Lisa Myers

486 Chaparral Ravine View SE

Calgary, AB T2X 0A5
(403) 608-0178

Richard Svoboda
Superintendent, Human Resources
Education Centre
1000-5 Avenue SW
Calgary AB T2P 4T9

July 27, 2017

Dear Mr. Svoboda,

I believe in the power of education. I have had a number of experiences in my life that
have rooted this belief deep in my value system. It may have even been as early as Grade 1
when my teacher Mrs. Hill had our class sing back breaking, bone crunching, hard hard work
as we would practice our printing and addition problems. I remember how proud I felt when I
would work hard at something and finally master it. Nelson Mandela is famously quoted as
saying education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world and I
could not agree more. I have had the opportunity to work with many strong, intelligent and
effective leaders that reinforced this belief in the power of education and have helped to guide
me towards this Call to Leadership.
My philosophy of education is centered on providing positive learning opportunities for
all; students, teachers and leaders with a focus on collaboration in order to learn from one
another and meet the individual needs of all. While teaching at Bishop OByrne High School
this belief was reinforced as I was able to see firsthand exactly how powerful education is when
approached in a collaborative, faith based manner. I witnessed many students - some who
excelled and others who struggled connecting with their education, but once they made this
connection I saw the path of their future change. Some students connected with the material,
being challenged by Calculus problems for the first time and wanting to share their knowledge
with others. While for others it was a teacher they connected with who helped them to see their
full potential and trusted them to teach the skills they needed to reach their goals. Most recently
I have seen the power of education through a different lens as the Districts Secondary Math
Consultant. I have had the opportunity to work directly with teachers on lesson design,
instructional planning, assessment and setting data driven goals. While at first, I felt quite
removed from students as though my impact was lessened, I quickly realized that this was not
the case. Working with teachers has given me to the ability to reach more students and truly see
the power of collaboration; within schools, between schools and across districts we all have
something to share.
I am proud to work for the Calgary Catholic School District because of the importance it
places on delivering a quality Catholic education to every student. I have witnessed the
Districts dedication to this through the many programs and supports provided to staff focused on
quality professional development for both curriculum and faith formation. In 2014, I was
selected to attend the ACSTA Blueprints Conference & Retreat in Kananaskis. This conference
gave me time to reflect upon my faith and its impact on my life with other Catholic educators. It
was a rejuvenating and inspiring experience which not only brought me closer to God but gave
me confidence to speak about my faith on a professional level. As a conference participant, I
also completed the associated course through St. Marys University; Contemporary Issues in
Catholic Education. The focus of the course was on Leading a new Evangelization in the era of
Pope Francis. I enjoyed studying Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium (2013) as I feel it helped me
to connect with this new era of leadership and brought to the forefront the importance of being
deliberate and focused when drawing connections between my faith and educational focus. In
my personal life, I am involved with my parish St. Albert the Great as a member of the Baptism
preparation team and attend church regularly with my family. It is important to me that my
children are raised in the church as I was.
I believe that my ability to build strong relationships is an extension of my faith. My
belief that everyone is a child of God is at the root of all my interactions; both personal and
professional. In my role as Secondary Math Consultant, building trust and relationships with
teachers and administrators is crucial and as an extension of that encouraging positive
professional collaboration was one of the main goals I set for myself during this four-year term.
One area that I chose to focus on specifically was building relationships and focused
collaboration time amongst the new Math teachers in our district. I approached this task in three
ways; (i) ensuring continuous contact between consultant and new teachers, (ii) scheduling new
teacher group collaboration time and contact with mentor teachers, (iii) reserving spaces on
working groups and professional development sessions for new teachers. I chose these three
specific actions to ensure that not only was I building capacity within this group but that each
new teacher felt supported and cared for, knowing that they always had someone they could turn
to for help. This group has a unique set of needs but they also have immense potential to impact
student success for years to come. I feel that in this case, this was the best way to impact student
success. When teachers feel supported and confident in what they are doing they can in turn
support and encourage their own students. Over the three years I have been working with new
teachers in this focused manner I have noticed a strong comradery emerge that is helping to drive
mathematics education forward in our district.
The area that I feel I have grown the most over the past four years is in Instructional
Leadership. As the Secondary Math Consultant, I am looked to by teachers and administrators
for guidance with curriculum, assessment and instructional planning to ensure that our teachers
are at their best and meeting all of their students needs. This, at times, can feel like a great deal
of pressure and often when I meet with teachers that need support I can see that they too are
feeling the pressure of the situation. Whenever this occurs I feel it is important to bring the
conversation back to the students. I will ask; What can we celebrate about your students? What
types of situations and/or activities have they succeeded with? What would you like to focus our
time on today? I do this in hopes of building a relationship with the teacher, focusing our
meeting on the students needs and forward movement. I wish I could say that in every meeting
it is easy to find a solution or fix for the problem, but that is not always the case, at times we
need to try a few approaches before we could find a system that works for that classroom. Due
to the unique needs of all the students, teachers and schools that I visit, I have had to broaden my
skill set over these past four years. I truly consider myself a life-long learner and crave
opportunities to read new research, try new things and learn from others. I have taken every
opportunity to learn new things and have attended numerous conferences and PD sessions put on
by a wide variety of educational institutions. Interestingly enough, I have found that often the
non-Math sessions are the ones that I take the biggest lessons from and then challenge myself to
apply those learnings to the area of mathematics.
During my time in Instructional Services our district focus has been on assessment and I
was a member of the committee that developed the CCSD Assessment Guidelines document. I
worked specifically on writing the Zeros and Test Security sections but then found my most
meaningful work in bringing this document to life in our schools through a highly subscribed
Formative Assessment presentation. Over the 2016/2017 school year I presented to just over 30
schools which spanned all grade levels (K-12) and disciplines. The original presentation, given
at District Leadership Council was a good start but I quickly realized to reach all the teachers and
buildings that I was visiting I needed to tailor each presentation to the unique needs of the school
community to ensure a personal connection and impact was made. My ability to do this was
echoed in the feedback I received from many of the schools to whom I presented. One teacher,
in particular, from Bishop Carroll High School, stopped me after the presentation thanking me
for the connections I made to diploma exams and independent learners. She mentioned that it is
often hard for them to connect to professional development due to the unique format of their
school but that she could tell I had really thought about how to reach them and she was very
thankful for my efforts.
When I read over the Leadership Quality Standards for Visionary Leadership &
Managing Operations & Resources I smiled because I felt as though it spoke to the initiative I
have undertaken this past year. Our district has just finished its pilot of a new Math course;
Competencies of Math 15. For the past four years I have been hearing from High School CTs,
teachers, parents and students about the needs of our Grade 10 students. It was becoming very
clear that there was a disconnect between Grade 9 and 10 Math courses and curriculum and the
students were suffering because of it. Hearing this overwhelming plea, I worked with Senior
Administration to acquire this locally developed course from Alberta Education. Once acquired,
we began the task of developing a brand-new course from the ground up; creating a content base
to match the competency based curriculum, a resource for both teachers and students and a
credit/pre-requisite structure that worked within the current Ministerial Order, Guide to
Education and Mathematics Framework.
In initiating the process, my first step was to gather as much data as possible. I surveyed
Junior and Senior High School Math teachers for input on the skills they felt should be focused
upon in this course. Then I analyzed the Grade 9 PAT results and cross-referenced them against
the Math 10C and Diploma Exam results. Once this phase was complete we were confident that
this course was a viable option for our district, especially with its potential connection to High
School Re-Design and alignment with our district focus of success for all students. We chose to
move forward to the development phase where I gathered a group of six teachers to help with the
decision making on material development, assessment & implementation. Given a two month
turn-around for the completion of these materials was no small task but with a keen eye for
planning and resource allocation (i.e. Guest Teachers and Math Budget) we were able to meet
our deadline, while working as a team and always reminding ourselves of the enormous potential
we had to impact student success.
Having a solid understanding of the Districts priorities and goals has given me the
confidence to push the envelope with this course. We choose to align this course with a
competency delivery that is assessed using Outcomes Based Assessment. Students will also
have the opportunity to focus on mastery learning through the use of embedded re-assessment.
My hope is that by exposing students and teachers to this type of delivery they are more open to
re-assessment and competency focused teaching and learning. There is still work to be done on
this course but the collaborative approach that we have taken in developing it will continue on
this year. As we move in to a reflective phase the six teachers that have built and taught the
course will discuss the successes and challenges experienced this summer, collaborate with High
School Teachers and Administrators to make the changes necessary to ensure this course is set
up to grow and improve in response to our students needs for years to come.
Based on the evidence presented, I am confident that I am making the right decision in
putting my name forward for Call to Leadership. As both a teacher and consultant I have shown
the ability to build strong relationships with teachers and students while maintaining an
instructional focus and high academic standards. I continue to develop my leaderships skills and
have shown the ability the implement and manage large scale initiatives while always keeping
my faith and student success at the center of my actions. As a visionary leader, I have worked
tirelessly to meet the needs of staff and students while ensuring the choices made are grounded in
research, align with the Districts priorities and are student centered. While I know I have much
more to learn, I am excited for the challenge that leadership will bring and look to the future with
hope and excitement.

Sincerely,

Lisa Myers