Building Trust

Mary Kate asked in her post long ago, "What tools can you share?  How can we show patience, kindness, and respect with these tools?"

Thank you for your questions Mary Kate, there was a little voice in the back of my head that has recently grown into a scream - START WRITING.  You have been patient - months worth of patient, you have been kind and respectful.  Never once reminding me that I had not posted on our shared space.  Thank you for that.

All three of the qualities you mention, patience, kindness and respect, for me add up to trust.  So my hunch is that you built a lot of trust with your students and others over the past school year. 

I started thinking about how we build trust with students. Most of us don’t just quickly handover our trust.  We ease into trust over time, through shared experiences, and usually through some confidentiality that has not been broken.  It is the same with our students and teams; trust takes time and reassurance. 

 Mary Kate asked – What tools can you share?  Well here is my confession. I don’t really have many tools.  Yes, I do use tools like Google docs to communicate and create shared thinking spaces with colleagues.  I am really thankful for those tools.  But all in all, I don’t have many tools.  I guess I am thinking that the best tools we have are those honest moments of conversations, the tool of listening, the tool of taking the time to reflect and then respectfully responding or many times to be silent, to be that listener. 

I am trying to earn trust.  Trust so that I can truly work side by side with my teammates.  To let them know that I will work hard to not let them down.  Trust from them to allow me to share the students under their thoughtful care.  Trust that I don’t have answers rather I have the patience to learn and time to try out plans together. 

I may never know if I am truly making a difference in my collaboration with others but I do have the control to be kind and patient and respectful.    For me right now those are the true tools I am trying to develop.

Mary Kate, what are you reflecting on this summer that will impact your collaborations with others in the new school year?  Readers, we would love to hear your thinking on new collaborations and tools. 

Learning to Listen

It has taken a long time to respond to Josie’s question: What would change in your classroom if you challenged yourself to listen more closely to those strong voices of the adults and children around you?

I didn’t get it.  I also think that I didn’t want to listen.  Or maybe I only wanted to listen to voices that echoed my own ideas and sentiments.  This was harder than I thought and has taken me many months to process.  I wanted to listen to the voices cheering me on, not questioning my viewpoint. 

So it’s a new year and I decided to write at my monthly writing retreat, but I found myself distracted and listening to another writer.  She bounced in with a warm and welcoming smile and a beautiful baby bump leading her way.  She shared how she struggled to have her first son and is now pregnant with her second baby.  And the lady across the table shared how her daughter was struggling with infertility. 

The incredible part of this story is that this pregnant writer’s purpose was to publish a blog on her experiences and help others.  She wanted to make something positive come from her struggles, to be someone else’s guide and cheerleader.  How lucky I was to be a part of this discussion.

And so I went back to teaching on Monday with the sole task of listening to my colleagues and students, for stories of courage and triumph.  But instead, I encountered a child’s story of shame.  I entered his classroom, as usual, with the intention of being a reading resource for the students.  The class activity was to compare an early and a later piece of nonfiction writing.  A rubric was provided to help the students with this process.  As I glanced at this students’ paper, I saw one word repeated over and over in each box.  The word was, ‘horrible.’  He covered it, so I asked him what he was working on.  He gave me short answers and I heard him silently saying, “Leave me, alone.”  So I gave him space and I gave him time.  But this is another piece of building evidence of an up and down cycle of this student’s engagement and self-confidence as a reader and writer.   I am his reading teacher who is supposed to support him in his classroom, but I often get this silent dismissal.  I did tell him that I was learning a lot from him and he made an emphatically shocked facial expression and asked what.  I shared that I am learning about humorous books and graphic novels, but my answer seemed to fall short.

So how does this relate to collaboration?  I need your collaboration. How can we change his story to one of triumph?  I have to admit that I am stumped and concerned.  I will be listening to any wisdom, Josie and our readers can offer.

                    

And here is a reminder about the basics of working together.  I found this children’s book, Let’s Work Together, on the online book website Big Universe.  It is also available in print.  Here’s what it recommends after finding a project to work on together.

1. Listen to the other person’s ideas.
2. Take turns talking and listening.
3.  Share your tools, such as glue or paint, with everyone in the group.

The book finishes with these words of wisdom, “Most importantly, be patient, kind, and respectful towards your teammates.”  It’s your turn.  What tools can you share?  How can we show patience, kindness, and respect with these tools?

Lessons from Learning on Twitter

In her last post the quote that Mary Kate shared really spoke to me:

As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.  ---Amy Poehler

My biggest take away from Mary Kate’s last post was how her class’ collaborative response was so much more inclusive than one person’s response. This was possible through technology. I realized that this was a great example of how technology enhanced the learning. 

Lately I have been reminded that we need to teach technology as a tool. This past week Hilliard hosted Ohio's Innovative LearningConference.   As I followed on twitter #ileOhio, I saw Tweets from https://twitter.com/frankisibberson, Franki Sibberson’s keynote address. There were several Tweets about how our expectations change when the use of technology is authentic.  Mary Kate’s experience in her cyber class shows how technology enhanced not only the collaboration but also the depth of the learning and ultimately the final comment.

Several years back I was invited to a gathering where teachers came together and talked about their learning and use of technology.  This group is responsible for introducing me to Twitter.  I left that meeting very excited to be a part of the Twitter world.  I loved it for a bit and then I hit a wall.  I simple couldn’t keep up or didn’t have the strategies to manage Twitter in an effective way – time-wise and professionally. 

So I made the decision to take a break from twitter. 

Several years later, I started noticing that I was missing some very strong, relevant, helpful posts on Twitter.  I knew this because posts were announced on Facebook.  This actually led me back to Twitter and I am so thankful. Now I don’t know what I would do professionally without Twitter.  The community and connections are part of my professional lifelines.  I have learned how to skim and search for what I want to read and to manage my time spent on Twitter.  I am also learning to be more of a participant. The links for posts on blogs and articles are an important part of my professional learning, thinking and collaborating.  Luckily at several summer conferences I have met some of my Twitter friends in person - my learning circle continues to grow! But I had to learn for myself the need I had for Twitter and how it fueled me as a learner.  I am now learning how to participate more and trust myself as a contributing participant, to not just listen (read) but to post too, to collaborate more!

Mary Kate asked us when do we talk and when do we listen? Twitter is my example for this question. I had to listen for a long time on Twitter before I could talk.  No one judged me for just listening (reading), although I was sometimes nudged that I had something to share!  We all know this is true for some of our students.  Sometimes as learners we have to listen and feel the security of the community before we talk.  How can we learn if we don’t stop, listen and open our minds to the contributions and thoughts of others?  On the flip, how will I contribute, put myself out there in order to share my own thinking in progress?  I am thankful for all those who are willing to share and feed our learning.  I have to do the same even if my thinking is constantly a work in progress!  How will I nudge students to do the same, to contribute with their thinking?  How will you do this for your students?  Perhaps it will be through technology that students find voice and community.

This year I am going to try to practice listening more. What would you change in your classroom if you challenged yourself to listen more closely to those strong voices of adults and children around you?

Here is my book share for the day, from my summer reading.   I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD  I received a message from Mary Lee Hahn http://readingyear.blogspot.com that simply said "Stop everything and read this book!"  How could I ignore such recommendation!  And I am so glad that I followed her advice for this quick read.  I choose this book for this post because there is example of the power of collaboration and the power of authentic use of technology!  AND SO SO MUCH MORE! (Believe me the big message is not about technology and collaboration, but you'll have to follow my friend's advice to find out and "Stop everything and read this book!"

Giving Up Parts to Make Something Better

 Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up. —Oliver Wendell Holmes

I liked this quote that Josie shared.  It is the idea that collaboration changes and that this change is something better.  Josie challenged us to think about our best collaborative experience and some of the obstacles from those experiences.  I think that giving up a part of my own ideas is the greatest obstacle.  Let me explain.

I am taking an online course this summer through the Ohio State University (OSU) called Fundamentals of Teaching Adults Online with Dr. David Stein, Ph.D.  Part of this course is actually participating in an online group project, so we get to learn about and experience collaboration in an online environment.  Many scholars have recently written about and studied the challenges of online teaching.  Our group decided to use CarmenConnect  (OSU’s version of Adobe Connect), a technology platform that allows participants to meet in an online space. 

As a group we experienced difficulties from finding a common time and making sure the technology tools were working properly.  My personal challenge was deciding when to talk and when to be quiet.

Things Go Wrong

Things started going wrong at our very first meeting.  After many emails back and forth, we decided on a date and I sent out links to information about CarmenConnect meetings, equipment requirements, and to the actual meeting.  It became quite apparent during the CarmenConnect meeting that mics were not working properly. Fortunately a text-based chat space is part of the platform and members were able to use this as a back up.  I noticed that one of the members would cut off another member in mid-sentence. I really wasn’t sure what to do or say. Another participant typed in the chat box that she thought her mic wasn’t working properly.  Our chat box helped again and technology highlighted that the difficulties with collaboration can often be due to communication problems.

More Than Just Me

Our goal was to create a memo to our imagined colleagues who were skeptical about online courses.  The final paper was a complete surprise!  It was different and more than I would have said alone.  This is a part of our project that describes additional online experiences to a skeptical colleague who thinks online work involves posting answers to professors’ questions. You be the judge about becoming better.

Mary Kate – original:

I have read articles and study notes, participated in interactive and collaborative assignments, viewed videos, shared both technical and content related resources.  I have not only learned from the instructors, but also the varied experiences of the students.

Mary Kate – combination of other’s responses:

My experience with this semester’s online course has been more than just posted material and instructor’s questions.  I have been involved in individual and group projects as well as complex online discussions through discussion boards, synchronous meetings, and email.  The interesting backgrounds of the other learners created a dynamic learning environment where we all learned from each other’s perspectives and experiences.  I learned about new technologies that I had not used with before our course started (i.e. Voki, Doodle Poll, etc.). I have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to communicate with both my instructors and the other learners.  Texting and messaging has been a powerful method for giving everyone a voice.

Final submitted version – completed by another group member after our online CarmenConnect meeting:

Our experiences have been that online teaching and learning is much more than just posted material and instructor’s questions to an online portal. Each of us has been involved in individual and group projects as well as complex online discussions through discussion boards, synchronous meetings, and email interactions. The interesting backgrounds of the other learners create a dynamic learning environment where we all learn from each other’s perspectives and experiences. Several of us have had particularly positive learning experiences resulting from new technologies. Especially as educators, learning about what technological tools are available to integrate in our classes is tremendously valuable. The course that we are enrolled in now, revealed a few new ones, as an example, Prezi, Voki, Doodle Poll, etc. We have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to communicate with both instructors and the other learners. Texting and messaging, in addition to the Carmen interface and its discussion boards and messaging capabilities, has been a powerful method for giving everyone a voice. Group meetings have been held through CarmenConnect that allows for real-time face-to-face meetings as well as a chat function. Overall, we have been very satisfied, and in fact, pleased with our experiences online.

Let’s imagine how can we do this in children’s classrooms.  I will keep thinking about this as students start school this fall.

Being Quiet, Being Open

It’s almost the end of summer vacation and I’m working with a group of teachers to plan our beginning of school retreat.  Once again I found it difficult to be quiet and listen.  When do I speak and what will help the entire group, not just me?  I like reflection, so I volunteered for that part.  It’s small, but I think it will be important for our yearlong work with teachers.  I started listening when I heard about the Corkculus App. 

I’m not sure what it is, but it is being used to bring the ideas of small groups together as a whole group. Yet another collaboration tool! I can’t wait to see how it works and I know that I will be listening.  We have quite a collaborative agenda planned!  It’s definitely better than I could do alone. 

It’s funny that this quote comes from the comedian, Amy Poehler, but it’s how I’m being challenged to view collaboration.

As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.  ---Amy Poehler

I actually have two questions this week.  What collaboration tools do you use?  When do you listen and when do you speak?

Responding to Collaboration Challenges

So happy to start this dialog blog with Mary Kate - a good format for the topic of collaboration.  Our teaching allows us so many opportunities for collaboration and different forms of co-teaching.  And we are so fortunate to have the technology that has cleared the boundaries for collaborating, yet there are always obstacles. 

In her first post Mary Kate posed the question “what are my challenges?”  This is such a powerful question because if I begin to voice the challenges I begin to recognize them head-on rather than ignoring them. 

I immediately started to make a list when I thought about this question:

·      Time management

·      Desire to do it all  (different from wanting it all) –

·      Learning to face new responsibilities

·      Insecurity

I realized after creating this initial list that each of the items are intertwined and each can be obstacles for me personally but I tried to think about them one at a time. 

Time Management …

One of the first comments left on Mary Kate’s post was simply “TIME!”  And we all know that it isn’t just about time but finding mutual time to work and think together.  Maybe that is why I like twitter so much – you can usually multitask when you are on twitter!  But face-to-face collaborations deserve full attention and I admit I am easily distracted!  So this is clearly an area that I have to get better at.  I need an attitude of one thing at a time and to work on the discipline of scheduling my time. 

Wanting to do it all…

Don’t we all want to do it all?  Probably not!  I am smarter than this and I know deep down that trying to do it all can often mean not doing anything with depth.  But, even though I know better, I still have the desire to read every book that is recommended on lists and tweets!  If it is a good story or more importantly a book that will be meaningful to a child, I want to read it!  I also want to write more. Also, I want to spend quality time with friends, family and colleagues.   So maybe my true challenge is to slow down and take the time needed to do a few things more thoroughly.  Translating this to my work at school I have to realize that each collaboration or project will require different depth and take different amounts of time and that is okay. 

I loved when Mary Kate wrote:

“I have to look at all the possible activities and decide which ones I have to do, which ones I want to do, and which ones I can’t do.  The want-to-do-activities seem to be the ones that slide. “

I think that it is really important to consider each day and decide that we need both, not just the have to do’s but the activities that we want to do as they are equally as important.

Learning to face new responsibilities…

Like many, I am in a new season in my life where I have the honor to help care for my parent.  I am learning to manage my time in this part of my life and still find the space for the things I want to do.  The biggest challenge is to not have the guilt when I am choosing to do other things.  Balance!

Insecurity…

I think that insecurity sometimes stops us from collaborating without us even realizing it.   When we work together we assume that we are each bringing something to the one another and in the end the work will be much richer.  But if we doubt that we have anything new or original to say or to offer then we aren’t as willing. 

I am personally working on this area in my writing.  I keep the encouraging words of others playing in my mind as I push myself out of this self-doubt as a writer.  I am thankful for this nudge from Mary Kate to get back to blogging and writing! 

Perhaps this self-awareness will serve me well as I work with other teachers by being more aware and understanding if someone is feeling the same way about some area of his/her teaching. 

This quote and my feelings about working together sum up why working on obstacles is so important to me:

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up. —Oliver Wendell Holmes

There is magic in sharing, talking and collaborating with others.  You can feel the energy; you can feel the flow of ideas born or old ideas reformed.  There is a momentum of positive thinking.  Maybe it is just because I truly love being around others, I am not sure, but I know the magic of a team of people working together.  What are some of your obstacles in making this happen?  What are some of your best collaborative experiences?

Here is a great new middle grade book that illustrates teamwork in a community!