Silos in Education vs Collaboration

Alabama Education Chat Community 

Twitter Chat 

Topic: Silos vs Collaboration 

When: Monday, February 16, 9-10pmCST 

Use this time converter to convert 9pmCST to your local time.

What are organizational silos? From the Compact Oxford English Dictionary Online, “A system, process, department, etc. that operates in isolation from others.” 

Here are some questions to get you thinking. Actual questions will be posted during the live chat.

• Would you describe your school or school system as one full of silos or one that is collaborative?
• Is it important to break down the silos in an organization? Why or why not?
• What keeps us from breaking down silos?
• Instead of teachers "going to their classrooms and shutting their doors," how do we deprivatize practices in order to encourage growth?
• What's your role in reducing or enforcing a silo mentality in your organization?

Also, I would like to express my gratitude to the other co-moderators, Michael McLendon and Holly Sutherland and everyone who is a part of #ALedchat on Twitter and the Facebook page.

Everyone is welcome to join us Monday nights 9-10pmCST for #ALedchat. We value the insights, perspectives, and experiences of those in our PLN.

Teachers Harness the Simple Power of Twitter

I had to share this great story of how one of our teachers took the initiative to bring down the four walls of the classroom and connect her students to others via social media. 

Last week, while visiting classrooms and tweeting the wonderful experiences our students were having, I tweeted this:

Students in Ms. Gannon's English 11 class were watching a TEDx Talk by Paul Piff titled, "Does Money Make You Mean?"

If the embedded video isn't visible on your device, watch the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ8Kq1wucsk

The first neat thing that happened was that Paul Piff "favorited" the tweet. Ms. Gannon, the English teacher, got to see that he "favorited" it since I had tagged her in the tweet, too. 

The next thing that happened was that Ms. Gannon's co-teacher, Mrs. Carey, emailed Paul Piff:

Good evening,  

As preparation for my co-taught English class's reading of The Great Gatsby, we watched your TEDTalk video, "Does Money Make you Mean?" Numerous students were intrigued by your research and I was wondering if you would be open to taking questions from students via Twitter as we explore social hierarchies and behavioral motivations while reading American literature. It is my hope that by combining the literature with research, we can add relevance and rigor to our lessons.  Tonight, students will be writing responses to your video and including questions it provoked. With your invitation, I would like to select some of the students to Tweet you their questions. I think it will add another dimension and increase engagement as we read about the Fitzgerald's 1920's. Does this sound like something you would be interested in?

Lisa Carey 

Instructional Support Teacher 

Hoover High School 

And, GUESS WHAT?

The next cool thing happened.

He emailed her back!

Hi Lisa,

That sounds like great fun! Count me in. The real challenge will be fitting the questions and answers into a terse 140 characters, but I'm up for trying.

Thanks for your interest in our research, and I'm so happy that the students found it interesting.

Paul

Ms. Gannon sent the following email to me this morning:

You tweeted about us watching the video; he “favorited” the tweet, and Lisa has found him, and we are going to set something up to send him questions.  How cool is this?

I was inspired by what they had done and felt compelled to share it with our teachers at Hoover High. I know there are still some teachers who don't see how twitter or social media can benefit them or their students. What Ms. Gannon and Mrs. Carey are doing is transformational. I hope that you are inspired, too!

Related posts:

Don't Use Twitter with Your Students

How to Host a Twitter Party at Your School (Twitter PD made easy)

Four Ideas to Connect Students to the World