven Oaks strives to have all programming available to all of its students.
"We want kids engaged in growing their own food, we want them to bring it home""
When I first read about the plan for the Agriculture Centre, I was impressed. Simply put, a urban school division wants to build an Agriculture Centre? That's different thinking in conservative/traditional Winnipeg.
The Centre will be located just outside the city and it's services will be available to all students within the division. Currently there are a group of teachers "driving this, with far better ideas than I have" said O'Leary. They are in the early stage of planning but some of the ideas sound amazing.
The school will initially function as resource centre and move away from planter boxes to large scale gardening and farming of grains and livestock. We didn't discuss the ultimate plan for the "livestock" but O'Leary did tell me that the intent with grain farming would be for the students to process their yields into various products. The goal would be to have all the necessary ingredients produced on site to achieve a truly sustainable practice.
As the program develops their will be an addition of a green house that will be used to produce plants that will be used the community gardens at all the schools in the division (once they are established).
In order to make all this possible we did discuss that the prime growing season takes place when school is out. O'Leary mentioned that they are looking at hiring a resident farmer and will implement the same volunteer schedule used at the Amber Trails School, that has had success.
Because the Centre will be located on a large semi rural property, space is not an issue and this will only benefit other initiatives the division is looking at implementing.
One of the long term goals is to construct a large warehouse that can be home to a RTM (Ready to Move homes) manufacturing site. The homes would be built throughout the school year by students and then moved to selected lots within the city. I found it even more interesting when O'Leary told me that they are looking at finding lots that are deep and have existing homes on them. The original home would be renovated by students as well and the second home would be located at the rear of the property. It seems that Seven Oaks is initiating their own tiny house movement. Granted there are many issue they face in putting this project into action, but it seems they have received positive feedback and support from local officials as well as financial support form local organizations.
"Enrichment isn't worksheets"
In the end I was left energized and optimistic by the time I spent with Brian O'Leary. It was clear to me that he believed in his staff, their ideas, the students, and the community. He was proud to tell me that he really doesn't own many of the projects, the teachers do. He simply helps them make it happen.
It all starts with taking a chance in our own classrooms and continuing to build on them. Over time, the successes will allow for greater risks and far greater rewards. After all, find me an administrator or trustee that doesn't like success stories.
The difference between Brian O'Leary and the rest of us? Experience, and the willingness to task risks in education. We all have the desire to do what's best for our students, O'Leary uses that desire to guide his decision making process. "Is what we are doing making a difference for the group we are trying to help? If so, keep doing it".
Some additional viewing and reading if you like,