SI - Final Reflection: Collaborative Revolution

As I sit at the computer and reflect on the past two weeks of Summer Institute the two words that standout to me are collaboration and revolution.  These two words were touched on and even exemplified throughout institute.  In preperation for the upcoming school year my principal assigned us two books to read as a staff; Teach Like A Champion, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  I want to focus on the latter as a resource to describe what I have gained from my institute experience.  In the book The Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni uses a leadership fable to address five issues that cause teams to fail.  Lencioni posits that absence of TRUST, fear of CONFLICT, lack of COMMITMENT, avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY, and inattention to RESULTS are the pitfalls which often result in ineffectiveness in most teams.  Over the course of the last two weeks the UNCCWP staff has been able to bring together fourteen teachers with various differences (i.e., content /subject expertise, place of employment, grade level, school district, race, gender, childhood background, educational experiences, and etc.).  With all of those differences it would not be suprising to think that the Summer Institute would operate like most teacher professional development workshops.  However, that is far from what actually occured!  Let's look at the five dysfunctions that Lencioni addresses in his book and how my peers and I overcame these pitfalls over the past two weeks and formed an amazing team of writers.  In his book Lencioni displays the five dysfunctions in a pyramid starting with the greatest issue at the bottom and the least impactful at the top.  I will approach each issue in that same order and explain how we avioded the aformentioned pitfalls.

1) Absence of TRUST.  In his book Lencioni. writes " Trust is the foundation of real teamwork.  And so the first dysfunction is failure on the part of team members to understand and open up to one another." (pg.44)  From day one of the institute we established a sense of trust amongst us with the warm-up in which we had to come up with a movement to display how we felt.  Immediately I had to let go of my masculine insecurities and open up to my more sensitive side, sine I was the only male in the group.  From there we dipped into our history as writers and developed a timeline to portray events that influenced our identity as writers.  We shared the positive and negative events that played a role in shaping our identites as writers. Later on in the week it was amazing to read about our different experiences through our digital documentaries. This activity helped us to create a community of trust that would be essential for the remainder of the program in order to help each ofus grow as writers and educators. " Great teams do not hold back with one another...They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal." (pg. 44)  As writers and teachers we exposed our shortcommings, inquires, fears, concerns, writing pieces; and that took alot of courage!  We actually practiced vulnerability from day one, even if it was low risk!  That set the tone for the remainder of the institute.

2) Fear of CONFLICT: "If we do not trust one another, then we aren't going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict."  Does that sound familiar?  Is that what happens in some of the meetings at your schoosl with other teachers?  If so raise your hands!  Our discussions around our inquires, grammar instruction, grading/evaluating student writing, reflecting on the role of teachers  as writers, inquirers, and professionals pushed us to engage in open discussions that we often don't at work.  Within those discussions we raised questions that challenged each other to dig deeper and to see things from different perspectives.  Constructive conflict leads to enlightening dialogue and gives each person the opportuiity to have their voices heard which further strengthens the trust amongst the group members.  I believe during our short time together we were able to avoid artifical harmony and create a community of respect and transparency.

3) Lack of COMMITMENT:  According to Lencioni the lack of commitment is talking about "committing to a plan or a decision, and getting everyone to clearly buy into it."  The level of engagement that was exhibited this week by all of us through our demos, writing pieces, blogs, and etc. prove that we were fully vested in getting as much as we could from this experience.  I know I came into the week with some ambiguity about the institute because I really did not know what to expect.  However, that was dispelled after the second day when I began to see the method to the writing madness.  I'm sure I was not the only one but by the Friday of the first week it was clear that we all were committed to the process.  I mean some of us spent a Saturday participating in a writing marathon.  If that is not commitment I don't know what else to call it! (I hate I missed it)

4) Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY: Lil, Lacy and Sally did a great job of facilitating the institute and maintaining the level of accountability amongst us by reminding us about our demos, blogging, posting to e-anthology, revising our personal writing, and responding to each others feedbaclk.  In addition shoutout to all of my peers for your level of commitment throughout the week because it definitely inspired me to maintain high standards and to show up daily ready to contribute.  Often in workshops like these teachers serve as receptacles while the worshop leaders dump strategies and information down our throat only for us to go back to our classrooms and operate as usual.  The fact that we had to share with each other throughout the weeks created a sense of buy-in that I have not experienced in most professional developments.  In true community people hold each other accountable because the groups is only as good as each individual.  We all brought something to the group that was essential to our experience (i.e., foldables, Storify, Glogster, Worldmapper, writing workshops development, Museum Box, Hashbrown casserole, sweet rools with cream cheese frosting, and on and on!)

5) Inattention to RESULTS: Lencioni points out that no one person is above the team!  At times, more oftern then not, individuals in a group allow their ego and status to try and outshine others in the group.  (I wonder if we can think of any people that operate like that at our school or in any other organizations we are apart of?)  While we did focus on our individual inquiries throughout the instituite our collaboration was geared towards the goal of ensuring that everyone got something out of this experience.  As we explored our inquiries aloud through our demos, writing, and blogging we provided each with valuable information that could be used to inform our personal inquiries.  I have more tools in my teacher toolbox to engage my students in writing than I know what to do with now.  In addition, I have ways to incorporate technology and promote social awareness at the same time!

I know you may be saying Rashid I can see the collaboration component throughout the blog so far but were does the revolution piece come in?  The collaboration is the revolution!  Teachers often operate in autonomy and focus on their own little world in their classroom.  However, high performing schools and effective teachers recognize that teamwork is the only way real education can occur.  With that being said, our mission after this week is to continue our collaboration through UNCCWP and to carry our collaborative spirit to our schools and build a community of leaders that seek to change the system within our schools, districts, and eventually nationally!