I facilitated a coaches' clinic on Thursday with Mary and Carolyn. Here are some notes and reflections about the evening.

Icebreaker--Participants selected a book with a title that reverberated with their own lives, their own teaching, or their own coaching. I was struck with how deeply personal some of the comments were. For example, the teacher that chose "The Importance of Being Earnest" talked about how her CFG was a sort of island of honesty at her campus and that she wished more of the faculty were more authentic with each other. I have done a similar icebreaker with postcards, but I think that the book titles led to more immediate connecting. Maybe Mary, Carolyn, and I just have better books than postcards!

Constructivist Protocol--The meatiest part of the agenda was a constructivist protocol that started with this idea: Write about your best learning experience using a protocol. The participants wrote, pair-shared, and then shared in groups of 4-6. In groups, they identified the "working conditions" that made that experience with a protocol powerful. Click on the thumbnail photos to see the group thinking.

Here are Mary's and Carolyn's reflections from the coaches' clinic we facilitated together on October 30. I think it's interesting to see how different people react to and learn from the same events.

Thank you, Mary and Carolyn, for making your reflections public.

I was dismayed to find out that only three Houstonians have registered for the NSRF Winter Meeting in Philadelphia, and when I looked at the coaches clinic offerings from last winter, I saw that no Houstonians presented clinics. This makes me sad because I know that a lot of great things are occuring in our CFG communities here in Houston. By this time, we should be leading the work--and getting national recognition for the work that we lead.

So why is this? Houston used to be represented by dozens of CFG coaches at the Winter Meetings.

Some of the blame has to go to lack of money. Now some districts have placed bans on out of state travel. There's a lot of penny-pinching going on--some of it at the expense of teacher development.

Probably the Winter Meetings lost the interest of some Texans because the meetings in Fort Lauderdale(2000) and Houston(2001) seemed stale and irrelevant. However, I'm excited about this year's format. I hope to learn a lot from the clinics. Maybe I'm more excited because I am in a new role and truly have a lot to learn from my peers.

The K-16 CFG met Monday evening in my dining room. It was a smaller group--Cat, Tim, Christian, Michaelann, and me--than I had hoped for, but we had a meaningful meeting nonetheless.

After starting with yummy sandwiches and salads from Murphy's Deli and the Bookcover Icebreaker, we delved into a dilemma that Cat brought. Using the consultancy protocol, we struggled with the idea of school leadership. How do we best coach and support principals in the reform work of their schools? What is the principal's role in school reform? Where does the true leadership of a school lie? How can we use honest feedback and build trust when principals are not rewarded by the district for being transparent about their needs and weaknesses?

Here are excerpts from the reflections.

I am thrilled to see that people are reading and responding to this weblog. While my husband was working on his own blog last night, he noticed that this weblog had six comments. I excitedly skipped back to the office when he called me to the computer to see. [Refer to previous two entries: 1, 2]

I would have kept writing entries even if nobody were adding comments because the weblog is such a good tool for recording my own reflections. However, conversations are far more interesting than monologues. We often complain about how difficult it is to schedule face to face meeting time. I would like to use this technology to spark new thoughts and share ideas and insights even when we can't meet in person.

Please keep posting comments.