Discuss Research

Any teacher with a year or two of experience has had one of those conversations. You have six things to get done before you leave for the evening and you’re hustling to catch someone before they’ve left too. You pass a colleague in the hallway and they make a comment that catches you just right. You pause and give a remark from your own experience that seems to resonate with them too. In no time flat you’re both an hour into a conversation that is reshaping your practice. It happens to everyone, and often they are the most disruptive and creative milestones in a career.

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Those discussions never seem to happen during a scheduled workshop. A basic think-pair-share-move on doesn’t produce that kind of dialogue. Deadlines get missed… dinner gets postponed… but that time is so remarkably valuable and satisfying that it never seems like anyone is willing to walk away from them when they’re happening. Let’s get more of that.

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I launched a podcast recently (Two Pint PLC) and Woodruff and I have been talking about how to get more folks engaged. We’ve had multiple people give some excellent perspectives on some of our discussions and I have been really sad that those contributions aren’t available for everyone. KABTers have done meetups periodically, so what do you all think about trying to find a way to create a forum to continue those conversations as they happen organically. We’ve got the Facebook page, but that page has so much other stuff going on that I don’t know it’s the best place for lengthier (I hope) dialogue. This blog hasn’t engendered that level of casual back and forth… So ideas? How might we get something more akin to a forum going to discuss research?