The collaborative process was interesting in that we first had to dissect and decide what direction to head in. Our direction will focus on cultivating an environment of mutual understanding between students and staff. This will later reflect in how students and staff contribute positively to their communities. Training and having students and staff recognize that differences in culture, gender, etc are not reasons for conflict will only serve to benefit society by creating school and community environments that are accepting of others.
We met and decided on the questions as well as how to focus the development of our surveys or interviews. The questions we decided differed depending on who was being asked the question (student/teacher), but were similar overall and comparable. The questions seek to find out how students/teachers feel different aspects of identity are handled at the individual, school and community levels.
One of the main challenges this week was getting everyone together and finding out what needed to be done. Even though we are all on a break, some have families, vacations, etc planned already. Finding out a way to work around these obstacles to meet and collaborate was one of the larger obstacles. Deciphering the tasks that needed to be done and figuring out who would focus on what sections was another obstacle, as we had to unify around a certain theme or objective. Thankfully we were able to find our focus, one that will provide some interesting data and next steps later in the process.
Were I to start the process over again, I would focus on contacting the group sooner, I know that with the six week classes the process is sped up, but I did not expect the group work to start the first week of classes. I would also find a way to collaborate together online in an efficient manner. Right now we are trying Google Hangouts, but there is nothing wrong with experimenting with different things and seeing what works and what does not.
As far as applying this process at my site, with staff or students, I do have a couple of ideas. With my young students (first grade), they still need to be explicitly taught the process of collaborating as a group. I would have to model and scaffold preliminary activities that would help them with the group forming process. Then, I would have them do activities that would lead them towards making a collaborative project, one where students have explicit roles that they have to fulfill. Lastly, to find out what they can do as a group, I would assign them a project where they would have to figure out their own roles, plan the direction in which to go, and execute the activity independently and with as little teacher direction as possible. Open ended projects would lend themselves well to these types of activities.
Applying this process would not be difficult, but the staff would need a few prerequisites from administration first. The most important one being: time to work together as a team to develop a lesson and plan it. Our district does provide us some time for doing these types of activities, but they are limited time frames in which discussing and planning the important points are constrained and sometimes ineffective.
We met and decided on the questions as well as how to focus the development of our surveys or interviews. The questions we decided differed depending on who was being asked the question (student/teacher), but were similar overall and comparable. The questions seek to find out how students/teachers feel different aspects of identity are handled at the individual, school and community levels.
One of the main challenges this week was getting everyone together and finding out what needed to be done. Even though we are all on a break, some have families, vacations, etc planned already. Finding out a way to work around these obstacles to meet and collaborate was one of the larger obstacles. Deciphering the tasks that needed to be done and figuring out who would focus on what sections was another obstacle, as we had to unify around a certain theme or objective. Thankfully we were able to find our focus, one that will provide some interesting data and next steps later in the process.
Were I to start the process over again, I would focus on contacting the group sooner, I know that with the six week classes the process is sped up, but I did not expect the group work to start the first week of classes. I would also find a way to collaborate together online in an efficient manner. Right now we are trying Google Hangouts, but there is nothing wrong with experimenting with different things and seeing what works and what does not.
As far as applying this process at my site, with staff or students, I do have a couple of ideas. With my young students (first grade), they still need to be explicitly taught the process of collaborating as a group. I would have to model and scaffold preliminary activities that would help them with the group forming process. Then, I would have them do activities that would lead them towards making a collaborative project, one where students have explicit roles that they have to fulfill. Lastly, to find out what they can do as a group, I would assign them a project where they would have to figure out their own roles, plan the direction in which to go, and execute the activity independently and with as little teacher direction as possible. Open ended projects would lend themselves well to these types of activities.
Applying this process would not be difficult, but the staff would need a few prerequisites from administration first. The most important one being: time to work together as a team to develop a lesson and plan it. Our district does provide us some time for doing these types of activities, but they are limited time frames in which discussing and planning the important points are constrained and sometimes ineffective.