PLN Presentation

After presenting our PLN Presentation in front of the class, I realized that I learned about the collaborative group work that will be needed when I'm a part of a community of teachers.  Jaclyn was very easy to work with while gathering our information and designing our presentation.  I learned the importance of communication between members of a community because it wouldn't have worked as smoothly if we weren't willing to listen to each other and be open to each other's ideas.  I think this communication and ability to work well together helped us feel more relaxed and prepared when we gave the presentation. I had no doubt that our cooperation and harmony would continue when we were presenting so I wasn't worried about the flow or execution when we were in front of the class. I also realized that the presentation wouldn't have been as beneficial or executed as well without a partner.  Thus, I realized how essential it is to have a group to work and collaborate with because it promotes reflective thinking, provides a variety of innovative ideas, and produces a better result in general.  There is so much truth in that the statement that "two is better than one".

It was extremely easy to get our point across to each other since there was only two of us, but it made me wonder how collaboration is different with more than two people, for instance, in a community of teachers.  I definitely think that a key component to having effective communication and harmony in group collaboration is to recognize personal strengths and intentionally use them for the betterment of the whole group.  For instance, if a person is a natural leader than they should attempt to take leadership positions in the collaboration of the group.  On the other hand, if a person is more passive in terms of expressing opinions but is very good at organization, then they could devote themselves to aspects such as planning.  Everyone has something that they can bring to the group, the important part is defining specific strengths and deploying them in a fashion that serves, encourages, and benefits the entirety of the group.

How To Video

After I watched a video about how to do a waterfall braid, I realize that it is very different to watch something being done and actually trying to do it yourself.  The resources for doing a waterfall braid were very easy to come up with but the actual execution of doing it was still extremely difficult.  With learning to braid, it doesn't necessarily take a lot of time to figure out what you are supposed to be doing but it takes a lot of practice and time to do it well.  The basic concept is easy to understand but the mastery of the braid is what takes a lot of repetition and practice.  Really the only type of feedback that could be given when trying to teach this is to encourage others to keep on practicing.  This relates to future teaching career because sometimes there will be lessons or concepts that will just take the students time to master.  This will require a lot of patience and understanding on the teacher's part to recognize that they understand the basic idea but the execution of the idea will take more time to develop.  I think it is so important to recognize this truth because we need to meet students where they are at, making sure that we don't continually reiterate concepts that they understand in a way that makes them feel like they are children, but also understanding when we need to slow down and give them more time to master a concept.  Therefore, from this exercise, I think that I learned that there is a major difference between understanding and mastery.  We need to make sure that we don't expect mastery of a skill just because our students seem to understand it.  It takes time to execute concepts and ideas properly.