Presenter: Carolyn McKanders, M.A., M.S.W.
Director: Thinking Collaborative: Adaptive Schools and Cognitive CoachingSM Seminars
Saturday afternoon: Developing Adaptive Schools – Part 2
For schools to effectively respond to the press for accountability and provide quality learning for all students, they must simultaneously address two perennial goals. One goal is the professional development of individual educators. The second is the development of the organization's capacity to learn and be adaptive. Both build the capacity for school improvement, without which reform efforts will fail.
In these Adaptive Schools Seminars, learn how to build strong collaborative and caring work cultures, in which results-oriented faculties work together for continuous school improvement. Explore the latest practical findings in organizational development, team learning and navigating the currents of change through applying adaptive principles and practices.
Participants will learn practical frameworks and tools for developing collaborative groups that bring collective responsibility in student learning. Leaders and group members will learn ways to influence and attain more productive and satisfying meetings in which members develop new norms and skills for collegial interaction, goal clarification, problem-solving and decision-making. Working in a variety of settings, skilled and confident staffs and facilitators will increase their ability to accelerate group development so that adult conversations produce the highest quality work for students.
Part 2: "Facilitation Strategies and Structures for Promoting Collaborative Conversations"
OUTCOMES
Participants will develop:
• An increased capacity to initiate, develop and sustain high functioning groups
• An expanded repertoire of practical facilitation tools and strategies
• Ways to value and use dissension, argument and conflict
It includes...
• Two Ways of Talking: Effective Dialogue and Discussion
• Promoting a Spirit of Inquiry
• The Seven Norms of Collaborative Group Work
• -Reframing Conflict