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I am inspired. That is my final thought as I wind down the cohort21 face to face session that was enriching and motivating.
This was the last sentence that I wrote 2 months ago. Having the next face to face coming up, it has given me the opportunity to reflec on the second face to face, revisit my action plan, and reflect what I have accomplished so far.
The second face to face session gave me an opportunity to meet new peers who were saturated in good ideas and support. Seeing how others were refining and redefining their own projects, help me narrow and focus more on my own. There was a great synergy going on at my table where we were all helping each other, and progress was being made. My favourite part of the day was the gallery walk, where we got to see and comment on other action plans. I was able to connect with other peers who shared similar topics, and bounce ideas off them. Additionally, there was so much supportive and constructive feedback on my topic that it both inspired me and really helped shape my direction. This was my first full design thinking exercise and I really enjoyed it. I have done several abbreviated ones, but it was great to fully focus on one topics for an extended period of time to really dive deep into the subject.
Since that second face to face, have made moderate progress on my action plan. My goal was to have 5 class visits to other classes, and 5 people come visit my class and provide feedback by February break. Right now I am at 2 visits to other classes, and I have had 2 visits on into my own class. These visits have been beneficial in helping me better understand the feedback in teacher to teacher visits, while ensuring that these visits are fully embraced and non-judgemental. Although I am still not at my goal of having a culture of purely open classrooms, I am encouraged by the start. There are several other teachers at Lakefield College that are starting to do more visits and I feel that we are at the beginning of a longer journey towards more teacher to teacher visits. I am happy with this progress so far and hope to build on it after (hopefully) some more inspiration from the third face to face session at Mars.
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@aross I call that great progress! Friday will help you revisit that progress through a few more lenses. Bring those experiences with you and share them with the coaches, facilitators and guest C21 alum. The more you share the more you will get back 🙂
See you Friday!
Great insights into your action plan @aross! #ObserveUs seems to be going well in its infancy and you’ve done well to be a part of it! I know @trolwag @vboombgaardt @marsenault @sarmstrong and I would all be more than happy to have you visit classes and I will make a point to drop by. I think having a goal in what you’re wanting feedback on is important and allows the person to frame questions with students and collect feedback that way.
These are the things I wonder about – Can you think of a framework for providing feedback? Would it use a tech tool, face to face, or both? What role would questioning and questioning strategies play in this? What role would reflection play? Would you want to document the reflection?
Have you thought of engaging students in this? Have students had a chance to give you feedback via surveys or reflective questions? @jmedved is right – Friday is going to be a great time to hammer out some logistics and break down your action plan into manageable chunks.
@cschindler has done a lot of work with PD and faculty, and @adamcaplan works with faculty all the time. Perhaps they have some helpful insights that can help push your thinking on this.
Thank you for your feedback. I hope to visit your class in the next few weeks as well!
Right now our framework for providing feedback is with a google doc. Not sure if that is the most effective way. I think i will try and find a way that works best at LCS for feedback that is easy, quick and relevant. I think a tech tool is the best way to go just in case a follow up chat can’t be had for a few days, and it loses it’s immediacy. However, you can never replace a face to face chat when possible. Any ideas other than google docs or forms for feedback?
I have not thought about recording reflection at all. I guess as a teacher, we aren’t regularly encouraged to reflect on a regular basis, and I certainly do not have an effective tool for this. Recording this reflection would be very useful for further growth on subsequent classroom visits. Additionally, reflection is a part of instructional rounds https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/program/instructional-rounds-spring-session which is a professional development opportunity that we are embarking on as a school that directly relates to classroom visits.
I have thought about engaging students, but not sure how best to do this. Hope to get more ideas from colleagues on their experiences with classroom visits and what has worked for them. @brenthurly
Oh – realized that @timrollwagen and @vboomgaardt & @su11armstrong were not tagged in this comment.
Just an idea for the post-visit reflection: check out the DocAppender tool. @ddoucet is an expert and could get you rolling–essentially it is a way to marry the power of Google Forms and Google Docs.
@aross I look forward to your final action plan post to learn about how it all went down and what you learned.