• "I will provide quality over quantity."
• "I will look for more opportunities outside of the traditional classroom."
• "More student-led activities: students as facilitators; students as teachers."
• "Create a safe place to fail (and move forward)."

This is a small sampling of the instructional goals teachers set at the Harwood YATST in-service for 350 K-12 faculty.

The YATST team began the in-service with the "This is Your Brain...on Information" play.  The play highlights key elements of engaging learning supported by current brain research, based on Dr. David Sousa's information processing model. The audience then adjourned into 14 smaller, student-facilitated groups to help teachers relate the lessons of the play to their own practices.  Teachers participated in "chalktalks", a written and silent form of dialogue, which was then debriefed by the group (School Reform Initiative protocol).  In the spirit of the YATST strengths-based approach, the first chalktalk question asked participants to identify the ways their instructional practices were already aligned with brain research.  The second chalktalk question challenged teachers to reflect on steps they could take to deepen the alignment. The faculty concluded the session by setting specific goals. These were taped on the larger chalktalk sheets, carried to the cafeteria and displayed on the walls, encircling the room as participants convened for lunch.

A short slide show captures this event. The first two slides are taken in the cafeteria and show several of the chalktalk sheets. You will then see the two essential questions that prompted the teachers to grapple with their own practices. This is followed by a representative sampling of the goals that the faculty set for themselves.  It provides compelling testimony regarding the scope and depth of the issues that YATST triggers, affirming Margaret Wheatley's belief that, "There is nothing more powerful than a community discovering what it cares about."  We would add, there is nothing more powerful than students orchestrating that discovery!

The link to the slide show is: http://youtu.be/kz_ellRXCYQ