Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Beth Cougler Blom -
Number of replies: 12

I haven't done this activity before but here is something I created based on the Prune the Future activity that is available from Gamestorming.

In the original version of the activity, which is written up as a paper-based activity, a person would ask participants/students to create a large tree that represents "current states" and "multiple categories of the future". It's meant to help people think of current reality/future desired state stuff.

An image of the hand-drawn version from Gamestorming is here.

So, translating this to a community-building activity and changing somewhat the prompts to reflect that, here are some proposed instructions:

"Tree of Me" Introductions Activity

Create an image of a tree, using materials of your choice, as a metaphor to depict who you are in life and what is important to you. You may wish to create your tree using markers, glue and paper (and take a photo of it to share) or using an online mindmapping tool such as Coggle. You may wish to draw/create a digital image.

Depict elements of your life on your tree image, using these parts of the tree:
  • "The roots": Where did you come from? What contributed to making you who you are today?
  • "The trunk and lower leaves": What grounds you? What shows up a lot in your life? What things are part of your life right now that are important to you?
  • "The upper and further reaching leaves": What does the future look like for you? What are your dreams and things you'd like to still accomplish? Where is your life leading you? (Hint: Using question marks or another way to indicate the future elements will help us "read" your tree.)
Your "Tree of Me" is a metaphor for you. Where have you come from, where are you right now, and where do you want to still grow? In this activity I invite you to "go out on a limb" in sharing details and future plans with each other as we begin to get to know each other.

Post your Tree of Life image in the forum with no more than two or three short paragraphs of explanation. Let your image do the talking most of all. 

Next, branch out and respond to each other's posts about their trees. What roots connect you to each other? Where are your trunks growing similarly? What fruit of your labours may be related? What future potential do you see in others that you could help grow or blossom?

Note: I tried this myself to see if it would work and came up with the Coggle attached. Looking forward to your thoughts and ideas!

Beth

Attachment The_Tree_of_Me.png
In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Hillarie Zimmermann -

Great activity!  Unlike some of the other activities that have been posted in the sharing forum, I like that this activity has a forward looking component to it.  I would find the future looking information very beneficial as an instructor and could potentially incorporate some of this information in discussions and course content.  This information could also be key to building a community.  Students could potentially make connections in terms of career aspirations, life plans, interests, etc. 

In reply to Hillarie Zimmermann

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Thanks for your thoughts Hillarie. Yes I think in some courses this might really be appropriate to the content of the course as well as to the building of community.

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Gina Bennett -

Beth, after you mentioned the potential of using Coggle to mindmap (perhaps as an introductory community-building activity) in our Resource list, I revisited Coggle (turns out I already had an account -- duh!) & played around for a good hour. The drop-dead easiness of the app & the intuitiveness of the interface is really attractive. Designing a "tree" would be pretty easy to do & it's a nice metaphor. 

I suppose you could also adapt this activity for a more targeted purpose: e.g. when students are about to choose team members for a group assignment, they could create a Coggle tree with their philosophy, team working preferences, key interests etc. & that could be a low-risk way to identify best matches for team members. I dunno... just starting to think of all kinds of ways this visual could be used in community-sustaining ways.

In reply to Gina Bennett

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Gina that's a great riff on this - I hope one of us gets a chance to try it!

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Colleen Grandy -
I want to make a tree! This sounds like a great personal reflection/life planning activity, too. The more I think of it, I need a tree. 

Ok - I just tried making a tree. It was hard (not using the tool - the thinking - my future is so blurry)! Like Gina, I dusted off my old Coggle account and played around. Coggle is intuitive and it was not a barrier for me, but this activity requires some solid thinking. I like it. It isn't something I would be comfortable throwing together, but something that would take me some time. Sometimes asking people to reveal bits of themselves takes time. Now I see why we haven't asked everyone to try every community building activity in this MicroCourse - it could take well over the 5-hour-ish commitment promise.

I like how you encourage students to use tools that work for them (like markers and glue). For me, this really focuses on the sharing and removes the need to spend time learning a tool. 

Oh - a thought - can I also see this working part way through a course as a "how well do you know each other" activity? Folks could share trees anonymously and others could speculate which tree belonged to which person? Hmm. 

With the right group, I can't help but imagine how cool a coggle forest might look, too.

Thank you for sharing this - I'm inspired to do more personal reflection. I still want a tree!

In reply to Colleen Grandy

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Colleen thanks for your thoughts and ideas! I think the 'guess whose tree this is' might be a fun variation on this activity. And I think returning to it later in a course might be interesting as well, particularly if the 'future-focused' piece could be expanded upon/revealed more based on new concepts/ideas that had come up in the course that might affect someone's thinking and planning etc.

I'm glad you tried to make a tree. It's neat to actually go and DO the other person's ideas here, isn't it? Because in the doing, we get a bit more insight into what is easy and hard about the process. And it's not always what we thought it would be in the beginning.

PS Just as a fun aside, I'm sending a photo of a 'listening' tree that I saw at the Amazon Spheres office in Seattle a week or so ago. It was an interactive art installation. I wonder if we could riff off of that idea? The prompt could be something like, "What is important to you in your world right now? What questions and statements would you place on your listening tree that you want others to hear?"


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In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Colleen Grandy -

That 'Listening Tree' is beautiful. I remember a "Comments" block that ran down the side of the page in FDO. I think Sylvia was checking it out to see if it was useful. I kept writing in it just because it was there, but I could see using that tool to make a digital listening tree. I think those writing prompts would still work. It wouldn't be beautiful like this one, but it would be quietly visible on the main course page - could be fun to try.

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Leonne Beebe -

Beth,

I can see your metaphoric thinking in this. While reading your explanation, I started to think about the family tree model for a learning tree with roots reaching down into our past learning, a trunk (our teaching/learning philosophy) to support our new learning branches, leaves, blossoms and fruit..  This could become a growing e-portfolio tree.  I love the mystery of how trees grow and how their seasonal changes are a necessary part of that growth. As a kid, I used to spend a lot of time climbing and sitting in the trees around our home.  Each tree gave a different point of view. The image of a forest learning community appeals to my imagination. 

Out of confusion comes clarity.

Leonne

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Colleen Grandy -
I did it! Beth - watching you try everyone's activities during this course has inspired me. I couldn't let the course end without having another go at my tree. This was fun and it really made me think. I feel like I could revise my tree every ten minutes and it would never be "finished" - I guess that is the case with trees... always growing!

Some thoughts:

  1. This suggestion came from Gina when I lamented to her, "I feel so fully in the present that I am destined to have a leaf-less tree:" Consider having people put potential "leaves" on each other's branches as an exploration. Sometimes other people may be able to see potential where someone else (like me) "can't see the forest for the trees." :)
  2. I couldn't decide if I wanted to put adjectives or nouns on my branches. I thought using characteristics (like, "curious" or "empathetic") instead of nouns/labels (like job titles, etc.) on the lower branches, might make an interesting tree, too. 
  3. This was way more fun when I stopped over-thinking and treating the tree like a life-planning tool! Once I lightened up and had fun with it I felt like I could have made branches and roots all day. I guess that's why my "tree" looks a bit more like a neuron.

Bottom line: thank-you for sharing this and for showing me a way to use Coggle. Fun!



In reply to Colleen Grandy

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Colleen this was wonderful to see! Thank you for trying this. It really was interesting reading your tree. I really like the idea of inviting adding leaves to others' trees. I think we can collaborate in Coggle so this is probably possible with that tool. (SylviaR, we built a collaborative one together, right?)

After looking at yours I feel like I want to go back to mine and add more branches into mine, so yes, I can see how fun and useful it might be to keep our trees growing.

Thanks again for trying it out!

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Sylvia Currie -

This was such an interesting exercise! It took me way too long to fiddle with text, images, layout, and with strange results. Why don't I just do what the smart people do? Use Coggle! Maybe I should add my a #wastefulpersistence hashtag to my tree :) And I'm not sure why I ended up using hashtags but clearly I was inspired to do that by somebody in this MicroCourse! 

It does strike me that this would be very useful way for course participants to share what they bring to a course, what in the course and life will help them achieve their learning goals, and what's next. That's not a community building activity per se, but still offers those opportunities to look for connections. 

I also like the idea of adding leaves to others' trees. Or duplicating leaves to put on your own tree. (Or stealing leaves? ha)  I'm not sure how to achieve that in a technically simple way. 

tree of me

In reply to Sylvia Currie

Re: Beth: Sharing a "Tree of Me"

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Sylvia you have hit a nail on a head for me, that in adding in these community building activities into our courses, we are creating opportunities for the making of connections. We may not be able to make a horse drink, but we can lead them to that water!

I love that you made this activity your own, what a creative tree you have created! I didn't know this was even possible in Spark; looks like I have to go explore that tool more.

There has got to be a tool out there that could help connect trees of various people, if the leaves/branches were the same...

Thanks for trying this!