Chris Kennedy

Repetition Is Part of the Work We were putting significant energy into bringing Sarah Ward back to speak with families and staff about executive functioning in late January. It is important work, and we know it matters. Still, a…

When you've been in a role long enough, you carry the history. Your community doesn't. Every September, new families arrive, new staff join, and the ideas that matter have to be reintroduced. That's how understanding is actually built.

cultureofyes.ca/2026/03/04/repetition-is-part-of-the-work/

Steadiness as Strategy In my year-end reflection last December, I found myself dwelling on something that might seem unremarkable: there wasn’t a lot of drama in BC education this past year. No major controversies.…

NEW on Culture of Yes -Steadiness as Strategy #suptchat cultureofyes.ca/2026/02/24/s...

The Educated Citizen, Revisited In December 2011, I wrote a blog post asking whether British Columbia’s 1989 definition of the Educated Citizen still held up. The question felt almost rhetorical. Despite two decades of chan…

NEW on Culture of Yes - The Educated Citizen, Revisited. cultureofyes.ca/2026/02/03/t...

The Persistence of Yes This is Post #500. Writing that sentence feels both surreal and deeply satisfying. More than anything, these posts have taught me that leadership and life are sustained by one simple word: yes. Tha…

The Persistence of Yes! My 500th post. cultureofyes.ca/2026/01/20/t...

In Praise of Assistance (And the Myth of the Unassisted Writer) I have been thinking a lot about assistance lately. Who gets it, who does not, and why we suddenly get moralistic about it the moment the assistance comes from AI. The spark for this post is Nick P…

NEW on Culture of Yes - In Praise of Assistance (And the Myth of the Unassisted Writer) #suptchat cultureofyes.ca/2026/01/13/i...

ShiftED Podcast #78 In Conversation with Chris Kennedy What We Hold Sacred in Education: Leadership, Trust and Change - LEARN Blog - learning from each other and building a community What does a basketball court have to do with leading a school district? More than you might think. In this conversation, we sit down with Chris Kennedy, West Vancouver’s Superintendent of Schools, who...

Starting the year off right 🎧
New ShiftED Podcast episode with Chris Kennedy on leadership, trust, and meaningful change in education.
Episode #78 is live!
blogs.learnquebec.ca/2026/01/shif...

#RECIT #ShiftEdPodcast #Podcast #Education #EdTech #EducationalLeadership

My One Word for 2026: Alive This marks the 11th year of my One Word tradition. Eleven years. When I started this practice back in 2016, I was 42 years old and hungry. Literally, that was my word. Hungry. I wanted to compete, …

NEW on Culture of Yes - My One Word for 2026 - Alive! Love to hear yours …. cultureofyes.ca/2026/01/02/m...

My “Top 3” List for 2025 Here we are again. A final post for calendar year 16 on Culture of Yes. As I close out another year, I find myself in an unexpected place. This was the easiest year of writing in the 16 years I&#82…

NEW on Culture of Yes - My Top 3 List for 2025 …. my annual Siskel & Ebert meets Christmas letter post. Happy Holidays! #suptchat cultureofyes.ca/2025/12/22/m...

The Tutoring Revolution We Did Not See Coming For years, there has been a quiet understanding in many high schools that success in certain courses, especially senior math and sciences, required something extra. Not more effort or better attend…

NEW on Culture of Yes - We might be in the middle of a tutoring revolution and many of us didn’t see it coming. Some hopeful thoughts: cultureofyes.ca/2025/12/15/t...

What a Changing Profession Is Trying to Tell Us There is a shift happening in our schools, and you can feel it. You see it in the staffroom, in the parking lot, in the subtle ways younger teachers talk about their work. They draw clearer lines b…

The profession we love looks different today than when many of us started. That’s not a criticism—it’s an invitation to think differently. Here’s my latest reflection. cultureofyes.ca/2025/12/01/w...

Is Prompt Engineering Really the New Future Skill? Last week, I sat in an education conference listening to a keynote speaker who was absolutely unequivocal about it: students must learn prompt engineering or they will be left behind. The speaker w…

NEW on Culture of Yes - Is prompt engineering really the new skill everyone must learn? I am not so sure. cultureofyes.ca/2025/11/19/i...

The Human Half: AI, the OECD, and the Future of Educational Leadership Inspired by the recent Learning Forward BC conversation on human flourishing and AI. Last week, I spent three hours tweaking a PowerPoint presentation I already had help with. At the same time, I h…

NEW on Culture of Yes; How much of your leadership role could be handed over to AI and how much of it should you hold on to? Education leaders must decide what tasks to let go and what essential human work to protect. #suptchat cultureofyes.ca/2025/11/12/t...

Beyond the Score: Can AI Make Literacy Screeners More Human? Across Canada, and in many other parts of the world, literacy screening is having a moment. There is broad agreement that we need to be better at identifying students who may be at risk, and that w…

In my latest article, “Beyond the Score: Can AI Make Literacy Screeners More Human?”, I dig into the ways AI could reshape how we screen and support literacy, not just catch gaps but respond to them. cultureofyes.ca/2025/11/04/b...

Baseball, the Blue Jays, and the Classroom Tomorrow night, as the Blue Jays take the field for their first World Series game in 32 years, I find myself thinking about time, how it moves, how we mark it, and how certain moments seem to hold …

NEW on Culture of Yes - There’s something about baseball that just hits differently. As the Blue Jays return to the World Series, I’ve been thinking about time, patience, and why the slow game still matters — in baseball and in education. cultureofyes.ca/2025/10/23/b...

Modeling AI for Authentic Writing How I draft, edit, and stay human in the loop For years I believed my advantage was “writing.” Lately I’ve realized the real edge was not keystrokes, it was ideas, structure, and voice. AI has not …

What if we modeled AI use the same way we model good writing … transparently, thoughtfully, and with integrity? cultureofyes.ca/2025/10/09/m...

When Mentors Become Memories Published on World Teachers’ Day At 22, I thought I knew what teaching would be like. I had studied pedagogy, completed practicums, and felt ready to change the world one classroom at a time. What …

On #WorldTeachersDay, I’m remembering the mentors who shaped me — their lessons stay with us long after they’re gone. I wrote about it here: cultureofyes.ca/2025/10/03/w...

The Attention Crisis That Might Not Be Like many of you, I’ve been saying it for years: We are more distracted than ever. And most days, I still believe it.I’ve felt it myself, scrolling instead of reading, checking my phone…

NEW on Culture of Yes - Is our attention really collapsing — or just shifting? After hearing historian Daniel Immerwahr, I started to wonder if we’re not in an “attention crisis”, but an attention transition . . . a shift in what, how, and why we focus. cultureofyes.ca/2025/09/24/t...

The World Was Flat, But… More than 20 years ago, I was principal at Riverside Secondary in Port Coquitlam. One of the rhythms of that time was our Wednesday morning study group. It was a structure I brought with me from my…

NEW on Culture of Yes - Globalization and technology were supposed to transform education. Some things did, but much has stayed the same. In my latest post, I look back to The World is Flat. #bced #suptchat cultureofyes.ca/2025/09/16/t...

When Gambling Starts to Look Like Camel Ads You can’t watch sports these days without being hit by gambling ads. They are everywhere, plastered across hockey broadcasts, embedded in pre-game shows, sliding into social media feeds. And they’r…

Gambling ads during sports feel eerily like the old Camel cigarette campaigns, technically “for adults,” but impossible for kids to ignore. cultureofyes.ca/2025/09/08/w...

Reimagining Learning in the Age of AI: A Culture of Yes I recently gave a virtual talk on AI in schools which forced me to solidify my current thinking and I tried to make some direct linkages to the Culture of Yes belief. I have included the video at t…

As we get ready to start a new school year, here is where I think we are at with AI. It has gone from a quiet undercurrent the last couple of years to a major wave - exciting and disruptive times ahead. cultureofyes.ca/2025/08/18/r...

Paul Simon: A Lifelong Soundtrack and a Quiet Celebration of Connection August 3rd was a day layered with meaning. It marked the final stop of Paul Simon’s A Quiet Celebration tour, my 25th wedding anniversary, and the 11th anniversary of my dad’s passing. …

NEW - This post is a little less work-focused than usual and more personal and reflective. As the summer invites us to slow down, I’m sharing a story about music, memory, and connection. cultureofyes.ca/2025/08/05/p...

I Read a Book This summer, I read a book.Not a blog post. Not a podcast transcript. Not a long-form article on Substack. A real book. A paper one. With pages. About a hundred of them.It’s the first book I’ve fin…

Not to be a Bobby Bragger but I just read a book. A real one. With pages. And now I obviously need to blog about it like I’m the last reader on Earth. cultureofyes.ca/2025/07/23/i...

Looking north: A uniquely Canadian path for eduction in an AI rich world.
From the Canadian School Library Journal by @chrkennedy

journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/looking-nort...
#TLSky

Beyond Human YouTube video by Mount Sentinel Performance and Media Academy

Reshare of our student film about the impact of AI on young artists trying to start their career today

They hope it can influence policy decisions re: AI in schools

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xqg...

Check it out!
@emollick.bsky.social @chrkennedy.bsky.social @mrskannekens.bsky.social #EduSky #AIsky

29 Questions I’m Still Asking About Education For the past few years, I have ended each school year with a list post, one item for every year I’ve worked in education. It’s become a bit of a tradition, a way to pause, reflect and take stock be…

NEW on Culture of Yes - 29 Questions I’m Still Asking About Education cultureofyes.ca/2025/06/24/2...

Words for this Year’s Graduates I love graduation season.  I did a quick tally the other day and realized I have been to nearly 50 graduation ceremonies since I arrived in West Vancouver 18 years ago. Most years, I make it to at …

NEW on Culture of Yes - Words for this Year’s Graduates. cultureofyes.ca/2025/06/16/w...

The Art and Science of Placing Principals and Vice-Principals Every spring in schools, one of the most anticipated emails arrives: our principal and vice-principal appointments for the fall. This post offers a window into how these important decisions are mad…

Believe it or not we don’t just use a dart board to make these decisions …. cultureofyes.ca/2025/05/12/t...

Educating for a Superintelligent Tomorrow How do we equip young people for a world that might advance beyond our expectations?Mat Balez is a local West Vancouver parent. We have had several great conversations in recent years — and just la…

In a world of superintelligence what does parenting and education look like and what is really important? And how do we equip young people for a world that might advance beyond our expectations? cultureofyes.ca/2025/04/22/e...

Looking North: A uniquely Canadian path for education in an AI-rich world There’s a moment right now—an opening that Canada, and more specifically Canadian education, has an opportunity to seize. As we watch political discourse in the United States grow increasingly pola…

Thinking a lot about how education can meet this important moment in Canada. Love to hear what others think. cultureofyes.ca/2025/04/07/l...

Breaking News: Track and Field Without Running? A New Era Begins! Regular readings here know my love for high school sports and innovation.  This is why today is such a particularly exciting day for me. Following rigorous analysis of 427 track meets, 217 scraped …

Exciting Day! We are revolutionizing school track and field. It is always great to be at the front of innovation and here we are again. cultureofyes.ca/2025/04/01/b...