Enable Others to Act
-Structure Projects
To Promote Joint Effort
(J. Kouzes & B. Posner, 2012)
-Joanne M Glantz
Ah yes, another collaboration project. Just what teachers were looking for. We all feel that anxiety when we are tasked with yet another "thing" to do.
This chapter had so many personal, heart touching, goals for fostering collaboration that it was difficult to pick just one.
I did settle on "Structure Projects to Promote Joint Effort" because it sparked the process needed to get teachers sharing technology ideas and experiences across the large campus we work at and not feeling pressured to do one more task.
My idea is to start a Twitter Chat at Madera South High School. As mentioned, it was difficult to select just one goal so you will see a few others surface as well. We need to create a technology-driven common goal for all teachers and that is to share and support each other with innovative apps that transform a student's learning experience. Being innovative and trying new things is risky and doesn't always work, so we need all the ideas, experience, and support we can foster.
We will begin having a Twitter Chat at noon on Thursdays. It will be promoted through e-mail and the use of #MUSDSecondary. Teachers will be encouraged to just watch as the more Twitter experienced folks take on the challenge. Teachers will then pair up with the active Tweeters and start participating. The chat will take on the Q&A numbered format and the sharing of ideas and fostering a growth mindset will be the theme.
This idea has many other methods to promote and build on, but to keep this blog short I will sum it up here. Goals that this project can foster include, building trust, sharing information about yourself, and reciprocity to mention just a few. To quote from the book, "By supporting norms of reciprocity and structuring projects to reward joint efforts, you enable people to clearly understand that it's in their best interest to cooperate." (p.239).
I see this project as a no pressure approach to foster collaboration and build global communication skills.
Strengthen Others
-Set Aside The Time Necessary To Coach
(J. Kouzes & B. Posner, 2012)
-Joanne M Glantz
This was an interesting chapter as it relates to Education. I had various thoughts with some of the suggestions of allowing staff to decide when and for how long they took a vacation. Education being a very structured environment makes it difficult to provide for some of these empowering ideas, so I opted for the later methods of coaching and educating our constituents.
Apply technology to the learning process and utilizing it in a far more advanced level takes a lot of training but also a lot of ambition and desire. Many teachers, especially those close to retirement, don't see value in that expenditure of time and effort. It is with these teachers that we need to coach. My favorite method of coaching in this situation is "meeting them halfway", and sometimes it takes more than half way. Designing a lesson plan that incorporates student driven learning, creative design, and peer collaboration, is not only difficult to do technically, it is a pedagogic shift to deliver in the classroom. This type of coaching requires working directly with the teacher and then assisting them with the delivery in the classroom. Almost sounds like you are doing it for them, you say? Well, it can be that way at times, but the energy they get once they experience success is the hook. There are many leadership skills that lead up to coaching in this manner. In my experience, building a relationship and trust are the two most important.
One of my most respected Directors taught us the motivational principal of; Nice Bike (M. Scharenbroich, CSP, CPAE). Acknowledge, Honor, and Connect. He was able to turn the sourest of attitudes into all smiles and knew exactly when he needed to do it. I had the opportunity of working closely with him for many years and have been able to instill this quality into my daily relationship building with great success.
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