Tag Archives: Schools

How Appreciative Inquiry Makes a Difference in Education

Marge and JoyceRecently the Inquiry Institute conducted an interview with Marge Schiller and Joyce Lemke, two of our well-known PCC members.

Between them, Marge and Joyce have conducted 15 Education focused Appreciative Inquiry Summits, ranging from 50-700 participants.

In this conversation they discuss some of what they have learned and the importance of strength-based schools.

You can listen to the podcast here. (24 minutes)  If you are interested in strength-focused approaches in schools, it will be very well worth your time! 🙂

[audio:https://www.positivechangecore.org/audio/Marge_Joyce_Interview_6Jul2011.mp3]

Skype in the Classroom

Skype in the Classroom is a website taking advantage of the global reach of Skype to connect teachers around the globe!

As the site explains:

Skype in the classroom is a free community to help teachers everywhere use Skype to help their students learn. It’s a place for teachers to connect with each other, find partner classes and share inspiration. This is a global initiative that was created in response to the growing number of teachers using Skype in their classrooms.

Once teachers create a profile that sets out their interests, specialties and location, they can create projects. Projects are a way for teachers to find partner classes, partner teachers or guest speakers for a specific learning activity. You can browse through projects or even search by keyword, which makes it easy for teachers to share expertise and collaborate on projects even when they don’t already know each other.

Teachers can also browse through a members-only directory to find teachers who can offer them help, or whom they might be able to help. Once teachers find someone they’d like to connect with, they can add that person as a Skype contact. There’s also a directory of resources to help teachers share inspiring videos, links and tips around using in their classrooms.

While there is a lot you can do on Skype in the classroom, there are also a few things you can’t do. This is a community for educators to work on education-related endeavours. It is not a place intended for personal projects or for anything from which you might make any commercial gain.

Using their Skype accounts, teachers can collaborate on projects, connect with other teachers around the world and discover new inspiration for their classrooms.

The site is young – it was launched at the end of March, so is only two months old. But at time of writing, you can already find over 12,000 teachers, 500 projects and 450 resources on the site.

Well worth a visit for any teacher!

Via Marge Schiller,
from Adrienne O’Neill and Joseph Rochford
of the Stark Education Partnership

Coming Together – Targeting Success

This is the introduction to an article by Jeff Fifield,  Curriculum Facilitator at Colegio Maya in Guatemala, which was published in NewsLinks:

Coming Together – Targeting Success was the title of Colegio Maya’s (American International School of Guatemala) Strategic Planning Summit.

It captured well the objectives for the innovative and dynamic event to generate dialogue in bringing the learning community closer together to set future targets for school improvement.

Utilising an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach, which aligned to the school’s culture, allowed the school’s stakeholders to engage in a meaningful and energized experience to begin creating the shared vision for school improvement.

The truly magical mix included students, teachers, administrators, parents, Board Members, as well as former members of the school community.

To read more about this wonderful event, download the full article

Evocative Coaching:
Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time

A new resource is available for those working with classroom teachers and school leaders. Written by Bob & Megan Tschannen-Moran, Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time (Jossey-Bass, 2010), incorporates the principles of Appreciative Inquiry into the process of one-on-one coaching for personal and professional development.

The Evocative Coaching model works with Story Listening, Expressing Empathy, Appreciative Inquiry, and Design Thinking to move educators beyond old ways of thinking, doing, and being. It inspires and invigorates educators with the passion for making schools better, one conversation at a time.

David Cooperrider had this to say about the book: “If you could choose only one inspiring and resource-filled book on coaching, what do you suppose it would be? For me the answer is right here. Evocative Coaching is a gem; it’s something that should be read by anyone involved in a helping profession—and that’s everyone!”

For more information about the book and the coach training program based upon the book, visit www.SchoolTransformation.com.

Bob Tschannen-Moran

PCC Board Meeting 1/12/10

050211_5303_4088_

The board meeting, conducted via telephone conference, focused on the activities of participants in expanding the use of strengths-based approaches in the education of children and increasing the practice of Appreciative Inquiry.

Two members (Sue James and Robin Stratton-Berkessel) described in glowing terms their experience of the Appreciative Inquiry Conference that was held in Nepal in November of 2009.  High points related to location, cultural diversity of attendees and applications of AI in the community, healthcare and spiritual arenas.

For more about the conference in Nepal, please see:

The group then brainstormed recommendations to make the website more dynamic including brief interviews of board members, stories of interest highlighting education in emergent areas, and stories reflecting the power of children and links to interesting articles.

An overview of Voices of Learning in Canton, Ohio. in which 6 schools participated, was presented and overall was a success.

The meeting ended with plans to complete the Leap of Learning Manual and enroll interested teachers, school administrators in the training before publication as well as regional offices of education and education boards.

More detailed information about the meetng (PDF download)

A Reflection on 9/11

Marge Schiller PhD
(PCC Director)

I avoided thinking about 9/11. Even though that day was a life altering experience for me.

I was in New York City when the World Trade Centers were hit. But going back to the shock and grief and fear of being there then was not something I wanted to do.

9-11-01candlesimplelgwhite19/11 was a defining moment in the USA. People in my country and around the world came together in shock and surprise.

It was not just the number of deaths; many more people have died in defining moments of war, famine or disaster. It was the vulnerability of our wonderful, optimistic, almost adolescent country.

We were looking at a new reality that brought us both closer together and also further apart from the post 2000 global society.

The new millennium had the USA in a different and (for us) disturbing place in the world order.

On September 11th I was working with seventy senior executives from a Manhattan based hotel chain. To provide context for the management training session I had asked the group the question “Is Then the Same as Now?”

We had just started to talk about changes in the hospitality industry and the world when we heard the news.

Outside the mid town building there was smoke, and ash covered the streets. Because communications were shut down, we even speculated that the USA was at war.

childholdinghandWhen Rachel, aged three, was brought to the corporate headquarters by her mother, I took care of the little girl so Lynette could work.

As Rachel and I walked around corporate headquarters I saw how her presence affected others.  Those who were in shock unfroze. Anyone who had been crying stopped when they heard her voice or saw her sweet face.

That was when I knew that children are the image and voice of hope — especially when we suspect things are hopeless.

That was how the Positive Change Core was initiated — to serve children and youth with strength-focused approaches to schools and learning.

But yesterday I did not want to go back to 9/11.

Yes, that day changed my life — but now what?

The answer showed up on the news and in today’s newspaper.

“We can summon once more that ordinary goodness of America — to serve our communities, to strengthen our country and to better our world.”  Barack Obama

Nine One One is a day for Service. The remembrance is in the present. In giving back. Remembrance comes best in being of service to children, youth and others in our community.

That is the greatest memorial for the dead.

That is what 9/11 means to me today.

Intergenerational Conversations

Marge SchillerThis is the title of an article by PCC founder, Marge Schiller PhD.

As Marge says:

Schools and youth are agents of benefit for their communities and the world. They are the future. Sustainability of that future depends on human beings, young and old meeting our responsibility as stewards of the earth.

In this article, Marge talks about the benefits of creating space for intergenerational conversations and explains two of the foundational principles of PCC:

  1. Don’t do anything about me without me
  2. Maximum mix is magic

She shares some thoughts on how to proceed with such a gathering, and suggests three phases for maximum success.

Download  Intergenerational_Conversations