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Text of the page (random words):
t align with our messaging these are all justifications while simultaneously touting that we value transparency no you don t you value being perceived as valuing transparency but the reality is that transparency means that you admit that you were wrong transparency is explaining an unpopular decision because you feel it is the right decision transparency is not hiding the uncomfortable truth sure there are things that should only be shared on a need to know basis but other than for respect and privacy reasons most of those less frequently shared things would not be a secret in a truly transparent organization and it s not just customers but employees who would appreciate transparency and maybe feel more valued in the process like this like loading this entry was posted in daily ink and tagged business corporate responsibility leadership organization respect transparency on may 6 2026 by david truss the lone principal leave a reply i have been the lone administrator for my schools since september 2009 in fact i only ever had one vice principal position for a year and a half before that with a principal in the building and so i ve been on my own for over 90 of my time as a school leader in february a vice principal was given a district level role in my building and we both learned that he was going to be my replacement when i retired at the end of this school year while his current role did pull him out of our building a fair bit we had regular meetings that allowed us to have time together that is almost never available with a traditional transfer of school principals this time has been an absolute gift even more than the transfer of knowledge around two programs outside of the traditional school setting what i ve really enjoyed is the collegial conversations and support there are a lot of challenges to being the lone administrator in a building and to have a colleague to work with over the past few months has been very special to all the principals and vice principals who get to team up in a school never forget what a privilege it is to have colleagues that you get to work with directly on a daily basis and to all the lone administrators out there find your people and book time to spend with them besides these past few months i also had 2 meetings a month with our principal of the adult learning centre summer learning she and i worked together when i first started with the online school and she was the department head also for the past few years i have had 2 other principals running completely different programs in my building although most day to day activities keep us apart we still occasionally have time to connect share and even support each other i can t express how valuable these meetings have been lone administrators need to seek out other lone administrators and find a reason to connect regularly not something ad hoc but something scheduled these past few months have really made me appreciate just how valuable it is to have a colleague you can really talk to and work through things with it has been an absolute blessing to have this collegial opportunity to end my career like this like loading this entry was posted in daily ink and tagged colleagues leadership principal school school leadership solitude support on may 5 2026 by david truss missed the point leave a reply one of the most challenging things about being a leader is watching a simple miscommunications lead to big issues that could have easily been avoided it s watching people come from different points of view all with the same objectives all wanting the same goals but approaching the issue believing that the end goal is something they want but others don t or just failing to see a similar perspective from a vantage point other than their own i ve tried to live by the mantra the meaning of your communication is the response that you get putting the onus of responsibility on myself when my message was not received the way i intended it yet i too still mess up i have to take a step back and question where my error was and when i don t see an error in thinking i can still often see an error in my communication but error might be too strong of a word it might only be a mistake after the idea was shared and received only after an unexpected response am i able to look back and see how my words could be misunderstood how my message could be perceived differently than expected this is the work i try to do however when the miscommunication happens before i m involved my entrance is even more delicate when the temperature has risen before i enter it s often hard to get others to see that their communication did not align with their intended message it becomes an issue where even to suggest some responsibility for miscommunication can seem like blame rather than a means to reach a resolution and so my communication becomes even more challenging if my point is missed then i m not being supportive i m not helping the issue i m missing the point and if that s the message i m giving off then that s the meaning of my communication and the undesired response is my fault if i m not willing to take that responsibility then i m not modelling what i m expecting of others like this like loading this entry was posted in daily ink and tagged argument communication dialogue discourse leadership perspective on may 4 2026 by david truss how you react leave a reply epictetus wrote it s not what happens to you but how you react to it that matters the phrasing i prefer is it s not what happens it s what you do that makes the difference this isn t original to me it s simply the way i prefer to think of the same idea i think i got it from an nlp course or book back in my early 20 s and it has been a bit of a mantra ever since yesterday was a great example of this driving home we were an hour away from the border in northern washington after heading down to seattle to watch my daughter s boyfriend play in his first professional ultimate game the game was great and everything went wonderfully up to this point then my engine light went on then i started to feel a vibration in the steering that quickly developed to a full front end vibration the next 5 hours didn t really go as planned we pulled off the highway at the next exit and there was a bit of smoke coming out from under the hood i m about 1 000 kilometres overdue for an oil change so we checked the oil which was very low after adding more we headed back on the highway and two short exits later we pulled off again and called our road side assistance insurance number the call took almost an hour no local mechanic shops were open none of them had sunday hours we got ripped off paying way too much for some roadside vendor burritos we had no way home the first shop our car got taken to was closed out of business and i would definitely be carless for most of the coming week not even knowing the cost or timeline to get my car back until some time on monday if we are lucky here is the thing all four is us me my wife my daughter and her boyfriend took everything in stride i didn t even notice this until the drive home when my daughter mentioned it she said considering everything that happened we all handled it pretty well and we did indeed tempers didn t flare even when we disagreed on what to do next or when we waited two and a half hours for a tow truck when we were told it would arrive in an hour when we changed our order for food and the math of the new price didn t math we all greed we were hungry and we d just enjoy the food even if it was overpriced whatever came our way was dealt with no whining or complaining simply dealing with things in a neutral or positive way as they arose and in the end a few things did work out for us the tow truck driver problem solved for us and ensured our car got to a reliable place that he vouched for the burritos were delicious we got picked up by my sister in law who drove over an hour to pick us up and longer to drop us home before going home herself and while contemplating riding my bicycle to work tomorrow i remembered that my daughter was picking up a used car she purchased today and her current car is in working order so i ve got a car while we figure out what will happen to mine still this was a less than ideal end to the day and week we didn t get home until after 11 30 last night i still have a car to pick up that s at a shop i ve never been to an hour into the us after getting to the border i have no idea what the cost will be but we could have had a miserable experience and instead we had a bit of an adventure hopefully my car repairs won t be too costly but i ll do my best to take that in stride too like this like loading this entry was posted in daily ink and tagged attitude disposition perspective quote stoicism on may 3 2026 by david truss don t bring a résumé bring receipts leave a reply in the article the proof economy anand sanwal says don t bring a résumé bring receipts anand starts with two definitions saying that we ve moved from the parchment economy to a proof economy we ve entered the proof economy a world where the most valuable signal isn t where you went to school what your gpa was or which honors you collected but what you ve actually done and can do in this new landscape demonstrated ability trumps pedigree and what you ve built matters more than where you studied meanwhile the parchment economy that centuries old system where formal credentials and institutional validation serve as proxies for capability is losing its monopoly on opportunity the elaborate dance of transcripts recommendation letters diplomas and prestige markers is becoming increasingly irrelevant in field after field this is something i ve been describing for a while now without properly defining the difference in the two economies beyond credentialed professionals like doctors engineers and lawyers what now matters most is your portfolio not your schooling certificates what is it that you can do better than others to earn you a spot in our organization regardless of your credentials anand says when anyone can access expertise through prompts and build a prototype video software product or design via ai the value shifts decisively from knowledge possession to knowledge application but for me the most interesting section in his article is what education needs to become if we accept that we re entering the proof economy schools can t just add a few electives or rethink assessment to focus on progress and not perfection they need to rewire what they reward we should expect projects over problem sets real world challenges that apply knowledge not just recall it portfolios over transcripts a body of work that shows thinking skill and growth public work over private grading output that lives in the world not a google doc coaching over compliance adults who challenge and support not just evaluate failure as fuel a system that treats failed attempts as essential steps not permanent marks at inquiry hub secondary our students are still entrenched in the old public education system in that they complete required courses to meet provincial high school graduation requirements and most of them still head off to university college or a technical institute to further their studies however along the way they are given the time space and credits towards their graduation to produce documentation of learning in areas of interest they have an opportunity to design and build projects document ed receipt s most other students could only get done on their own time outside of traditional classrooms they also get to live in an environment where they have to cooperate with fellow students in scrum projects with tight timelines and defined roles not just group projects with everyone having identical outcomes and expectations they have to do frequent presentations alone and in groups with training to give and receive feedback with radical candour they understand iteration they pivot based on where their learning takes them and they embrace failure as learning opportunities because sometimes obstacles become the way and they are provided with greater and greater autonomy over their time as they progress from grade 9 to 12 essentially inquiry hub students still get their resume of courses but they are also provided the opportunity to bring receipts too like this like loading this entry was posted in daily ink and tagged ai anand sanwal article education future inquiry based learning inquiry hub learning learning and failure school society students work on may 2 2026 by david truss students choose ai delivers leave a reply thinking about ai use in schools the vast majority of assignments are currently pretty easy to use ai to assist students can use this to extend their learning or to do the work for them make the work significantly easier to do and then teachers become police not teachers trying to figure out how a student is using ai to cheat two big takeaways one being a positive shift the other being a challenge process matters more than final products students will choose if they want ai to help them or do the work for them will they choose to have ai assist their thinking or do the thinking for them we have control over whether we focus on process or content students have the choice as to whether they use ai to help them think or to think for them a focus on process can reduce how much a student relies on ai but a student can always get ai to assist them with the next step i m excited about how students will use ai to dig deeper and extend their learning i m equally concerned for students who are choosing to use ai to take the friction out of leaning opting out of thinking for themselves whichever of these approaches students choose ai will deliver like this like loading this entry was posted in daily ink and tagged ai artificial intelligence assessment critical thinking future learning pedagogy students thinking on may 1 2026 by david truss conference conversations leave a reply a few years ago i wrote the spaces in between i ve never been to a session at a conference that has taught me more and been more engaging than the spaces in between the sessions connecting with distant friends and colleagues engaging conversations about teaching learning and leading topical discussions and meetings over coffee and meals and getting to know bright people who have similar jobs but unique life and work experience that open my eyes to things beyond what i tend to learn and in my scheduled blocks of conference time these are the moments that make a conference a rich leaning experience it s the spaces in between sometimes i ve actually skipped sessions to connect with someone to have a learning conversation like i did with david jakes jeff richardson and barbara bray other times the conference is an opportunity to connect with people and find time outside of conference times like i did with shelly sanchez terrell kathleen mcclaskey...