Learning-Focused Schools

I'm in Connecticut at a conference called "Learning-Focused Schools: Consulting, Collaborating & Coaching for Professional Excellence." As I was headed down for dinner from my hotel room, I ran into someone from another conference who asked what this conference was about. I struggled for a moment, and then decided that it was about communication. That doesn't fully represent it, but it's the best short description I can come up with. There are 30 of us at this weeklong summer institute, and we're really digging into how to mentor new teachers. We've spent the last two days talking about how to have intentional, focused conversations with our faculty. The emphasis here is on one-on-one conversations, but I'm constantly thinking about how to expand this to group discussions -- like those with the Young Professionals Group and with the Academic Council. The conference presenters have a few major constructs that we're learning -- sort of contexts for discussion. One of these examines mentor-protege relationships along a continuum from consultation through collaboration to coaching. Another deals with paraphrasing in focused conversations, especially using paraphrasing to shift the level of conversations. Both of these are valuable lenses through which to view interactions, but the shifting of discussions through paraphrasing seems as though it will be especially helpful with the group meetings I lead. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week, and to bringing some of these ideas back to TPS. In the meantime, tomorrow's a shortened day of conference so that we can get outside -- I'm planning on some geocaching in this beautiful weather.