On-Site Facilitation Institute

1. On-Site Facilitation Institute Long Branch Elementary School November 12 & 14, 2008

2. Developing a Conceptual and Experiential Understanding of Facilitation Day one

3. Getting Started with Ready Schools Miami Opening Moves

4. Guiding Questions • What tone do we want to establish at the start of a session? • How can the activities we use to initiate a session help us set the tone for learning?

5. Introductions • “KWL” • One thing you know about facilitation? • A burning question you bring? • Something you want to make sure you learn by the time you leave here? • Questions • What is the one thing you provide your students that is special—unique to your teaching philosophy or style? • Zen Cards • Block Party

6. Agenda Review & Frame • Why are we here? • What are we going to learn? • How are we going to learn it?

7. Intended Outcomes • Understand the design principles and standards that make up the Ready Schools Miami Initiative; • Understand the role of facilitation and develop facilitation skills to enhance collaboration among school faculty and staff; • Facilitate protocols at school-wide sessions to increase collaboration within and across grade level teams, content area departments, and special area teachers; • Understand the differences between leading a group/team and facilitating adult learning around DAP; • Adopt an inquiry stance and work with school leadership to adapt school practices and policies in ways that improve school culture and increase student achievement for all students.

8. Suggested Agreements • Acknowledge one another as equals. • Speak from your heart. • Get what you need. • Assume good will. • Trust the process. • Expect it to be messy at times. • Watch your “air time.”

9. Why use protocols? How can protocols help us change the way we talk to each other about our practice? Changing the Conversation

10. Listening as a Basic Skill in Collaboration

11. Dyad Purpose: To create a safe space to become better at listening and talking in depth. Constructivist listening dyads help us as we work through feelings, thoughts, and beliefs that sometimes produce anger, passivity, undermine confidence, or cause interference in relationships with students or colleagues.

12. Basic Principle I agree to listen to and think about you for a fixed period of time in exchange for you doing the same for me. I keep in my mind that my listening is for your benefit so I do not ask questions for my information.

13. Guidelines • Each person is given equal time to talk. (Everyone deserves to be listened to.) • The listener does not interpret, paraphrase, analyze, give advice or break in with a personal story. (People can solve their own problems.) • Confidentiality is maintained. (People need to know they can be completely authentic.) • The talker does not criticize or complain about a listener(s) or about mutual colleagues during their time to talk. (A person cannot listen well when she/he is feeling attacked or defensive.)

14. Microlabs • Why did you decide to become an educator? What drew you to this profession? • Who is the one teacher—inside or outside of your formal schooling—who stands out as having made a difference in your life? If you could write to her or him right now, what is the one thing you would like to tell her/him? • When you think about your practice, what one element of it won’t you give up? What’s at the heart of what you do? What do you stand for?

16. Distal to Proximal Shift happens

17. Guiding Questions • What are we most concerned about? • What aspects of teaching and learning do we control? • How do we go about improving teaching and learning?

18. Identifying Issues That Really Matter Chalk talk

19. What are the major issues we will have to address at our schools in order to significantly improve student learning?

20. TWO CONSTRUCTS PROXIMAL DISTAL

21. Proximal Issues Working on proximal issues together provides us with an agenda for collaboration focused on improving teaching and learning.

22. Teaching Metaphors When I’m at my best as a teacher, administrator, external facilitator I am…

23. Create Draw a picture, symbol, or some other graphic representation of your metaphor.

24. Reflect What guidance might this metaphor offer me in tough or sticky situations? What are the “shadows” of this metaphor?

25. Share In triads or quads… • Present (3 min • Clarify (2 min.) • Discuss (5 min.) • Reflect (2 min.)

26. Debrief • What did we learn? • How did the process contribute to our learning? • How might you use this process during a faculty meeting or any other staff gathering at your school? How might you modify it? Why?

28. Team Builders that Deepen the Conversation HAVING “FUN”

29. Compass Points GROUP ACTIVITY

30. Acting—”Let’s do it;” likes to act, try things, plunge in. Paying attention to detail—likes to know the who, what, when, where and why before acting. Speculating—likes to look at the big picture and the possibilities before acting. Caring—likes to know that everyone’s feelings have been taken into consideration and that their voices have been heard before acting.

31. Focus Questions What are the strengths of your style? (four adjectives) What are the limitations of your style? (four adjectives) What style do you find most difficult to work with and why? What do people from the other “directions” or styles need to know about you so that you can work together effectively? What do you value about the other styles?

32. Debrief What important lesson do you take away from this experience? How can these activities help us be more effective collaborators?

33. Drilling Down “Mining” Successes

34. Guiding Questions • How can we support and enhance each other’s teaching? • How can we facilitate learning conversations? • What can we learn from sharing our successes?

35. Success Analysis • Write a short description of a success you have experienced related to teaching and learning. Describe the specifics of the success. Be sure to answer the question: “What made this experience so different from others like it that I have had?”

36. Process • Present (3 min.) • Clarify (2 min.) • Analysis (5 min.) • Presenter Reflection (2 min.)

37. Break ‘n READ Read “Ten Alternative Classrooms ” and identify passages that you feel have important connections to the work we are learning about at this session.

38. Text-Based Protocols that Encourage Reflective Dialogue Building background knowledge

39. Guiding Questions • Why incorporate text-based activities at faculty gatherings? • How can we use protocols to promote reflective dialogue around relevant texts?

40. Final Word Three Levels of Text Protocol Text protocols

41. Ending with the Beginning in Mind Closing moves

42. Guiding Questions • How do we connect one learning episode to the next? • What can we learn from session reflections?

43. Home Learning • Read one of the following… “Facilitating Groups” by Elizabeth Gillard “Constructivist Facilitation: When Zen is Not Enough by Nancy Mohr “The Zen of Facilitation” by Joellen P. Killion and Lynn A. Simmons • Describe a teaching and learning dilemma that you have experienced so far this year. • Review the “Consultancy Overview” document.

44. Session Reflections • What are you taking away from today’s session? • What do you still need to learn by the time you leave tomorrow? • How can we help you learn it?

45. At amazon.com

46. Deepening and Applying Our Learning Day two

47. Opening Moves

48. Guiding Questions • How does it feel to come together again today? • How does collaboration build and sustain relationships? • How are these relationships different from our current professional relationships?

49. Day 2: Connections Starters Something I didn’t say yesterday… A thought I had last night is… Something I’m looking forward to is… A question I’m bringing into our work today… An insight I had as a result of our conversations yesterday… A realization I had…

50. The “Rules” • Speak if you want to. • Don’t speak if you don’t want to. • Speak only once until everyone else has had a chance. • Listen and note what people say, but don’t respond. Connections is not a time for discussion.