I just wanted to report, even though I am so late in doing so, that the Kick-off was great. My teachers really enjoyed what they had learned, and walked away saying, "I can do that!" This was a great way to explain what teacher inquiry, and to show what is expected.

I'm a little late on posting this blog, but I have done a lot of reflecting on the "Kickoff." I had 3 teachers join me at the kickoff, but I have a total of 7 who will be a part of inquiry this year. I've shifted from the involvement of middle & high school teachers last year to middle & elementary this year. I would have liked to have some teachers for the high school level, but for one reason or another, they did not respond. The kickoff was very exciting. It never fails, I always return with new things I want to try. In Mickie's presentation, I got the idea of teachers sharing examples of tests and reflecting on the complexity of the questions through a “Gallery Walk.” I think this would be a great way to support teachers in developing those "higher order" questions that are so important. I want to try this with the pretests my teachers are developing for the new 9 weeks. I’m planning to have them post the tests in the conference room on the day of team meetings and write comments/suggestions to one other directly on the tests. I think this will give them positive feedback & ways to improve their questions writing skills. I also loved her idea of a “Tic, Tac, Toe” board at the end of a unit. The students chose 3 activities in a row to complete as a culminating activity for a unit. This is a great idea for “Differentiated Instruction.”I also had the privilege of being in Debbi's presentation on Fluency. Even though I have heard it several times, her enthusiasm makes everyone excited about inquiry. Her "passion" for reading shines through her presentation. Thanks Debbi!My group will be meeting for the first time on November 6. I plan to include refreshments like I did last year & meet for 1-1 1/2 hours. It seems that a couple of the inquiries will focus around science since we are involved in a large science grant that focuses on “hands on" curriculum in our district. I'm excited about the discoveries that will be made through those inquiries. Teachers in general seem to be under a lot more stress this year. I hope I can make “Inquiry” come across to them as not just something else to do, but as the rewarding experience that we have all experienced in the past. The kickoff helps with that, but because I had several teachers who did not attend, I want to make sure I portray that important message. I even thought about having one of the teachers who presented last year share his inquiry at a district meeting. I thought that would make it personal and give him a chance to share his presentation one more time. Sorry- this was long. I guess I was making up for my missing posts. I’m looking forward to “inquiry” this year. I’m always a little nervous getting started, but once we get moving, I know it will be fine.

I feel the kick-off was a success, accomplishing what it needed to for new inquirers and facilitators. It forced me as a facilitator to get my mind back into inquiry. It gave a real picture of what the process would be like for new inquirers.

I was disappointed with the small turn out of district administrators who attended. I understand that they have significant committments and things happen. I feel that this sends a message to us as facilitators: either we have everything under control and they do not feel they need to be a part of something that is already working OR the importance of inquiry as a form of PD is not where it needs to be for districts. I would like to believe that the former is the case but I feel the latter is true.

I am discouraged for Sherrie and her county with the way they have undermined the power that inquiry holds for teachers. I worry that this may a direction that other districts take. I am not sure how to address it though.

Finally, I have four participants this year. I am excited about my intimate group and kind of relieved that it is not as big as last year.

Hi Everyone -

As we head into the weekend, I wanted to share that there have been a number of great posts reflecting on the kick-off that are begging for response. I'm not sure if you received email notification on some of them, as I did not, and only stumbled upon them by playing around in the site and clicking on recent comments and bloggers, so be sure to visit the kick-off reflection posts of Debbi, Gayle, Joan, and Sherri (There are other great posts too this week, but I think these are the only ones you may not have received email notification about). I wish you all a fabulous weekend! My little girl turns 12 and we're celebrating this weekend -- I can't believe she's almost a teen! Happy Weekend! -Nanc

I think the day went really great for the teachers and me. One teacher was sick, but I made plans to catch her up when she recovers. The best part was when we sat down at the end of the day and talked about what they had seen. One teacher had written down a half page of topics he wants to pursue and says it will be hard to focus on one (what a great problem). Another teacher had a fantastic inquiry all picked out then decided to go down another lane, which I think, is not only great for her, but the impact it will have on our school and district will be tremendous. Can you tell I am excited?

My challenges include how to entice our county person (as well as our administrators) into thinking this is a valuable part of a teacher’s life. I would like to see substitute money made available for more people to be involved in this wonderful process. Another challenge is the idea of meeting with eight people from as far away as 25 miles. We have decided that our first meeting will be on the south end of the county and the next will be on the north end of the county. Also, my school ends at 2:15 p.m. and the high school ends at 3:30 p.m. This presents the problem of what is “after school” for one is not for the others. “We don’t have sub money…” I will have to ask Sabrina if the one sub day NEFEC provides can be divided into hours – one or two at a time.

Warning - Long Post - A Bit Rambly

There is a lot swirling around in my head in relationship to the kick-off, so it's hard to know where to begin. . . I guess I'll start with our 12:00 meeting with the district personnell. I was pleased with the organizational structure of that afternoon, and thought Gail Ritchie did for us just what she needed us to do -- I think we were definitely at the point in our work when it was good to bring in someone from the outside with knowledge and expertise to help us think about where we are going with the next step of this work.

When I listened to Gail and the teacher research practices at Fairfax County Public Schools, two things happened for me. First, the work we have been doing as a NEFEC group was reaffirmed! I saw so many parrallels between the organizational structures Fairfax County has in place, and the ways our work has evolved with NEFEC. Both my intuition and the data we've collected over the years has led me to believe we have been on the "right track," but it is always good to get affirmation from an outside source.

Second, when I listened to Gail and the teacher research practices at Fairfax County public schools, I was reminded of the importance of teacher incentives when introducing teachers to the process. I liked her use of the word "WIIFM," standing for "What's In It For Me?" I do believe that another important point for your districts to be thinking about as they strive to embed inquiry into their normal staff development practices is "What will constitute an effective incentive to draw teachers into this professional development process?," and "How can we creatively fund whatever incentives we come up with?" I thought the provision of 3 days of a substitute over the course of the school year so that teacher researchers can meet 6 times during the school day was a brilliant incentive that Fairfax County Public Schools provided. I think, more than anything, teachers need time! 6 meetings over the school year also coincide nicely with the critical junctures teachers face in the inquiry process. I also liked the differentiation for earning professional development points that Fairfax used (So many points for engaging in the process, so many additional points for presenting at their conference, and so many additional points if teachers write-up their work). Also, the points Fairfax County teachers received appeared to be fairly significant! Like NEFEC, they also provided a stipend for coaches. These are all points to be thinking about this year, and sharing with one another so we can learn from each other about how individual districts are tackling the "WIIFM" question.

Also, when I heard Gail speak about points, a random thought came into my mind -- can we provide points for others just to attend the showcase? If we do this, we'll accomplish two things - One, we will get more people from your districts to the Showcase so we potentially will have larger audiences for each presentation. Two, we will get potential inquirers to experience the Showcase, and they might be inspired to engage in the process themselves the following year. I'd really like to investigate this notion with Sabrina, and make a number goal for each district to bring other attendess besides the presenters themselves this year. If this is going to work, we've GOT TO START NOW, organizing the incentives for others from your districts to come, even if they are not presenting. I'll have to follow up with Sabrina on this . . .

OK, I'm off topic, but another thought swirling in my head after we met yesterday is the Showcase itself. I'm anxious to get a final count of how many teachers each facilitator is working with so I can begin to rethink the structure of the Showcase to adjust for our rapid growth over the last few years. . . this will come with time, and I'm sure we'll figure out a great plan.

Back to my reflections on our 12:00 meeting. I was glad to see so many district representatives in attendance, but of course, I also wished that every facilitator had representation from their districts with them. I worry some about the ways inquiry/action research might be interpreted by district administration if they do not have a knowledge base about the process. Two facilitators shared concerns that they think the way their districts might be going is that everyone has to action research on an assigned topic. This made me think a little more about the tension between the critical importance of the inquiry process being the teacher owning his/her wondering, and exploring something that he/she is really passionate about, and the power inquiry can hold for larger school improvement efforts, where wonderings might emerge from school improvement plans, or larger district efforts. I don't think the later is inherently a bad thing, but it certainly has the potential to become bad if the way it's translated into practice is district mandates that require teachers to do inquiry on a "canned" question. I am going to keep thinking about this and how we can effectively head-off the "canned question" approach.

I wonder what the nature of the discussions were between the facilitators and their district representatives when they had time to discuss Gail's talk.

I thought the Kick-Off itself was incredibly inspring! I ALWAYS love to hear teachers talk about their research, and all the facilitators who presented did an incredible job. I really liked Gail Ritchie's diagram that she shared about the differences between teaching and teacher research. All of the participants seemed ready to begin . . .AND, the cookies were really yummy! (Can't ask for more than that)!

I'm off to do another workshop today on teacher leadership, so I'll be really tired by Friday. Even though I'm fatigued, so many thoughts keep swirling around in my head about the kick-off . . . this blog helps me keep track of them and gives me a space to get them out of my head and lay them aside to come back to later.

Nancy

Hi Phenemonal Facilitators!!

YIPEE -- Another year of inquiry is underway -- thanks to your great work yesterday at the annual Kick-Off! Just wanted to take a quick moment to thank you all for participating in our kick-off yesterday, as well as our second face-to-face facilitator meeting. I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to interact with Gail Ritchie, and reflect on ways this process may become embedded in your district teacher professional development plan.

And now . . . A New Blog Prompt -- Reflections on The Kick-Off and Our Second Meeting. Take a minute a post your thoughts about yesterday - (Some questions you might want to address include: How did the day go for you and for the teachers and administrators from your district? What new insights did you gain yesterday that will be valuable to your work as a coach? How did the administration from your district perceive our work? How did the teachers from your group experience the day? What constraints/concerns/barriers do you anticipate as you coach the inquiry process this year?)

I think it would make sense to post your reflections on the kick-off as a personal blog entry, and then others can read and respond to your kick-off post, as well as have their own initial post in their blog space. If everyone titles this entry "Kick-Off Reflections" and uses "Kick-Off" as one of the Keywords/Descriptions, we should be able to click on Kick-Off in the right hand column "Key Words/Descriptions" and get to all the posts in one place. I think this might work the way Gayle was suggesting to organize us on-line yesterday. Let's try this and see how it works and then have an on-line discussion as to how it worked to follow up with our time with Chris yesterday. I'll do my own reflections later this evening in my blog space to get us started.

I'm enjoying reading everyone's contributions to our on-line Professional Learning Community. Have a great remainder of the week! Thank you all again for the incredible day you created yesterday! I'm pumped for a great year of inquiring -- I can hardly wait to see how each individual teacher's inquiry unfolds!

Nanc

Well, the kick-off is over, and I have mixed feelings. I am so excited about participating again. I tried recruiting, expecially from the other grade levels (high school and middle school). I actually had several email responses, and expected at least 4-5 to show up today. However, no one came!!! I expeect some of this is due to our Protocol. And of course, some of it may be because some schools are doing "school wide action research projects" where teachers are being told to do an inquiry and what they will do it on! Ugh! I can't tell you how much that upsets me....but that's another story. Sorry, I am rambling...it's just that I had a FANTASTIC day. I really wanted to share the experience with other teachers from my district. I feel so disappointed! Any words of encouragement?? Words of wisdom?? I could really use them about now....

The highlight of my day was an email I did recieve from two highschool teachers that are interested, but could not come today.

Everyone was fantastic today! Jack and Debbie - I watched both of your presentations and they were so informative! Awesome job!

I thought today was wonderful. Our facilitator's session got us up-to-date, and for me, a little more enthused. I thought all the presenters were wonderful. The group from my county thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. I think they learned lots, while at the same time, realized, not only COULD they do this, but they actually WANTED to do this. I'm pretty excited......let the games begin!! :0

Gayle

Hi Incredible Inquiry Facilitators -

     Just wanted to remind everyone that you should arrive tomorrow at noon already having eaten lunch.  As we have such a small amount of time to meet with the administration from your districts and to tap into the knowledge and expertise of Gail Ritchie, we didn't want to take time away from meeting and discussion time for lunch . . . but we will have a yummy snack bag for everyone to sustain you through both our facilitator meeting and the Kick-Off! 

     We are busy getting ready and can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!  If you have the opportunity, it might be nice to remind the adminstrator(s) who are attending our noon meeting from your district to have lunch before they arrive.  

      See you all tomorrow at noon at the Paramount Hotel!  Hard to believe the Kick-Off is almost here!!!  

 Nanc

I just want to say that I am getting responses from other schools that have not participated in an inquiry before! I am so excited. I was worried that the same people would participate, and there would be no new blood! Well, you know what I mean! :O) So far I have 7 teachers I have never met before asking questions and wanting to go to the kick-off.

I want to add, I agree with Nancy and Jack, that we need to participate, and sometimes we can't be brief.

Sherri

Hello Everyone-

I spoke with Gail Ritchie on Monday night, and I am quite excited about next Tuesday! It is shaping up to be a wonderful day! Attached please find the agenda for the meeting we will have with your administrators, as well as the agendas and teacher timeline for the kick-off.

Note that we will be starting our meeting with the administrator(s) from your district at noon at the Paramount Hotel. You and the district administration who will be attending should arrive at the meeting having already had lunch. Being that our time is so limited and we are beginning at noon, we did not want to take the time to eat during our session. We will, however, be providing everyone with a snack.

You may want to touch base with whoever is attending from the administration in your district, and perhaps ride together. Also, remember to send a reminder to the teachers you will be working with this year that we begin the Kick-Off on Tuesday at 3:30 at the Paramount in the Bivens Arms Room. Sabrina will have books to hand out, and I’ll bring some copies of last year’s program and monograph to spread around for people to glance through during the session. As you’ll note on the agenda, the following facilitators are presenting their work as per our planning session during our last facilitator meeting: Jack, Leanne, Debbi, Sherri, Mickie, Rhonda. Sabrina will arrange to have an lcd projector in each room, if you need one for your presentation.

Please review the materials for the kick-off.

Also, as facilitator of our on-line learning community, I’m asking each of you to make one post before our meeting and respond to at least one community member's post. There are a number of items you can choose to focus on in your post (as per our ground rules, you wished to have a focus for posts – sometimes), so here they are:

A. Reflections on Chapters 1, 2 or 7 of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Professional Development – what are you thoughts on the reading? (See pink sheet entitled, “Our Inquiry Facilitator On-Line Learning Community” for more ideas for posting about a reading).

B. Recruiting Teachers To Participate This Year – How’s it going? What type of interest are you seeing from teachers? How many people have committed to the process this year? How did you go about recruiting them? How do you feel about the group you will be working with? How do they feel about the upcoming kick-off?

C. Reflection on Participating in TNLI and/or Presenting at NSDC – How do you feel about the opportunities that are being afforded to us to participate in national groups? What are the barriers/constraints to taking this work outside our schools/districts?

D. Time Management for Participating in Our On-Line Community - What personal strategies to you have for checking into our PLC, and participating? How is it working for you? Does it feel overwhelming or manageable or somewhere in-between?

REMEMBER TO LET ME KNOW BY TOMORROW IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE ALL EXPENSE PAID NATIONAL CONFERENCE PRESENTATION IN JULY, OR THE ALL EXPENSE PAID NATIONAL MEETING OF TNLI FELLOWS! I am really hoping that we at least get two more people for the July conference in Orlando! Such a generous offer from NEFEC to fund three teachers to participate – Thanks Sabrina and Mark!! Hope we can take advantage of these opportunities!

Can’t wait to see everyone on Tuesday!

Nanc