Using OS in classroom

[J. Richardson]

Hello GraceAnn, Julie and others....

I've just returned home from an Elder's Gathering in Vermont and found the
emails on OS in the classroom.

GraceAnn, I've used OST for entire classes with high school and College
students.  In fact, we recently had a discussion along these lines.

How about if you use your booklet as a given and as a guidline for your
classes done in OST?  Then the information would be sure to be covered?!

J




----- Original Message -----
From: Julie Smith <jsmith at mosquitonet.com>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: Using OS in classroom


> Hi GraceAnn,
>
> I'm really new to OST, so I hope others with more experience will chime
> in here.  I'm also not a teacher, and have never taken an education
> course.  I really have no idea how I arrived at the place where I would
> be grappling with these questions, but here goes.....
>
> Your question gets right to the nub of what I've been trying to figure
> out.  Is it good and valid to Teach in the sense of imparting
> information from the teacher to the student?  (As you're talking about
> doing in the early parts of your class, using your booklet text as
> supporting material.)
>
> Or is it better to let go all the way and let things unfold as they
> will?
>
> I'm very tempted by the latter, but when actually in the classroom I
> feel the heavy hand of tradition and expectation molding me into the
> teacher mode.  (After all, if I'm not teaching what I know, what am I
> there for?)
>
> My experience in our class this summer was that using OST in the
> beginning changed everything.  The class went very deep very fast.  And
> then resisted returning to a structured teaching/learning mode at the
> end.
>
> It felt to me like the participants got what they needed from each
> other, which was very different from what I was prepared to give them in
> my Teaching mode.  It was a powerful experience.  I just got an e-mail
> today from one of the participants who is still processing her learning
> from the class.  There was a social-emotional-relational element that is
> mostly absent when we engage in the normal Teaching mode.
>
> I also think (as Martin has pointed out) that sometimes I really do have
> something to offer that isn't emerging in the group.  I'm really not
> sure what to do with that.  I think the answer might be found in the
> conversation about when and how the facilitator participates in the
> discussion.  I don't mean participating as an expert, but participating
> as another human being who also has wisdom and experience and
> perspective to bring to the group, as one of the "right people" who
> finds herself in this time and space, and who has a responsibility to
> share her truth with others when called to do so.
>
> So, to get back to your thoughts about your class..... if you wait until
> the end to do the OST, you'll have an opportunity to impart the
> information you want to impart in the way you are accustomed to doing so
> and the class will experience the benefit of the OST process at the end
> of the time you spend together.  Makes sense to me.
>
> And I know for the class I spent time with this summer, that method
> would have been a tremendous loss.  The freedom to let go and explore
> and talk from the very beginning was very powerful for this group.  They
> were starving for that opportunity.  Perhaps your group is less needy in
> that way, and more interested in what you have to offer.  I don't know.
> I don't know how to resolve the tension between the value of imparting
> knowledge and the value of letting knowing emerge.
>
> I look forward to hearing thoughts from others about these questions.
>
> Julie
>
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