Open Space

Kathleen A Pichola kapich at juno.com
Mon Aug 28 17:13:26 PDT 2000


Peg, Chris and OS friends,
I had my first Open Space meeting on Sat.  I wanted to let you know how
it went and see what guidance you have for me.   In July, I sent out
letters to 6 of my teaching colleagues and asked them to come to a
planning meeting for an open space.  One friend called and said she
couldn't come, one friend called and said she could and I didn't hear
from any of the others.   Well, one person showed up, and she was the
perfect one.  I began to talk about open space and my desire to nurture
teachers.  Well, she had other needs in mind.  She is a teacher of the
gifted and has to collaboarte with over 30 teachers to help over 100 kids
who were identified as gifted.  As we talked, we decided this would be a
great open space.  We are tentatively planning on holding it over Martin
Luther KIng Holiday.  We began thinking about themes but didn't settle on
anything. I began talking with her about givens. She got the idea and
will talk with her superior to see how open she is to the kind of
solutions that may come up.  She will also check the state guidelines for
givens.  She also would like to use this as her project to get her
master's degree.  She also is in a position to write a model for gifted
programs to submit to the state department.
Some things we talked about that I'm not sure of.  She said it would help
draw people if graduate credit were offered or we paid them a stipend.  I
suggested that we could make grad credit available but I wanted to
downplay it so that it wasn't the draw for them.  I don't know what to
say about a stipend.  I also suggested to her that we invite parents and
the kids.  The students are 4th adn 5th graders.   She is nervous about
that part.  I told her we had time to decide about that, but she should
think about who she wants to be there and the more parts of the system
the better.  The open space is going to be a huge departure for their
school district.  I know including kids would only add to the hugeness of
the departure.  I am to check on space and the grad credit thing.  We
will come together in another month to share what we have gathered and
put in the next steps.  I suggested a Friday night through Monday
afternoon to have plenty of time for storytelling, generating energy and
ideas and convergence.  It also will take up a whole holiday weekend for
them.  I also suggested we needed at least 12 people in order to make it
work.

So, she left very excited, after starting from a very discouraged place.
I am excited too.  Let me know your thoughts and ideas and  any pitfalls
you may see in the planning.

Thanks bundles for being available,
Kathleen

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