Today's National Council of Teachers of English e-newsletter included a couple of links to articles about teachers using blogs.

This article from the Palm Beach Post describes how bloggers are pushing blogging past mere journaling, and the article "Reading, Blogging, and 'Rithmetic?" is a wide-ranging piece that discusses privacy, collegiality, limited resources, and developing voice.

I am fascinated by how this medium can have so many applications for individuals and groups.

Honestly, I was disappointed in the learning that took place in the Chalk Talk today. In the rooms that I walked through during that activity, I observed that a noticeable minority of participants were disengaged (sitting, whispering, etc.), and the debriefs that I saw didn't tie things together the way I had anticipated.

My purpose in placing a Chalk Talk at this point in the agenda was to give participants an opportunity to synthesize the many activities that they had already experienced (2 different seminars, opening QTL activity, LC, and informal conversations). I think that I should have added a phrase to the prompt to make the synthesis aspect more obvious since some facilitators didn't put that bit of background information in their oral directions to the participants and some facilitators totally changed the prompt. A better prompt may have been "Keeping in mind the new things you have learned throughout this Institute, respond to this quote: 'The staff didn't go looking for a quick fix or a "package" that would answer the challenges they faced in helping students learn. But they did develop their capacity for leading, learning, and change.'"

One of of the activities that the Learning Communities did today was called "Jigsaw Plus." The purpose of the activity was to introduce all the participants to the book Building Shared Responsibility for Student Learning by Anne Conzemius and Jan O'Neill, and reinforce the relationship between Focus, Collaboration, and Reflection. I also wanted to challenge the participants to actually use some of the attributes of quality teaching and learning instead of just presenting a simple poster. Here are samples of some of the better presentations that I saw as I circulated among the LC rooms.

Click on the thumbnail photo to see a larger picture.

Janet and Ron's group created a list of attributes of quality teaching and learning before they started the activity.

The Collaboration Station highlights key words from the chapter.

This group's poster demonstrated how reflection was the "secret ingredient" for student success.

This group wove a strong "safety net" of collaboration. Even the "messiness" [the green paper snake] can't break up reform when the safety net of collaboration is in place.

The light streaming out of this flashlight demonstrates the power of focus.

Bravo to every group who rose to the challenge of creating something that helped me LEARN!!

During this afternoon's group debrief for the Learning Community (LC) Facilitators, we shared some big ideas of what worked well in the Learning Communities. Overall, facilitators shared that most participants thought that the LC activities were helpful and met their needs. The activities helped build up the Learning Communities. Participants liked the "flip-flop" in the schedule (we opened with LC on Day 1 and closed with it on Day 2) and appreciated having large chunks of time in each seminar or LC. They engaged in a lot of sharing and collaboration and approved of the thematic cohesiveness.

I asked the LC Facilitators to specifically reflect about what they learned about facilitating and what kinds of support they need as facilitators. Based on their feedback, I hope that we can offer some opportunities for the "advanced" coaches and facilitators in Houston. It's so important that we continue to sharpen our skills and engage in new learning.

All the written facilitator reflections are in the extended entry.