Celebrating Small
Small is better. Less is more.
Effective Trajectory Coaches live in small groups. They thrive in them. They push to create them.
The classroom of today may have 5, 25, or 125 students in them, but if we want those classroom experiences to be successful, addictive, and relevant, then we must learn the fine art of making “many” into “few.”
A few weeks ago I ran across this post over at The Savvy Technologist blog. It stopped me cold. It made me think. Best of all, it made me realize something new…
“I’m starting my third year as a “technology integrator” and I, too, am more convinced than ever that I will be more effective as a one-on-one “coach” rather than a “trainer” who conducts large-group sessions. I’ve done too many training sessions and workshops with almost no discernible impact over the past two years. Casting a wide net just doesn’t work.”
Trajectory Coaches think big. We’re visionaries. We’re early adaptors. We’re - to borrow from Tim Wilson (above) - smart casters.
Trajectory Coaches are big thinkers, but small connectors. Not because we’re afraid of the large audience - we’ve been working them for years - but now we’re realizing that coaches may be the head of a team, but they do their deepest influencing, and have their most powerful, life changing interactions, on a one-on-one level.
Tim Wilson’s post hit my brakes. I’m in charge of training our growing team of 20 teachers. Not many I know, but they’re more than a one-on-one ratio.
As our training program has been running, I’ve been noticing the same things Wilson has been, that trying to influence large groups of people is just an exercise in futility.
I think all teachers need to see this. A new vision. You should no longer see your classroom as one big group. Stop trying to cast your net wide. If you want to be a wide caster, you’ll experience two things: 1. You may catch many in your net, but how well will you be able to convert them into lifelong thinker/learners? You may have many, but how well have you influenced their trajectory? 2. You may have many, but they will leave your classroom the same way they came in. (related to point 1 a little) - but thinking more about a person changing and accepting, or at least trying out, the concepts in your class. Thinking about Wilson’s post, I found similar things happening in my large group training sessions. Many, speaking about technology, have had little to no contact with it - and when I mentioned that we’d be blogging, the blank stares that came back at me were just….mush.
I’ve left behind the big group. I still have one to deal with, and likely so will most other trajectory coaches out there, but it’s time to carve small outta the big. It can and should be done.
The amazing differences I’ve noticed in just two weeks:
1. Engaged teachers.
2. Thoughtful questions.
3. “Aha! I never thought of that.” moments.
4. Peer teaching and correcting. (It’s so much safer in groups of three.)
5. Way more head nodding and faces which say: “I get this stuff!”
6. Way more exploration on how to take the book stuff and turn it into classroom practice.
My big change: Instead of large group workshops, I’ve opened up three “You pick the time” sessions a week for all our teachers. The largest group I’ve had so far was five teachers. Today I have a one-on-one. I’m super excited about it, you know why? Because small is where the influence is.
Hi, I discovered your blog through the Effortless Language Acquisition site. I am a teacher-trainer in Japan read your entry with much interest. When you say that you work with trainees in small groups, do you mean that you have abandoned the class of 20 altogether and made it into 4-5 smaller-sized training sessions?
Comment by Jamie — October 18, 2005 @ 7:43 pm
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for reading and leaving your comment. I have left the big group mode. Instead of a “one session for all” approach, I printed out a calendar for the month, highlighting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays - they were free to pick any of those days, at the time most convenient to them. (First person to sign up for the day would pick the start time for anyone else who wanted to join on that day - if that makes sense. Like if somone picked Monday at 10:00 a.m., then anyone else wanting to go to that session on Monday, would have to attend at 10:00.) So far I’ve been having around four to five groups of three teachers.
The other day I gave all our teachers a survey to fill out regarding the change - training is for them, so I want to make sure they like it - It’s interesting really, the response has been very positive. I had a dozen or so comments which said something like: “I really appreciate the option of ME choosing when to attend the training session.” All teachers responded that they liked the new format - smaller, more personal and more attention to how to put book work into practice.
Nobody complained about the smallness.
So I’m loving the change. IT’s less stress. Higher influence. Greater possibility for quality change in the classroom, and in teaching practice.
What do you think? What approach have you been using?
Comment by Aaron Nelson — October 19, 2005 @ 8:08 am
Hi Aaron,
Most of my students are preservice teachers and considering that only about 15% of all applicants who take the teacher’s employment examination in my prefecture in Japan pass, many will not work at schools after graduation. I teach an EFL Teaching Methodologies Course in the first semester(April - August) and second semester (October - February). Both classes have approximately 30 students. When demonstrating teaching techniques for large classes (most primary and secondary schools have 30-40 students per class), I find that it is best to do so in a class with many students. However, to learn about the students’ own teaching philosophies and learning histories and make the course content more relevant, groups of 4 would be ideal. Unfortunately, my students must take 12-15 classes a week and in addition to this, most work part-time jobs. Last semester I used blogs in the class and it was a good way for students to critically examine what we did in class and exchange opinions.
Comment by Jamie — October 20, 2005 @ 9:25 am