Technology - Our Protocol of Collaboration

1.     Pausing 

a.     We will pause for a minimum of 5 seconds (to train ourselves to be aware of pausing).

b.     We will use this 5 second pause in exchanges of ideas or during discussions.

c.     If the pausing isn’t happening for long enough, we should feel free and comfortable to mention this and ask others to be mindful of pauses (ask for longer pausing).

2.     Paying Attention to Self and Others

We will be mindful of:

a.     Our talking time.

b.     Our reaction to others.

c.     Confusion or frustration in others.

d.     Respecting critical thinking from others.

e.     The group agenda.

3.     Paraphrasing

We will paraphrase by using an “I” statement:

            “I’m feeling/noticing/wondering/questioning (etc) ________________________________.

             Can we pause and reflect on how this relates to our understanding of ________________.”

4.     Ideas on and off the Table

a.     When ideas are brought to the table, they must be accompanied by some supporting research/data.

                                      i.     If we presume positive intentions when an idea is put on the table, this facilitates respectful discussion.

                                    ii.     The conversation that results from discussing ideas can lead to deeper understanding.

Our PLC meetings take place with a presumption of positive intentions.

Social Thinking gets going

Today was a day of discovery, learning, and exploring all of the areas one could pursue in the realm of social thinking. But of course, this could not happen successfully and positively without first determining our group norms of collaboration.  Our discussion around the norms of collaboration was very important, and we all quickly agreed on three main norms important for success.  Firstly we identified "pay attention to self and others".  With such a big working group, this one was important.  

In a PLC group it is important to give everyone a chance to share their thoughts, ideas, and hopes for the group.  We want to avoid one person providing information, while others listen.  "Paraphrase" was another norm everyone felt was of value to our group.  Again, with such a large group and such a broad topic we felt it was important to paraphrase to ensure everyone be on the same page.  Finally, we agreed on "putting ideas on the table".  Again, with such a large topic we felt it would be important to brainstorm all of our ideas, which will in turn help us to narrow in on something specific, acheivable, and measurable.  We may stay as one big group, or we may branch off into smaller working groups. 

After discussing our norms of collaboration, we explored the realm of social thinking.  For some it was review, for some it was new.  Today was just a starting off point, a day to openly discuss "what is social thinking anyways?", "where can we go with this?", "what are some of our options?"...May the discussion go on!

Morgan

ZONES is off to a great start

 ZONES of regulation group

December 11, 2013

We had some good discussion about the norms of collaboration, and realized that they are all interrelated, and that it was hard to pick one that seemed most important because they all are, and we all valued them. 

Our focus for the next while is going to be studying the Zones of Regulation – the terms and concepts underlying the program, and how the concepts are applied to self-regulation (strategies and tools).

Thorough understanding of the Zones concepts will enable us to support the students in implementing the concepts. We will know the students have learned the concepts when they can identify the zone they are in and use tools to bring themselves into the expected zone. Measurement of this can be by observation of student behaviour, questioning students, and student self-assessment.

Sheila Fairbank

Technology - Working Through the Foundation Protocol

You Are Not Alone…

We sit gathered around the table waiting to begin our journey of learning together. My thoughts are that of eagerness to get started as we continue to move forward towards our next steps. Wait I tell myself, let's do this right, after all we have been moving slowly with our progression of our PLC's for a reason. So what's next? How do we begin our journey of learning together? We go back and together as a team we work through the foundation protocol.

There we sat, taking some time to write down what was important to us regarding the Norms of Collaboration. The process was valuable and very informative. One by one we shared what we felt we needed in order to work collaboratively. As each person shared, responded to questions and listened to others responses it became very clear that we were not alone as every member in our group had the same response to what Norm of Collaboration they felt was important to them. As each of us spoke we repetitively heard Pausing and Paying Attention to Self & Others.

•     Pausing - Pausing before responding or asking a question allows time for thinking and enhances dialogue, discussion, and decision-making.

•     Paying Attention to Self and Others - Meaningful dialogue and discussion are facilitated when each group member is conscious of self and of others, and is aware of what (s)he is saying and how it is said as well as how others are responding. This includes paying attention to learning styles when planning, facilitating, and participating in group meetings and conversations.

As time came to an end for our meeting today we were working together to form our needs into a foundational protocol that we will hold one another to as we collaboratively work towards providing successful learning opportunities for all of our students. In our next meeting we will finalize our foundational protocol and move on to our next step of establishing our team focus.