FIN Commons

Choosing Your Teams:

Pick your team for a mix of skills. As we have said elsewhere, we think it is beyond crucial that at least one member of your student team have tech skills—esp. video editing—as well as general tech savvy.

The kinds of work skills you will want to look for in your student workers are the same you might seek in any job that involves working in teams. You will expect your student workers to: take responsibility, take initiative, show some maturity, keep drama to a minimum, etc.

What you might look for in student workers in terms of what they will bring to the Inquiry: we all have had the experience of having a student in our class that we think would make a great teacher, and we may have even told her so. That kind of student is what you are looking for here. They have “court vision”—to use a basketball metaphor–about the goings-on in a classroom—in other words, they have an awareness that is broader than simply their own place and actions in the class. They often offer insights about fellow students in the class. They are often the main person keeping a group activity moving in the right direction. They have insights about education and may see the big picture culturally and socially in regards to where education fits. They seem empathetic. Don’t despair about finding this kind of student; they aren’t that rare. After all, you yourself were just such a student! Read the rest of this entry »