Synergy in the Making: Consulting Success!

I spent three days with six incredible and talented educators last week. I was doing consulting work with two other teams of teachers from two other states. The early morning flights and pranks we suffered at the hotel were well worth the investment of time. There were many take-a-ways from this trip, both in product and relationships. I have always believed that when you give teachers time to work together and create something that they will do it and do it well. The time spent together, as a result of teamwork, was like a productive educational glue that fostered the development of a creative substance, which united this team in vision and purpose. The synergy was amazing!

Working collaboratively with a team of educators to create a unit of lessons that were technology packed and rigorous over a span of two days was eventful. The entire process, from start to finish, was a learning process for all of us. Each person brought a skill-set to the table and every stakeholder was eventually open and willing to dream big. No one was concerned about who said or did what; there were no department politics. There were no administrators of support staff hanging over our heads watching us as if we needed to be babysat. Both of these can scenarios happen, though rare in my district. Teachers were open and felt safe to talk about what has worked and not worked in their classrooms. The dialogue rich days helped teachers to support each other and brainstorm about their students’ needs. This project has just begun; yet, I know that we will continue to talk about our creations and critique them. There are aspirations to involve our classes in pen-pal type chat via classchatter.com and other innovative ideas. While we do not know if the money will exist to keep this project going, I am sure that this group will continue to collaborate via email and use other technology tools to engage their students as a result of our first face-to-face meeting. It is also good to gain others’ perspectives. Sometimes if you’re swimming in the same classroom fishbowl year-after-year, things start looking the same and fresh water is needed.

The other take-away was the friendships that were planted. Little things like when one of the Louisiana teachers gave me crackers to sooth my aching stomach; she showed thoughtfulness and that she cared. One of the Virginia teachers took the lead on our project on day one. This was just after we had all been pranked-called and up most of the night waiting for the police to show up to report it. He did not have to take the lead, but I am so thankful that he did. Also, my prank lasted the longest; one of the Florida female teachers let me sleep in their room. I had soaked all of my sheets to stop the radiation that was penetrating my room, which was the joke. We had spasms of laughter while trying to navigate with the tom-tom; one of the teachers pulled out her phone, AKA back-up navigator as we paced the state police station over and over. These are just a few of the highlights from of our trip and time together. It’s hard to imagine that I was thinking of not going. I’ll never forget the events of this trip, our products, or the amazing people I met!