Teacher Tuesday: Many Minds, One Mission

Shepherds College operates under the philosophy of Appropriate Independence (Ai) – a level of self-sufficiency that is aligned with individual strengths and guided by Christian values.

There are four important principles that summarize the values and attitudes reflected by Ai:

1.       Designed On and For Purpose

2.       Created as Individuals for Community

3.       Trained for Life

4.       Empowered to Serve

Mrs. Konopasek has been teaching a unit in her Personal Development 2 class on Teamwork, a concept that comes out of the second principle of Ai – created as individuals for community.

She teaches that, even though we are all people, we are all not the same. We’re individuals with different likes, dislikes, personalities, strengths and abilities. Our individuality is a blessing, but it can also cause conflict because we will not always do the same things or agree on the same things.

The PD2 students identify their individuality through various activities and then share personal preferences and personality differences.

This unit advances into developing the ability to function in a community, even with all our differences. Each student lists groups they’re a part of or can see themselves a part of in the future – housemates, families, classmates, co-workers, clubs, church groups…

Mrs. Konopasek then talks about the need to work together because the Lord calls us to be in harmony.

“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  Colossians 3:12-14 

For the Teamwork unit, the PD2 class collaborated with the Communications class where the students learned how to pick a servant leader and held meetings to discuss who that leader should be.

Recently, Mrs. Konopasek initiated The Egg Project. The students worked as a team in groups of 2 or 3 to build a structure around an egg using newspaper, cotton, tape, straws and tissue. 

Each student had to be engaged in the activity. They shared ideas while learning to respect each another, the leader and the rules. The team had only one mission – to protect the egg as it was dropped twelve feet from a ladder.

Did the lesson work?

Well, not all the groups ended up with their egg intact at the end of the project.

Not all the teams worked well together.

Some groups successfully talked about ideas, listened to one another, rotated leadership and encouraged one another.

Other groups disagreed or had one person do most of the work.

But all the students learned about teamwork because Mrs. Konopasek doesn’t believe in wasting teaching moments. She points out areas for growth in her students since many of them don’t realize they are acting in ways that don’t support the team, but they’ll respond to gentle prompting for appropriate behavior. Students learn how to handle others when they are being bossy, when they’re disengaged, when they disagree or when they get frustrated. 

They learn from R.E.A.L. experiences.

 



Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.