MARCH MADNESS
This month has been filled with excitement! Mid-term group projects and 1:30am discussions about Harry Potter book 7!
In other news, last week I had my first consulting project for a charter school district. I and three colleagues have been asked to implement an inclusion initiative. This project is part of my organizational cultural diversity course. I have been learning a lot about group process and dynamics as well as group facilitation. I have seen how these skills are also useful in the youth Sunday School class that I now teach at church. It is tricky to discuss the Old testament with a bunch 14 to 18 year olds without our discussions being interrupted with lines from Napoleon Dynamite and irrelevant music lyrics. What can I say, I love saying "just listen to your heart, that's what I always do" and singing "I know Ja will never let us down"(-Bob Marley). But the students are patient with me and they are very polite when I go off on my tangents.
4 comments:
What is an inclusion innitiative?
Do you like what you're reading about group facilitation? What are some of the principles? (This is something I've thought a lot about because all of my coursework is essentially small group discussion. Sometimes I am frustrated by the process and sometimes it works well, but I can't exactly put my finger on why.)
I'd like an explanation on these pictures.
EXPLANATION:
I had just been studying Statistics for 8 hours and I talked Ashlyn into making a break for the beach. I cleverly disguised as my second head but unfortunately Emily busted us and we did the dishes instead.
Next photo:
For some reason I stood up until 1:30am last Friday (with Emily's brother Jesse) hypothesizing the plot to Harry Potter book 7. I normally would not have done this but for some reason I felt the need to defend my theory until 12:00am and remaining half hour was out of curiosity to Jesse. Emily thought she would immortalize our dorkiness with a picture.
Inclusion is (as I conceptualize it) to value differences in a community. Differences could include anything from policies, structures, study habits*, objectives*, ideas and norms of behavior*. By placing value on difference every member of the community is respected and included.
Principles? Well it difficult to list principles (perhaps it will be future writing project) because every one has their own methods of achieving it.
I particularly enjoy Appreciative Inquiry. Inquiry should have four characteristics. It should be Appreciative, Applicable, Provocative, and Collaborative. The facilitator’s role is to ensure the group is meeting these four characteristics. I find it useful to pay attention to positive. When the group goes off on a tangent, goes silent, or slips into ambiguity, I try to reroute them by focusing on a past point of the conversation in which the group was achieving all four characteristics. I also try to subtly identify points when the group is presently meeting the characteristics as to establish recognition of the desired tone of the meeting.
The project:
This charter school district has been in Forbes magazine and is primarily funded by Bill Gates. It gets 1,000 student applications a year and accepts only around 100. Out of the 452 students attending the school 57 percent are minorities and 43 percent are white. Every student in the district’ high schools’ the first two graduating classes (2000 and 2001) enrolled in college, and results on state tests place the school among the highest-achieving high schools in the state. All of the graduates in the classes of 2003 and 2004 were admitted to college and nearly 60 percent of those students were the first generation in their families to go to college. In 2005, this charter district received the honor of being the first charter school to receive permission from the state of California to operate its own teacher credentialing program at its own sites in collaboration with the University of San Diego. The project I am working on is helping this charter school design it teacher credential program, specifically the diversity and inclusion aspects.
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