Meet Passion's kissin' cousin: Bossy! - Week #3 in an SDL classroom

It's Sunday night, and I'm tired. I spent seven hours at the school this weekend with my SDL students, working on the yearbook and painting ceiling tiles. All told, ten students contributed between two and four hours to their projects in the past two days. My students' investment in the class is high.

But we also had some snipping this week.  On Friday, our "Eye of the Needle" video team squabbled over whether or not to write a grant to purchase a better computer for their video editing. (This is almost laughable! They're fighting over whether or not to write a grant?!) The tech guru is frustrated that his computer at home has better editing capability than the ones in our lab and wanted to find a way to get a new computer. The producer of the show pulled on the reins.

"We've only made two videos. Hold your horses," she said.
"We've made three."
"But we've only uploaded two."

Their voices were tense, but they weren't yelling.

If this had not been a SDL classroom, I may have intervened right then. I saw some territory of compromise I could nudge them towards, and I was pretty sure I saw motivation for their respective positions more clearly than they did themselves.  I saw a power struggle between two very bright and strong-willed students who are vying for control of the most exciting project they've tackled in years.

But I want my kids to learn by doing and to experience problem solving as organically as possible. So I asked some questions to steer them back to more stable ground (What is it you want our computers to be able to do? Would you be willing to see if tech support can help us with solutions?), but I didn't pull rank, and I didn't tell them what to do.  They mumbled agreement to let the topic rest for the weekend.

On Saturday the producer left this note on her week's report:"I hope we get along a little better as a team this week. There was a little tension throughout the week that could have been avoided by all of us." I was pleased to see her ownership in the phrasing "by all of us."

If students are invested in their projects, if students own their work, they'll generate passion. And passion is a close cousin to bossy. Wish us luck. I'll report back next week.