Handling People Problems

Photo by Juri Gianfrancesco on Unsplash

Ugh, people problems are the worst to deal with. Unfortunately, I tend to avoid conflict so I don't think I have ever learned to deal with them properly. 

Fortunately/unfortunately I have recently been getting a lot of practice.

Recently, I was in a meeting that was a little ... contentious. This meeting was the result of a long and drawn out series of meetings that have brought us to this point. In one of the more recent meetings, I had felt attacked, so I attacked back.

This is my reflection for how I should handle this kind of situation next time.

• Listen

Everyone should listen without judgement, but especially leaders. When listening we should not jump to conclusions, but listen to understand the other side. Does the other side have a point?

• Apologize early and accept responsibility

It is better to apologize and try to move on than dig in to your position or double-down. You might win the battle, but end up destroying your reputation or the culture around you. Leaders think of the collective before themselves.

• Look for win-win situations

Are there any win-win situations? Could you as a leader turn down the temperature and give in a little bit?

• Pause before speaking

This is something I am working on. I tend to, and especially in this situation, I was always listening to respond right away and not fully listening to what was going on. I have wanted to respond right away, instead of letting myself take in what was said first. 

• Question instead of accusing

There was a point in our negotiations where something was said about the timeline to make criteria for the process. The response was three weeks. I lost it. After six months of going through this conflict resolution, and after two years between when the events happened and now, there was no thought of criteria. (That is basically what I said.)

Another chap in the room said, "Let me ask this in another way. How many hours would it take you to complete the criteria?" The answer was 3 hours - which still made me furious. But I was impressed with the rewording of my question. 

Leading Tech Certification PD Sessions

This plan is not going according to plan.

Everything was worked out in our heads. It seemed good on paper. I put my doubts away because after all, this was the way we did it and it worked for us.

Sound familiar?

via GIPHY

This year one goal I/we had was to upskill the faculty about the different technology tools we use. It was decided we would focus on Google and Seesaw. 

When I got my Seesaw Ambassador certification way back in 2017, it was just a series of videos that one had to watch. Now Seesaw has a few different options for certifications beginning with the Seesaw Pioneer. After that, with time and watching different PD webinars, it is possible to be invited to become an ambassador. From there, you can then become a Seesaw Certified Educator.

So back to my plan, teachers would get the Pioneer certification. We would then move on to putting teachers on the path to becoming a Google Certified Educator Level 1. Google has great resources for this. 

It was decided that teachers would go through the Google-made resources, complete the quizzes, get ready for the test, and take it, and, of course, pass with flying colors.

My own journey with GCE was:

• Read the first module
• Take their quiz
• Get bored reading
• Take the test

And I honestly thought this was the path some would take as well. 

After the second session, I knew it was not a good model. The problem was that I was in a committee and we could not change course so quickly. 

I was able to mix in some mini workshops that were received well. 

Going into this year my plan was

• more choice
• more mini-workshops in this time

Coming back from summer, the team was really excited to make learning modules in Canvas. That would fulfill my first criterion of giving teachers more choice. The issue I saw in our first session this year was that it was kind of aimless. We told teachers to start with Canvas 101, but then who knows what they were doing?

Draft of Must Do, Should Do, Could Do, Aspire to Do

I would like more transparency, so I decided to take a page from the Modern Learners Project and create a checklist for them. Next, as I would do in my class, I created a Google Sheet where teachers can put the link to their spreadsheet. I might change this to a Google Form and just collect the links and put them in myself.

Comparing Places with Google MyMaps

The other day a student in one of my classes blurted out, "What is the largest lake in the world?"

Being from Minnesota, and having gone there many times in my life, I told them it was Lake Superior.

"You know about the Five Great Lakes?", I asked. They blankly stared back at me. 

So I pulled up Google Maps and showed them the Great Lakes in the US. "When you are looking across them, they look like the ocean", I said to them.

"Are they as big as Lake Biwa?", one student asked me. (Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan.)

This is where I got the idea to actually compare the lakes.

Compare areas or things on a map in Google MyMaps

Using Google MyMaps, you can add a shape or line to your map by clicking the connection tool. 

When drawing a shape, click often in small increments, trying to make the basic outline. 

To draw in a more detailed manner, zoom into the map. If you find that you run out of space when drawing, move your cursor to the edge of the map to move it around.

When you have a shape, you can click it and drag it to what you want to compare it to. Below is Lake Biwa, which is ready to move to North America.

This tool does take some practice, so don't become discouraged when using it. When I moved my object, I couldn't drag it off the screen and get the map to move at the same time so I had to drag the object, then move the map, drag the object, then move the map, and continue until I reached Lake Superior. 

Using a map to actually compare the sizes of two objects will allow the students to actually see the difference. While Lake Biwako is a pretty big lake, when compared to Lake Superior, it's as big as Isle Royale (to the upper left of the red, Lake Biwako cutout).

Use the Drop Down Menu for Differentiation in Google Docs

Not too long ago Google Docs introduced drop-down menus. These are great for project management, and Eric Curts has used them for close reading lessons. 

Today I was supporting an MYP Design class. The teacher had a table with questions on the left side and a response cell in the middle (see above). I don't have examples of the questions she asked, but here is what she spent a lot of time on:

• clarifying the questions she wrote
• adding answer prompts
• clarifying vocabulary.

I was thinking about how using a Google Sheet could let her change the questions by using a drop-down list. Then I remembered that Google Docs has that function as well. 

Google Docs

In the Insert menu, there is an option to create a dropdown list. Using this, a teacher can make a list of questions and change them. They could be asked in a different way, or the vocabulary could be changed. 

The first example I thought of was for Japanese. The level of kanji could be changed based on class ability. 

I thought about the situation when there are students who speak another language in the class. For example, would it help if the teacher added the other foreign language to the list of questions?

For this example, if the teacher wanted to do this same format, I would suggest putting the drop-down menu in the cell above the response cell. If the cell is too small, the whole question will not display and will be cut off where the cell ends.

Showing Off Our Stuff with Seesaw

I was invited into a Kindergarten class last week to help get them reacquainted with the Seesaw app. The teacher and I know each other well, so there was not a pre-lesson meeting to discuss much more than "how to do Seesaw".

Explaining the task

Working with each other

Making a final check before uploading

We put the students into pairs and had them take a picture of each other. They then shared with each other and looked over the pictures to see if they were OK to post. At this stage, the students are not ready to do much more than that at this point in the year.

We are working on trying to bring the design cycle into the younger years this year. 

I also liked how we were able to include asking others about uploading photos and checking before posting.