April Meeting

We'll be meeting at Janet's house for our April 16th meeting to hear from Claire and Dori in a  Back to the Future Protocol, Tuning Protocol or Charrette (still deciding!) and a Consultancy Protocol. Check your email for directions--looking forward to seeing you there!

March Meeting

Greetings, friends!

You should have received an agenda for the March meeting from me via email.  Here are links to the protocols you'll need Wed. at 3:30 in the DVR:

ATLAS Protocol for Learning From Student Work
Probing Questions Exercise
Touchstones

You may also find useful:
The Pocket Guide to Probing Questions

And after looking over my CFG posts this year I realized I must apologize for the shocking lack of poetry!  Here is one I hope speaks to you in this springtime, right before a pause to slow down, and in the time of the year we've looked at our children long:

To Look at Any Thing
by John Moffitt

To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
'I have seen spring in these 
Woods,' will not do--you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.

October Meeting

It looks like moving the CFG to October 23rd works for everyone I heard from, so we'll make that change. We will meet in the Platt Global Classroom. At this meeting we will take a look at where we all feel like we currently are on the Cycle of Inquiry in relation to a teacher question we'd like to pursue in our classrooms this year.   We will also spend time at the meeting reading the article Janet sent faculty called "The Right Questions," and participating in a text-based protocol, as well as considering observation and student work protocols that could help inform our teacher research questions. There is a collection of protocols in the previous blog post for your reference.

Looking forward to seeing all of you a week from Thursday!

Kirstin

Our First Meeting of the Year

Hello, friends,

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you on 9/25 for our first CFG of the year!  Our agenda should have reached you by email; please let me know if you didn't receive it. To welcome our new members we'll spend some time going over our touchstones, doing a reflective activity to help us think about the relationship between our teaching style and individual students (related profiles here), and we'll take a look at protocols for observation/looking at student work that may guide us through the months to come. You can find the protocols in that collection here.

We'll see you at 3:30 in the Morris House Conference Room!  Please bring your CFG binder if you have one, a journal or notepad and a pencil or pen.  You may want to grab some water, tea, etc. before you head up, too.
See you soon!
Kirstin

Preparing for Thursday

Many thanks to Erin for offering the warm and wonderful Community House for our meeting on Thursday!  Please see your emails from Erin for directions.  David has also offered to support this retreat-style meeting with some delicious treats, so look forward to some snacks and tea.

After looking over our notes from our last meeting, I've planned the agenda to give us opportunities to both connect with one another about our work from the year as well as to facilitate some goal-setting for next year.  At the Lower School Curriculum Task Force today we looked at a daunting timeline of all the initiatives we are exploring, piloting, and implementing in Lower School.  Tracy and I had a chance to talk about this after school and the subjects of simplicity and overlap came up. When planning this month's meeting, I considered these questions:

• How can our whole-school focus on inquiry help us see the common threads of the work we are doing?  
• How can our own teacher inquiry serve to teach us about how to nurture our students on their inquiry journeys? 
• Where will the children's questions and our questions lead us in regards to our other areas of focus (social-emotional, ICC work, enhanced math thinking, etc.)? 

Instead of beginning our meeting at 3:30 with our usual reflective writing, we'll begin with ten minutes to read and mark the article we'll use in our protocol.   I'm including the link to that article here in case you suspect you will arrive after 3:30 or if you'd like to bring it up on a device to read.  (Not sure about internet connections there, so maybe load it before arriving). I will also bring print copies. If you need guidance about the kinds of passages to highlight, we will be using the Three Levels of Text Protocol. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday!
Kirstin

PS:  A spring gift, The Well Rising from William Stafford:

The well rising without sound,

the spring on a hillside,
the plowshare brimming through deep ground
everywhere in the field--

The sharp swallows in their swerve
flaring and hesitating
hunting for the final curve
coming closer and closer--

The swallow heart from wingbeat to wingbeat
counseling decision, decision:
thunderous examples.  I place my feet
with care in such a world.

Tuning Protocol for Tomorrow

Hello, friends!

I'll print the agendas for tomorrow, but if you'd like a paper copy of our Touchstones or the Tuning Protocol with you, please visit these links to print them or check your CFG binder. Janet and Tonya and perhaps Jackie will present the work and wonderings they have related to their Heroes project.

We'll also spend a little time following up on past protocols, so if you've presented work or questions this year, we'd love to hear an update on how things are going!

Until tomorrow,
Kirstin

Wiggins Article

On Thursday we'll have the pleasure of thinking through the beginnings of a contagious idea in Deborah's room using the Charrette, and will delve into a Grant Wiggins article using the Four A's Protocol.  In case anyone would prefer to read the article on their tablet or computer instead of in print, I'm including a link here we can reference during our meeting.

Looking forward to seeing you all!
Kirstin

Preparing for Thursday

Our next meeting is this Thursday, October 3rd!
Thinking about our conversation from last week, I think a protocol would be useful that could help us refine our skills in asking different types of questions, as well as to generate some ideas about the kinds of dilemmas or work we might present in future meetings.  The Consultancy Protocol is one of the most versatile, with versions for both looking at dilemmas and for examining student work. As we prepare for fall conferences, we may want tools to help us look at collections of a particular student's work or to help us think through dilemmas arising in our classrooms and practice as we strive to meet the needs of everyone in our classroom community.

To help us refine the skills needed, we'll try an interactive fishbowl for modeling the consultancy on Thursday.  It may be helpful to do a few things in advance:

Do some reflective writing (1/2 page or a page) on a dilemma you face. Use this document on framing consultancy dilemmas and questions as a guide. 

Take a look at the pocket guide to probing questions in advance.  We will have this available in print at the meeting for your reference.

See you on Thursday!

Our Realm of Influence

So many thanks to all of you for your trust, honesty, faith and time as we traveled down this CFG journey this year.  If you couldn't join us today, we did some reflecting on what kept us coming to the CFG this year.  What surprised us?  What did we value?

Here are some notes on what was meaningful to us about the CFG:

-getting a glimpse into each others' classrooms and practice
-being inspired by colleagues' perspectives on the work they're doing
-walking away feeling energized and fulfilled instead of drained or frustrated
-hearing your own teaching frustrations mirrored in someone else's story, then hearing ideas and suggestions in their context that could be applied to your own
-a sense of honor and relationship

What would you add to this list?  I'd love to hear from you about what you valued, what you craved more of, what you would like to see explored or questioned. I'll continue to compile this feedback as we look forward to next year.

We also tried out The Orchard Cove Protocol to look forward to next year.  What work seems imperative to Lower School?  What next steps do you think are important for us to embark on together as a learning community? What support will we need?  What support can we provide each other?

In the spirit of that last question, what support we can provide one another, a model called the Realms of Concern and Influence came up.  I offer it to you here as a tool for your own reflection, a journal prompt, or an activity with your team.  Listing our concerns comes easily. What happens when we really look at what is within our immediate influence?  What small changes can we make to our own time, collaborations and practice that can widen our realm of influence and ease our realms of concern?

Thank you again, friends, for your willingness to share this year together.  I can't wait to see what the next school year holds in store for us.

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!

Looking for Warmth

As the leaves fall and the temperatures drop, I know I'm noticing the places around me that offer warmth.  We went on a cold walk yesterday to draw branches and the children were so ready to come in to warm up they suggested skipping recess and going directly back to the classroom. But I'm seeing inner warmth in so many places, too; the teachers next door who have offered hugs of encouragement, the way my class all spontaneously lay on their bellies and stretched their hands to meet when we learned a new song about roots, exclaiming, "Look, our roots are all connected!" 

I'm excited that another opportunity for warmth and for our roots to connect lies ahead of us next week.  I look forward to seeing all of you in MHC at 4 pm on Wed. Nov. 14th.

Just a reminder that we'll all have an opportunity to participate in The Final Word Protocol with the Roland Barth article, so please look over both the article and the protocol in advance.  I'm also still looking for a presenter so we can further explore protocols to deepen our work.  If you have some curriculum to fine-tune, a question you want to explore or a dilemma you want some insight into, please let me know so we can talk briefly this weekend or early next week to plan.

If you weren't able to join us last time, the poem we used to begin our work was Where the Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore and we participated in a Consultancy Protocol about a question Deborah has been thinking about in her classroom. Copies of the handouts should have been delivered to your boxes on Friday if you've attended a meeting or are subscribed to the CFG website--please let me know if you didn't receive one and would like to.

Until Wednesday,
Kirstin

September Gathering

Greetings, friends,

Happy fall!  I hope you are all enjoying this crisp, sunny weekend.  Clara, Ellis and I went to an afternoon labyrinth walk today to celebrate the beginning of fall, and we discovered one of my favorite poems was out on the table for inspiration. I think it will be the perfect thing to get us started on Wednesday…when you arrive at the Morris House Conference Room by 4 pm for our CFG meeting, look for a copy of the poem on the table and find a comfortable spot in the room to read, reflect and write.  A candle will be lit for this quiet reflection time—we'll blow it out at the end of the reflection so we know to finish up any last thoughts in our writing and prepare for our conversations to begin. 

If you can manage it, I do think it would be helpful to look over this brief guide to probing questions before Wednesday's meeting, as we'll be asking questions for a protocol in the second half of the afternoon:

I sent the protocol out via email for any of you who want to look it over in advance. 

And just a reminder to bring:

• a binder you can use to keep a protocol packet and your CFG notes
• a favorite pen or pencil for writing
• a journal if you prefer for your reflections to be in a journal.  I'll have reflection sheets you can use if you want your reflections in your CFG binder instead.

Our agenda is as follows:

4:00-4:10 Written reflection

4:10-4:20 Groups of 2-3 reflect together on poem and writing

4:20-4:55 Revisit our hopes for a collaborative community; Circle of Trust touchstones; agreements to guide our work

4:55 Walk and Talk introduction

5-5:40 Walk and Talk Protocol

5:40 Debrief Protocol

5:50 or 5:55 Closing reflection 

I'm so looking forward to meeting with all of you again on Wednesday,

Kirstin

Let's Get Together!

Hello, friends!

I imagine all of us have minds full of checklists, plan book pages and room arrangements.  I'd like to propose two CFG activities for next week that I hope will be worth your precious and limited week-before-school-starts time.

I'll bring a few picnic blankets on Wednesday, August 29th and bring them to the lawn area near Morris House (aka the labyrinth area or the yard in front of Lou and Sal's house).  There's also a picnic bench if it's hard for you to sit on the ground. Pick up your lunch at  12:00 and head on over.  We can eat together, meet the other faculty interested in the CFG, ask questions and discuss dates and times for future meetings.  Please bring your calendar. Think beforehand about where a two-hour block of time might fit into your schedule once a month, as well as any regular restrictions you have on your schedule.  I'd like us to schedule a school year's worth of monthly meetings so we can get them on our calendars early. At the end of this lunch meeting you can also sign up for an optional CFG activity for next week that might be helpful...

Feedback about classroom design can be so inspiring.  It's great to get input from members of your grade level team who know what you're trying to accomplish and are in the mind-set of children in your age group.  But what insight and challenges to our thinking can teachers outside of our grade level teams offer us?  If you are interested in the perspective of someone who isn't regularly in your classroom, we can organize dyads or triads of CFG members to do a version of the Collaborative Ghost Walk protocol.  We'll learn much more this year about following protocols, but for interested teachers I'll create a simplified version of this protocol that can be followed without protocol experience.  I'll have the modified version available on Wednesday and we can sign up for small touring groups at that time. After hearing a few brief statements about your biggest hopes for your classroom, the teacher or teachers walking through your classroom will focus on this appreciative inquiry question while walking through your room:  Where is the evidence of promise and potential? They will also write down three questions for you to consider about the classroom environment. You will then do the same for the other teacher/s in your group.  To participate, plan to dedicate 30 min. per classroom at the convenience of the teachers in your group.

“It has been said that the environment should act as a kind of aquarium which reflects the ideas, ethics, attitudes and cultures of the people who live in it. This is what we are working toward."  -Loris Malaguzzi-

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you on Wednesday.  If you are unable to join us but have input you'd like to give regarding future meetings, please contact me.

Until next week,
Kirstin