In The End It's All About Your Critical Friends

The National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) is an organization that I have been informally involved with since I began teaching. The non profit organization focuses on promoting more equitable practices through the use of engaging protocols and the development of critical friends groups. The idea here is that if we can ensure that everyone, including, parents, students, teachers, school leaders and community folks all have a voice and are able to fully reach his/her potential the school can better position itself for student success. This work is not easy. My first attempt at using the Tuning Protocol in the classroom was met with some what mixed results. Although I was eventually using the protocol in one of my first professional development sessions with our middle school colleagues and then eventually at a national conference (the first time that I presented on such a platform), I was not fully trained in the use of such protocols which sometimes led to people not being protected - a contradiction for why NSRF developed this work. So ever since that revelation, I really felt the need to become a certified facilitator with NSRF and better understand how the protocols were to be used and organized. After a few failed attempts at trying to get my employer to fund the work, I eventually took the deep dive and paid for my very first professional development session. The conference took place in Los Angeles, CA (and didn't get to visit my one of my favorite museums ever)  and required an entire week of working from day until late afternoon learning, building, deconstructing and honing my skills or rather our skills in the use of the protocols. It was a great use of both my time and money. Not only did I come away with new skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use which protocols and for whom, I also learned about the importance of pre conferencing and carefully preparing everyone for the experiences of the protocols. The way the week was structured was brilliant. We all had to facilitate and then participate in one of the protocols. In this way, we got plenty of practice and also feedback from one another. I'm also thankful that I got a chance to build new friendships with people from all around the country. If you get a chance, please check out all of their free protocols and feel free to give me a shout with any questions on how to best use them and avoid some of the mistakes that I made - all whom you serve will certainly appreciate it.