T is for Trust

You need to adopt a balancing act between team and trust in order to do a great job as a virtual educator. Both are critical and, not surprisingly, vital to collegial support and your support of students. If we look at our lives we see teamwork everywhere. Our families, immediate and distant, are a team, bound together with a thread of trust by a common heritage, goal, or commitment. Our neighborhoods are a team, and we all know how disgruntled we get when members of that team are messy or thoughtless or loud, or how touched we are when they are thoughtful and supportive.


When I was little, I loved the Dutch doors which were common in southeastern Pennsylvania. I would hang on the lower one and swing back and forth, letting my mind wander and enjoying the motion. Of course, I was warned repeatedly that it would warp the door or bend the hinges, but it didn't matter. I did it as often as I could get away with it.


This image comes to mind because, just as with my favorite doors, both trust and teamwork swing both ways. Just as you are expected to be in your office and working hard for your students, you need to be able to depend on your administrator to be working just as hard for staff and students. Curriculum writers, instructional designers, IT staff all come together to create courses and culture. A strong team needs everyone willing to do whatever is needed to get jobs done right.

Now, let's widen the circle one more time and include your students in this image. Think of those students who are consistent and hard workers. They work; you respond. You work; they respond. Feel the swing? No one would continue to go to a doctor if every time you asked his expert opinion, he just sat and stared, or worse, never invited you back to an exam room. Soon you would stop coming and search out a different authority.

Psychology tells us adolescent disillusionment and emotional detachment are often a product of repeated disappointments. In the virtual world, that looks like unanswered phone calls and emails, and assignments without feedback. Those things become trust-breakers for any age learner.

See if you can get more students in your classes to swap both trust and teamwork with you. Make the commitment and the positive circle of dependence will eventually breed independence, one student at a time.

Reflection: Even on the most daunting days, everything still happens one student at a time. What can you do today, every day, to improve the trust and teamwork between you as the educator and your students - one at a time?