First Days Of School

Ridgecrest Elementary School Opening of the Year

STAGE 1: Identify Desired Results Established Goals: • • •

Enduring Understandings Learners will understand that…

Essential Questions • • • • • • • •

• • • • • •

Learners will know….

Learners will be able to…

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STAGE 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence Performance Task:

Other Assessment Evidence:

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STAGE 3: Learning Plan

I am… Overview: Participants write down items about themselves for other group members to see. Goals • To encourage group participation • To get to know each other Time required 30-40 minutes Materials required A sheet of paper for each participant with "After this summer, I am…" written on the top of it. A pen for each participant and tape or pins to attach the sheet to the front of each participant's shirt or blouse.

Procedure 1. Hand out an "After this summer, I am…" sheet and a pen to each participant. 2. Tell participants they have 10 minutes to write 10 responses to the question. 3. When the preparation time has finished tell the participants to attach their sheet to the front of their shirt or blouse and then walk around the room reading other participants' sheets. This phase is carried out in silence. 4. After 10 minutes the participants are told to talk to the people whose sheets appeared to be interesting or ash any questions they may have thought of while reading the sheets. Discussion points 1. Did anyone find people with similar responses to theirs?

Becoming One Community Developed by faculty at Denver Center for International Studies and Marjorie Larner Purpose 1. Share roots of the school: shared historical view from faculty who were there from the beginning 2. Share Perspectives of teachers who came to the from other schools and programs 3. Coming together as one group developing a common identity and foundation Framing Question: “What do we have to have to be us?’” Process (total time 70-80 minutes) Fishbowl: Selected teachers discuss the story of the the school with each other while the rest of the group listens and perhaps takes notes on what is significant to discuss in small group. (10-15 minutes) Note: ask people and only limited time, everyone will have to monitor him/herself to make sure everyone has a chance to talk. They could choose to do this in round robin or popcorn style. Possible talking points: • How and why you made the decision to join this school. • Major milestones in the school's history. • Successful/significant projects, attributes, leadership models…etc. • Your hopes for what can be carried on with this school. • What is at the school that you see as integral to the identity? • Other? 2. Clarifying questions from listeners (5 minutes) 3. Small group discussions: small groups of 4-8 discuss what they heard and how they think about it. Each group will be joined by an original teacher who will listen silently and take notes on that small group’s discussion, listening most for new perspectives or perceptions or differing points of view. (15 minutes) 4. Fishbowl: Original teachers gather again to discuss what they heard and share new thoughts and insights. (10 minutes) 5. Small group discussions: What this means in terms of action/practice and next steps. This time original teachers join the discussion of their small group so everyone is participating. Record on index cards to be compiled and decide what you will report out to the larger group. (15 minutes) 6. Small groups report out to whole group. (10 minutes) 7. Whole group debriefs the process. (5-10 minutes)

Future Protocol a.k.a. Back to the Future Developed by Scott Murphy and revised 8/7/02. A good time to use this protocol is in the early stages of creating a plan or project that ultimately will have an endpoint. Ideas should be formulated, but not completely finalized. If finalized, it might be used to consider improvements almost like a “tuning” protocol. Purpose of protocol To vision into the future and tell what it would look like in the very best-case scenario. Also to initiate discussion into the steps, players, actions, and timelines it will take to be successful. Goals • To expand and clarify the vision of what a group or individual is really trying to accomplish • To identify opportunities and avenues for focused improvement • To guide purposeful actions and reduce wasted efforts Considerations • May be presented by an individual or an entire group • Members of groups should have similar investment in and context to that which is presented • Uses our ability to tell stories as a way to imagine the best-case scenario • Does not focus on the obstacles, but rather the opportunities…stays very positive Time Approximately 1 hour. Protocol 1. Present what you are trying to accomplish: (5 minutes) Presenter: shares what he/she is trying to do and how it might look when it is all done. Group: presents with each other what it would like to accomplish and how it would look when done. 2. Clarifying Questions: (5 or 10 minutes) If presented by a single person and not a whole group, the rest of the group asks clarifying questions. If a group presents together, no clarifying questions. 3. Probing Questions: (10 minutes) If a single presenter, the group asks probing questions to further the presenter’s thinking. The presenter may choose to answer, think aloud or quietly consider it. If a group presents, they raise probing questions to the whole group with perhaps no real expectation of answering them in this step. Again, the idea is to extend the thinking about what they want to accomplish. — presenter steps out — 4. Project into the future (whatever timeline seems appropriate) and thoroughly describe what it looks like, sounds like and feels like having accomplished this endeavor. (10-15 minutes) • Must talk in present tense. • Describe what is in this best case scenario. Do not yet describe how. • Focus on the sights, sounds, behaviors and feelings surrounding this accomplishment. Examples: • 5 years later in a school’s reform efforts

• The end of a team’s project with students • Results from a group of new teachers that focused on classroom management for one year * It is really helpful to chart steps 4, 5, and 6 so that each can see publicly what is being said. 5. Look “back” from your projected present and describes how it looked when it started. (5-10 minutes) • Must talk in past tense • Think about issues, culture, conversations, teacher’s work, student achievement, etc. • Try to remain as tangible as possible * Continue to chart this conversation. It is helpful to put dates at the top of the chart to identify the time period to which the group is referring. (5-10 minutes) 6. Continue looking back from the “projected present” and discuss how you addressed the starting place and how you moved from that to the projected present. (5-10 minutes) • Must talk in past tense. • Directly relate the previous description of how it looked when it started. • Consider discussing how, when, with what resources and by whom. — presenter returns to conversation — 7. Return to “projected present” and discuss if it can get any better than it is or is this as good as it could possibly be? Again, think about how it will look, sound and feel if it can get even better. (5 minutes) 8. Presenter shares with group thoughts about the future and info s/he has gathered. (5 minutes) 9. Debrief the process. (10 minutes) Team Task Overview: This exercise gives teams a problem to solve. Goals: 1. To get the group's members working together as teams. 2. To see which members take up the different group functions. Time required • 30-40 minutes Material required • A prepared sheet with the final shape shown. Several rectangular sheets of paper and a pair of scissors for each team. Procedures: 1. This exercise is best used when dealing with the topics of teams, meetings or similar. Introduce the topic and break the group into teams of 5-7 members each. If extra members are available they may be used as observers. 2. Give each team several sheets of blank paper and a pair of scissors, place this material in the center of the team; don't give it directly to any one member. 3. Tell the teams that they have a problem to solve. They have to finish up with a shape the same as the one shown. They are only allowed to make one cut with the scissors and it must be a straight cut. 4. After the teams have completed the problem have participants reflect on the roles that each team member performed.

5. Discussion points 1. Did the team members work as a team? 2. Did the team members see others performing various roles? 3. What could have made this experience ore effective? 4. What have you learned about teams as a result of this exercise? PROTOCOL FOR SETTING OPERATING PRINCIPLES Purpose: Not only to establish expectations for behavior but also to give “permission” for risktaking and full participation. Details: This can take 10 minutes or an hour, depending on how deeply the facilitator and the group want to go. Supplies: Chart paper and markers. Steps: 1. Brainstorming. All ideas are listed; facilitator can add own. Allow silence at the beginning. 2. Discussion. Acknowledging that this is only a brainstormed list, the facilitator invites discussion/questions. 3. Synthesis. The facilitator helps form norms where there may be some disagreement—“Can we agree to use judgment about use of cell phones?” 4. Consensus. The group agrees to use these norms and revisit them regularly. They also agree that it is a working list and can be revised at any time.

Tortoise, Hare, or Thoroughbred Overview: This exercise may be used for transitioning to various stages of training. Goals: 1. To get to know each other. 2. To allow the participants to label their own pace. Time Required: 10 minutes Materials required: 3 signs marked 'Tortoise', 'Hare' and 'thoroughbred'. Procedure: 1. Start the session by quickly checking to see if everyone remembers the story of the tortoise and the hare. 2. Introduce the exercise as an icebreaker. Tell the participants to listen carefully to the descriptions of the tortoise, hare, and thoroughbred. Then read out the descriptions. 3. Stick the 3 signs on the wall and ask the participants to move to the sign that best describe them. 4. After all participants have selected a location, tell them to introduce themselves to the rest of the group, state why they chose that description of themselves, and to sign in to the group. Discussion point: • Do people always fit into the same category or do they change with different people and situations?

Introduction to CFGs and PLCs Purpose: To establish basic attributes of good learning communities through real participant experiences. The attributes become goals/guidelines for checking on progress as a new learning community develops. Time: One hour Steps: 1. Participants write about a personal experience in a learning community that they know was a place of positive learning for them. It could be a club, a church group, a school experience, a course, a support group. Any group that was a positive learning community. Their writing should include the reason for the group’s existence, how the group was structured, what made it a positive learning place. 2. In groups of 3 or 4, participants share their stories with one another. 3. As each story is told, the group picks out the attributes that made that learning community productive and satisfying (everyone really listened to each other, we worked cooperatively to get things done, there was a lot of respect for different opinions…). 4. Each group makes a list of the 4 or 5 attributes that seem to stand out for them. Sometimes they will be attributes that show up in all the stories, sometimes it will be an attribute that only appears in one story but seems really important to the group. 5. Each group says one attribute in turn while the facilitator records on a general list. Any repeated attributes get noted with stars (*). 6. When the list is complete (the facilitator can reword for a succinct list), the facilitator asks the group if this list seems like a good list of attributes to guide the group as it forms its own community of learners. Additions can be made at this time. If anything on the list seems hard to do, or inappropriate to the group, a note to that effect is written next to that attribute. 7. At different points during the seminar/workshop, the Attributes of a Learning Community are checked for development and progress. 8. Model the CFG/PLC concept using the video from the Annenberg Institute. 9. Open conversation 10. Consensus vote to pursue…