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From Mortuary To Happy Hour, Creating Anticipation Instead of Dread for Faculty Meetings

Session 6
Drew Frank — The Alfred and Adele Davis Academy

Traditionally, faculty meetings are one of the most dreaded events for faculty members. How can we change that so that the atmosphere has the allure of attending an educational play date? Learn how one school has transformed their faculty meetings to have such an appeal. Join Davis Academy colleagues for an interactive conversation in which we will “do” while we discuss.

• We will model engagement that faculty can employ in the classroom such that the purpose for faculty meetings is no longer dissemination of information but is also an opportunity to practice active growth, the passion of which spills over to the students. • We will discover ways in which we can learn about topics relevant to our school communities while sharing strategies to engage the faculty audience with a dose of creativity. • We will validate the many ways adults learn, acknowledge the value of their time, and share an appreciation for the importance of an open and supportive culture.

Bring your own emotionally charged educational topics and get ready to engage in a rejuvenating approach to addressing these.

Conversational Practice

This session with be a constructivist pedagogical playground. There will be three main pieces within the session, each of these will be aimed at engaging/facilitating discussion with different strategies. The first part will be a red stick/blue stick activity in which teams of participants are assigned an opinion on the given topic (digital parenting and the responsibility of the school). The participants must brainstorm and defend this assigned opinion, even if it is not their own belief. We will then share and discuss. Part two will be a pictorial scavenger hunt, in the classroom and online, to find representations for specific prompts. These will be shared in real time, storified, and discussed. Part three will be based on Dan Callahan Edcamp session “Things That Suck” activity http://www.billselak.com/topics/blog/edcamp/page/2 in which we will ask participants to take a black or white opinion on topics that are inherently grey. The content for this session will be generated through an opening hook activity in which all participants will be asked to contribute topics that are emotionally charged either to themselves, their job function, or their school/setting to a padlet. We will then mine the top items (items that are mentioned multiple times or we feel will generate dissenting opinions and good discussion) and use these as the “things that suck.” Lastly and potentially most importantly, we will reflect on all the different protocols we used and the importance of creating safe space where convergent and divergent thinking is encouraged, where affirming and dissenting opinions are solicited, and where teachers are happily and eagerly engaged.

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