The Write Stuff

This is the time of the year, or semester, when I inevitably begin to feel overwhelmed. With only a month left to go, it’s crunch time in my classes. The holiday season is gearing up. And there are deadlines at work. And only 24 hours in a day! Nonetheless, onward we press.

June and I have more or less completed contracting with our client. We have a few details to iron out, but I am pleased with our progress thus far. I was apprehensive going into the contracting phase but our client was understanding of our needs as consultants as well as students and has been quite accommodating.

This Friday we will begin the data gathering. I’m looking forward to getting our hands dirty and meeting with some of the individuals in the organization. Of course, I’m also nervous about how we will be received and whether the information we get will be useful. Has anyone in class begun to actually collect data? I’m interested to hear what their experiences have been.

Contracting…eek. I am not known for being particularly assertive and I’m apprehensive about whether or not I’ll be able to make the points I want to make and ensure that my needs and wants are heard and understood by the client. For this reason, among others, I’m relieved to be working with a partner. Hopefully we will be able to back each other and fill in the gaps. I definitely have a tendency to hold back, which can make me a great listener but not necessarily an active part of the conversation.

June and I met with our first prospective clients yesterday at FeedMore, an umbrella organization for the Central Virginia Food Bank, Meals on Wheels and the Community Kitchen. The two individuals with whom we met were friendly and receptive but I’m concerned nonetheless. We already know that the last VCU group to work with FeedMore faced some challenges with one of the individuals. Also, the two project ideas they presented to us both seemed interesting, but large and perhaps not focused enough on human interactions. The first project concerns the development of a diversity program. Diversity of course relates to individuals and their interactions with each other and the community at large. However, I do fear that if we’re not careful we could become bogged down in the program development aspect and never focus on the actual human interactions, if that makes sense. Also, diversity is an important, yet large, issue to tackle in six weeks.

The second proposal was to work on a wellness program. Again, I worry that we would be relying too much on a program planning skills and not enough on our consulting skills. However, I do see the potential in this project and it may prove easier to pare this down into a manageable unit for the time frame we have.

We have a second meeting scheduled with the Hilliard House for this Tuesday and, depending on how that goes, we should have a program nailed down soon!

And then…contracting…

I am still struggling with the idea that I have any expertise to offer in a consulting situation. We shall see as the semester goes on…

On to other thoughts: I love the idea of being authentic in consulting as well as Schein’s notion of active inquiry. In fact, although it was difficult at first to follow the proper line of questioning, our in class activity really showed the importance of allowing the client (or child, or spouse, or friend) to get out what they need to before we jump in with a save the day response. However, I do wonder if there’s a possible danger to this that we haven’t fully explored. Is there not a fine line between being authentic and perhaps opening up too much? How do you navigate that space between sharing and unproductive venting? Admittedly, I see this becoming more of an issue in personal relationships, however it still seems to me to be a risk in professional consulting settings. I’m certainly not attempting to disparage this approach – quite the opposite. It just seems that we need to be authentic AND aware.

Finally, regarding Nancy Sanchez’s checklist: #3 Admit when you are wrong. Yikes! That one may take some work.

My meandering thoughts on the first week and our first set of readings:

As I mentioned in class last Monday, the topic of consulting brings to mind “the Bobs” from Office Space. Two middle-aged, out of touch, cheesy outsiders brought in to revitalize and reorder a company. Hopefully this course will continue what we started on Monday and throw this negative stereotype out the window.

In that vein, I like what I’ve read of Block and Schein so far. The idea that there are various types of consulting and that not all consultants are limited to performing like the Bobs is appealing.  It would appear that most individuals/companies are used to and expect either an expert consultant or a hands-on consultant, but may not be versed in process consultation. How well-received is process consultation? I certainly see the value in it and, based upon what I’ve read thus far, find this approach much more up my alley. I love the idea of helping, and not simply telling or doing. However, I would expect that there are many who would balk at paying a consultant to come in and require them to deeply participate in their own problem-solving. Will we get to ready any war stories from Schein or Block regarding their initial attempts to implement a collaborative approach?

I finally did my teaching demo last week (4/9) and I think it went pretty well. Woot woot! I haven’t had a chance to view the cd of my demo so I’ll save further reflection for my actual reflection

I mentioned before that I’m enjoying the demos…we’re definitely covering a wide range of topics. I will note, however, that most of the class seems to be fond of a more traditional lecture style. A lot of this could possibly be explained by the fact that the nurses, unlike the adult ed students, have not had the same conditioning (to paraphrase Prof. Wendy) and previous exposure to active learning techniques. I thought that Jennifer K’s demo on 4/2 was an interesting combination of traditional methods, lecture and powerpoint, and active learning. She handed out goofy glasses and had us work in teams to practice the interview skills she covered earlier.

We have stressed active learning in this class but I do think that is important to remember that there are situations or groups that call for a more traditional method. Or, as Jennifer demonstrated, a combination approach. Not everyone is responsive to active learning and as adult educators we must be aware of the needs and preferences of our learners. This is NOT to say that we should not challenge our learners to come out of their comfort zones. But I always come back to the same adage – We should meet our learners where they are.

Just wanted to post this while I was thinking about it…

In researching Role Play as an instructional strategy, I came across this chapter that had some helpful overview information on various instructional strategies. It appears to come from an RN book and could be particularly helpful to the nurses in our class.

http://www.rnao.org/Storage/12/662_BPG_educators_resource_chapter_4.pdf

At the beginning of this semester, I had my doubts as to how the teaching demonstrations were going to go. I have been a part of one other course where teaching demos were required and I thoroughly hated that experience. The time allotted was not sufficient, the expectations were not made clear and the assignment in general seemed to be an attempt to bolster the syllabus rather than to enhance or build upon learning.

The teaching demos in this class are longer, which I believe allows the rest of the class to gain an actual insight into that student’s style, which in turn gives us an opportunity to pick up some tips to refine our own teaching. PLUS, following the demo up with “tips and tricks” on a specific instructional strategy means that we get some handy, practical material to bolster our teaching arsenals.

Illness and back problems have meant that I have only seen three demonstrations thus far. But all three were interesting and took an entirely different approach. Ali’s one-on-one tutoring session was probably the most unique as he presented a style with which few of us in the class seemed familiar.

On to my own demonstration. I’m up next week, the 9th and I’m a wee bit nervous. I’m nervous mainly because I’m not confident in my mini lesson plan. I don’t mind speaking in front of others (although I’m admittedly reserved in my classes…I like to observe! Don’t judge.) but I can’t seem to come up with a topic or approach that I like, despite the fact that I’ve done this before.

I reckon we shall see what comes.

This post isn’t specifically related to any one class, but is more of a written organization of some of my thoughts over the past week or so, as related to ESL.

Our ESL classes, being held in a church, share facilities and resources with the church staff and congregants. There has been tension surrounding this arrangement since the program began but, overall, it has gone well. Nonetheless I have been made aware, on repeated occasions, that there are several very vocal members of the church who do not approve of or support the English classes. This is an issue with which I have struggles for some time. I feel a need to protect the students, and even the teachers, from this negativity. A part of me wonders, however, if I should be protecting them. These are all adults, after all. And I know firsthand that many of our students face negativity and criticism at a far more painful level. I think of Vella and some of the literature I have read in my literacy courses. How would those authors view and use this situation? I imagine that many of them would see learning potential here. They would see a way to foster verbal skills by incorporating a real life issue and problem into the classroom. My sweeping under the rug not only avoids the real issue and allows it to continue unchecked, but it also does the learners a disservice by assuming that they need to be protected or that there is no beneficial learning task that could be developed.

Kind of going along with this train of thought, teachers and other students occasionally distribute flyers among the classes advertising community resources or upcoming events or seminars that would be helpful to the learners. Recently, an immigration-focused prayer vigil was held and the pastor distributed flyers, written in English and Spanish, that addressed a proposed detention center to be built in Farmville. Some of these flyers were left in a classroom, which is also used as a Sunday school room. I was recently confronted about these flyers and was told that sort of material is inappropriate to be left in a Sunday school room. There was more said, but I’m choosing to leave the rest of those details out. Suffice it to say I left the conversation questioning how effectively this program can be run in its current environment. I do not expect that everyone should approve with the sentiments expressed on the flyer, but to describe their existence as inappropriate frustrates me.  I don’t have any other deep thoughts to share on this. I suppose I’m using this portion of my blog as a place to vent and to verbalize some of my frustrations. From here, hopefully, I’ll be able to begin thinking of solutions.

NOTE - I am having computer issues but am going to go ahead and post what I have for the time being.

We spent this past class revisiting our two main assignments and finally settled the issue by going ahead and assigning research topics for the teaching demo portion.

I am stumped at the moment with respect to my teaching demonstration. I’ve come up with a few possibilities, but none have stuck around very long. I’m having much better luck with my individual project. I have decided to create an instructional design for an 8 hour training session geared towards volunteers new to Ramsey’s ESL program. This will serve two purposes as it will meet one of the requirements for this course as well as afford me the opportunity to create something that can, and likely will, be used outside of class. Our volunteer “orientation” currently consists of me giving new volunteers a hasty tour of the facility and frantically passing on handouts before I need to take care of something else. This is not efficient or effective for anyone.

Last night’s class was more low-key than usual as several people were out sick and several people in class weren’t feeling so hot either. We spent the first portion of the class going over the Teaching Philosophy Statements that we turned in the week before. Because this statement was a two page assignment, one would not assume that it would be difficult to write. Yet, I found trying to describe my personal beliefs and experiences more thorny than I imagined. Two pages may not be much, but it takes a great deal of effort to sort out what your beliefs are, to process how you came to hold those beliefs, to translate those beliefs to the classroom and then to transcribe those beliefs onto paper in a form that can be easily read and understood by the average reader. Yikes! I will say I found the assignment to be illuminating and it forced me to recognize contradictions between what I say and what I do.

We spent a good chunk of time going over and altering our teaching demo assignment. I have to admit that I’m apprehensive about this assignment. I have taught classes previously and I run an ESL program currently, yet I’m always nervous when I have to perform a teaching demo in front of my peers. PLUS it will be videotaped. Eek! The last time I was videotaped for a class I was 15 and it was for Spanish class. We had to film ourselves cooking a Latin dish and narrating the steps in Spanish. The results were less than desirable. Traumatizing. Nonetheless, I see the value in this assignment and being forced to endure a videotape of my teaching will undoubtedly cause me to make some much needed changes to my teaching style.