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For the final part of 5318, we were giving guiding questions to heavily reflect on the creation of or LMS. Through much thinking and reflecting, here’s what I had to say:

Guiding Questions:

A. What Instructional Design theories lend themselves to development ofonline learning environments? Which one did you lean toward in developing your course?

Each of the instructional design theories play a pivotal part in the development of an online learning environment. Objectivism and behaviorism, constructivism, cognitivism, and connectivism all have a part to play in the online learning environment. What that means is while the premise of online learning may seem simple, there has to be several factors that help the learner to achieve their goals.

For example, in Anthony William Bates book, “Teaching in the digital age” he discusses the differences in the learning theories. Objectivism and behaviorism play the role in trying to figure out what the students will be learning and setting up the types of behaviors you want to see from your learning.  Cognitivism deals with the thinking the students do; constructivism work with the importance of self-awareness, free will and social interactions (Bates, 2015). Cognitivism essentially lets us learn from what we know, and experience. Connectivism focuses more on digital connection among each other and ourselves, and are more like growing or developing ourselves and society (Downes, 2007).

For the development of my course, although there are different aspects of each learning theory, the main focus is on constructivism. There is the belief that students come with their own unique, and individual knowledge, they connect with each other in many ways, and through their interactions, social, environment, and learning, they continue to build on what they know. This course allows them to learn on their own, learn from each other, and allow the teacher to help guide their learning. There is no “right” way for them to achieve their goal, only individual goals they have to meet by working collaboratively, creating what they think is the end goal.

Reference:

Bates, A.W. (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (Chapters 11-12) Retrieved from  https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Downes, S. (2007) What connectivism is Half An Hour, February 3

B. How did you implement theUbD plan for your learning environment in creating learning opportunities for students?

The UbD plan that was implemented for this course helped me focus on a backwards planning model. The end goal for this course is to have students create their own unique ePortfolio, so starting from there allowed for building up to that point. What do students need to know about ePortfolio before they can build one? What should they care about ePortfolios? What are benefits of an ePortfolio type of learning system? These were some of the guiding questions to support the course goals. Then from there, there needed to be activities, assessments, discussions and checkpoints along the way to question student thinking.

There was also a need to foster as much collaboration as possible so students wouldn’t feel alone in their thinking, and also so they could share in the journey of how they used to perceive thinking and learning, to how they see it now. Besides creating the ePortfolio, the goal was to guide students along the way of thinking in a more COVA approach by having choice, ownership and voice in an authentic learning environment (Harapnuik, Thibodeaux, & Cummings, 2018). Students have become so accustomed to a objectivism learning approach, but this should help them see that different point of view.

Reference:

Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018, January) COVA, published under a Creative Common license

C. With regard to what you have learned in this course, discuss the relevance and importance of providingonline learning for our students.

Besides taking this course, I’ve had previous experience with online learning when I first got into education. I immediately saw the value in giving the opportunity to students to work at their own pace and having a unique, individual program. Flash forward to now, there is still a lot to benefit the student with online learning because now it’s not just one online system, it’s providing many forms of content to meet the needs of the student and still allowing them to work at their own pace. It also helps with the organization process, a skill which many learners lack, so it’s not just helping them learn, it’s giving them the tools they need to be effective in life.

Accessibility is also another important factor in the learning because these courses can be accessed anywhere. Collaboration can happen anywhere, and communication can happen anywhere. Rather than providing too much content and saying have at it, you organize a system to how they move through the course, and if there are any issues, they have many modes of communication to better their understanding.

Lastly, I assumed that online learning would be a simple platform where you could just throw some content on a website and let the work keep the student busy. What was realized is that just like planning any lesson in person for the school setting, you have to take into account the types of learners you have, meet them where they are and help guide them through the process. It was so much more than just throwing content together. It was making it feel like a welcoming, virtual environment, allowing for collaboration from anywhere, letting them interact with different content that fits their needs and allow them to explore either alone, or with their peers.

D. What is the enduring understanding you can take from this course and apply in your teaching?

I’ve learned throughout the course of the DLL program, not just this course, that learning takes place anywhere and everywhere. What I’ve taken specifically from this course is that online learning has to have the same structure as if you were teaching in a classroom environment. There are a variety of students who’s needs all must be met, there is a curriculum to create, there needs to be assessments, scaffolding, the content needs to be engaging and collaborative, there needs to be consistent feedback, collaboration and so much more for it to be effective. Creating an online course can crash and burn just like any regular in-class lesson, so you must ensure that you cover all bases of the course. In a digital age where we are trying change learning instead there should be a good blend of online learning and face-to-face learning. The same rules apply though as our ultimate goal is to do what is best for the student and ensure their success.

For the last part of our assignment, we were to compile a list of different online courses we thought were successful/or introduced to us. Here is my list:

https://app.schoology.com/course/943319628/materials

https://www.screencastify.com/course/genius

https://fortbendisd.schoology.com/course/2071622588/materials?f=163046933

https://fortbendisd.schoology.com/course/1893706317/materials

The one I referred to most was the first course listed. Rachell Wooten was a former student of the DLL program, and also works in Fort Bend ISD like myself. It has been a pleasure getting to ask her questions, pick her brain, and use her as support especially for this course. I sent her a link to my site and she was able to provide feedback to help me improve it. The other courses are from previous PD’s and another course is one that was recommended to help me screencast.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed creating a course that is beneficial for all learners in all aspects. It is something they can access at anytime outside of the learning environment, and it is something that can be utilized inside the classroom to help support the learning.

While I don’t think that it could be facilitated by itself and needs structured direction, I enjoy the fact that I am saving a lot of time not having to print content, having to keep everyone’s attention on my in the classroom, and giving everyone the same thing.

This course design is unique to each individual and allows them to work at their own pace. Which leads me to wonder what other courses could I design into an LMS?

Last year in my classroom we had to embed poetry into the unit although it wasn’t in the curriculum. So we gave students the chance to teach the class over a certain type of poetry to the class. I think creating an LMS would have been beneficial for students.

First I would have created a history folder introducing them to poetry, different poets, styles and other videos of people presenting poetry. Next I would create the instructions and rubric for the student outline for their teaching where they can view sample assignments, lectures, and discussions. For the third course, I would have the students upload their content and proposed lesson by having them upload a video and content to give them feedback. The next course will focus on student teaching presentations and the last course will focus on assessments based on all the teachings that took place.

Rather than just teaching poetry myself, this would allow the student to take it upon themselves to learn the content, teach it, and have the students connect to it outside to better prepare themselves.

For another course, I would create an LMS for the SPED, 504, and ESL content that we normally are taught each school year. The course would focus on each individual area, different cases for them to read, Do’s and Don’ts for each program, a variety of articles to read, scenarios for teachers and administration, and documenting what’s needed.

Usually the courses have some kind of online content, but for the most part it is all sit and get content, and every year I feel as if there is some much that we’re missing. It would be beneficial for an LMS that would allow us to work at our own pace, make it personalized and allow us to create questions while inquiring about what we don’t.

I wonder what other types of LMS systems are out there. I would like to see what other systems could be used to help teach content. For mine, I used Schoology, and although I’ve used it in the classroom, I was able to explore a whole lot more. Schoology is mostly used in the education setting but I believe that for other companies inside and outside of education they have to use some other kind of system and I would be interested in learning those systems as well. 

 

 

I don’t even know where to begin for this blog post reflection. I did well on the last assignment and I believe that I’m doing better than anticipated for creating our LMS course. I did forget to mention that the wife and I were expecting baby #3 and while I was hoping to knock out the assignments for this week, life happened.

Our baby girl who we decided to name Emma Grace Sanchez, was born early Thursday morning and it’s been difficult for me to find time to work on my LMS, discussion and post. In the hospital the baby was doing well, she weighed 8 lbs and 10 oz, making her the heaviest baby my wife and I have had (we have a daughter and a son). So being at the hospital, listening and checking in with the nurses and doctors, taking care of my wife, feeding the baby, checking in our my other two children, are all finally catching up to me as we came home this evening.

It is a little after 2 am in the morning but I am determined to finish this course strong. I’ve been working on the LMS for a couple of hours now and baby girl has stopped me a couple times to feed her, hold her, rock her to sleep and I only have about 20% more to go to finish up this assignment. Now she’s with her mother and hopefully asleep so I’m crushing what I have left.

I am greatly concerned that I won’t be able to finish the program on time like I planned because although I want to keep going, I am a family man first and I will do what I have to to ensure that their needs are met before mine. Nonetheless, with a growth mindset and the support of my family I know I can power through.

This LMS still seems to me like I am just clumping a bunch of stuff together at times, and at other times I think what I am doing is beneficial. This course could be useful in the upcoming school year, but I still feel like it is lacking something. I want to upload my own “How To”s but without know how to properly screencast and with the learner having choice of what site to use, I don’t think me using one site would be beneficial. However, I have linked several Youtube channels of different websites so the learner could quickly find a “How To” video if needed, they would just have to find the right one in an ocean of videos.

I think that’s the beauty of authentic learning. Once you get into one thing, the mind has a way of digging deeper into the rabbit hole and before you know it, you’re head deep into something deeply interesting. We’ll see where the rest of this goes. Wish me luck, and if anything, I want to instill the morals and values in my children that my wife and I uphold so dearly. Till next time.

 

 

For 5318 we are creating a Learning Management System (LMS for short) where we create a course online, I’m using Schoology and this is my first time actually creating a course. I’ve used Schoology before and have utilized the program for my students to give them learning content such as documents, videos, hyperlinks and creating media albums but this is much different.

When I first heard about what we were creating for this course I was extremely nervous and scared thinking that I wouldn’t be able to get it done because it seems to require so much such as detailed directions, a certain amount of time, assessments and activities, videos, actual building, but now that I’m getting into it, it doesn’t seem too complicated.

I am creating my course in relation to my innovation plan of implementing ePortfolios and giving my learners 5 modules that relates to them getting information about ePortfolios, designing their own ePortfolios, how to organize the layout, upload assignments and documents and compiling it all into a final project for our end of year exam.

I’ve gone back and listened to the weekly video about 5 times now (not all at once, just going back here and there) and most of it still sounds a bit confusing, or I feel like I’m missing something, but luckily this is all just a rough draft and I’m sure the professor and assistant instructor will provide good feedback that I could use to help improve my course. Dr. Ybarra has also stated getting comfortable with your course not being perfect so I’m molding into that idea already.

Overall, I think I’m hitting all the points I want my learners to understand about the ePortfolio because last semester when we introduced it at the end of the year, several students would have rather taken a test to show what they’ve learned, and although I told them about the ePortfolio and it’s benefits, implementing this course early and providing all the necessary information while giving them a years worth of time to work on it should be helpful. I hope all goes well.

I’m finishing up class 8 of 12 getting that much closer to completing something I thought I wouldn’t even do…. There is so much to talk about and so much I’ve learned going through this program.

My concern going into 5315 was having to complete another literature review, but since I planned accordingly I was able to get it done without wasting too much time. I also got to enjoy going to Dallas to experience the AVID summer institute which was great because I got to learn, spend time with the family and work with some new teammates for the upcoming school year.

I asked my wife yesterday what was the chance I could get a new job with this Masters degree and her honest opinion was even better than I could have imagined. She said “You’re learning and growing so much in your role and they really value you at your school.” She went on to say more along the lines of they are trusting me and putting me in good positions to learn, grow, and develop so I’m super excited because this time last year I didn’t think I would be here.

5315 focused on Action Research and I’m sure like myself we were all wondering what’s action research? Definitely through us all for a loop. Once we got into it, it wasn’t that complicated, we already do action research, now it’s just a matter of having a structure to initiate our plan, track it with data, share our findings and repeat the process as necessary.

We created an Action Research Outline where we laid out the skeleton of our plan and narrow our ideas. I continued to focus on ePortfolio implementation and have decided to plan my action research on that. My research question is finding out the perceptions of the student and how they feel about the ePortfolio and how they adapt to it. I also want to see if ePortfolios help students improve overall learning through their work, scores, etc.

The next part was to focus on more of the literature and create another Literature Review focusing on Action Research literature. While the study is limited on research for middle and high school initiatives, I was able to find some information and found enough to support my understanding. Now with the action research plan, I can hopefully contribute to the literature in the future and provide knowledge and information for others.

Lastly, we had to tie it all together and create our actual Action Research Plan. We were to dive into a deeper amount of detail with the plan, research, implementation, how we would handle changes, how to present our findings. It is extremely thorough and we had to create our documents to collect data such as likert surveys, data tracking sheets and any other document we need.

I was once super worried about this course and now that it’s over, I wish I could go back and expand this class a bit more to learn and see other information about Action Research. I definitely looking forward to the rest of the program and seeing what the Capstone Project consists of, while putting all of this together in a final product.

So while I haven’t fully enacted my school wide ePortfolio plan, or even phase one of my plan by focusing on a class to create their own ePortfolio, I was successful in getting my team on board to have students create their own ePortfolio as their final. There were some hiccups towards the end where I had to modify the assignment and have students create folder portfolios, and then there were a couple of cases of students asking to take a test and question the use of the digital portfolio, (this almost became a huge headache and led me to question my choices, even reflected back on Dr. H’s talks about how students will challenge their learning) but in the end, it turned out better then expected and students definitely stepped up to the challenge.

Below are a few of the links that were submitted by students who did create the ePortfolio, and while observing their work, I must say that I definitely had those conversations with students about the individual work they put into their portfolio, some struggles they had and how they overcame them. Each product was unique to the student and that is definitely evident. I also made sure to talk about how there is no “right way” to do it. Even the students who did the folder portfolio enjoyed the concept and found that project based learning was better than comprehensive testing. This will help me to ensure that there is more time to work on the ePortfolio, give me a good foundation to fix what needs fixing, and implement for next school year.

Abhay’s Corner

Miles Menendez

Lane Arroyos

Cameron Oliver

Oliver Salazar

Jeev Johnson

Kelsee Leavitt

Zayne Nemry

Gracie Perkinson

Babitta Sajeesh

Amelie Martin

Elisabeth Kummer

Cailey Toucheck

Mariana Garcia

Katherine Benton

Emma DeGennaro

During the 5314 course, we’re looking at a variety of research and readings that deal with looking at why innovation plans fail and why they succeed. My plan is to implement ePortfolio’s on the secondary level at my campus, Baines MS, in Fort Bend ISD. I initially thought that my plan would be successful taking the previous courses and outlining my plan, but after doing the readings and new research, I see that there is more to organize than I thought. You can view my initial innovation plan along with my outline.

Now looking at the research of what works and what doesn’t I’ve had to adjust my plan and outline. A lot of the new information I found helped me see that there are issues to implementing the ePortfolio on the secondary level, but it wasn’t what I expected. I initially thought it would be more staff focused and getting everybody on board, but I think with the proper outline and plan, I can get them to help with it.

What I found to be the issue what technological issues such as ensuring the internet is working either on campus or off if students work on it elsewhere. Another issue that came up is whether students have devices such as cell phones, laptops, and computers that give them access to the internet.

Other barriers include scheduling conflicts and keeping up with other work. There also needs to be policies put into place and standards need to be created to ensure proper success of ePortfolio implementation. Some other concerns have to deal with privacy and security, intellectual property, and how exactly the ePortfolio will be used; as a storage tool, assessment tool, formative tool etc.

Lastly, the issue that comes up is ensuring that students take responsibility of their learning and that they see the benefit of ePortfolio otherwise it will become like other technology that has no use in school districts. There needs to be a definite outline and structure to the ePortfolio and have the right goals in mind in order to be successful.

Reading through the research there are a lot more factors that can contribute to an initiatives failure, but if done correctly than a plan can be successful. My goal is to have my innovation plan somewhat rolled out for next school year since I hit some road blocks this school year. Even when I rolled it out as an end of year project, there has been some student push-back and we are definitely pressed for time with STAAR, weather issues and finals coming up. But through further research I believe that I can develop a successful innovation plan.

References:

Chambers, B., (2014) L.A. cancels iPads in the school program: A failure of vision not technology Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2PPdFJD

Douglas, C., Clements, K., Greene, K. (2009, February) ePortfolio implementation considerations and best practices Retrieved from: https://learningd2l.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Desire2Learn_whitepaper_ePortfolio_implementation.pdf

Gordon, L., (2017) Students as co-designers: peer and instructional resources for novice users of ePortfolio Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1159903.pdf

Rhodes, T., Chen, H., Watson, E., and Garrison, W., Editorial: A call for more rigorous ePortfolio research Retrieved from: http://www.theijep.com/pdf/IJEP144.pdf

Richards-Schuster, K., Galura, J., (2017) Navigating multiple ePortfolios: Lessons learned from a capstone seminar Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1142596.pdf

Shroff, R. H., Deneen, C. C., & Lim, C. P. (2014) Student ownership of learning using e-portfolio for career development. Journal of Information Systems Technology & lanning, 7(18), 75-90.

Thibodeaux, T., Cummings, C., and Harapnuik, D. (2017) Factors that contribute to ePortfolio persistence Retrieved from: http://www.theijep.com/pdf/IJEP257.pdf

In looking at the research for this weeks assignment, we were to reflect back on our innovation plan and find other innovation plans that were implemented with either success and/or failure. Looking through all the readings, you get a good insight to why plans workout but also see why innovation plans fail. 

If there is anything to take away it’s the idea that technology is not a tool that saves education. You cannot just put it in the teacher’s hand and expect them to know what to do with it. Take for example the idea of iPads in the article. The issue was not understanding what the iPad’s can do, it was the vision of what to do with it and how to implement it.

So therefore, in order to have a successful innovation plan and implement it, there needs to be a clear vision of why we’re using it, how it will be used, and setting those guidelines down so others can share in the vision. All these ideas are outlined in my Call to Action video, take a look below:

With setting clear expectations for how to implement the ePortfolio and understanding that we are not just using technology, but utilizing them to help facilitate and blend the learning, having a clear focus/vision is the most important aspect of any innovation plan. 

 

References:

Arter, J.A. & Spandel, V., (1992) Using portfolios of student work in instruction & assessment. Educational Measurement: Issues & Practice, 11(1)

 Barrett, H., (2003) The Research on portfolios in education Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/ALI/research.html

Chambers, B., (2014) L.A. cancels iPads in the school program: A failure of vision not technology Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2PPdFJD

Miller, R., & Morgaine, W. (2009) The benefits of e-portfolios for students and faculty in their own words. Peer Review, 11(1), 8-12. Retrieved from https://ir-lib-uwo-ca.libproxy.lamar.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1433&context=cjsotl_rcacea 

Poole, P., Brown, Martin., McNamara, G., O’Hara, J., O’Brien,S., Burns, D. ((2018) Challenged and supports towards the integration of ePortfolios in education. Lessons to be learned in Ireland Retrieved from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.lamar.edu/science/article/pii/S2405844018330718

Paulson, E. & Campbell, N. (2018, December) Collective approaches to ePortfolio adoption: Barriers and Opportunities in a large Canadian University Retrieved from: https://ir-lib-uwo-ca.libproxy.lamar.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1433&context=cjsotl_rcacea 

As we wrap up 5304 and move one step closer to the goal, I realized that this next class is the halfway point……HALFWAY! I remember going back to the first class, the first meeting with Dr. H and him talking about how that group we were with was in their sixth class, now they’ll be in their last class towards graduation! Man how time flies and where we started to where we are now, I’ve seen the growth in us all, we may not have wanted to, but we are the change that we want to see in the world.

This leads me to the idea of self-differentiated leadership. Growing up, I knew I had the capability to be a natural leader, not one that is, but one that becomes. From my early years on the playground, I knew recall how the kids would hangout with me, but as the years went on and elementary became middle, middle became high school, I tried to displace myself and hang around with others, although they hardly served as people I looked up to or saw as leaders. It wasn’t until Junior and Senior year of High school where I was selected as drum captain (Junior year), Drum Major and President in my senior year that I grew my wings back out. Why did people gravitate towards me? Why did they come to me for the tough questions? Yeah I wanted the title, but didn’t really want the work. Those last two years were definitely some great times

I remember giving my speech at our annual band banquet and just trying desperately to withhold the tears, my mother in the audience was crying, my fellow members were crying, it was a huge cry fest, but the lasting impression the last 10 years had on me was something I didn’t want to let go. Jump forward another 10 years and I’m on a new campus, and trying to slide by. My co-worker and to this day mentor Mary Dowd saw something in me I knew was there but refused to show and told me to help lead my campus and pursue a Masters degree. Coincidentally the day before, I made a phone call to an old mentor and he suggested the same thing. It’s amazing how other leaders can see the leadership in someone else and get them to do things.

Fast forward to this year and the flower is beginning to blossom. I’m trying to change my campus for the better, I’m interacting with my team and we are accomplishing so much! They tell me “man we hope you stay” and “If you leave, it’s going to be different around here,” I guess I’m doing something right. My Principal who took a chance on me has talked to me about technology integration for next year because she’s aware of me pursing my degree in that field.

I understand Friedman’s theory of Self-Differentiated Leadership and how each person has that unique aspect and how a SDL can operate and diffuse in negative situations, helping that environment blossom by influencing others.  Now while I’m making steps towards becoming a SDL, along the way I’ve added tools to my tool kit. All of this has to start with your Why? Why do you do what you do? What is the change you hope to instill? And for me, my Why is to To inspire and equip learners with the skills they need to be prepared for the future and instill a value of life-long learning. Now I could go on and on about my why, but there is still so much more to talk about.

Next we talked about how if we want to make change in our organization we have to influence behavior, and not attitude. Reading the book Influencer, really opened my eyes to how a group or organization can function and the myth that we have to change peoples attitude to change their behavior, boy was I wrong. With the Influencer model, you have to build a system that meets the needs of the people you want to change while focusing on a few key behaviors. If you have the right system, and focus on a minimum of 4 sources of influence (6 to really make a change) then you are on your way to influencing change.

The 4DX model was another challenging step towards implementing change in my organization but again something that after reading, you wonder how you ever lived without it. Being able to see the ideas that you have in your head about how to push people and get the best of them is amazing and seeing that you have to keep 1-2 goals in mind to have success, get people to buy-in, hold people accountable, and see success in the future. Essentially it builds new habits and gets rid of old ones that were harming organizations. With the 4DX model it is imperative to:

• Focus on a Wildly Important Goal
• Act on the lead measures
• Keep a compelling scoreboard
• Create a cadence of accountability

The last tool we utilized toward becoming SDL’s was reading about and putting in motion crucial conversations. When the stakes are high, there are strong emotions, and opposing opinions, then a SDL has to know how to use their conversations to make sure that relationships are kept in tact and that people feel appreciated. If you can practice these skills, as Joseph Grenny said “Anyone can master crucial conversations.”

To sound cliche, change is inevitable, but if you have the tools necessary to prepare yourself and others for it then you don’t have to be alone in the journey. With the push towards digital learning, there will be push-back and people who don’t want to move with the change. Utilizing these tools can help, and although you may not see 100% success, you can influence those who can influence the “resisters” by having those necessary conversations and we can help achieve those goals as an organization. One way will not work, but rather all these tools in-sync can work like a clock, each cog supporting another until all function to make the clock work effectively. The more tools you have the more success you will achieve.

 

References:

Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013).

     Influencer: The new science of leading change. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution:

Achieving your wildly important goals. New York, NY: Free Press.

Patterson, K., Greeny, J., McMillan, R., Switzler, A., (2012). Crucial Conversations:

     Tools for talking when stakes are high Second Edition McGraw-Hill.

 

In reading Crucial Conversations, I’m struggling with the concept a bit, but seem to get the gist of it. Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler do a great job at reinforcing and giving better structure and understanding to these conversations that we as people need to have when “stakes are high” so to speak, so here’s my take from it.

We have conversations with people all the time; with our spouses, our friends, children, co-workers, bosses etc., and the way we talk to each other is important for developing and maintaining relationships. But, when it comes to those important conversations people fall into the issue of being “silent” or “violent” because we don’t know how to converse effectively.

The way we choose to have these conversations can have a negative impact and effect us long term, breaking relationships, causing splits/divorces, leading to horrible work environments or even being fired, and as a person, stay stuck in the pitfall by not utilizing the proper tools to get your point across. Some other points I understood was that you cannot force people to do things, it has to come from them, we all should contribute to the “pool of shared meaning” and that crucial conversations happen when there are :

• Opposing Opinions
• Strong Emotions
• High Stakes

If we can master how to have these conversations, then we can help ourselves, and others grow.

As I continued to read the book, it still wasn’t clicking for me. How can I see this visually and in terms that I can relate to? So I turned to Youtube and came across Joseph Greeny’s video below:

 

Hearing his story about how he had bought his son this expensive jacket before a plane ride and how his son got it dirty, helped me better understand. Grenny plays out the story that was going on in his head about how his son was in terms an “idiot, ungrateful, bratty” kid and how he needed to be embarrassed or shamed for being so clumsy, but after he took a step-back and evaluated the situation.

Grenny talks about how that’s not what was needed, and crafted another story. He states that when he approached his son with the different conversation, he realized that his son didn’t need discipline and motivation or some lecture, he needs ability to understand what he did, and when Grenny went from negative to positive, the conversation changed.

The video helped my comprehension and as I read through chapter 6-9, got a better understanding also. The worst things you can do is be silent and let things pass because it’s important to feel like you’re valued and can contribute to ideas/conversations. As someone who is usually silent, I think “well it’s okay I’m quiet because the idea they have will just pass by, or it doesn’t affect me” when in actuality it does. I’ve even played the stage where I’ve been “violent” and used violence in a sense of arguing loudly to get my point across, or saying hurtful things, especially to my wife.

I recall a time when I worked at the bank and me and the manger had gotten into a yelling match in my cubicle. I had gotten fed up with the way I felt he was treating me and decided that I was going to speak my mind after keeping so much bottled up inside. I was fed up with his passive but mostly aggressive attitude, and how he had a sarcastic tone whenever I asked him something, but now I realize that’s how I pictured it in my head. Rather then letting it build up and staying silent, I should have confronted him with the tools I have now and it could have helped our relationship. If I had these tools then, I know the conversation would have been better.

These images basically sum up the steps to put those crucial conversations into motion, but the main takeaway I got was in chapter 11 where it discusses the two levers, Learn to Look, and Make it Safe. These two are described as the basis for positive change and if practiced, can help impact those crucial conversations and help us recognize, build and maintain dialogue. Once we can put these steps into practice, learn how to adjust our thinking, asking ourselves what do we want, what do other want, and holding each other accountable, then we gain the capacity to have those crucial conversations that will affect results.

References:

Grenny, J., Crucial Conversations (Dec. 2012) Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuJgqTs-G44

Patterson, K., Greeny, J., McMillan, R., Switzler, A., (2012). Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high Second Edition McGraw-Hill.

Ryan, J. Self Love U blog Retrieved from: http://self-love-u.blogspot.com/2015/04/crucial-conversations-infographics.html