Inspired

Hello, friends!
I feel certain each of you found, as I did, something to inspire you in our meetings with Ashley Cadwell this week.  I sat near Paula a few times in the 3:30 meetings and each time she mentioned to me the pleasure of sitting around a table together to talk about what really matters.  I agree and feel grateful for all of you, who have made a commitment to sitting down for those conversations that matter on a regular basis.

I wanted to share an article that has inspired me lately about teacher research.  I'd encountered it before but it was reintroduced to me at a workshop at Opal School last week. This excerpt resonated with me when I reread the article after our work regarding the new building:
This is why true innovations are so difficult to accept and appreciate.  They "shake up" our frames of reference because they force us to look at the world with new eyes.  They open us up to what is different and unexpected.  We tend to accept the status quo, that which we know and have already tried out...even when it does not satisfy us, even when it makes us feel stressed, confused or hopeless.
I love the way the rest of this article frames our hope and inspiration in the children themselves and their innate desire to search for and research meaning.

Opal teacher Kerry Salazar shared some of her own guiding teacher research questions in a presentation on 12/6 that I thought might inspire some of you.  I'd like to offer them as questions that could guide some reflective writing over winter break:
What do I believe about children?
What assumptions do I carry?
How do these beliefs or assumptions show up in my daily teaching?
Does my practice/classroom reflect my beliefs?
What are my questions?

May the break be restorative to all of you, full of inspiration, reflection and renewal.

PS  I also have in my notes from the Suzy Cessor workshop a reminder to give you the link to the Five Whys Protocol she referenced when she introduced the Design Thinking process.  It's a simple, useful protocol, good for shorter time frames like team meetings. Here it is!