When ECLI began this summer, who would have known that I would end up giving my TIW on Zoom from the comfort of my living room? I think it’s fascinating that our decision to do my TIW online had nothing to do with Covid-19, as the video-conferencing format ended up being the perfect context for this moment in time!
Keep It
I won’t spend much time reflecting on what I’d keep, as I am very satisfied with the content of the TIW and its progression. Suffice it to say that I’d keep most of it! I will allow myself to celebrate here.
Change It
Although I’d keep the content and progression of the TIW mostly unchanged, I would find a way to change the timing of some individual elements. There wasn’t enough time devoted to discussing my practice or its application in different contexts, and I left the TIW so curious to hear more from my fellow educators about their takeaways and how my fellow teachers’ thoughts might impact my own practice.
I think I would also change the number of student samples I gave out. Rather than giving each breakout group a different student sample, I’d give only two student samples total. Given the time limitations, hopefully this shared common ground could result in a more efficient conversation. I’d probably email each participant the additional samples for their own reference. I think I’d also probably email the attendees with some additional materials I’ve used and found helpful when teaching “Where I’m From,” including a template I made that works very well for special education students.
As somewhat of an aside, I’m also happy with the last minute change I made based on Tom’s suggestion to skip reading the original “Where I’m From” poem. I agree that this move saved time better spent elsewhere.
Finally, I think that I would have made overall event longer in order to provide time for a general Q & A with the pre-service teachers in attendance, as was advertised in the materials.
Cut it
When Chris and I went over my TIW, I proposed the idea of cutting out the beginning slides addressing my school, unit, and lesson context, as I felt that they took up too much time in an already short workshop. Ultimately, we felt that I should keep the slides in service of the idea that “more context is better,” but I’m still left wondering about the relevance of some of the context I shared about the specifics of my school to the work I presented. Could cutting this out have allowed for more discussion time?
Ultimately, when doing this again, I’d like to only keep the essential elements in order to provide more time for discussion!
Final Thoughts
I know that my TIW was only a small online gathering of interested educators, but being a part of this event felt like participating in an important milestone in educational history! I was so moved by people’s willingness to share and come together in an online format. Although I certainly hope that we can all return to doing in-person TIWs soon, I also hope that we will think about retaining some opportunities for online connection that were previously ignored.
ECLInstitute - HVWP 2019-2020 
Dan, I have to say that I was bowled over with your Zoom workshop! Your confidence and ease at presenting (in what at the time was still so new a format to all of us!) was great, your energy was infectious and the pride you showed in your students and their work was abundantly clear.
I also think your ideas on minor changes and cuts are very astute. Classic TIW’s are usually double the length of a round table (90 minutes) which allows for much more time in various student models or providing lots of context. In 45 minutes it’s really difficult, since the best magic happens in the doing of the exercise (writing) and the discussion that happens. This really shortens anything you have to say to 10 minutes or so (as a presenter) which means careful consideration of what to include and what to omit is essential. I thought your timing was great, but I agree that based on what you valued from the feedback, the small changes you suggest would give you more time in the future for deeper engagement with other teachers.
I hope that you keep this workshop in your back pocket to share with staff/ colleagues to come. Not to mention, you can use this workshop structure to showcase many of the other amazing learning activities you do with your students!! You have mastered the Teacher Inquiry Workshop,and I can’t wait to sit in on your next one!
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