Today I was without my students and at a Socratic Seminar Conference with one of my department colleagues. She and I have led school PD on Socratic Seminars together in the past and want to continue and grow our expertise in this area. It was worth it. These things can be a crap shoot sometimes, but the facilitator/presenter was, without a doubt, an expert in Socratic Seminars. He modeled clarity and kept the all day conference very focused. My biggest take aways were the strategies and instruction he provided around creating the opening Socratic Seminar question. The first part of the day all of the teachers participated in a very rich socratic seminar, where he modeled leading, pressing and formative assessment. He did not allow us to switch on our teacher hats; we were students! I loved it!!!
About myself, I learned that, yes, it is still very difficult for me to not share. I spent way too much time waiting for an opening to speak and needed to let go of how important my thoughts and ideas were and just listen. Progress....
A-ha: My ego really gets in the way of my ability to listen.
Reminder: Don't worry, life will go on even without my input!
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