Co-working Sessions for Grad Students

I am an alum of the University of Michigan interested in offering co-working sessions for grad students. When my partner and I were working on our doctoral dissertations, we found co-working with a group of students invaluable in helping us get our dissertations written. I think we happened to have gotten lucky to have hit upon working in this way, and I'd like to make getting to benefit from this accessible to more students.

Things are so much more unstructured for grad students than for undergrads. I'd like to offer some structure that students could benefit from, in terms of times and places where co-working can happen and in terms of how to go about these sessions.

These sessions will have work periods where each student works on their own separate tasks interspersed with Teddy Bear Talk Support periods where students each take a turn getting to talk out loud with their listening partner. The listening partner only talks if requested by the talker. When the listening partner does talk, the idea is that they are just looking to jiggle things a bit for the talker. The listening partner is mindful of holding the space for the talker in such a way that the talker has plenty of room to work through what the talker is wanting to talk about.

When the listening partner talks,

it is because the talker has asked the teddy bear to do something small, like ask some open, honest questions or reflect some things back. Big changes can happen for the talker as a result of the little things the teddy bear might do or say to just “jiggle” things a bit for the talker.