As I write this the June 2010 Retreat will take place nine days from now. This retreat comes at very a crucial time in Auto's history (when have we heard that before?). We want the ideas, plans and information generated from it to be accessible to all the staff at Auto - not just the participants. That leads us to this blog.
In an effort to move our school into the 21st Century this blog was created in anticipation of the Fall 2010 planning work that will officially start on June 4th. Of course, the work of planning for the fall started long before June 2010, but the retreat represents for many in our school a "starting point".
Beginning in the Spring of 2003 with principal Evaristo Jimenez and help from facilitators from Expeditionary Learning/Outward Bound retreats have occupied a central place in the Automotive "psyche". Retreats take participants out of the normal day to day grind to a place where they can reflect deeply on what we have accomplished and begin planning for the future. Retreats can also create many "unexpected consequences" when participants informally learn things about their colleagues that later come into play in their professional life.
The June 2010 Retreat is about the 15th retreat that I have facilitated for Automotive. Each one of the retreats has it own unique "flavor". Whatever the framework (ELOB, Empowerment, Failure is Not an Option etc.) the results are always the same - a group of extremely dedicated staff members collaboratively working together to make their school better. It has been a pleasure working with everyone over all these years. I look forward to our June 2010 retreat.
Large To Small
Here's a great reading that I have used in Freshman House to get people thinking of some ways that their smaller learning community (grade team) might be used to create a culture of achievement for their students. The chapter starting on page 19 - "Making the Most of Small" offers an excellent structure for personalization of the learning environment (5 -"C"'s). Check out the link:
http://www.scribd.com/full/31992313?access_key=key-25f93gkcd6y863cc12ux
Joe
