<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Dear Eddie, Harrison, Michael, Gerard and Michael!<br><br>Thank you so much for your support and resourceful letters!<br>I will look at the archives and might ask more specific questions when I get to that point!<br><br>Have a great autumn!<br><br>Nataly Marchuk<br>
Independent Associate<br>
Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.<br>
Home office: (408) 749-0936<br>
Mobile phone: (408) 420-0095<br>
www.femida-network.com<br><br>--- On <b>Thu, 10/2/08, Michael M Pannwitz <i><mmpanne@boscop.org></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">From: Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne@boscop.org><br>Subject: Open Space in a private school and schools in general<br>To: OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008, 1:20 AM<br><br><pre>Hi, all of you interested in os in schools,<br>since 1997, I have been involved with 32 open space events in education, <br>20 of them in schools (after-school-day care, elementary school, all <br>varieties of the various highschools in the German system, special <br>schools)and, as everyone seems to be reporting, they always worked just <br>fine.<br>Especially when the kids or students were involved, and even more so <br>when there were planning groups with kids or students (defining the <br>title, exchanging on the expectations
for the event and discussing who <br>all needs to be invited) and very much so, when there were next meetings <br>in the schools keeping track of the projects started in the action <br>planning of the open space event.<br>You can see all these events at<br>> http://www.openspaceworldscape.org/<br><br>(click on my name, "Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg" in the<br>"select Open <br>Space facilitator" search window and combine it with the field <br>"education" in the "select field/sector" search<br>window...that gives you <br>32 events, when you chose "schools" in the "select<br>field/sector" window, <br>it narrows it down to 20...there is quite a bit of detail on title, <br>sponsor, length of event, number of participants, venue, team, etc....)<br>(if you search the data base just by field/sector regardless of who <br>facilitated the event you get about double the entries...this, of <br>course, is only a tiny fraction of events that have taken place
<br>worldwide over the last 20+ years...and if you have any, you are invited <br>to include them in the data base so we all and the world can see the <br>vast variety of what has been happening with open space all over)<br><br>What I have not seen in my practice is the introduction of ost into the <br>classroom itself. This has loads of reasons in "traditional" schools <br>(who is the facilitator? who is the sponsor? what about voluntary <br>selfselection? etc.)...there are, however, many other schools (a very <br>small percentage of all schools in Germany) that look very much like <br>"open space schools" and those kinds of schools have been around for<br>a <br>long time (two days ago there was a documentary on German TV on a school <br>in Weimar that has weekly gatherings in a circle (morning circle) to <br>plan the weekly program (bulletin board) and then the students decide <br>what they want to do at what time (market)...there is a plan, however,
<br>what needs to be covered in that week, but how it is covered seems to be <br>selforganized and the teachers call themselves facilitators and there <br>are no "traditional" class rooms but many spaces (break out places) <br>where differently large groups of students meet, mixed age.<br><br>The os way of operating, however, has entered a number of aspects of <br>some of the schools I have worked in. The student representatives in one <br>highschool convened their weekly 2-hour gatherings in open space. The <br>work on the future of schools or the quality of "living and learning"<br><br>including not only parents, students and teachers but also neighbors, <br>teachers from schools the students came from (in Germany kids in the <br>public school system typically attend elementary school for 4 or 6 years <br>depending in which state they live in and then continue into highschools <br>of which there are up to 4 varieties again according to the state you
<br>live in)and schools, universities or training situations (companies)and <br>people involved in other aspects of the school landscape (teacher <br>training, officials from the school administration, etc.)...getting <br>pretty much the whole system into the room.<br><br>I was wondering who the initial contacts for an event in schools are, <br>teachers? (sometimes in my experience) parents? (a couple of times), <br>students (several times), principles (twice), people working in schools <br>but not part of the school (several times)...and how they heard about <br>it...this might give us some pointers on how to spread the word about os <br>in schools and schoolsystems...after all, everyone passes through some <br>kind of school so schools are a great place to get acquainted with open <br>space.<br><br>Greetings from Berlin<br>mmp<br><br><br><br>Michael Wood wrote:<br>> Hi Nataly et al<br>> <br>> 1. We ran an Open Space with a large Anglican
boys school (100 year<br>> history) earlier in the year - about 90 people attended comprised<br>> roughly one third parents, one third students and one third staff<br>> (whoever comes are the right people and it just happened that this was<br>> the way it panned out). I don't have the exact wording of the theme to<br>> hand, but it was about building a diverse culture within the school. One<br>> day event. Very good feedback. One 12 year old (Year 6) student stepped<br>> right into the middle of the circle to convene a conversation on the<br>> school becoming co-ed!!<br>> <br>> 2. I like your idea of an ongoing bulletin board for convening<br>> conversations and would suggest that this be done AFTER a major launch<br>> event, so that people have been introduced to an experience of OS<br>> principles and self organisation. The bulletin board system would be a<br>> way of experimenting with how to begin to embed
OS principles in the<br>> daily life of the school. However, I think you also need to make a<br>> decision about whether you are using World Cafe or Open Space as they<br>> are rather different systems.<br>> <br>> 3. I would certainly encourage you do the training with Lisa and maybe<br>> get an experienced person in for your launch events as schools<br>> (particularly staff) have, in my experience, lots of tradition of<br>> command and control thinking and OS is often quite challanging for them<br>> (however, it always works!)<br>> <br>> Good luck - I reckon there are terrific possibilities for OS in schools<br>> - children respond to it particularly well.<br>> <br>> Regards<br>> Michael Wood<br>> Perth, Western Australia<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> ________________________________<br>> <br>> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of nata<br>> marchuk<br>>
Sent: Wednesday, 1 October 2008 4:18 AM<br>> To: OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>> Subject: Open Space in a private school<br>> <br>> <br>> Dear All!<br>> <br>> I am in the process of thinking through a project of using OST in<br>> private school, my children go to. I was so inspired by the OS on OS<br>> conference in San Francisco this summer, so I could not stop thinking<br>> about this wonderful approach. Our school is small and relatively<br>> flexible, and we are looking for ways to effectively communicate ideas,<br>> thoughts and concerns that any part of PTA may have. <br>> <br>> I see it happening in two formats: on-going bulletin board with topics<br>> that are interesting for people, providing available rooms for<br>> discussion and possible solutions generating on the weekly basis with a<br>> "World Cafe" rules. And a big school-wide OS conference 1 or 2<br>times a<br>> year with the
help of the outside facilitators. Ideally (in future) I<br>> want our children to be able to use this tool for their ideas and<br>> concerns! <br>> <br>> Do any of you know or have an experience of OST working at schools? Can<br>> you please share any insights, warnings, ideas and/or support?<br>> <br>> I am not a OST consultant/facilitator yet, although I am thinking of<br>> taking a class with Lisa Heft in SF, and I know that people without<br>> proper understanding/skill set can ruin not only one event but<br>> appreciation for the OST as a whole for that group. So any critiques is<br>> constructive for me, my goal is to learn, learn, learn!<br>> <br>> Thank you in advance!<br>> <br>> Warmly yours,<br>> <br>> Nataly Marchuk<br>> Independent Associate<br>> Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.<br>> Home office: (408) 749-0936<br>> Mobile phone: (408) 420-0095<br>> www.femida-network.com<br>>
<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> * * ==========================================================<br>> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To<br>> subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of<br>> oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:<br>> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about<br>> OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<br>> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist <br>> <br>> *<br>> *<br>> ==========================================================<br>> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>> ------------------------------<br>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,<br>> view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:<br>> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html<br>> <br>> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<br>> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist<br>>
<br><br>*<br>*<br>==========================================================<br>OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>------------------------------<br>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,<br>view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:<br>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html<br><br>To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<br>http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist<br></pre></blockquote></td></tr></table><br>
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