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In-service program documentation
Reflecting and sharing on the on-going field experiences (D6.6)
Facilitator's plan (by Judith Fonzi)

The purpose for these Fall meetings is to open conversations beyond the small Support Teams. There is power in knowing what others are doing and learning; it builds encouragement, excitement, and camaraderie as well as sets up for cross-fertilization of ideas.

Sharing Session - Open Ended Time Frame

The Sharing Session is designed to elicit the participants' key issues regarding their first unit implementation. They were told via a memo:

Please come prepared to share (in 3-4 minutes) one thing from your experience that other teachers in this project could benefit from knowing (for example: about teaching math differently; or, planning and adjusting units; or, teaching a specific; or, how students learn) and one concern you have.

There will be an "Open Bulletin Board" for communicating questions, interests, ideas, etc. with the whole community.

Sharing will be by unit (Area, Remodeling, Tessellation) and the points will be recorded on newsprint. At the end of each unit the implementers of that unit will be asked to offer any advice, suggestions, recommendations regarding the planning of the specific unit or the implementation of the specific unit - the audience will be encouraged to ask questions. This is an opportunity for participants implementing the unit in the future to take advantage of what was learned by the first implementers. It also allows for the first implementers to hear ideas they may not have thought of or didn't take seriously.

Order: (the hope is that many of the general issues, suggestions etc. will surface during the early units so as not to make the tessellation sharing any longer than necessary)

• Area - because it involves a smaller group of people and team reports have been fairly positive
• Remodeling - this too involves a very small number of people but the general impression was that people seemed to struggle a bit more with this unit

SHORT BREAK

• Tessellation - this is the largest group of people hence it will take the longest.

NOTE:

It is quite possible that this discussion is so productive that we skip the formal session of planning (expected to take about 1 ½ hrs.). If this is not the case, we will implement the following plan within the time remaining (a minimum of 30 minutes will be reserved at the end of the day to formally begin conversations regarding the concerns which have come out during the day (in the sharing or on the bulletin board)).

A 30 Minute Break

The purpose of the long break is for people to connect with others as a result of the prior conversation and to continue to identify items for the Open Bulletin board or respond to items on the Open Bulletin Board. (This is also a time to get bagels !)

Beginning Conversations about Concerns, Issues, Interests etc. (min. 30 minutes)

This session is designed to send the message that their concerns are heard and taken seriously. It is felt that if people are asked to articulate concerns, issues, interests etc. at least some attempt must be made to formally pull together a group interested in discussing them. There is no expectation that solutions will be found in all cases in 30 minutes but rather that contacts and connections will be made.

During the breaks the facilitators will get together to identifying the major or most common topics surfacing. They will then assign a facilitator to each topic and identify a place in the room where they will meet those interested in each specific topic. Participants will be encouraged to go either to the topic they raised or one they can contribute to. Experience tells us that if one simply says "now is the time to discuss some of the issues raised" without a formal organizational mechanism for moving people to each other this session will not be effective.

The facilitator's role in these groups is essentially to keep the conversation going, contribute as any member of the community would, and explicitly orchestrate where to go from here, i.e., maybe this group wants to get together at another time to continue the conversation - try to plan the date; maybe the issues have been solved - end of discussion; maybe suggestions have been made and follow-up would be in order - try to plan how that could happen; maybe offers to share materials have been made - try to be sure the logistics are in place to do so, etc.

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