On Friday afternoon, Daniel, Tim, and I had a phone conference to plan the CFG Reunion that will take place in Houston on February 25. Daniel facilitated our phone conference and began by sharing that when planning with colleagues, he strives to be "passionately detached" from the outcome. There are two dangers of being overly invested in the outcome: 1) if things turn out differently than you want, then you are terribly disappointed or 2) you are really manipulative in order to get your way. Of course, Tim and I agreed and we forged on by sharing the outcomes that we wanted for A+ and the outcomes that we hoped for the participants of the CFG Reunion.

The key words that we used to guide our planning were transformation, reconnecting, recommitting, fun, and moving forward. These are the key themes that Tim, Michaelann, Angela, and I first discerned at a planning meeting last fall when we studied the CFG survey data and read Ross Peterson Veatch's article "Sitting Together at the Piano Bench" and Carmen Tolivar's "And Then There Is Hope" from the Fall 2005 Education Horizons.

Other questions that came up early in our phone conversation were
"Do people know each other?" [mostly]
"Do they have common experiences?" [yes, there is overlap]
"Will they recognize each other?" [many will]
"How important is data?" [I'm concerned that we just don't know so much about how people are using CFG work in Houston.]
"How do we grow the work?"
"How do we support/reconnect?"
"What are we offering for experienced people?"
"Do they feel a sense of allegiance?"

After laying out our questions and desires, we (mostly Daniel) started to suggest activities that might lead to our desired outcomes. Ideas included
1) Using the Issaquah Protocol with the whole group (20-35 people) around a dilemma related to support. The Issaquah is a developmental consultancy that goes through several rounds that help the participants "check in" and examine "did we here the presenter correctly?" "What assumptions are we making?" and "What questions do we have?"
2) Use the Futures Protocol
With either the Issaquah or the Futures Protocol, participants would walk away with
--being part of the solution
--ownership
--a new tool
3)Using a Chalk Talk to ask "What work are you doing now?"
4) Going deeper with some more advanced thinking around equity

Daniel is part of the Coaching for Educational Equity group that has these stated goals:
1)Eliminate the predictive value of race, ethnicity, class, etc. on success in school.
2) Interrupt things in our practice that are not serving children
3) Replace it with something better. Build on the unique gifts and talents of each student. Look at assets rather than deficits. Embrace the moral purpose of teaching--it's more than content knowledge.

Deep conversations about equity have the potential to redefine what a CFG is.

But will the participants at the CFG reunion be ready for the equity conversation?
To start this conversation, Daniel suggested that we read "Educators as Seed People" by Lisa Delpit and have a Discourse II Conversation around equity.

Daniel also suggested reading "Reclaiming Time to Think" by Wheatley and doing a Text Rendering with the added step of "play with the word in your mouth."

We then started talking about the agenda and timing the activities. At this point, I said that I felt there was a missing piece--we had not yet talked about how to fulfill the outcome of reconnecting with each other on a personal level. Some things that we discussed included
1) doing a storytelling version of the Making Meaning Protocol
2) Golden Shining Moments
3) How did this name come to you?

Other ideas for text-based discussions were using "3 levels of text" which is basically "What, so what, now what" with a text and combining Final Word and Save the Last Word for ME.

Closing activities may include
1) Up and Down the Mountain
2) Zen Cards

Our conference call was invigorating. Daniel shared a lot of new approaches with us. No matter what we choose off of this large menu of options, I'm sure I'll love it!