Faculty collaboration - The only hope

We, the faculty teaching in SUSTAIN, have been meeting for almost a year each week for two hours. Right now the meetings are on Friday from 9 to 11. So here we are. Roger reminded us that we did this because we wanted to confront and consider how to live sustainably. We are now inside of this thing we call SUSTAIN and are confronted in a direct way with the ways we are, the system is, unsustainable.

When students are given a choice, they take it

We, the faculty, have been talking with the students about treating them as co-learners. We have been talking about treating them as people, with values, interests, motivations of their own.

Among the first thing that we discovered is that they want to exercise their human rights:  During the times that they don't have assigned classes, they asked if they have to "be there."

The ways we oppress each other

I am teaching the Physics for the liberal arts and business students. This course is a conceptual course that includes some math, but is more of a survey than a focus on proficiency of analysis.

Last Thursday, it was announced that there were two different sets of physics students. One of the very motivated students in my class took me aside and wanted to know if they were really going to be learning physics because it sounded, from what the other instructor said, that they would not be learning real physics.

In the room, one of the students called my class "baby physics."  It is really kind of a horrible thing we do to each other, creating an imagined separation between the "tough ones" (i.e, men) and the "soft ones (i.e., sissies or women) and all the misogynistic value judgments that are embedded into that separation.

Day 6-Down for the count already

My colleague Liz just dropped me off at home out of mercy for me. I'm so sick that I'm rather a menace to society. I was supposed to be 2-hours in studio time today with SUSTAIN.

It feels like we are in a delightful whirlwind of creativity, but these whirlwinds are someone personal vortices, colliding with others in the 60 seconds after a meeting in which we are all running in different directions.

Today, they are MINE!

Today, I get to spend two hours with my sustain students. I have so much to say, so much to talk about, and so much to simply observe. I believe I bring creativity into the classroom (delusional, perhaps, but that's my mental model of my teaching.) My biggest criticism from students, poor execution of that creativity, especially by students who have a lack luster attitude about learning. Maybe, this will be a little different. Now, I just need to figure out what to say . . . oh, the choices available to me!

Day 4 - the view from here

There have been several moments in the past few days when I have been so moved that I've nearly cried (oh, and several moments when I actually have cried).

Today was the end of the first SUSTAIN week.  After a week of "living" orientation in our 2-hour meetings, students presented their research to the community agencies and chose teams. It was remarkable.

Inauguration Day

Everything (stress, planning, some background conversations) temporarily melted away during the first meeting of the SUSTAIN-ers. Everyone (faculty, students) seemed at a higher level of sensation/sensititivity -- everyone wanted to have this thing work. I rarely come into the first meeting of a class where students are really ready to move in a new direction. I hope to replicate this in my classes in the future.

Well done, SUSTAIN. It is only a first step but, for me, it will make all the future planning and stress worth it -- because we have true learning partners.

T - 5 days!

I am a bit panicked about the looming launch. I am trying to remember this is my natural state at this point in the year; it might not have anything to do with SUSTAIN. This might actually be less stressful because we are all in this together. I really like working with my colleagues. Linda is an incredibly hard worker. Nina is so full of hope and a positive can-do attitude. Pete is relaxed in a way that sometimes makes me nervous, but I can see the wisdom in it too. Tom is comfortable with experimenting with new course design. Roger can make any moment a teaching moment. And Ginger is so loving and encouraging, not to mention funny. An there is always Neal and Dan who have our back. I don't think there is a better bunch of people to embark on this adventure with.

I do think my challenge is to appreciate the moment and not let my own personal issues decrease to adventure. I hope I can do this.

We are meeting on the 2nd to finalize the first week, but then there is the second week and beyond.....I think I will make a list of things that I am worried about as a kind of data dump:

1) integrating projects into the class mix

2) creating a robust feedback system for SUSTAIN

3) Coordinating the upperclassman who will be helping us out

4) Researching the students (administering surveys, video taping class time, etc.)

5) Researching the faculty and upper classman (surveys and video taping, experimenting and documenting)

6) thinking about next year's classes and recruiting (2013!)

7) planning for Spring quarter with the new faculty who haven't been active

8) analyzing data and writing papers

9) .....

Not to mention the other classes we are all teaching and the committee work and such. Oh, I think that is enough for now

Whoa, I can't believe we're going to start this

I spent the day with Liz, going through all SUSTAINers (this is my new name for students in the program). We ensured via checking their Cal Poly records that all were in fact signed up for the classes and had also taken the required courses outside their major. This was an impossible task, were it not for Liz's amazing powers to manage detailed complexity and her secret knowlege to every "big-brotherish" on-line website.

We then sent individual emails to each of the 42 students.  It was absolutely thrilling to see that only 2 of what we thought were the original 44 had actually disappeared on us!  (I'm thinking this is a small number).

I awoke in the night this week, FREAKING OUT over the level of details that we need to manage in order to prevent an absolute train wreck for the spring courses.

This is how I know that the universe is helping us: There is miraculously no scheduling conflict between the SUSTAIN block of courses and three additional courses that are needed for students to progress.

I would really be crazy if I were not scared about this whole experiment, but it seems that we are now in the right place at the right time...  onward.

Refection Nazi

Since we have shifted a bit from studying the students participating in SUSTAIN to understanding what it takes to be a teacher in this collaborative environment, I have been requesting reflections at the end of each of our design meetings. This last time, someone (it could have been me) referred to me as the "reflection nazi." I laughed, then thought how absurd!!!!

This is so similar to the dilemma I am working through as a teachers. It goes something like this: I want students to be engaged and knowing about research on engagement (Pink), there are three things that will motivate well: Mastery, Meaning and Autonomy. To satisfy Autonomy, I often let students make choices about how assignments are weighted in the final grade, or even which method (constant homework or term project) they would like to do. [as a side note, it feels a bit like when I use to ask my kids, if they wanted a long timeout or a short timeout?]. But what if they choose not to do anything? I think I remember a study of students (maybe at the Waldorf school, I don't know) who were allowed to go to recess for as long as they liked. For several days, the students spent all their time outside playing, until they saw the fun science projects the teachers were preparing. I wonder if education could be like this. So engaging that students choose to learn. Then I go back to us (me - the Refeltion Nazi), could we as faculty be so interested in our own learning that we want to live reflectively? Could we model this for the students? Instead of forcing, we create an environment where learning is the choice? I'm just asking this - to quote Linda.