It's Christmas break and the last thing you want to think about is school or professional development, but The Ditch that Textbook Summit is going on and it has been great.
For those of you unfamiliar with Ditch that Textbook, Matt Miller offers a plethora of resources and ideas for teaching through his site, blog, podcast, twitter, facebook, pinterest, and now online videos. He is everywhere:)
Ditch that Textbook Digital Summit is a series of videos that are released covering a variety of topics (one per day). The videos, along with accompanying notes, are of leaders in the educational realm and are particularly relevant for teachers and administrators.
Day 1 was Ken Shelton who spoke about equity and various issues regarding race and the impact race has on our perceptions of education. It was good.
Day 2 was Kim Bearden. She is a partner of Ron Clark and co-founder of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. She spoke about communication. I found this video to be extremely useful and relevant.
I've only made it through two days so far, so I will probably post more later:)
You can follow the hashtag #ditchsummit to learn more.
I just finished listening to Kim Bearden's DitchSummit talk on communication. I'm not sure how much I can share, but here is a pdf of the notes.
The quote that stands out for me is, "The words that you say are not as important as the sincerity with which you say them." As a person who is frequently involved in conversations with and between people who aren't seeing eye to eye, I have seen that much of the time it is what isn't being said that is just as important as what is being said. Whether it's an exchange with a student, parent, or co-worker, it's important to identify the motivation for the communication. Everyone has a story that we don't know. Take that into consideration and lead with empathy.
Another great suggestion was to use hesitation. I have sat down with parents and teachers who weren't seeing eye to eye and the conversation usually starts out with the teacher being defensive and unloading a laundry list of things the student has done. That is usually accompanied by some examples of their work (or lack of work). I'm not saying you don't need to be prepared, but what I'm saying, and what I think Kim is saying, is that we are so set on defending ourselves and responding to the parent that we don't listen to the parent. And deep down, listening is really all they want us to do.
I see this in PLC meetings as well, we spend our time thinking of a response and not listening to what others are saying. I'm guilty of it. I have people come in and start talking about a laundry list of issues and I start thinking of a response to the first item on the list and never hear the rest of the conversation.
Another thing she suggested that I love is her protocol for calling on students. Students in her class are not allowed to raise their hands while someone else is speaking. It makes perfect sense. When kids raise their hands, all they are thinking about is what they are going to say. They stop listening to anything else that is being said.
There was a lot more in this video that can be used with our everyday interactions. I am going to try to share it here. Hopefully I'm not violating any copyrights or intellectual property rights:)
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