What an amazing class - truly the Best Class Yet! I feel like I ran a half-marathon to get to the point we reached in class this week, but it was certainly worth it! For nearly eight weeks our cohort felt like it was four separate classes being taught in the same classroom at the same time - and then a ray of light (two actually) hit me - thank you Wendy and Tracy!
To recap what I am referring to - we needed to begin to build (or re-build) community in our teacher leadership cohort! Despite all of the fantastic conversation we were having over those first eight-weeks, we were struggling to develop a connection as a group, team, cohort, cadre, and community! With the advice of my colleagues, I initiated a "Chalk Talk" which is a protocol designed for brainstorming of thoughts and ideas to be communicated non-verbally with just dry-erase markers and a whiteboard (no more chalk and chalk-boards in classrooms anymore). I wrote, "How can we build community in our teacher leadership cohort?" in the center of the whiteboard and asked for all members to write their thoughts as to how we can approach this question, what their solutions/suggestions could be, what barriers we are facing, and what factors play into creating community. I reminded them that this was a silent activity and is designed for thought, not to comment on others thoughts (during the writing portion of the activity) until all ideas were written on the whiteboard. Once all ideas were written, we debriefed as to what connections we could make to each of their thoughts - allowing for the cohort members to talk amongst the group and keeping my thoughts out of the conversation until the end. They really got it! They saw the positives and the negatives, the connections between the barriers and the solutions, and they made some important course decisions - like exchanging phone numbers, starting a "Facebook-type" page for only TL Cohort members, and making a more conscious effort to get to know each other!
I was so excited by this that the rest of the lesson went without me even realizing how quickly the time was going by AND how much they truly got from the lesson. They talked about co-planning and the connections to co-teaching while I simply facilitated the process - keeping silent for nearly 9 minutes (might be a record for me as a teacher)! The level of interest and open-lines of communication was amazing! I am definitely looking forward to our next class which is, unfortunately, three weeks away...
...Hoping to keep up the momentum!
To recap what I am referring to - we needed to begin to build (or re-build) community in our teacher leadership cohort! Despite all of the fantastic conversation we were having over those first eight-weeks, we were struggling to develop a connection as a group, team, cohort, cadre, and community! With the advice of my colleagues, I initiated a "Chalk Talk" which is a protocol designed for brainstorming of thoughts and ideas to be communicated non-verbally with just dry-erase markers and a whiteboard (no more chalk and chalk-boards in classrooms anymore). I wrote, "How can we build community in our teacher leadership cohort?" in the center of the whiteboard and asked for all members to write their thoughts as to how we can approach this question, what their solutions/suggestions could be, what barriers we are facing, and what factors play into creating community. I reminded them that this was a silent activity and is designed for thought, not to comment on others thoughts (during the writing portion of the activity) until all ideas were written on the whiteboard. Once all ideas were written, we debriefed as to what connections we could make to each of their thoughts - allowing for the cohort members to talk amongst the group and keeping my thoughts out of the conversation until the end. They really got it! They saw the positives and the negatives, the connections between the barriers and the solutions, and they made some important course decisions - like exchanging phone numbers, starting a "Facebook-type" page for only TL Cohort members, and making a more conscious effort to get to know each other!
I was so excited by this that the rest of the lesson went without me even realizing how quickly the time was going by AND how much they truly got from the lesson. They talked about co-planning and the connections to co-teaching while I simply facilitated the process - keeping silent for nearly 9 minutes (might be a record for me as a teacher)! The level of interest and open-lines of communication was amazing! I am definitely looking forward to our next class which is, unfortunately, three weeks away...
...Hoping to keep up the momentum!