Term Three begins

We’re back to begin a new term. Now usually Ellen decides on who works in which learning teams. This time however decisions are made differently. 

In the final week of term two we independently rated ourselves on our social/group skills. Then as team members had worked together for the last five weeks they had a pretty good idea if they agreed or disagreed with certain decisions. Of course evidence is always necessary to support claims. So it was great to see teams checking team logs, diaries and reading logs for organisational proof or recalling incidents such as “Hey, you support team mates…remember when I was at Multi Lit and I came in late? You told me what I had to do, so I didn’t get the work wrong. Then sometimes you remind …… of her responsibilities…”. With ratings of always, sometimes or never. This reflection gave individuals and teams lots of data.

What do we want?

Before we could negotiate new teams we needed to touch base with what we believed made a successful team. I was impressed with the brainstorm of criteria given with so many building further onto suggested ideas.

How great was that list! I was blown away with the seriousness and quality of behaviours they expected, their work in teams has certainly supported positive thinking and collaboration. A few children commented that there were criteria on our list that their personal skills checklist highlighted they needed to work on. Which was a perfect lead into the way in which teams would be created.

Negotiating partners

Their job was to approach someone who they knew had super skills in areas they needed work in and to come to some agreement into supporting each other e.g..  ..”I’ll help you get better organised if you support me with being focussed”…  “Hey yeah, and I see you’re good at sharing air time so that would help me and I’m also good at building ideas so what if I support you too?”

Once they had reached an agreement and had a partner they could buddy up with another agreeable couple to make a team.

The next step was to remember the art of negotiating and to be proactive in approaching members. We have become good at asking politely, but what if the answer isn’t what you want to hear. How do you turn someone down respectfully? How do you react when the answer is no? That took some discussing and modelling.

Our checklist became a valuable negotiating tool. So it was important that we had our record books to use in negotiating our new teams. Sadly a small group left their books home, but that meant they were already a team and had to negotiate how they would work together.

Time to be proactive and find a suitable partner..over to you.

I was particularly impressed with the way they conducted their negotiations. They were serious in the way they checked their own skills and offered support to potential team mates. I liked the way they quietly sat down and discussed possible strategies. So that they would not forget their agreements they recorded their offers of support in their team books, so we could refer to them when establishing goals for this term and when we give feedback later.

Once they had organised a team and chosen a table to work at the students set about writing rules for their teams. Again I was impressed at how many teams used their skills to work on as a basis for setting their team rules, combining support with a combined team effort.  As the year has gone on we have become very good at including What we want, Why we want it and How we will do it, to our rules and foci. See if you agree.

I do like the way they have worked together, thought together and are acting as a team together. Bravo children.

Now one other thing we also focus on is… It’s one thing to say you will do things and another thing to put it into practice. We’ll start to focus on the Habits of Mind for this. Stay tuned….

How do feel about your new team?

How did you feel negotiating a partner?

What can you do so that you will remember your agreements?

How will you know you are keeping your agreements?

Did you get the team you thought you’d be in? Why? Why not?