Skip to main content

Team Work

I found a new group on the Twitters the other day. It was a group of people talking about complex systems. On a deeper dive a ran into this article about Teams. Yaneer Bar-Nam identifies teams as a largely useful necessity in the future of the world. I thought that his insights were adept, but I could't help but have a bad taste in my mouth when I think about teams, teamwork, or group work. In college, I was always the one pushing my team through and making sure everyone pulled their weight and ultimately finishing up the slackers work and making it look consistent. In grade school we were placed in pods and had group work...again, I would tend to back off of my ideas for the greater good of just moving with the team and getting the job done. As I read through his first post, I kept thinking I don't agree, but then into the thirst post, I started thinking about the only team I ever fully felt worked and worked well together. It was my team.

I have said in the past, but I will restate for the newbie readers...I want what I want, when I want it. I have no patience. I am a bit fussy when I don't get it right now. No, NOW.

A few years ago, I in my first real year in admin for Epic Charter School, a new department was created around me. I had no idea what a blessing it would be to interview and pick a team from scratch. I knew my strengths and I knew my weaknesses. I was able to hire 4 individuals who would be able to overcome my weaknesses, While allowing me to grow in both areas. We spent two and a half years working to be the most efficient group (at the time) in the school. We were so versatile that we could to move to other departments when help was needed. We were a well oiled machine. I had never been in a role of leadership like that before and I was really able to spread my wings with that group. It was the first time I had ever been in a group where we all worked equally as hard on tasks some the same some different. When someone felt like they were pulling more weight than others, we discussed it and usually came to the conclusion that everyone was still pulling their own weight. The personal growth that came from this experience was huge.

I guess what I am saying here, is that teamwork often gets a bad stigma when teams are put together haphazardly. I hated teamwork and even going into writing this post I had a bad taste in my mouth. But teamwork can be great. Teachers, when building your pods or groups during the year, be thoughtful. I know some of you probably are very thoughtful. Know that best friends dont always make for the best teams and students dont know how to pick teams without best friends.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

If I Were King...for whatever reason

I was asked where I work this week. It went something like this... "I work for Epic Charter School!" And then I get the..."oh, hm.! And then I am all - you dismissive cuss! I could teach you a few things too. Except I don't really say that, but I am forced to word vomit all over the guy telling him about my school and how it really is closer to his than he thinks. And damnit I am feeling on the defensive and I am good at what I do. I was asked to write an essay this week in one of my Grad classes. The topic was along the lines of Jason James prompting March 23rd, so I will share. Better late than never? If I were King of #Oklaed. Sorry it’s 667 words... I have a beef with public schooling. It is not something housed in your school building. It is housed in your heart and mind. I dislike greatly the competition between schools and districts. I am not talking about the Jenks v Union rivalries.  I abhor that there has to be a huge fight between types of ...

#SXSWedu Day #1 Ramblings

Alright, someone told me right before the opening keynote this morning that by the end of the day my mind would be absolutely blown. I was all like, "Yeah, ok, Ive been to conferences before" And he was all, "But you've never been to SXSWedu" And the I was all like, "Ok, we'll see" Ya'll, wow! This place is like Edcamp meets ISTE meets TED talks. The ideas. and then I get ideas. And then I think that the Ministry of Education would not approve of my ideas. So the opening keynote was Temple Grandin . I had never heard of her before today. She is #amazeballs people. She is a 68 yr old woman that is on the spectrum and also works with the beef industry and more...designing cattle runs to the processing plants. She speaks about her autism and how we should make these kiddos great at their one (or more) thing. Here is a link to her TED talk from 2010. I did not grab a video of her today, but you will see in this video why I instant...

Elevation is King - Guest Blog by Travis Barnes

We met up with the boys around 8PM at the end of the trail for Segment 6. It was an insanely emotional day for us, but  will tell my version of account another time. Let me introduce to you Travis Barnes, my husband and my kids hero. This is his account of the last three days.  The first three days of our Colorado Trail experience are behind us. It’s amazing what can happen in three days. We rolled into Breckenridge today behaving like we’d been gone for weeks, but time is relative as we now know miles are. That’s right, miles are relative. The 500 mile distance of this ride is not impressive. When we left for this trip we could ride 75 miles on the mountain bike with 27 lbs of gear with little problem, then do it again the next day. That being said, the past 3 days have been the hardest riding I have ever experienced in my life. On day two we took a bypass into a town and I was able to text Erin. I told her among other things that, “this is HARD.” Erin knows me better th...