Peg, Chris and OS friends, I had my first Open Space meeting on Sat. I wanted to let you know how it went and see what guidance you have for me. In July, I sent out letters to 6 of my teaching colleagues and asked them to come to a planning meeting for an open space. One friend called and said she couldn't come, one friend called and said she could and I didn't hear from any of the others. Well, one person showed up, and she was the perfect one. I began to talk about open space and my desire to nurture teachers. Well, she had other needs in mind. She is a teacher of the gifted and has to collaboarte with over 30 teachers to help over 100 kids who were identified as gifted. As we talked, we decided this would be a great open space. We are tentatively planning on holding it over Martin Luther KIng Holiday. We began thinking about themes but didn't settle on anything. I began talking with her about givens. She got the idea and will talk with her superior to see how open she is to the kind of solutions that may come up. She will also check the state guidelines for givens. She also would like to use this as her project to get her master's degree. She also is in a position to write a model for gifted programs to submit to the state department. Some things we talked about that I'm not sure of. She said it would help draw people if graduate credit were offered or we paid them a stipend. I suggested that we could make grad credit available but I wanted to downplay it so that it wasn't the draw for them. I don't know what to say about a stipend. I also suggested to her that we invite parents and the kids. The students are 4th adn 5th graders. She is nervous about that part. I told her we had time to decide about that, but she should think about who she wants to be there and the more parts of the system the better. The open space is going to be a huge departure for their school district. I know including kids would only add to the hugeness of the departure. I am to check on space and the grad credit thing. We will come together in another month to share what we have gathered and put in the next steps. I suggested a Friday night through Monday afternoon to have plenty of time for storytelling, generating energy and ideas and convergence. It also will take up a whole holiday weekend for them. I also suggested we needed at least 12 people in order to make it work.
So, she left very excited, after starting from a very discouraged place. I am excited too. Let me know your thoughts and ideas and any pitfalls you may see in the planning. Thanks bundles for being available, Kathleen * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html =========================================================== osl...@egroups.com To subscribe, 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign up -- provide an email address, and choose a login ID and password 3. Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions To unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@egroups.com: 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign in and Proceed