Off Script – Collaboration for Classrooms

Thursday, November 2
Connect Coworking

8:00 – Check-in + Breakfast from Cartel Coffee Lab – Delicious!

8:15 – Two Heads Are Better Than One – Collaboration for Classrooms starts with activities that help you unpack the fundamental benefits and challenges of collaboration and how your school culture and classroom environment may be affecting how effectively your students collaborate when it is time for group work.

9:30 – The 4 Orms —Teams, like toddlers, throw temper tantrums and require consistent care and attention if they are going to grow and flourish. Refresh your understanding of the stages of team development and what type of guidance each stage requires. Develop awareness and tools that help students collaborate and understand their role in effective team development.

10:30 – Morning Break

10:45 – Collaboration = Respect —The best team experiences all have one thing in common–a sense of purpose and shared vision. Unfortunately, just having shared values and a “common” vision doesn’t mean people automatically work well together. Effective teams first recognize and respect individual members. Dig into activities that help teams build respect and appreciation for each other’s unique contributions and perspective.

12:00 – Lunch – Fun, delicious, and surprising!

1:15 – Laying Foundations – If your foundation is cracked and sinking, it doesn’t matter what color you paint the kitchen! Too often we spend time on the “window dressing” of collaborative work but fail to lay down solid foundations. Learn and share tips and tricks for forming effective team values and processes that promote personal accountability through effective collaboration.

2:30 –Were You Listening? – Collaboration: you need it. You want it. You expect your students and colleagues to do it. But are you a very good team member? Do you REALLY listen? Explore your own experience through simple activities that you can use to become a better listener or use to help others do the same.

3:15 – Afternoon Break

3:30 – Welcome Feedback! – Weak feedback loops stunt growth. Strong feedback loops promote smart innovations. This is true for individuals and teams. Explore tools to help identify feedback challenges and design activities to help students get better at giving and receiving feedback on teams.

5:00 – Gallery Walk – Share what you’ve got, see what others learned, and get a chance to process.

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Friday, November 3
Connect Coworking

8:30 – Breakfast—Tucson style + Cartel Coffee Lab

9:00 – Headache Eraser – Collaboration isn’t just a group work thing–it’s part of your classroom culture or not. When it’s not, incorporating team activities and grading group work is a headache. Work together to design tools and assessments that help make collaboration easy and essential.

12:00 – Lunch – Fun, delicious, and surprising!

1:00 – Culture Shift – Teachers spend approximately 90 percent of their time working alone! Yikes. It’s time to get creative about how to promote collaboration in schools. Work in teams and use design thinking processes to identify simple and DOable opportunities for increased collaboration in schools.

4:00 – I like, I wish, What if…? – Show and tell! It’s time for listening and learning. New connections take time to integrate, so we’ve built in a bit of processing time for you to network and reflect together, grab a snack or drink, mingle and chat. (Family and friends invited to join in.)

4:45 –What’s Next – Tour Connect Coworking and experience the innovative nature of coworking in Downtown Tucson.