Week Two Day 2

Well I failed at the table. After all of the preparation and instruction on bargaining over the past few class periods, I did not follow the suggestions or tips for goo bargaining. In this simulation, I am a school board member, who is not to speak and to take back up notes to help the official recorder. Well not speaking for me does not come natural. It was torture. I did ok at this the first week, however today when the spokes person for the other side asked for something to be clarified, I started to talk and clarify it. Our spokeperson rightfully so, cut me off and explained the issue. But the spokesperson for the other side had noticed that I was "cut off" and he made a polite gesture to say "did you have something else to add, I noticed that you got cut off". In otherwords...the other side of the table pointed out in a nice way that I broke rank and they knew it. The advice in class was to observe the table and the interactions and the other team definately did this well. As for me, I will bring duct tape next session. but really, this was torture to sit and say nothing. I find the same thing holds true at school board meetings. As a parent and a teacher I want to add input. But administration does not appear to want teachers to attend and add input. So I had to stop going because it was too difficult to sit and say nothing. From this experience, I know that I would not do well at the table for either side unless I was the spokesperson. I loved both presentations today. The bag of tips was a wonderful touch.