I just read Stan's entry on his experience facilitating in Edmonton. I just had what seems like a somewhat similar experience. This group was a mix of new and experienced teachers and administrators. Before we even began this group was keen in every way... as a group of like-minded teachers they rarely get to see each other partly due to the geographically distances between them and the excitement to collaborate, network, and grow their practice was contagious!
I also noticed that on day 2 of the institute I stepped back a lot more and let the small working groups who were planning inquiry units, and PBLs go longer than I normally would. They were so engaged and the conversations were so rich that there was no reason to move them along. It is such a different energy when that planning time that is allocated to them in PD is seized and acted upon! With this group, there focus and energy came through with their participation in the Supportive Circle of Friends exercise. Again this is a place that with other groups some participants by day 2 afternoon have checked out but everyone was thoroughly engaged.
Innovations:
- This is the second time that I have had a group review their inquiry questions, and add another layer of sticky notes (a different colour is preferred) and this layer is called "directions". These are directions for the inquiry question that have come through the institute. This process gives participants and facilitator to reflect on what has been covered and what still remains. This was incredibly generative with this group.
At the end of the day, this group started planning for how they would stay in touch, advocate for a fall planning day to continue their professional inquiry, and potentially develop an environmental steering committee to push the school board to draft a stronger environmental board policy. Having 5 administrators in the room really helped push these processes along.
This is a group that I would love to continue to work with as they already have a foundation of transformative practice, are willing to take risks, and have a collegial supportive culture. This is very exciting for students in Superior Greenstone schools!
Drawbacks:
Many did not receive the survey link. Did it go to their junk mail? And I forgot to add it to the drive folder so they could just access that way. I collected emails and emailed those who didn't receive it and fingers crossed they fill out the survey. This ice storm in Toronto is delaying my flight home...I do home I get home tonight!his is
Friday, April 13, 2018
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Edmonton Inquiry
Sometimes things all come together and align as you as facilitator hopes. What does that mean and what are the indicators? For me it is achieving with participating educators what you hope they will achieve with their learners -a greater sense of individual and group agency. It's having a sense that as a result of the work you have put into facilitating, the individuals and group no longer need you. They are taking their learning into their own hands and doing it in the context of a transformative world view.
One little indicator of this was the forming of a follow up group with members adding their names to a google doc they created, and members of staff from a school actively planning on how they were going to carry this leaning forward back at their school.
Earlier in the institute I experienced one of the better responses to the after day 1 lunch challenge -how are you gong to go about learning to address these questions (as compared to the normal response of just starting to answer them). Small groups chose a question fo interest and worked through the V heuristic to step 4.
Innovations
-took the time to have small groups tease apart the tentative strategies of transformative leanring.
Each group took one strategy and then addressed
-expand it further
-identify contrasting views
-implications for classroom practice
-implications for professional leaning
taking the time to do this gets them to attend to this important element -these principles are what we can base decisions on. They are so opposite of conventional learning but rarely are people actively cognizant of them.
Other indicators of facilitation success
-the longer we are into the institute the less the facilitator finds the need to talk -because the experiences are being drawn from the groups and leadership in the group is being identified and brought forth.
The right people were in the room
this groups of about 25 had a core of 5 or 6 educators strongly into inquiry and transformative practice and hence there was a good sense of the possibilities of transformative learning to draw out and share
Megan is certainly one who should be called upon to prep one or more blog postings based on her experience last year.
We had 4 who were secondary oriented and for the section on dissecting an inquiry I had them use the KARS video and the diagram on page 71/72 of DOTS. this worked well since NC only has stories up to grade 6.
Really worked to make day 2 learning activities responsive to the questions generated and the insights provided in the pre session survey. Again -they experienced transformation learning by the facilitator walking the talk.
Still grappling with what we call all this. Folks call it environmental inquiry, natural curiosity, while I try to capture a bigger picture by calling it transformative learning.
I will get this group together for a zoom sharing in 2 weeks so let's see what that brings.
Nice to go out on a high.
One little indicator of this was the forming of a follow up group with members adding their names to a google doc they created, and members of staff from a school actively planning on how they were going to carry this leaning forward back at their school.
Earlier in the institute I experienced one of the better responses to the after day 1 lunch challenge -how are you gong to go about learning to address these questions (as compared to the normal response of just starting to answer them). Small groups chose a question fo interest and worked through the V heuristic to step 4.
Innovations
-took the time to have small groups tease apart the tentative strategies of transformative leanring.
Each group took one strategy and then addressed
-expand it further
-identify contrasting views
-implications for classroom practice
-implications for professional leaning
taking the time to do this gets them to attend to this important element -these principles are what we can base decisions on. They are so opposite of conventional learning but rarely are people actively cognizant of them.
Other indicators of facilitation success
-the longer we are into the institute the less the facilitator finds the need to talk -because the experiences are being drawn from the groups and leadership in the group is being identified and brought forth.
The right people were in the room
this groups of about 25 had a core of 5 or 6 educators strongly into inquiry and transformative practice and hence there was a good sense of the possibilities of transformative learning to draw out and share
Megan is certainly one who should be called upon to prep one or more blog postings based on her experience last year.
We had 4 who were secondary oriented and for the section on dissecting an inquiry I had them use the KARS video and the diagram on page 71/72 of DOTS. this worked well since NC only has stories up to grade 6.
Really worked to make day 2 learning activities responsive to the questions generated and the insights provided in the pre session survey. Again -they experienced transformation learning by the facilitator walking the talk.
Still grappling with what we call all this. Folks call it environmental inquiry, natural curiosity, while I try to capture a bigger picture by calling it transformative learning.
I will get this group together for a zoom sharing in 2 weeks so let's see what that brings.
Nice to go out on a high.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
CC Youth Forum Belleville ON April 3, 2018
This being a Youth Forum changed the make up of the teachers who attended the PD session. These were teachers (of students from grade 2-8) who were highly motivated and already working on eco teams and with colleagues and students. I followed a similar format to that of the Youth Forum we did in Milton for the morning session.
We began the day with our circle up activity outdoors. We discovered that collectively we had over 250 years of experience in the group. This suggestion, of counting the years of experience that the group brings, supports the idea that the wisdom shared during the day will be that of the collective group. (Thanks Pamela for this idea.) I introduced the work of Zoe Weil and the idea of "educating a generation of solutionaries". Here is a link to Zoe's blog and her video called You Are What You Teach.
I kept the same provocation as we previously used but followed up with a discussion of the new CC provocation (one personal action in response to CC, one personal action that contributes to CC, what keeps you up at night). Then, I showed Arjun Wal's video. This led into the KBC where the discussion moved from what teachers are doing to teach about CC in the curriculum presently to what it takes to ignite change in your school (colleagues, administration and custodial staff). After the KBC the group decided to stay in the circle formation for the rest of the time (thanks again to Pamela for this suggestion).
I also wanted to expand the idea of the 21st century learner to incorporate the Modern Learner (from Peel). I searched the HPEDSB's website to find that they too have mandate to educate the "Globally-Minded Learner and Leader". We used this idea to get into the transformational practices of teaching and learning. Because they all knew the [impossibly cluttered] graphic they could relate some of the ways and situations where moving to a more transformational practice was appropriate for their individual situations. We watched the Felix Finkbeiner video to see these ideas in action.
This led us into the DOTS document. I had each group (they grouped themselves by school first, then by division) summarize on the chalkboard, one of the DOTS strategies and to present this to the group (similar to what we did in Grismby with Ellen). They found the DOTS document to be very help and the examples very concrete. This group, being mainly junior teachers (one grade 2, one grade 3, about 12 teachers of grades 5/6 and 2 grade 7/8) were very concrete; however they seemed more willing to learn (from each other, from their students, and from their colleagues). There was little academic talk or thinking, they were more practical (not shallow but practical) than deep thinkers. Many made reference to other workshops that they've attended - the one that sounded the most interesting was on critical thinking. Sorry I didn't get more information about this workshop.
The exit card at lunch gave me direction for the afternoon. They loved the R4R demo and after another short outdoor activity we explored a sample activity from Green Teacher's new document (coming out later this month) called Climate Change for Kids. (The activity I shared was called "Weathering Climate Change Confusion.) This was the impetus for a conversation on entry points into teaching 'climate change'. I also shared Paul Hawken's top 10 most effective responses to turn around climate change from Drawdown (the first 2.25 minutes of this video) and this led us into a discussion on HOPE.
I actually ran out of time as we rushed to split into 3 groups. One group explored R4R, another gave input into community partners and the third group worked in their eco teams to plan next steps. 2:30 comes quickly after lunch... after the survey they had to rush off. I actually didn't even get to do a closing activity, which I regretted.
I would like to see someone do the concept mapping and now, I'd like to see Ellen's graffiti board. I have not planned a follow up with this group and am not sure I was supposed to do that. I was inspired when I saw the follow up from the Guelph high school institute that Stan ran.
The teachers seemed happy, the evaluations were positive... I think I could have done more in hindsight...
We began the day with our circle up activity outdoors. We discovered that collectively we had over 250 years of experience in the group. This suggestion, of counting the years of experience that the group brings, supports the idea that the wisdom shared during the day will be that of the collective group. (Thanks Pamela for this idea.) I introduced the work of Zoe Weil and the idea of "educating a generation of solutionaries". Here is a link to Zoe's blog and her video called You Are What You Teach.
I kept the same provocation as we previously used but followed up with a discussion of the new CC provocation (one personal action in response to CC, one personal action that contributes to CC, what keeps you up at night). Then, I showed Arjun Wal's video. This led into the KBC where the discussion moved from what teachers are doing to teach about CC in the curriculum presently to what it takes to ignite change in your school (colleagues, administration and custodial staff). After the KBC the group decided to stay in the circle formation for the rest of the time (thanks again to Pamela for this suggestion).
I also wanted to expand the idea of the 21st century learner to incorporate the Modern Learner (from Peel). I searched the HPEDSB's website to find that they too have mandate to educate the "Globally-Minded Learner and Leader". We used this idea to get into the transformational practices of teaching and learning. Because they all knew the [impossibly cluttered] graphic they could relate some of the ways and situations where moving to a more transformational practice was appropriate for their individual situations. We watched the Felix Finkbeiner video to see these ideas in action.
This led us into the DOTS document. I had each group (they grouped themselves by school first, then by division) summarize on the chalkboard, one of the DOTS strategies and to present this to the group (similar to what we did in Grismby with Ellen). They found the DOTS document to be very help and the examples very concrete. This group, being mainly junior teachers (one grade 2, one grade 3, about 12 teachers of grades 5/6 and 2 grade 7/8) were very concrete; however they seemed more willing to learn (from each other, from their students, and from their colleagues). There was little academic talk or thinking, they were more practical (not shallow but practical) than deep thinkers. Many made reference to other workshops that they've attended - the one that sounded the most interesting was on critical thinking. Sorry I didn't get more information about this workshop.
The exit card at lunch gave me direction for the afternoon. They loved the R4R demo and after another short outdoor activity we explored a sample activity from Green Teacher's new document (coming out later this month) called Climate Change for Kids. (The activity I shared was called "Weathering Climate Change Confusion.) This was the impetus for a conversation on entry points into teaching 'climate change'. I also shared Paul Hawken's top 10 most effective responses to turn around climate change from Drawdown (the first 2.25 minutes of this video) and this led us into a discussion on HOPE.
I actually ran out of time as we rushed to split into 3 groups. One group explored R4R, another gave input into community partners and the third group worked in their eco teams to plan next steps. 2:30 comes quickly after lunch... after the survey they had to rush off. I actually didn't even get to do a closing activity, which I regretted.
I would like to see someone do the concept mapping and now, I'd like to see Ellen's graffiti board. I have not planned a follow up with this group and am not sure I was supposed to do that. I was inspired when I saw the follow up from the Guelph high school institute that Stan ran.
The teachers seemed happy, the evaluations were positive... I think I could have done more in hindsight...
Monday, April 2, 2018
TDSB - two day institute - March 28th & 29th
The numbers for this institute were low; however, the teacher participants made up for it in with how keen they are. In the end, there were 8 who attended the institute.
The morning followed the same structure as other two-day cc institutes. The questions for the introduction activity worked well. The question for the KBC also brought up some of the complex questions around student engagement and the student experience for addressing cc in schools. Pam Miller played an integral role in bringing the group back to the KBC question and providing insightful TDSB context. It is so important that organizers fully engage in the PD.
This group showed its intellectual and in depth engagement with cc learning when it came time to direct our learning with inquiry questions. The questions were not the regular, we want resources but considered process of knowledge formation and student experience. Grouping these questions on the fly caught me off-guard.
Concept mapping was also well-received and we had groups add comments to the other group's concept map to help direct the learning. This is something we should continue to do. The walk outside should also always be facilitated to show how many possible starting points for cc learning there are right outside our doors.
We also did the graffiti activity with the group brainstorming: 1) local sources of cc data 2) unconventional cc field trips 3) audiences to share cc learning 4) local cc community partners. This was very generative - although it ideally would be analyzed further and refined.
Innovations:
On day 2, I asked teachers to draw a spectrum from shallow to deep cc learning and then to locate their course on that spectrum. They could work on their own or in groups to then reflect on how they could push the course along the spectrum towards deep cc learning. They then made a list of opportunities/actions.
I followed Stan's innovation from Durham to brainstorm a meta-reflection list of tools/strategies. This helped bring to the forefront for teachers the tools/strategies and created a list that they can go back to.
I then had teachers revisit their "inquiry questions" and post blue sticky notes (which had not been previously used) to indicate directions that had come up through the institute and that addressed the question. I think this is an important step for participants so that they have an opportunity to consolidate responses, directions, ideas that connect to the inquiry questions. It also provides a visual of which questions may not have been addressed within the institute. We did a gallery walk after everyone had added their directions to the questions.
Since this group had a low turn-out, Pam Miller indicated that she was interested in having an ongoing professional community of learners and had some left-over monies for release time. Teachers were keen to continue their learning and so I followed the previous activity with a KBC on directing their professional learning. The sequence of the meta-reflection, revisiting our questions, and then the KBC provided a logical reflection sequence so that teachers could see what they had learned and had the space to voice where they wanted to take their learning.
As a community partner, I had Transform TO zoom in and this was a great connection. They are just about to launch an emissions model that maps Toronto by neighbourhood. The data is not live but updates very regularly. Transform TO is open to piloting a couple of class partnerships where they would come into the class and help the teacher and students understand the emissions data for the neighbourhood surrounding the school. They also agreed to facilitate future-envisioning activities with classes to help them imagine their school/neighbourhood in 2050 with zero emissions. Transform TO expects that the class will create an action plan and implement it in exchange. I would highly recommend having Transform TO be a part of future TDSB cc institutes.
Overall, it was a great group and I am quite confident that the survey responses will reflect what a rich learning experience it was for all.
The morning followed the same structure as other two-day cc institutes. The questions for the introduction activity worked well. The question for the KBC also brought up some of the complex questions around student engagement and the student experience for addressing cc in schools. Pam Miller played an integral role in bringing the group back to the KBC question and providing insightful TDSB context. It is so important that organizers fully engage in the PD.
This group showed its intellectual and in depth engagement with cc learning when it came time to direct our learning with inquiry questions. The questions were not the regular, we want resources but considered process of knowledge formation and student experience. Grouping these questions on the fly caught me off-guard.
Concept mapping was also well-received and we had groups add comments to the other group's concept map to help direct the learning. This is something we should continue to do. The walk outside should also always be facilitated to show how many possible starting points for cc learning there are right outside our doors.
We also did the graffiti activity with the group brainstorming: 1) local sources of cc data 2) unconventional cc field trips 3) audiences to share cc learning 4) local cc community partners. This was very generative - although it ideally would be analyzed further and refined.
Innovations:
On day 2, I asked teachers to draw a spectrum from shallow to deep cc learning and then to locate their course on that spectrum. They could work on their own or in groups to then reflect on how they could push the course along the spectrum towards deep cc learning. They then made a list of opportunities/actions.
I followed Stan's innovation from Durham to brainstorm a meta-reflection list of tools/strategies. This helped bring to the forefront for teachers the tools/strategies and created a list that they can go back to.
I then had teachers revisit their "inquiry questions" and post blue sticky notes (which had not been previously used) to indicate directions that had come up through the institute and that addressed the question. I think this is an important step for participants so that they have an opportunity to consolidate responses, directions, ideas that connect to the inquiry questions. It also provides a visual of which questions may not have been addressed within the institute. We did a gallery walk after everyone had added their directions to the questions.
Since this group had a low turn-out, Pam Miller indicated that she was interested in having an ongoing professional community of learners and had some left-over monies for release time. Teachers were keen to continue their learning and so I followed the previous activity with a KBC on directing their professional learning. The sequence of the meta-reflection, revisiting our questions, and then the KBC provided a logical reflection sequence so that teachers could see what they had learned and had the space to voice where they wanted to take their learning.
As a community partner, I had Transform TO zoom in and this was a great connection. They are just about to launch an emissions model that maps Toronto by neighbourhood. The data is not live but updates very regularly. Transform TO is open to piloting a couple of class partnerships where they would come into the class and help the teacher and students understand the emissions data for the neighbourhood surrounding the school. They also agreed to facilitate future-envisioning activities with classes to help them imagine their school/neighbourhood in 2050 with zero emissions. Transform TO expects that the class will create an action plan and implement it in exchange. I would highly recommend having Transform TO be a part of future TDSB cc institutes.
Overall, it was a great group and I am quite confident that the survey responses will reflect what a rich learning experience it was for all.