Opening space, transfer-in, small spaces

[Julie Smith]

Greetings ~

I have some limited experience using OST in the classroom that might be
useful to others considering using this approach.

A colleague and I co-teach a university course for teachers called
Conflict Resolution in the Classroom.  This is a course we've taught 4
or 5 times in the past 2 years.  With some encouragement and ideas from
Judi, we decided to try using OST in this class this year.

The class met in May and June for six hours a day over six consecutive
days (except for weekends).  We framed our planning around our textbook,
which was easily divided into five sections.  (We couldn't assign
reading for the first day of class because students didn't have their
books yet.  We used the first day as an opportunity to get to know each
other, to play some games and talk about using cooperative games as a
way to help create connections and improve classroom culture, to cover
some basic conflict resolution theory, and to talk about how the class
would be structured.)

In our planning process, we decided days 2, 3, and 4 were most
appropriate for OST because the topics on those days were philosophical
in nature.  We pulled the themes for those days directly from the
section titles in our textbook.  We were less sure how to use OST for
the skill-building kinds of topics that we are accustomed to covering,
so we reserved days 5 and 6 to cover basic negotiation and mediation
skill-building kinds of things.

Thirteen teachers participated in the class.  The first day of class was
great.  We covered the ground we wanted to cover, and there was a sense
of connection, trust, and curiosity beginning to build.

Day 2 we held our first OST. It was wonderful. Intense engaged
conversation, laughter, learning, insight, and growing respect and
regard.  In hindsight, I was really happy this day unfolded as it did,
as several groups met in different places over different topics, in
typical OST fashion.  As it turned out, after Day 2 the class was
completely unwilling to separate into small groups again.  They just
liked and respected each other too much.  No one wanted to miss a single
word.

Days 3 and 4 were also done in OST.  Topics were posted, and then
combined, and then arranged in such a way that the group stayed together
and met as a whole to discuss all the topics as a group.  As I said, no
one wanted to miss a word.

By the time we got to days 5 and 6, I was feeling very full and
satisfied and mostly irrelevant.  I did a little overview of a
negotiation process that is the core of some of the trainings I do,
expecting to move into a full day of discussion and role-playing, but it
fell flat.  They weren't done talking with each other yet.  It wasn't
over, and I was getting in the way.  So I let go of my expectations and
got out of the way.  We didn't formally open space on days 5 and 6, but
things ended up moving back into that mode.

The biggest learning for me was a deeper understanding of the vast need
for teachers to simply have an opportunity to talk with each other.  OST
revealed the gaping wound of isolation experienced by so many teachers.


(When I started thinking about what the school system does with those
rare moments of time that COULD be opportunities for talking (like
in-service days and continuing education courses), I realized all the
time is taken up with "experts" talking at teachers.  There is virtually
no time made available to teachers to simply talk with each other.  We
used OST at two teacher in-services in May, and expect to use the
process in additional in-services next year.  It's conceivable that
using OST with teachers may lead to them using OST in THEIR classrooms.)

The students loved the class.  We loved the class.  Of the many classes
I've been involved in as student and instructor, this one shines most
brightly.

I think there is much more to be learned from using OST in the
classroom.  I'm still thinking about the skill-building kinds of things
I'm accustomed to focusing on in my work with both youth and adults, and
wondering where they fit and how important they are.  These days I'm
paying more attention to how people are relating to each other and less
attention to the content of what they're talking about.  I find myself
caring less about whether students pick up the nuance of communication
theory, and more about whether they look each other in the eye and smile
as they walk out the door at the end of the day.

Julie

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html