International Leadership Course by OPC

Teaching is my passion!

It was a wonderful week! Though I retired as a school administrator, my passion has always been teaching.

A group activity during the leadership course

Anytime I could get in the classroom and stand in front of other educators to share my experience, I just love it!

Principals took turn to present their ideas

I did just that last week, got back into the routine of going to bed and getting up early, hitting the road and making the commute, being in a classroom and be ready for my work with a group of visiting school administrators from Asia.

The visiting principals were in Canada for a professional development course and to learn about the Ontario schools and education system.

There were lectures by guest speakers each day from various educational communities on a variety of topics.


 

It was a pleasure working with the visiting principals!

We shared and exchanged ideas about our schools.


It was great for me to share my experience and learned from our Chinese counterparts as well. 

Presenting a souvenir to a Toronto school principal

One of the leadership programs the principals really enjoyed was visiting Ontario schools and observing Canadian students, teachers and principals in action.

Principals were warmly received at the school

This time we visited two Toronto schools and they received and welcome the principals warmly into their schoos.

Beautiful wall art in a TDSB elementary school library

Wall art created by students at a Toronto school we visited

The visiting principals were keenly interested in our schools.

 They took pictures of everything they saw ( they knew that they could not take pictures of students), and observed the students, instructional material and curriculum with great interest.

They were very impressed by how hard Ontario schools work at reaching all its students and how funding and resources were allocated to needy schools.

They saw how schools in low economic areas of the city were just as well equipped as those in rich neighbourhood.

Sharing a light moment with the visiting school administrators from China

After a week of intensive study of the Ontario education system and visiting schools in Toronto, the visiting principals from China have gained a better understanding of how students learn in Canada. On the last day of the leadership course, we had an informal closing ceremony, celebrated a week of learning and exchanging of ideas from educators across the Pacific.

It was time to say goodbye and I will definitely miss the good time we have had!
I do hope that our paths will cross again in the future!

R.T.
Suon College
Toronto
Sept. 2014