Jim's+reflections+on+the+first+event+of+the+year

Reflections on the LA workshop

Gabi asked me to put together some thoughts about the LA workshop and some of the new items that we did as Field reps. Since Lynn, Jason and Anne were all at the workshop I’ll try and be accurate. They are of course welcome to add their thoughts to my performance J .

Faculty Meeting: It was good to have the PPT as a tool. I am glad that the meeting was cut back to the 60 minutes. I did have an article to hand out since it was hoped that this could be more of a staff development opportunity but this was a large cast of characters and introductions, house-keeping and changes took the time. Plus, we, in the elementary are very conscious of time and the need for the trainers to have this time for preparation of the rooms In light of the fact that the rooms were available on Friday night. There should have been time for some discussion of the article, but we didn’t. I have heard from three of the trainers that they liked the article and could use it. A suggestion: in the future IBEN could suggest items to discuss with the trainers with feedback to IBEN.

Introductions before the Plenary: First I want to make it clear I was opposed to this. It seemed artificial and time consuming especially in LA where we had 37 trainers and three field reps. I WAS WRONG ( hard to believe, eh). I really enjoyed having the trainers introduce themselves and we should continue doing it. I might add the Diploma trainers did not like it. The PYP did. The team that was doing Collaboration introduced themselves together which was a nice touch. I would recommend that we do that in the future. It sends the message that we are working together. They could even introduce each other. In all it only took 11 minutes to introduce the 37. Again, I think it worked very well and the feedback from participants was very positive.

Sessions: With 8 sessions you need to plan time well. During the workshops problems will arrive and you have to attend to them. There were some sessions that I needed to observe or be present in and so I did the minimum with some of the sessions while devoting more time where needed. Especially if you have new workshops that are being presented for the first time or there are lots of newbies (which I did not have at this session), or conflicts between trainers which I did have. These can be time consuming. On Day three I was mainly working with two sessions. Visibility is important and I tried to be at least visible on Day 3.

Jason saved me from one very aggressive participant who remembered me from an Evaluation Visit that I had led and she did not like the results or the person (me) who wrote the report. So if you can help your Field Rep, it will be appreciated.

Breakfast Debrief (or afternoon of Day 2 Debrief)

I am glad we are doing debriefs again.

Loved the four square rubric. I handed each trainer a copy of the rubric at the faculty meeting so they could use it as a guide for the meeting. That seemed to work as many of the trainers had them filled in when they came to the Debrief.

We decided on the night before because the eating space was noisy and 16 presenters do not fit at one table. The Debrief took longer than I expected so I am glad we did it in one of the rooms rather that at the bar. Since we do talk about the workshops, participants and IB it is important that we use a space that is not populated by participants. That’s why a Debrief in the main room doesn’t work and we do want the trainers to have a warm breakfast. If IB can swing it, the private room for breakfast on the last day would work and show the trainers that IB appreciates their work and then we can do a Breakfast Debrief. Both MYP and DP said they would not do the Debrief in the main room for those reasons. But no other space was available.

Because of the size of the group (600+) plus the breakfast for the trainers on the first day was in a private room. I cannot tell you how popular this was and how much the trainers liked it and want it to continue. I put it in the Debrief Notes. I would agree, it was quiet and let the trainers have some reflective time as they prepared for the three days ahead. I hope IB will consider this in the future.

It was unclear if the expectation of the Debrief was to talk about just the workshop or was it also to talk about IBA/IBO. We decided to only talk about the workshop, but there were many thoughts about IBA/IBO that I think would be helpful to hear.

Finally:

I’m glad I participated in the on-line training. I believe it made for a smoother running workshop. Kate, conference coordinator, was easy to work with and we both understood our roles. We had one participant who seemed to be roaming throughout the different workshops shopping, as we say. My job was to go and tell her she was in the wrong session, Kate’s job was to make sure her enrollment was legitimate and get the money J <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 13pt;">. As we discussed in the training, building rapport with the conference coordinator and other folks from the IBA office will benefit everyone.