Home » Articles posted by Midori Yamamura

Author Archives: Midori Yamamura

Session Three

December 8, 2021 / Leave a comment

The goal of this Seminar is to allow faculty to hear the experiences of different teachers who are now using TAS: Team As Support.
The plan is to give a brief overview of the three organizing principles of TAS (permanent teams with team names;  weekly rotating Team Leaders:  chats and zooms used to keep teams connected at all times) and to review the three guiding ideas of TAS (support, possibility, using “breakdowns” as the opportunity to create meaningful “breakthroughs”).
We hope to then move on to help teachers explore the question of whether this program is of interest to them.  We hope to address the following questions:
         1. What do students write about their team experiences?
         2. Why and how does the framework of “support” create higher performance and more student satisfaction in the classroom and in the workforce?
         3. What are the experiences of our faculty with this practice in both synchronous and asynchronous situations?
         4. How does this model teach collaboration, leadership, and generosity while helping students to more powerfully master their course content?
         5. How does this model powerfully train students for the workforce they will meet in the challenging team-oriented larger world of work they will encounter upon graduation?

 

 

One issue that has come up in classes is that some students may put in more effort into their team than others.   We reviewed a mathematical method used to calculate the level of each student’s contribution to their team which is factored into their final grade.
We also brainstormed about methods of turning our soft data – the writing of our students about their experiences – into hard data and looked at some student writing about teams.

FALL 2021 SESSION TWO (11/2, 3:30-4:30 PM)

November 22, 2021 / Leave a comment

The plan for the second meeting of our TAS:  Team As Support FIG is to

review the 3 elements of the design of this program (permanent teams that
have a rotating Team Leader in which team members are connected
by self-chosen platforms for chats and zooms).  The focus, however,
of the meeting will be on the “psychic infrastructure” of these teams
and the 3 guiding ideas underlying this approach.
In our session, we plan to explore 3 concepts that fundamentally
distinguish this approach from all others:
1. Support
2. Possibility
3. Breakdown as creating the opportunity for Breakthrough.
1, Support is perhaps the largest and most important concept that
shapes this classroom and conditions its success.  Research has made
clear that high performance is predicated on teams that attain the highest
levels of support, comfort, and trust.  How does the professor make
this concept explicit and how is the support of team members for one another
encouraged and rewarded by the professor?
 2. Possibility is used as a concept that at both individual levels
and within the definition of the work of the Team Leader asks the
student to assess where they are at and determine an aspirational
focus for the week, for a specific assignment, for mastery of
the content of the course.  The question, what is possible, asks
the student to see him, their or herself as capable, hopeful, eager, and
ambitious and constantly setting new actionable small goals as
they move forward in the work of the course.  How is this done?
What does this look like at the level of the Team Leader?
What does it look like at the level of team members?  What does
it look like for the professors and their aspirations for their students?
3. Breakdown / Breakthrough.  Training students to examine
closely what created the conditions for a failure or disappointment
and to take action to change those conditions is a powerful tool
in the arsenal of high performance in the classroom and in life.
In TAS, students learn to think creatively, hopefully, and critically
about issues that led to a disappointing result (a “breakdown”)
in order to create a far more powerful “breakthrough” in their work.
It is training that is especially important for the fragile
students in our classrooms who typically beat themselves up when they don’t
meet their own expectations.  How exactly does a professor
“teach” this methodology to their students?  Can a professor model
this approach in the classroom to their students?

FALL 2021 SESSION 1 (10/13, 3-4 PM)

November 22, 2021 / Leave a comment

The plan for the first session of our semester is to facilitate and familiarize faculty with TAS (Team As Support).

TAS brings the engine of student ingenuity, generosity, and smarts into operation on behalf of other students within a team.  Research has shown that the stronger the connections among team members and the more trust and safety generated within a team, the higher the level of performance and of satisfaction. In this way, TAS also prepares students for the world of work they will meet after graduation, one that is largely organized around teamwork.  Teachers in Art, English, and Accounting at Kingsborough report the high impact of TAS on student performance and satisfaction.

        Here’s the plan:
        We will review the three key elements of this design:
                   1. Permanent teams (great ice breaker: create a team name!).
                   2. Rotating Team Leader:  the team leader creates a focus (their “Possibility”) for the
their week of leadership, one that will “make a difference” in the life and
work of the team and submits a final “Outgoing Team Leader Report” at the
end of the week of their leadership assessing the team and writing about their
creative interventions on behalf of their team.
                   3. Creating the chats and zooms that connect teammates to one another along with a
Chief Technology Officer for the team to whom team members can go for
tech support within the team.
And we will review the three key ideas underpinning ideas that predict academic and team success:
1. Support:  The job of each team member and of the team leader is to support the
work of their teammates and “make a difference.”
2. Possibility:  This is a pedagogy of hope in which team leader and students create
actionable and aspirational “possibilities.”
3. Breakdown/ breakthrough:  This design removes the stigma of student failures
and self-doubt by training them to see their errors (on all levels – in life
as well as when it comes to the placement of the period in a sentence)as “breakdowns” – or really – opportunities for breakthrough.  And it
provides them with an explicit methodology (and practice) in how to do this!

SESSION 4

May 21, 2021 / Leave a comment

May 20
Present:    Midori Yamamura;   Amy Haas;  Lea Fridman

Meeting 4:

We began our meeting by creating a “Possibility” for the meeting
itself and for this classroom design on the chat.   Those possibilities
included the “possibility” of reaching more faculty to share this
approach to the classroom.
We spoke about the breakdowns and breakthroughs that have
occurred over the semester with our student teams as well as how
to support teamwork more effectively.  In all of our classes, there
were teams that worked effectively.  Students reported having fun
with their teams, helping others with assignments, and helping those
who were in crises.  But there were cases in which students, perhaps
because of work schedules, did not participate.
We agreed that creating assignments that involved teamwork and
especially team breakout rooms or zoom or collaborate assignments
where the group works together and has visual contact and aural contact
was key to encouraging the deeper connections that make Team as
Support effective.
Amy reviewed the wide array of features of group work
available on Blackboard and how she uses this feature to support
the teams in her class.
We looked at the reflections on teamwork written by students.
Some are included below. (The link will open in a separate window)

https://kctlpossible.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/4159/files/2021/05/Teamwork-Reflections-3-5.pdf

SESSION 2 TEAM AS SUPPORT

May 2, 2021 / 1 Comment on SESSION 2 TEAM AS SUPPORT

Meeting April 7        
Present: Marta Cabral (Staten Island);  Amy Haas (KCC);  Lea Fridman (KCC);  Kristine Polizzotto (KCC);  Midori Yamamura (KCC)
Teachers who use “Team as Support” will find their students, at the end of the semester, very happy with the approach. Universally students will say that “Team as Support” made their class more fun.   But it also means a commitment on the part of the professor to continually find ways to support teamwork and “Team as Support.”
“Team as Support” grew out of two intensive trainings that Lea took:  Team Based Learning which is widely recognized across the academy and the Landmark Team Management and Leadership Program, an approach to teamwork that has been adopted by the largest and most innovative businesses including Apple, Google and more.  Lea’s approach incorporates elements of both within a model that emphasizes support.  This element – the emphasis on “team as support” – has improved the success of the team in her classes over a number of years.
The role of the Team Leader is especially important. Students take this role seriously and put their hearts into it and into
supporting one another, which is the purpose of everyone in the team being on the team chat.  The Outgoing Team Leader Report which is sent to the professor at the end of the week of leadership, is especially revealing. In it, the Team Leader assesses their team and writes about their own creative interventions in their team. Teachers find that they get a glimpse into what is going on beyond the “walls” of their classroom.
How does a professor support teamwork in cases where a team is not functioning well or a student is reluctant to be a Team Leader? Lea simply tells the student that teamwork and taking a turn at being the Team Leader is written into the syllabus of the course and is a requirement.  Overall, she saw reluctant students, especially the shy ones, blossom.
It is not easy to deal with a team that is in breakdown or functioning at less than capacity.  But that is actually a moment of opportunity, a moment to sit down (or zoom) with a team and ask what is going on – in a non-judgmental way.   Given our student body, the issues often involve work and responsibilities of various kinds.  Where there is breakdown, in other words, that is the space for extra support, exploration, empathy.  In some cases, the students of that team may do better if they move over to other teams that are more active.  In one case, students in a team　that was in “breakdown” refused to move to other teams and
started working together in powerful ways.  They eventually became the top team in that class.
It is important to create team-based assignments and break-out rooms in zoom classes in order to foster and encourage teamwork. We look forward to sharing ideas for such assignments at our meetings.

INTRODUCTION

May 2, 2021 / Leave a comment

As one teacher commented, the “Team as Support” system comes naturally to our
students.   They LOVE to be of service to each other and they can often be more
effective than their professors!  Teaching with my students supported by their teams
has changed teaching for me because at the same time that it helps students academically,
it trains them in being good and loving and responsible human beings as well as in 
effective collaboration.  It has made teaching more meaningful and fulfilling to me.
And within this moment of a global pandemic and the isolation that devastates this
age group, “team as support” is lifesaving.For the last five years now, students write to me that this system of
“Teams as Support” has made their course work “fun”.  This was important to me because
I aim for a certain rigour in my courses and sometimes worry that the level of analysis

I require can tire and even bore them!

Below are attachments that will be helpful in implementing this system.

Lea

.
1. Overview of this Teamwork system

2. Instructions for Teamwork  – for instructor and also distributed to students.

3. Team Leader Possibility

4. Outgoing Team Leader Report

5. Google article  (I am sending this in a separate email)

6. Google article take-home exam

7. Teamwork in-class or homework writing exercise.

8. Teamwork end of semester questionnaire (numerical)

Eng 92 Quiz on Google article IRB Questionnaire Outgoing Team Leader Report Team Leader Possibility Team Questionnaire TEAMWORK – instructions for teamwork Teamwork FIG description

SESSION 1 TEAM AS SUPPORT

May 2, 2021 / Leave a comment

March 18th Meeting

Present:   Lea Fridman, Midori Yamamura,  MaryLynn Navarro, JoAnne Meyers.

At our first session, we referred to the attached “Instructions
for Teamwork.”    This document provides an overview of “Teamwork
as Support” that is important for teachers and also useful to distribute
and discuss with students at the outset of the semester.  It is attached
below.

We reviewed key elements of this system all of which are framed
within a concept of “support” and of making a difference in the lives
of teammates:

1. the use of permanent teams. (many teachers find organizing teams
alphabetically easiest for record keeping).
2. Teams create a team name and create “chats” on WhatsApp or any
platform of their choicer
3. a weekly rotating Team Leader
4. guiding concepts of support;  of possibility;  and of breakdown and
breakthrough.

We spoke about two more important points.  We talked about the research
by Google and others that show that the level of trust created within a
team is the best predictor of performance.   Where teammates trust one another
and are comfortable reaching out, students will have stronger academic
outcomes.  Support, generosity and non-judgment within teams enhances the academic
success of students

We also spoke about the concepts of breakdown and breakthrough.
Screwing up on an exam or as a team (or even as a professor) in small and
big ways is simply part of life.  But teaching students to take charge of a
“breakdown,”  to identify what went wrong, to identify what actions are
needed for a real and meaningful “breakthrough,”  this is an invaluable
lesson.  If a student can recognize that they failed a quiz, not because
they are a poor student but because of a time management issue, this is
invaluable knowledge that requires action and that can lead to breakthroughs
beyond the quiz to other areas of life.

TEAMWORK -update – instructions for teamwork (3)

SESSION 3 TEAM AS SUPPORT: summary of April 29th FIG meeting

April 30, 2021 / Leave a comment

Friends:
At our meeting last Thursday we talked the role of the Team Leader and Amy Haas shared
her outline of the Team Leader’s responsibilities with us (see attachment above). Teachers will tweak
this as they need to,  but this is useful clarification to students about what it means to be a Team Leader.
       We shared methods of dealing with inevitable issues that arise in a teamwork setting: when a
Team Leader is awol; when there is less than optimal communication going on within a team.
Can these situations become opportunities?   Can “breakdowns” in a team (big or small) be
the path to a far more meaningful “Breakthrough”?   How?
      At this moment of global crisis, when students do not come through for their teams, whether
they are or are not leading their team, we teach our students to withhold judgment, to ask a question
(“What happened?”  “Are you OK”) and to take initiative in offering support.   Recently I asked
all of my students in a zoom class to write about one way their team had contributed to them
or one way that they had contributed to their team.  We read them all out loud so that everyone
could hear and learn from one another.  It only took a few minutes but I was surprised
and heart warmed by what they wrote (especially about the human warmth provide by teammates
to one another during the pandemic).
     We meet next at 3 pm on May 20 at our link below.
     I am also attaching a questionnaire for students.  I think it will be very productive to compare
notes when it comes to responses to these questions.  Please consider asking your students
to respond to them.   This can be distributed any time that works best for your students before
our meeting May 20.  See my attachment below.        .
                                                                   Warmly,
                                                                      Lea

 

 

 
Meeting ID: 246 101 7952
Host: Lea Fridman
Participant ID: 749635
Passcode: nodoseha12

That would be a breakdown?

TBL (team based learning):

Team QuestionnaireTEAM LEADER RESPONSIBILITIES