Last day of work for teachers in the district. We had a fantastic staff development based on Courageous Conversations and led by a team from the theatre department including former students who graduated from distric schools. Although I was not feeling AT ALL participatory, the way everything was structured encouraged everyone to participate without putting anyone on the spot. I will have to remember the techniques they used for the future. My favorite activity was when we (arranged in groups of 5-6 around a table) were given a few minutes to write as many lines as we could think of to complete the phrase: I come from... The intention was to think about the racial makeup of the place we grew up, the values we learned, the foods we ate, etc. After this time, we took turns around the table reading one line from what we had written. We did not write it down to make one shared poem, but we could have. And it opened up conversations with coworkers that I have never had, so it also became a community-bulding activity as well. Back to my not feeling participatory AT ALL... At lunch there was a potluck. I had not brought anything to share and I could not ring myself to go into the lounge that was loud with friendly faces and piled high with plates of fruit salad, egg rolls and guacamole. So I sat alone in the room where the meeting had been held and did some work. Until most people were done eating. Then at a friend's urging I did go get something to eat from the vast array of leftovers. Which was probably good. Feeling down. Change of seasons? Change of venues? End of the year? Bittersweet stuff like that? And as always the uncertainty of the coming year. Daily Convexions meds can't remember (this post is significantly backdated) Grateful Crap: I like my job and the people I work with/for Comments are closed.
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K. BuchananQuaker, teacher, parent, |