Speed Dating

It's a quick way to get to know someone, right? One of the things we know about building capacity is that we need to build relationships.

Even though we are all interconnected, that doesn't necessarily mean there is a comfort level for working together.

So how does this work? It's starts with an idea that gets spelled out on a whiteboard. It's strategically planned. Then we jump in.

Last Thursday, we invited members of our community and teachers from our district to do such a thing. We introduced what a charter was, what our charter was all about and then began the experience. Each pair had 2 minutes to answer questions, such as "What was your favorite subject?", "What are your interests?"

Fine, right? Well there's more to this besides building relationships between teachers and community members.

Let's examine it - what do people typically do in these activities? how do they feel?

Right. Avoid questions they don't want to answer, feel uncomfortable with the people they don't know.

Well, if we know that there are global issues such as the environment and economy that our children are going to encounter in their future, engaging our students with others around the world now will help build those global relationships so that it just becomes the norm for working with others around the world. Students are used to working with their peers and teacher, but working with experts or other adults - it's not something we can assume.

The other point noted was that when there was a comfort level, people thought 2 minutes was not enough - they had found that each had something to share that had value.

What if we engage students in this type of experience? Will they grow up expecting to include various perspectives when solving problems?