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September 28, 2006 |
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It’s hard to believe that time has passed by so fast. The beginning of school has been a blast. There were bulletin boards to put up, lesson plans to create, and rooms to decorate. There were faculty meetings, staff development meetings, department meetings, and let’s not forget—team meetings. Then the students came! Hopefully, you’ve connected with your students through team- builders and created interesting lessons with the end in mind. Yes, you are pretty exhausted. But now is the time to reflect and put some normalcy back in your schedule. Allow your work day to be a work day. Formulate a plan to work and spend some time on the weekends relaxing. Include the time to relax as part of your plan. You will appreciate it and so will your students. |
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The First Six Weeks of School Already! |
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I was one of the recipients of the Teacher As A Researcher grant from Houston A+ Challenge. My inquiry group studied, “The Affect of Critical Friends Groups on Student Achievement.” .My campus had multiple CFGs and each coach was a member of a school-wide inquiry group, as well as facilitating or co-facilitating their own CFG. I facilitated the inquiry group which met monthly (on a Saturday morning) to guide and support the work of all CFGs on campus. Our time was spent engaging in teambuilding, sharing and discussing articles, sharing the overview of their meetings, discussing next steps of their meetings, and reporting on their section of the grant. You can find out more about our research on the NSRF website in the research section. |
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Articles for Study 1.Taking Time to Tend to the Good by Betty Bispling 2. Seventeen Reasons Why Football is Better Than High School by Herb Childress 3. Apples and CFGs in Harmony: A “Core” Curriculum by John Pieper 4. Into the Light-Reflections from a New Coach by John Pieper 5. Serendipity by John Pieper 6. Through the Lens of a Critical Friend by Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick Tim should be able to get you copies of these articles. tmartindell@houstonaplus.org |
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Save the Date New Coach Follow-up Session #2 Saturday, October 28,2006 8:00 a.m.—12:00 noon UH Hilton Continental breakfast and parking provided |
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Coaching Facilitates Greatness is a weekly support newsletter from The Houston A+ Challenge for new CFG coaches. Questions and comments are welcome at tmartindell@houstonaplus.org. |
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Members of the Inquiry Group at Best Elementary |
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Sunset on the Cruise Vacation 2006 |
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By now you should have had your first CFG meeting. How did it go? If it didn’t quite turn out like you expected, there are certain things you can to do to make sure the second meeting is better. Getting people to show up and continuing to show up can be a challenge. But how did you invite them? I think that it is always special to send a formal paper invitation. I often use Evite. (This an electronic invitation software that is easy to use and interactive.) You can make it cutesy by picking different themes. One benefit is that everyone can view the RSVP responses. (A small way of holding each other accountable.) Evite will also send out reminders and thank you notes. |
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Facilitation Tip #5 Find a special way to invite and thank your members for attending the CFG meetings. |