Coversation Overview and Follow-up

This is part A of a two part conversation see link below for part B. It was a one hour conversation at the Provincial level following the Ministry of Education Local Conversation Kit. See Tricom Conversation on Education on our School Council Blog for advertisement of this conversation and links to other community dialogues.

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Part B is a local Inspiring Education Conversation for the Tri-Communities of the City of Spruce Grove, County of Parkland, and Town of Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada. It has been developed by applying the ministry of education guidelines (Items quoted are from the conversation kit) to facilitate a local conversation. It is hoped that the dialogue started on May 21st 2009 will continue until 2029 and beyond so that we will have the best education possible for current and future generations. In addition, we want to stimulate other ongoing dialogues in the communities of Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, and Parkland County. At this point Part B is an Online Dialogue with the possibility of in person events being held in the future.
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Who are the participants in your group

Group Discussion Guidelines

• Everyone has wisdom.
• We need everyone’s wisdom for the wisest result.
• There are no wrong answers.
• The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
• Everyone will hear others and be heard.

List who is participating your group: (number of people, affiliations, etc. not names; e.g., 10 people – three mothers and two fathers of school-age children; five grandparents two grade 12 students):

Use the name/url option to identify your group (e.g. Tricom 1)

ACTIVITY 1 NOTES – Table Activity: Picture Activity on Past Learning

Facilitator direction to participants:
Take a moment to think about your past learning experiences. Click here to choose a picture that best reflects your thoughts and feelings towards your past learning experiences.

Use name/url to identify the image /photo selected e.g., Young child blowing bubbles and photo identifier letter.

Then comment on "Why you picked the image (photo) and what story does it remind you of."

ACTIVITY 2 NOTES – Table Activity: Picture Activity on Future Learning

Facilitator question to participants:
“If you were born today, what hopes, dreams and aspirations would you have for your learning in the next 20 years?” (Click here to pick an image to reflect your ideal learning experience?)

Use name/url to identify the image /photo selected and the identifier e.g., Rainbow and identifier.

Then make a comment on "What this photo represents for your hopes for future learning?"

ACTIVITY 3 NOTES – Table Activity: Conversation on Learning

Facilitator questions to participants:
. Read your comment to Activity 2 to others in our group.
· What words, phrases or images do you remember hearing or seeing?
· What did you hear that we had in common?

Use your group name for identification (name/url).


In a comment to this post record responses to the second question asked. "What did we have in common?"


Optional:
If you have time, compare your responses with those from other groups to see what you have in common. Use name/url to indicate which groups are compared and comment on what you have in common.

ACTIVITY 4 NOTES – Table Activity: “I-mail”

You have an opportunity to send an “I-mail” (“I” for inspiring) message to someone of your choice about what is really important to you about learning in 20 years. Address it as follows:

In a comment to this post finish this sentence you may add other sentences to complete your message "When I think of learning in 20 years, I hope...

Identify your comment by using name/url to address your comment to someone like To: Mom, my daughter, my son's teacher

Activity 5 - Table Activity: Qualities and Ablilities of an Albertan in the 21st Century

Facilitator questions and directions to participants:

What qualities and abilities will an Albertan need in 2029? Note: It is not important to distinguish between “qualities” and “abilities.”

Put your group number in the name/url and then list as many qualities and abilities as desired separated by commas.

Optional Group Activity: What did we see in common? What common themes do we see?

Look at the comments for your group and develop themes for the comments. Next use name/url to identify your theme for a new comment and copy all the comments for that theme to the new comment.