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Students building a learning team 

Billw@projectAcademy.org

   

 

We are a Massachusetts 501( C ) 3 non-profit corporation dedicated to supporting students, dropouts and other workers to learn skills that will help them succeed in a career or additional schooling (college and career readiness (CCR ))

 

Teamwork is an essential part of workplace success. Like a basketball team working together to set up the perfect shot, every team member has a specific role to play in accomplishing tasks on the job. Although it may seem as if one player scored the basket, that basket was made possible by many people’s planning, coordination, and cooperation to get that player the ball. Employers look for people who not only know how to work well with others, but who understand that not every player on the team can or will be the one who gets the ball. When everyone in the workplace works together to accomplish goals, everyone achieves more.

 

The ability to work as part of a team is one of the most important skills in today’s job market. Employers are looking for workers who can contribute their own ideas, but also want people who can work with others to create and develop projects and plans.

 
When employees work together to accomplish a goal, everyone benefits. Employers might expect to “see” this in action in different ways. For example, team members in the workplace plan ahead and work cooperatively to assign tasks, assess progress, and deliver on time. They have professional discussions during which differing approaches and opinions might be shared and assessed in a respectful manner. Even when certain employees end up with tasks that were not their first choices, jobs get done with limited complaints because it is in the spirit of teamwork and with the overall goal in mind. A leader or manager may often serve as the teamwork facilitator.

 

 

 

 

   Life-Skills

 

 Team-work
 

                    

( charter, respect, values, listening, trust, diversity, culture,)

 

Communication skills

 

·      Nonverbal Communication

·      Open-Mindedness

·       Empathy

·       Clarity and Concision

·       Friendliness (Smile)

  

 

Team work  


Team building:  teaching students to work in teams is one of the most important goals of a twenty-first-century teacher. The class will focus on forming the team, building the culture and charter of the team and show the students the similarities to a sports and music team.
 We start with

Faber Est Suae Quisque Fortunae
Everyone is the maker of their destiny

·       Trust among team members

·       Picking the team roles

·       Make your team mate a winner

·       Complementary Skills 

·       Enabling the charter (purpose, goals, roles, culture, (values, language, norm))

·       Common purpose 

·       Empower Students to Coach One Another

·       Challenge the Teams

·       Value Beautiful Work (Quality)

... working like a sports team/ Jazz group

 
 

Life-Skills ...Students become cognitively aware of their life skills while  doing activities:

 

From our experiences in business & education, we have created a curriculum that sifted out the manual part of work and created thinking employees with unique mindset thinking and life-skills to be productive in your organization.  These are the people that AI will be difficult to replace.

 

• Attitude (positive attitude, focus, emotions, flexible, moral leadership )

• Social & emotional learning ( character development, empathy, responsibility, self-esteem )

• Team-work ( charter, respect, values, listening, trust, diversity, culture, honesty ) ,,, working like a sports team

• Problem solving ( creative & critical thinking, decisions, planning, curiosity, reflection  )

• Personal skills (financial literacy,  time management,  goal setting, communication, questioning )

• Business literacy (quality, processes, matrices, reporting, leadership, judgement )

  • Key Company Interface  Email, Social networking, YouTube, Self-branding skills (Who you are ), Networking with others

 

 

 

 
Flowchart: Alternate Process: Focused-Simplified Tailored to the organization Starter projects Flowchart: Alternate Process: Present Teams- Problem solving

Curved Down Arrow: Feedback

Flowchart: Alternate Process: Focused-Simplified Tailored to the organization Starter projects Flowchart: Alternate Process: Present Teams- Problem solving

Curved Down Arrow: Feedback

Flowchart: Alternate Process: Focused-Simplified Tailored to the organization Starter projects
 
 
 Class room activities: Our instruction is based on project based learning vs "caulk & talk" learning.

 

One-hour Class Period Structure 

 

  • 15 min. of class learning/discussion 
  • 30 min. of Exercise / Activities by the teams
  • Break 

 

 

Class Activities  ... Tied to the curriculum 

 

 
Self-Directed work groups Teams are giving a set of guidelines and they build their learning structure.  Guidance is provided by the facilitator.  
Reading Material
How to evaluate a companies culture
Team mindset
What new team leaders should do first
Why are Indian managers so good
Team-work-HRB
Creating a Team Charter
Building a team

Uniqueness of our training

Image result for unique approachOur approach is unique in that it brings together the needs of both sides in the workplace. Our program shows the new trainees how that can interface with the companies’ values while building their strengths to become a needed employee or owner.  The company gets an employee with a culture and values that fit nicely into a corporate culture.

The following are our Uniqueness:

The program focuses on teaching life-skills to create a well-rounded individual who will fit into the work environment.  It uses the concept of mindset thinking around the following:

·        Ownership mindset ... Think like an owner

·        Cultural Engineering mindset ... Provide leadership & management of a   project

·        Growth mindset  ...Your brain is like a muscle, use it or lose it

·        Team mindset ... To be successful. need to work together

·         Brand mindset ... Who are you and how to show the world 

·         Life skills … Students become cognitively aware of their life skills while doing activities

 

Project based learning activities …Self-direct learning

o   Getting to know each other

o   Team creation ,,, learning & building a culture

o   Picking a problem to work on

o   Problem solving

o   Public reporting

 From our experiences in business & education, we have created a curriculum that sifted out the manual part of work and created thinking employees with unique mindset thinking and life-skills to be productive in your organization.  These are the people that AI will be difficult to replace.

 

 
Training Flow map:

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Detail project Plan for creating a learning team:

The basic project for the students:

The learning can be broken into major parts

After each part, the students will do exercises around What skills did i use;

 

Do a reflection about what they learned, what could we have done better and other thoughts

 

Initial Planning

 

Can you take ownership of your learning?

 

 

Motivate people

 We start with an initial set of Goals and Outcomes for the group to work on

Goals: Develop the methods, definitions and writing of “how a learning team operates”.

 

Outcomes:

·       Operating principles of a learning team

·       Create a team charter

·       Written procedures and processes for a team

·       Defining the team’s culture

 

 
Setting up the team

 

1.0   Getting young-adults to meet and work with each other

 

Student Engagement Discussion

 

 

  Ice Breaker ...   Marshmallow project (Begin our thoughts on getting to know each other)

Brain Plasticity (Mindset)

Breaking the Ice with strengths

 

After doing the Ice-breaker assignment, Discuss the program goals, Their thoughts and discussion.

 
Team Instructions:

 

 

Additional thoughts on team work:

Tools:

·       You can use any resource to find information ( Web, books, people, etc.)

·       You can work together to create your thoughts

·       You need to write your thoughts as a group

·       Your group will discuss and present your thoughts at the end of the project

How to begin:

·       Follow the attached flow chart and develop your answers to the questions or thoughts.

·       Do your best as there is no one right answer.   Its what you want you make of it.

 

Team work 1

 

Team work 2-full

 

Difference between a group & a team:

 

http://www.projectacademy.org/

team/Building%20a%20team-05142019.pdf

 The answer to this question isn't as obvious as it might seem. Everyone knows what a team is: a group of people working together toward a common goal, right? Well, yes and no. A team is a group with a common goal, but lots of groups have a common goal. And a team works together, but lots of groups work together. The members of the United States Congress work together toward a common goal (making the laws that are best for the country), but each member has her own private interests and beliefs -- her own agenda. The Congress is no more a team than is a soccer "team" of six-year-olds, each of whom plays as if he's the only person on the field. A team is a group of people with a commitment to one another, to the team, to a high level of achievement, to a common goal, and to a common vision. They understand that team success depends on the work of every member

A good team functions as a single organism. Not only do members work together toward a common goal, but they complement and support one another so that their work seems effortless
 Building the charter that forms the team

 

Forming teams and setting community values, norms

Flip learning page

Outcomes:

  •    Enabling the charter (purpose, goals, roles, culture, (values, language, rituals,  norm))

·       Common purpose 

 

Work-sheet for building charter and culture

 
Reflection

When you set your goals, ask yourself the following questions:

Questions to ask?:

 

• What steps will the team take to accomplish its mission?

• What specific actions or changes does it need to complete?

• What milestones does it need to reach to progress further?

• Does it need to follow a specific timeline?

• How will we measure and report progress?

 

Life-Skill Infusion

Think of and define the following life skills:  Listening skills. Non-verbal skills, planning and goal setting, controlling your emotions, how to deal when you have a dis-agreement with others. Empathy for others,

o   Create an index card with a two sentence description for the skill

o   Try to implement the skill in your everyday activity

o   Reflect on your growth or lack of growth    

 
Publish & Report Public reporting and feedback

Outcomes:

·   ``

 

 

Tools/Quick notes:

Web site for links to Life-Skills descriptions Link
Charter

 A team charter should include several components that help define the team and keep it on track.

 

  At a minimum, your team charter should include: Team Purpose (Mission) Measurable/Verifiable Goals.  Apr 11, 2011
Culture

Organizational culture – behavior of humans within an organization and the meaning that people attach to those behaviors.

  • Character skills
  • Impact-culture
  • An organization's culture includes its vision, values, norms, systems, countries, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits.
Team
People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

   Vince Lombardi
 
Teamwork-Training

 
Processes Activities
One-pager Conflict resolution
Discussion Team charter work sheet
Flow-map Team roles work sheet
Five principles Listening skills
  Like a sports team
  Team work sheet

Another important proactive measure is ensuring that your team shares the same purpose, values, and identity

 
Team members questions to themselves What do I bring to the team? 2. What are our commitments to one another? 3. What differences exist between us? 4. How will we operate? 5. How will we know we are succeeding?
Learning life skills & having fun

 

The art or act of improvising, or of  composing, uttering, executing, or arranging  anything without previous preparation:

 

 
Problem-Solving

 
Improv File
Assessment/Rubrics File
Questions & learning File
Project framing File
Picking the problem File
Planning & schedule File  Getting set-up to do the project
Elevator pitch File    Short presentation of key items that you did
Mapping File   Information gathering plus how they are connected
Learning Process File

Brain Plasticity

 File

Thinking skills

Creative thinking
Critical thinking
Questioning
Meta-cognitive thinking
Reflection (feedback)

 
File  Maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry --- these are the essentials of thinking

 

 
Learning targets File Learning targets are short term goals or statements
Self-Reflection of the project File
Benefits of the process File
Preparing for the presentation check-sheet File
Scamper File   Coming up with ways to find new ideas
Links from home page of Project Academy

 

the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual
 

Interesting web sites;
Did you know? Today's learners will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38
TED talk Ken Robinson
TED talk Benefits of self-directed learning ... Motivation
TED talk Carol Dweck     ...Your Mindset

21st Century Learning

 

 web-site
TED talk Tony Robins .. What shapes you; You define who you are; Need rituals to make things happen.
Talking together Getting young people to come together

Democracy is a Conversation

Service learning To create a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world with young people, their schools, and their communities through service-learning
 

Creating contemporary learning environments from EDtalks on Vimeo.

  
   
 
Problems as opportunity  
   

 

  

 

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