logo for continuous learning courses

In an effort to provide ongoing, accessible learning to principals and vice-principals the Ontario Principals' Council (OPC) is offering a series of continuous online learning courses. These courses are online and use a learning management system (LMS) to support individual learning. Through the LMS, participants engage in a variety of learning activities such as readings, blog entries, reflections and quizzes. In some cases, synchronous sessions may be offered to complement the learning goals. Each course is designed differently to allow for adaptive learning activities that match content with appropriate adult learning pedagogies.  

These courses are offered in two different streams:

  1. Self-Directed: These courses have open enrolment, without an active facilitator. Once registered, these courses will allow you to move through them at your own pace for a set amount of time.
  2. Facilitated: These cohorted courses are largely asynchronous and have a facilitator assigned to guide  the learning. They follow a more structured format and may include synchronous elements such as live web meetings and webinars.

Self-Directed Courses

 Teacher Performance Appraisal (TPA)

Principals and vice-principals are required to complete Teacher Performance Appraisals (TPA) each year. This course is intended to help you: 

  • develop a solid understanding of the technical requirements of the TPA process, for new and experienced teachers, used in all public schools across Ontario;
  • view elementary and secondary samples, completed by experienced principals, of key documents that support the TPA process (including: Annual Learning Plans, Summative Reports for new and experienced teachers, Improvement and Enrichment Plans); 
  • extend your understanding of effective leadership competencies, strategies and practices, with an equitable approach, to better integrate the TPA process as part of ongoing, growth-oriented teacher capacity building in your organization.

The course is open to all principals and vice-principals.

  • Date: continuous enrolment
  • Time limit: Once you register, you will have 30 days to complete the course. 
  • OPC Member or Associate Cost: $50 + HST
  • Non-Member Cost: $75 + HST

 

Register
Interview Preparation

Need some support to prepare for your interview for a principal or vice-principal position? The OPC Interview Preparation course will support you in preparing for your interview for any position in a Board of education. The course modules will include

  • self-reflection tools and study planning
  • how to deal with stress and anxiety
  • interview basics - interview models, success criteria, interview analysis
  • interview frameworks and foundational perspectives
  • interview Questions - practice, practice, practice
  • resources to support your preparation and
  • access to additional mock interview coaching and feedback, individually and/or small groups.

 

The course is open to all principals and vice-principals.

  • Date: continuous enrolment
  • Time limit: Once you register, you will have 45 days to complete the course. 
  • OPC Member or Associate Cost: $250 + HST
  • Non-Member Cost: $325 + HST

 

You must be logged in before registering to ensure you receive the Member Rate.

 

Register

Facilitated Courses

The Journey to Wellness 

This eight-module course focuses on the individual and the personal wellness journey. It will provide a space where you, as the leader of your own life, can be reflective and vulnerable in order to examine how your experiences affect the way you show up as a school leader and in your daily lives. It will help you identify the barriers that may stop you from living your full potential. We will use the Ontario Leadership Framework, specifically the Personal Leadership Resources, to focus the conversations and to build the confidence, wellness and habits that can positively impact how you show up in your workplace and lead effectively.


This course is about you. It will help you to create a roadmap that identifies the goals and the route that are most relevant to you, your experiences and your development as a leader. To support this, the course includes one-on-one coaching time with the facilitator. This work will change your perspective, the way you wake up each morning, and the narrative you tell yourself each day.

 
Understanding Muslim Students in Our Schools

Muslim students have been attending our schools for over a century and have been steadily growing in numbers since the 1960s. As administrators work towards building inclusive schools for everyone, conversations around Muslim students and families need to shift from a focus on accommodations to a focus on inclusive curriculum and responsive pedagogies.

This eight module course delves deeper into understanding Canadian Muslims by discussing a number of relevant topics for school leaders, such as the diversity of the Muslim community, perspectives of Muslim youth, challenging Islamophobia in schools, considerations of building inclusive schools, addressing contemporary issues, and more. Through the lens of Muslim learners, participants will gain the necessary knowledge to better serve all students, families, and staff in our schools.

 

Registration is closed for the course for this year. Please check back next year for when the course reopens.

Building and Managing Relationships

 

Participants will explore the ideas and strategies for building and managing relationships in their professional leadership roles.  Effective communication, understanding diverse perspectives and recognizing biases, and conflict mediation will be explored.

Facilitated by practising principals with diverse experiences in various education settings, this module focuses on fostering and facilitating relationships with staff, students, and the school community to:

  • Develop self-awareness of personal leadership resources;
  • Understand implicit and explicit biases and perspectives, and;
  • Navigate conflict, through mediation strategies. 

 
Anti-Black Racism

Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate defines anti-Black racism as prejudice, attitudes, beliefs, stereotyping and discrimination directed at people of African descent and is rooted in their unique history and experience of enslavement and its legacy. Anti-Black racism is deeply embedded in Canadian institutions, policies and practices such that it is normalized or deemed invisible to the larger white society.” - Ontario College of Teachers, Professional Advisory on Anti-Black Racism, p.1

 

In this five module course school leaders will: deepen their understanding of anti-Black racism and the current ways it exists in educational institutions today; and critically examine school practices and approaches through a variety of tangible, researched-based strategies to actively address and disrupt anti-Black racism in their schools and learning environments.

 

This course offers synchronous sessions. The dates are as follows:

Synchronous session #1: Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT

Synchronous session #2: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT

Synchronous session #3: Wednesday, May 17, 2023, 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT

Synchronous session #4: Wednesday, May 31, 2023, 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT

Synchronous session #5: Wednesday, June 14, 2023, 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT

 

  • Dates: April 11, 2023 - June 21, 2023
  • Deadline to register: March 28, 2023
  • OPC Member or Associate Cost: $250 + HST
  • Non-Member Cost: $325 + HST

 

Registration is closed for the course for this year.
Future of Schools 

There is an ancient paradox that says, “The only thing that is certain, is that nothing is certain.”  If there was ever a more fitting time in education to quote this paradox, the time would be now.   The unexpected Pandemic crisis became a catalyst for educators to radically change practice in ways no one had really imagined.   As a result, we have seen new possibilities in education that seemed impossible a short time ago. As the world adjusts to a new normal, we as educators now have an exciting window of opportunity to reimagine our education system.  As educational leaders this is both exciting and daunting.  Given that nothing is certain, how do we begin to dialogue about the Future of Schools?  Through a combination of self-directed and facilitated learning sessions, this course will explore emerging educational theories, mindsets and bold leadership moves that will support you in preparing your educators and learners for the future.

Open to school and system leaders. Places are limited.

  

Registration page pending, please check back for more information.

Terms and Conditions

Refund Policy

Self-Directed

  • A full refund is available if you cancel one day after your registration date. There is no refund for cancellations after two days of your registration date.

Facilitated

  • A full refund is available if you cancel up to two weeks before the start date, less a 15% non-refundable registration fee.
  • An 80% refund is available if you cancel one week before the start date.
  • There is no refund for cancellations after the start date.
  • A full refund applies when a session is cancelled due to low enrollment. 
 Interpretation Services
The OPC is committed to accommodating the individual needs of our Members, in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the Ontario Human Rights Code. Once a candidate has registered and paid the applicable registration fees for a course, the OPC will contract with an interpretation service of its choosing and will cover the fees and expenses related to interpretation services in accordance with its contract arrangements with the interpreter. The candidate is welcome to provide a list of preferred interpreters for us to consider, but OPC retains the discretion to choose the provider of these services.

As the OPC is required to comply with the cancellation policy specific to each independent interpreter, it will communicate the cancellation policy to the course candidate in writing. A candidate seeking to cancel their participation in an OPC course must comply with the interpreter’s cancellation policy and be respectful of the associated timelines. Candidates will be held responsible for cancellation fees applied as a result of missing timelines for cancellation.

OPC’s standard refund policy will also apply to all cancellations.