Using OS in classroom

GraceAnn graceann at worldnet.att.net
Tue Jul 30 07:05:57 PDT 2002


Julie-
A while back you described your use of OS in teaching teachers conflict
resolution. I teach cross-cultural communication, but have made up my own
booklet text that relates to many of the issues teachers have in the past
asked for. I've been thinking of using OS,
and have tried it  near the end of the 12  3-hour sessions as kind of a wrap
up. I like what you tried. My lasses usually have at least 22 teachers
attending. Do you have any suggestions?
                                                   Grace Troisi (NYC)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Julie Smith" <jsmith at mosquitonet.com>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: Opening space, transfer-in, small spaces


> 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
>
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