hth 305 - Fostering adult learning
making decisions as a staff regarding our professional development
Time. What an abstract concept and yet such critical component of our daily lives. Our entire lives revolve around this thing called time - how much time has passed, how much time something will take, deciding whether something is even worth our time, etc. This past month, through this course I had several opportunities to walk our staff through the decision-making process. One element that kept creeping back to me was this concept of time and how much of it was necessary in order to make a conscious, purposeful and meaningful decision for our school. This would not be the case if particpants were apathetic and/or perhaps in a rush to make a final decisions. But if participants are following through to appropriate four stages as stated in the “Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making” such as “gathering diverse points of view; building a shared framework of understanding” and “developing inclusive solutions”, and not rushing to get this done and over with, it will and should take some time. For this particular PITP, I have decided to focus on the decision-making process regarding our first semester POLs. The main thing we had to decide on was who was going to assess the POLs (core teachers vs. advisors) - once we made that first decision, everything else would pretty much fall into place. For example, if core teachers were assessing then we would need to decide whether we were going to mix the grade levels up or whether POLs would be done within teams. One thing to keep in mind is that almost every year and every semester our school has done POLs slightly differently. Every year it is a dilemma as to how and what we were going to do that semester.
Through the comments my colleagues made via the anonymous survey after the meeting, it was evident to me that we need time to think for ourselves and discuss with fellow colleagues in order to develop inclusive solutions by taking everything into consideration. In an annonymous survey I gave out to the entire staff, one of my colleagues says “I loved how she gave an overview of the importance of the process. She kept a positive attitude and tried her best to quell any discontent. It is a controversial topic to begin with and she handled the pressures of time and attitude beautifully.” Despite the fact that I was worried that we may be launching this particular discussion too early, my colleagues still felt the pressure of time and acknowledged my attempt to start off in a positive note. Another colleague also indirectly references the lnegthy process I went through to ensure an inclusive decision: “Clear communication was the big thing - presenting the findings from the STAG, providing students in the content meeting with context from the discussion, then feeding the content meeting's ideas back to the staff meeting. Not easy to do , and really well done” (STAG - Study to Action Group). One thing that came up in this survey reminded me of the way in which we make a decision as a staff: “I think for all of the voting, the 4-3-2-1 is not a good system. I know you didn't come up with it, but it makes people feel awkward. Counting the numbers is singling out people. Tough to want to be honest in feedback unless you are a really outspoken person.” I agree with this person but never really considered using an alternative method of voting mostly because this is a method we’ve used since the begining of the year and also because I was mostly invested in everything involved in the process prior to the actual vote and not really the voting process itself. Reflecting, I realize that forgetting about the way in which we actually vote is just as important as the process. Using the reading materials from this course, I hope to experiment with the way in which we vote as a staff.
Through this course, we were exposed to and learned more about this art of facilitation - and indeed it is an art. Much like the creative process of making a piece of art, facilitating a discussion and making a thoughtful decision takes time. One cannot force the creativity out of one’s brain much like we cannot hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions all at once. Other times, sometimes an idea just comes and it doesn’t take much time for one to write/sketch/sing/etc. this new idea onto something for tangible and permanent. Much like this rare occasion, sometimes as a staff we are immediately on the same page and making a decision is not very difficult. But these rare and valuable instances are few and far between which is what makes great art so valuable and a thoughtful decision making process even more critical. When we began our discussion regarding POLs, I quickly realized that this task may be much bigger than I had thought initially. As soon as we were about to vote, teachers expressed their apprehension and hesitation. As the discussion unfolded, I realized we were not just talking about which decision to make - we were in fact discussing what the purpose of a POL is. It was definitely discouraging and even frustrating - as the semester was quickly coming to an end and as a teacher as well as a developing school leader I was eager to finish this task and move on, only to realize our discussion was actually going backwards and we were going back to square one. I realized that this discussion had to start much sooner. As I continue to grow as a school leader I plan to keep this in mind and understand that facilitators have a very important role. Providing ample time for one’s participants to think, discuss and come to their own decisions is indirectly respecting the participant’s time and opinion. By not starting a discussion early on places unnecessary pressure and stress on participants, thereby creating an environment that is not adept for thougthful decision making. Despite this very tense and frustrating situation, I felt that as a staff we made some appropriate compromises in order to finally make a decision. But I also wonder, is it ok that we made compromises in order to reach a decision? Or is it better in the long run that we have a healthy but long discussion in order to accomplish what we really want? As a school leader, how do I know what is worth fighting for and which battles are not worth fighting? And how early should we have started talking about POLs? How early is too early? Would we have been so determined to make a decision if POLs were not looming in front of us? How would this have been different if time was NOT an issue and we had all the time in the world? On that note, it almost makes me glad that time exists and that we don't always have ample time to make certain decisions. Sometimes it's better to just get it done and out of the way.
Through the comments my colleagues made via the anonymous survey after the meeting, it was evident to me that we need time to think for ourselves and discuss with fellow colleagues in order to develop inclusive solutions by taking everything into consideration. In an annonymous survey I gave out to the entire staff, one of my colleagues says “I loved how she gave an overview of the importance of the process. She kept a positive attitude and tried her best to quell any discontent. It is a controversial topic to begin with and she handled the pressures of time and attitude beautifully.” Despite the fact that I was worried that we may be launching this particular discussion too early, my colleagues still felt the pressure of time and acknowledged my attempt to start off in a positive note. Another colleague also indirectly references the lnegthy process I went through to ensure an inclusive decision: “Clear communication was the big thing - presenting the findings from the STAG, providing students in the content meeting with context from the discussion, then feeding the content meeting's ideas back to the staff meeting. Not easy to do , and really well done” (STAG - Study to Action Group). One thing that came up in this survey reminded me of the way in which we make a decision as a staff: “I think for all of the voting, the 4-3-2-1 is not a good system. I know you didn't come up with it, but it makes people feel awkward. Counting the numbers is singling out people. Tough to want to be honest in feedback unless you are a really outspoken person.” I agree with this person but never really considered using an alternative method of voting mostly because this is a method we’ve used since the begining of the year and also because I was mostly invested in everything involved in the process prior to the actual vote and not really the voting process itself. Reflecting, I realize that forgetting about the way in which we actually vote is just as important as the process. Using the reading materials from this course, I hope to experiment with the way in which we vote as a staff.
Through this course, we were exposed to and learned more about this art of facilitation - and indeed it is an art. Much like the creative process of making a piece of art, facilitating a discussion and making a thoughtful decision takes time. One cannot force the creativity out of one’s brain much like we cannot hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions all at once. Other times, sometimes an idea just comes and it doesn’t take much time for one to write/sketch/sing/etc. this new idea onto something for tangible and permanent. Much like this rare occasion, sometimes as a staff we are immediately on the same page and making a decision is not very difficult. But these rare and valuable instances are few and far between which is what makes great art so valuable and a thoughtful decision making process even more critical. When we began our discussion regarding POLs, I quickly realized that this task may be much bigger than I had thought initially. As soon as we were about to vote, teachers expressed their apprehension and hesitation. As the discussion unfolded, I realized we were not just talking about which decision to make - we were in fact discussing what the purpose of a POL is. It was definitely discouraging and even frustrating - as the semester was quickly coming to an end and as a teacher as well as a developing school leader I was eager to finish this task and move on, only to realize our discussion was actually going backwards and we were going back to square one. I realized that this discussion had to start much sooner. As I continue to grow as a school leader I plan to keep this in mind and understand that facilitators have a very important role. Providing ample time for one’s participants to think, discuss and come to their own decisions is indirectly respecting the participant’s time and opinion. By not starting a discussion early on places unnecessary pressure and stress on participants, thereby creating an environment that is not adept for thougthful decision making. Despite this very tense and frustrating situation, I felt that as a staff we made some appropriate compromises in order to finally make a decision. But I also wonder, is it ok that we made compromises in order to reach a decision? Or is it better in the long run that we have a healthy but long discussion in order to accomplish what we really want? As a school leader, how do I know what is worth fighting for and which battles are not worth fighting? And how early should we have started talking about POLs? How early is too early? Would we have been so determined to make a decision if POLs were not looming in front of us? How would this have been different if time was NOT an issue and we had all the time in the world? On that note, it almost makes me glad that time exists and that we don't always have ample time to make certain decisions. Sometimes it's better to just get it done and out of the way.
other artifacts
Results of a survey conducted after an all-staff meeting regarding my facilitation.
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"Study to Action Group" (StAG) Meeting Notes (2012-2013)
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Results of a survey given to all staff regarding our weekly content meetings.
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Summary of preferences from each content group based on survey results.
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