I did the thing. I shot my shot, sang my song. And it was glorious! I offered a workshop at the National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference (NAISPoCC) in Nashville, Tennessee. The title felt clever when I came up with it in the proposal-writing phase. In the execution of the workshop itself the participants gave that title more life and meaning than I imagined possible. They were, in every sense, all power and fully the point.
My goal was for each participant to leave with an intention to share their experience and expertise with professional peers at a conference or other public learning event.
My premise in addressing educators of color specifically was first to acknowledge the brilliance of the people in the room. We are knowledgeable, have a remarkable wealth of experience, bring distinct and compelling perspectives to every context and in most education conference spaces are typically underrepresented. Once we can lay claim to those realities, then we can proceed to consider which ideas we would most like to champion and cultivate in our professional worlds.
Early on I asked participants to meditate on this central question:
Given your experience, special interests and variety of strengths, what would would be your dream workshop or presentation to offer others?
I encouraged everyone to think broadly – outside and across disciplines, to consider interests outside of school, long term passions and newfound talents. To place my own approach into context, I shared this story:
This fall I was invited through my Twitter direct messages to contribute to a major learning event – not as a keynote speaker or to offer a workshop of a couple of hours – no, I was invited to lead a course. For a whole week! And I could choose the topic! The person who invited me is a friend and mentor and I was overwhelmed with surprise and shock initially. I said yes quickly before my reservations would have a chance to change my mind.
I had to admit to myself that this was not an accident and that it had been several years in the making even if it was never the possibility I would have imagined for myself at the outset. The invitation was the result of having put myself ‘out there’ on Twitter, by blogging. By participating in various forums, online and off. So I will be leading a track on Digital Identity at the Digital Pedagogy Lab next summer. And please note, this is not directly connected to Physical Education.
It felt important to illustrate that we may have talents, strengths, perspectives that are unique that will be valuable to someone else, if we take the opportunities available to share them with others. The point is not that I am authority in the traditional sense. I don’t know all there is to know about the topic. My particular expertise is in the area of facilitation. I have a deep interest and curiosity and given the chance to convene a group with equal interest and curiosity I know that we can construct a series of experiences which will grow our mutual knowledge and individual expertise. That’s what I suggested our knowledge sharing at conferences can be. Claiming expertise is not an all or nothing game.
We worked our way through a series of other questions and I offered a simple graphic organizer to help with the process.
- Describe your last public professional learning event. How did you share your knowledge and expertise with colleagues?
- For your future workshop/presentation/panel, where will you find your audience? Who can support you in your pursuit?
- What are some barriers to presenting at or attending conferences? What kinds of support would you welcome?
At each section, participants spent time sharing thoughts with a different partner. This meant unlinking the chairs and moving around the room. It meant engaging with a number of fresh minds. It looked like this:
“It’s called a workshop because we are all going to work.”
When it came time to write down intentions, folks did not hesitate. They did not skimp, waffle or hold back. They brought it! With clarity, precision and all the soul you can put into words on a big colorful sticky note. In another post I will share a full list, but here are some shining examples:
There is no encore after that.
Our success was epic. We were epic. Look out edu conferences far and wide. We are coming and we’re bringing vision, commitment and beautiful brilliance!
Workshop slides can be viewed here.
*Images are mine. Please request permission to use elsewhere.
edifiedlistener 
What I noticed first about this post were the photos, and what I noticed first about the photos were the hands – people were deep into explanation. They were leaning in, really listening to each other. I could almost feel the energy that was in the room. I love the intentions, too. I think I need to do this for myself. Thanks for sharing.