One of the unique features of the Next Steps Seminar "Portfolios from A to Z" was that each table of participants had its own table leader who acted as a facilitator and coach. At the conclusion of the seminar, the table leaders met to debrief the seminar.
We first went around and shared positive aspects of the seminar. Some of the big ideas that emerged were
· the day was full of excitement, motivation, stimulation, and energy,
· there was diversity in participant background and diversity in the work presented,
· having a facilitator for each table helped focus and personalize the learning, and
· the seminar served as inspiration to organize and further the work.
Most of the challenges that emerged during the debrief were nuts and bolts kinds of issues such as
· the article was too long to read in the allotted time,
· we should have included copies of discussion questions and facilitator emails in the packets,
· we need to better explain or reduce jargon such as "CFG" and "Annenberg imperatives," and
· we need to advertise more accurately since some participants were expecting more information about student portfolios and individual teacher portfolios.
The most exciting part of the debrief was discussing the possible next steps for portfolio work in Houston. How can the Houston A+ Challenge support this work?
· clearly, there is a need for coaching and mentoring,
· we can share samples and templates of what has worked for others, but encourage practitioners to develop their own,
· we can schedule more portfolio related sessions.
The table leaders concluded our debrief by sketching out an outline for another session. Perhaps next fall we can host a full-day session that helps participants go deeper in their own practice. The morning could be devoted to actually working on portfolios. Participants could bring in raw material, and "portfolio coaches" could guide them with developing organizational strategies, reflective questions, etc. Then the afternoon could be dedicated to using various protocols to look rigorously at slices of the portfolios. A session like that could really help build capacity in our area for teacher research and reflective practice.
Comments (1)
I think a strengh of this seminar was the table coaches. I received comments from current CFG trainees and they found having different facilitators really added to their training experience. They thought that seeing good and not so good facilitation gave them insight into their own learning about facilitation.
Providing table leaders also provided an accountability to make sure each person at the table was engaged in the learning. I think if the seminar would have been conducted from the front - that there would have been many participants that would have not even gone through the motions.
Kudos to the design team of Donna, Mari, Allison and Gayle - they did a fabulous job developing a real learning situation.
Posted by Michaelann | February 28, 2005 7:37 AM
Posted on February 28, 2005 07:37