Designing a School & Being peforming what is like to be a passive star by Feli.

Every week we face different strategies in order to acquire all the skills that we will need ad future teachers.

So, last Monday, as Linda entered in our classroom, we were asked who was the star of that week, and once we told her who was the star and we were together, she asked us to follow her to the corridor. Well we all were a bit surprised; we did not know what to expect of this new season. What new challenge would be awaiting us….

Suddenly she started talking and proposed us a new activity. We had to be disguised in three different roles. The first would be the democratic role, followed by a dominant role and ending up to a passive role. That was a performance!!

The activity consisted on creating alongside our group our ideal school, (system, board of direction, number of lines….). So we, as stars, had to explain them how to elaborate the activity.

Linda assigned the roles and when my time came she told me to act in a passive way. Well I was shocked, because I am not a passive person whatsoever. Even though I knew that I would not be supportive with my team, I realised that it was my duty to comply with my task. Therefore I though that my plan was going to be, getting into the class, and give to my classmates general information, trying not to go deep on it, and I also though that I would not help them to find a consensus, nor being participative.

When I went to my group, I just did exactly that!!! Nothing.

When I gave the explanation, that was scarce, they kept on asking me to specify more, and I acted as if I did not care. They suddenly realised that something was going on, because they are used to my way of participating and they know that I always try to give my opinion, feedback in every single activity.

I have to say that I really HATED THE ROLE, AND I FELT AWFUL, because I felt really responsible for not giving them a clear guide, and ignoring them every time they asked me to translate something, my personal opinion…

Well, but my group in general is always working quite well, so they started by creating a brainstorming plan, where everybody would participate giving diverse ideas. The only bad thing, is that when they were creating our ideal school, they did not focused in just one point, all they did is to add every single idea, creating a school with plenty of different features that not only were not clear, but also there was not reason added to each implementation.The result was a school with the following Characteristics:

·       Private school.

·       Mixt.

·       In Murcia.

·       Bilingual with for lines of languages (English, French, German, and Spanish)

·       It has an open classroom.

·       Flexible classrooms.

·       High speed internet (Wi-Fi)

·       Tablet and laptops will be provided to every single student.

·       Every teacher has their its own website.

·       Virtual learning environment.

·       Sport facilities.

·       Parking, and dining room.

·       Extracurricular activities.

·      The school board composed by, a tutor per course, specialized teachers (English, Music, French, German, P.E, and Religion), the AMPA, a pedagogues, a psychologist, a speech therapist, the directorial team (two chiefs of studies, the principal and the secretary).

At the end of the class every star presented their own school, and afterwards Linda asked everybody how was the experience, and HERE WE ARE.

Suddenly like a light of brightening, many people started complaining, Fernando among them, answering to the teacher that they did not received good information on my behalf.

After listening all the explanations, everybody realised that we were playing different roles and that there were three kinds of leaders.

·      The ones who were democratic and helped their classmates, giving them all the tips they needed to create a consolidated school.

·       The passive ones like the role I have to face, trying to avoid responsibilities, not being involved with the team….

·     And the dominant leaders, the ones that did not want to listen to the rest of the members, trying to impose their rules without having in mind that it is always great to have a wide variety of fresh ideas that can help to reach a good end.

The conclusion is that Linda showed us through this practice, making a real example with real facts, that there are different ways to lead a group and that it is better that we went ourselves through the experience to feel exactly what is like to be on these diverse ways or organizing strategies shoes. Overall, that it is not easy being a leader, nor being the workers.

Anyway I really think that we were able to exceed our own expectations again, and that proves that we are going to the right direction.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!