Habit #4 - Think Win/Win

This is another concept I had heard about in passing, but had never sat down to really think about.  Two years ago I was paired with an English teacher to begin making cross-disciplinary projects.  It was rough at first as I was used to designing ALL of my curriculum, and now I had to listen to the input of another.  For the first few months, it felt like a constant negotiation between whose ideas would be implemented.  Eventually (thankfully), I realized that it didn’t have to be a negotiation.  I realized that we could each include our own ideas and combine them together - making a win/win situation.  And the combined projects were better than the ones where we had taken the either/or approach. 

​This week my students are working on a group project with four students in each group.  I will introduce the concept of win/win to them as they sit down to discuss who will work on which parts of the project.  They will have the project rubric in front of them, and they will need to figure out their group strategy to tackle all of the project requirements.  If disagreements arise (for example, if two students both want to work on the same requirement) - I will challenge them to see how they can turn it into a win/win situation.  For example - perhaps they could both work on it together?