Hi Fabulous Facilitators –

LONG ANNOUNCEMENT WITH LOTS OF INFORMATION – I’VE DIVIDED INTO A QUESTION AND ANSWER FORMAT TO MAKE IT EASIER TO FOLLOW –

QUESTION ONE: Nancy, you haven’t posted anything to our on-line community for a while . . . Where have you been?

It is hard for me to believe that it’s almost Thanksgiving! I’ve been immersed in writing the second edition of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research! Thanks to all of you for your help with this endeavor – the manuscript is now done and has been submitted to Corwin Press. What’s new for the second edition? We’ve added sections on the relationship between inquiry and differentiated instruction, data driven decision making, progress monitoring, and response to intervention. We’ve updated teachers’ definitions of inquiry (thanks to your blogging!). We’ve added five new ways to collect data in chapter four including digital photos, video, Critical Friend Group feedback, standardized test scores/assessment measures, and of course, what else, but BLOGGING! We’ve added a few new models for writing up inquiry work, more examples of teacher inquiry from middle school and high school contexts, as well as a whole new chapter on assessing the quality of your inquiry. The second edition should be out sometime around September of next year – I’ll keep you all posted, and thanks again for your insights, feedback, and help in crafting the second edition of this book! You are all AWESOME!

QUESTION TWO: How’s Showcase planning going?

In-between writing, I have been working hard behind the scenes on the Showcase as well. I had an outstanding meeting with Sabrina last Thursday, and we’ve got some great ideas for this year – including incentives to get teachers from your districts to attend as audience. I’m working on developing a plan now for audience members to receive up to 10 professional development points for attending on April 19th. Sabrina is also investigating donations of gift cards from local businesses that might be a bonus incentive on top of the points! . . . There is much to share about the Showcase and all the great ideas we have for this year. I hope to be able to share this with you in person!

QUESTION THREE: When will we meet again?

In talking with Sabrina, she agreed that it would be nice to plan another face-to-face meeting as we have much to discuss and share with one another. Rather than plan this meeting for Feb/March where it was in our schedule as a tentative meeting time and potentially interfere with FCAT, we thought a better time to get us all together would be January. NEFEC will pay for your substitute teachers. On our agenda would be the following: (1) Showcase Updates (There’s a ton of information to share and discuss about new ideas for the Showcase), (2) Time to Share and Reflect on How Everything Is Going with Local Meetings, (3) Our On-Line Learning Community – Continuing the discussion on if it is OK to add someone, and (4) Preparing Your Inquirers in March for the Showcase Program Abstract and Inquiry Write-Ups. Please respond to this announcement and let me know if you would like to hold a face-to-face meeting in January, and what dates in January are absolutely impossible for you to attend should we agree to have one.

QUESTION FOUR: Can you remind us of where we should be in our local inquiry work?

According to our calendar, by Thanksgiving, you should have held your first two local meetings: developing your wondering and designing your inquiry. Your inquirers should have read chapter 1 – 4 in their book, and you should have read chapters 1 – 4 in your coaching book (I hope you are finding the coaching book useful). Each of your inquirers, as well as you, should have a wondering developed and a plan for your inquiry, and be on your way to collecting data. Finally, when you get the opportunity (no rush), you should email a list of your inquirers (including yourself) and their topics to Katie, who will begin a search for literature that may relate to your topics and send them on to you. Katie’s email address is: k_tricarico@hotmail.com

QUESTION FIVE: It’s been a while since you’ve prompted us to post to our on-line learning community – would you provide a prompt for a posting?

I’d love to!! Given that we are winding down on the first leg of this inquiry journey, and as we head into the holiday season everyone gets so busy, I’d like everyone to post a response to the following prompt and respond to at least one member of our community’s old or new postings by the Thanksgiving holiday (that’s one week from today). If everyone posts a simple message and responds to someone before we enter the holiday season, we will revitalize our community and reaffirm our commitment to inquiry before all the holiday season craze is upon us. Here’s your prompt:

One aspect of my first local meeting (Developing Your Wondering) or my second local meeting (Designing Your Inquiry) that went well was . . .

One question about teacher inquiry or about coaching teacher inquiry that emerged for me or for members of my group as a result of our first two meetings is . . .

Place your post in your own blogging space, rather than respond to this announcement. I know I haven’t been receiving email communications when someone has posted, and I’m checking with Chris on this. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes and visit each person’s blog space to look for new entries that you may wish to respond to.

I think that’s about all for the questions/answers! Happy Almost Turkey Time!

Nanc