Matt Smith joins the team of conference hosts

Matt Smith, OSR's visiting presenter in kinesthetic learning, replaces improvisation artist Randy Dixon on the Annual Conference program for Saturday, June 28. Randy was unexpectedly called out of town to assist TheaterSports Toronto.

Matt, who has been teaching with OSR since 1995, founded Seatle Improv in 1985 and Stark/RavingTheatre (including the award-winning Here/There) with Ed Sampson in 1988. He uses improvisational theatre theory to facilitate trainings in teambuilding, creative brainstorming, stress management, managing change and conflict resolution.

Matt joins improvisation artist Michael Bils and graphic facilitator Steven Wright for Peggy Holman's morning plenary session, An experiment in four movements.

Third time's a charm: Alumni Board invites you

Thanks to your OSR Master’s degree, you’ve probably earned several “Plays Well With Others” awards and accolades from colleagues at work, family at home and friends at play.

Isn’t it time to try a third OSR design team experience?

The OSR Alumni Association is looking for graduates interested in serving on the Association’s Board of Directors.

Here’s a chance to hone your collaborative team-member skills while supporting the OSR graduate programs and community. Through your board service you’ll be able to create deep and meaningful relationships throughout the OSR community.

As a board member, you’ll sign-on for a two-year commitment that includes:

• Participating in monthly, two-hour board meetings held at Seattle University;
• Assisting with a full-day annual board retreat (usually late Spring or early Summer);
• Contributing to board initiatives that fit your expertise and interests;
• Volunteering at OSR events and activities — serving as ambassadors on behalf the OSR community-at-large.

Current board initiatives are:

• Lead, manage and market the Alumni Association
• Design and produce learning events
• Develop community relationships
• Collaborate with OSR graduate programs, the OSR-Northwest board and the Alumni Association
• Connect OSR alumni members
• Partner in building and sustaining OSR graduate programs

Sound interesting? More details are online at osr-nw.org/alumni/ or email alumni board co-chair Lucy Garrick at osr-alumni@osr-nw.org.

Map where you are changing the world

Hi Fellow Change Agents!
Let everyone know how you are changing your own corner of the world. As part of the conference on How is Change Changing? Exploring New Patterns of Practice, you are invited to show everyone where you are doing this work. Here is a link to a GoogleMap. Follow the pattern and put in the change project you are involved in, where it is located, and your name. Even if you are not the sole leader, please let us know what you are doing, so long as you are actively involved and it is a current project (planning phase is okay too). Please enter only one location for each project. Each person can put in their own balloon to announce what they are doing.

Larry West OSR 9

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Scholarships available for Saturday's conference

A limited number of complimentary admissions for those who can't afford to come are now available for the OSR Annual Conference, Saturday, June 28. Contact Paula Brekke at 206-296-5898 no later than Wednesday, June 25.

Conference design team greeting

Hi Everyone!
My name is Larry West, an OSR 9 Master's graduate. I am an OSR Alumni Association board member and one of the hosts of the June conference, "How is change changing? Exploring new patterns of practice."  Our design team meeting today was very electric and promises an exciting conference day on Saturday, June 28th. Peggy Holman, one of the authors of the The Change Handbook and our keynote speaker, joined us. As did Michael Bils, an improv artist with Unexpected Productions, and Steven Wright, our graphic facilitator for the event.

If you have not signed up yet, may I offer a suggestion? Call up someone you know in OSR and find out if they plan to attend. Whenever I attend a conference or seminar, I get at least twice as much out of the experience if I have friend with whom I can share the experience and compare notes. In any case, greetings on behalf of your 2008 annual conference design team — Dee Endelman, John Curry, John Wilson, Nalani Linder and Steve Byers.

Larry West

Greg Williamson: Improving achievement through student engagement

Young people can work with adults to create positive change in fundamentally different ways. Northwest Education, the magazine from the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, describes projects in several states that show some of the results including work by OSR 13 grad, Greg Williamson.

In the current issue, Greg talks about the role of student engagement to improve learning.

Even a simple thing — such as like how a parents might talk to their student when the state assessment results come in the mail — can be a vehicle for student engagement. At Washington's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) we asked students to write a guide for this conversation, and to help redesign the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) report card so students could explain it in their own language. All of these examples, and many more, become clear once we begin seeing students as partners, as resources, and as people who are learning ‘on the job.’ The results are useful products that help schools meet their improvement targets while helping students make ‘what we are asking you to learn’ relevant to their lives. Students can find a way to connect to their own strengths — especially if they don't think they have any — and teach one important thing to one other person. The feeling of success that comes from that is irrepressible.”

Read the full article.

Greg Williamson and students from Black Hills High School present a workshop on youth participation in change at the OSR Annual Conference, Saturday, June 28.