This piece was originally published in September, 2010. I had only recently begun regular professional development sessions with our staff and was mulling over a variety of themes. One such theme was "transparency". Like many schools, I suppose, the teaching at ours is pretty insular. I was intent on moving us to greater collaboration, but knew I was running into a culture that would not do this naturally. The idea for a "See-through Cycle" popped into my head and produced a very popular experiment. While I can't say that our culture has shifted dramatically, I really do think that we all are becoming more receptive to collaboration.At MHS, we don't have school weeks, we have "cycles" -- six days per cycle. I meet with Professional Cluster Groups (PCGs) once per cycle. As I mentioned in Collaborating in the Cloud, every staff member is scheduled into one of these groups. Consequently, when I launch an endeavor as I did this past cycle, I can truly say that it has the potential to go school-wide.
This cycle's theme was "Creating Transparency." We discussed the benefits of cracking open our lesson plans and work spaces for others to see. The object? Sharing, learning, collaborating.
* In order to promote culture change of this type, I laid out the following scheme:
* Our fourth school cycle (Sept. 27 - October 4) would be designated the See-through Cycle.
* Anyone interested in maintaining an open door policy for that period signs up on our staff wiki.
* In the spirit of the cycle, no conditional sign ups-- Just hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign for moments that do not lend themselves to guests.
* Those who did not sign-up could still visit others.
* Visits might be of any duration. They would not be prearranged.
* Visits might be of any duration. They would not be prearranged.
* We will evaluate and discuss the experience the fifth cycle
Several individuals signed up immediately including the principal. I am anxious to see what happens. Whether it is popular or totally bombs, the resulting discussion will be interesting. IN either event, I will share the experience with my faithful readers. Here are the slides from this cycle's cluster groups:
P.S. You will note that much of the presentation was devoted to Evernote as well as Google Docs' interface with Moodle.
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Flickr Creative Commons Photo on "Creating Transparency" slide by litopomuschiatio
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