Teacher collaboration can take different forms and I have also discovered that it means different things to different people. This has led me to mapping out the steps I am taking to learn more.
Step 1:
Introduce concept of teacher collaboration to colleagues.
I started with a staff meeting discussion which brought out these points:
- Using Google Docs was considered to have positive potential for planning whole school initiatives, but planning across grade levels was not viewed as useful. Indeed, there appears to be a belief that planning for literacy and numeracy across grade levels and sharing same was not acceptable.
- Accessible anytime anywhere.
- Can edit simultaneously.
- For sharing across grades, we can use teaching activities from each other's plan.
- Builds a culture of understanding different teaching approaches and an appreciation of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses.
In light of initial responses it is clear that we need to clarify and consolidate our understandings about teacher collaboration. Step 2 also involves gathering evidence:
What do other teachers do?
- To cast a wider net we have contacted all of the small schools in our network to gather some ideas about how they collaborate.
- Access resources and evidence online, for example
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teacher-collaboration-strategies-ben-Johnson
Pathways to collaboration - across grade levels
https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2012/10/18/pathway-to-collaboration/
Looking at student work collaboratively
http://www.essentialschools.org/resources/60
The Seven Principles of Highly Effective Professional Learning - DET Victoria
This highlights the value and the expectation that teachers will participate in professional learning together and collaborate.
3. Talk to my PLN - Twitter will be ablaze this weekend
No comments:
Post a Comment