Collaborative Settings

In my classroom, I demonstrate collaboration by attending the Kinder PLC meeting every Tuesday. These meetings help the grade level teachers to collaborate. For example, to come up with ideas on how to teach a specific concept, talk about any updates, student assistance team (SAT) , and data analysis. I demonstrate collaboration by working with my colleagues to come up with writing prompts and writing rubrics. By doing this we make sure the expectations in each classroom are the same.

Co-teaching is important, especially in the school I did my special education field experience at because they are full inclusion. This school district did co-teaching for math and reading. Students receive their assistance with in the classroom while the teacher is instructing class. It takes a lot of planning and collaboration with the classroom teacher, I believe this is not the most beneficial way to teach students that have learning needs. it can become very distracting for the student because what is going on around them. Learning with their peers is important, the instructions their receiving in the classroom are above their level. I wonder how this is providing the best education possible?

Collaboration in a school setting refers to teachers working together to form an effective classroom and lesson for learning. “Teacher assistance teams (TAT) are school-based teams of professionals, classroom teachers, and administrators that assist classroom teachers in meeting the instructional and

I approach collaboration as a team player, and I believe students need more than one person to guide them to their full educational potential. Also, active and prepared participation of weekly PLC meetings with the teachers of my special education students to plan collaborative curriculum have increased results in math and reading substantially. Participating in co-teaching furthers my repertoire of knowledge to assist my students. I have learned a vast amount from sharing and consulting with colleagues regarding students, observing mentoring teachers, and planning activities to ensure growth in students.

Collaboration supports children to engage meaningfully with each other. When children collaborate with their teachers and peers, they effectively combine together to join in a deep and wilful desire to co-labour or unpack a series of events on topics of interest and importance. Collaboration has the capacity to provide rich learning environments for children with diverse, corresponding motivations and learning practices. It also produces new engaging challenges and opportunities for children to express their thoughts and feelings. These combine to enrich and transform the relationships children have with the subject material and enhance their relationships with peers and

Collaborative efforts have created more cross-curricular focus throughout the school. When teachers know what each other are teaching, they can support each other in their own curriculum.

 I like how you had stated that you had a negative understanding collaboration back when you were in school. I can agree, that I had similar negative experiences with collaboration and force collaborations felt like the group was paddling Upstream; although, the tasks were completed the effort that was needed it was exhausting. I found collaboration that is not forced and with individuals passionate about an end goals, seem to run smoothly, are fun and flow.

Collaboration involves negotiation and consensus seeking (Blais & Hayes, 2016). As the assistant director of nursing, I am a member of the Quality Improvement committee. Our purpose is to meet on a monthly basis to review feedbacks from patients regarding their home health aides. We need to know if the patient needs are being met, if they are being treated with respect and what improvements can be made to keep quality aides in order to ensure quality care of patients. Providing good care for home health patients with chronic conditions needs to be organized and coordinated (Barr & Ross, 2007).

Collaboration between teachers is a key component to professional development that will lead to higher student achievement. There is a need for schools to set up time for teachers to be able to collaborate together. This allows for teachers to help each other, matchup content, teach each other new and best practices, troubleshoot student issues just to name a few of the areas that collaboration time can help foster within a school. The key is to build time for teachers to be able to collaborate during the school day or week. This collaboration time needs to be between grade levels, departments, and cross curricular when needed. For many schools this is an afterthought to the school schedule or a fleeting thought after the master schedule is completed. A principal needs to keep an open mind to any strategy that will enable the teachers to be able to collaborate for the good of the students and the school.

I have not yet worked in a school setting, but I have worked in several agencies and offices where collaboration with colleagues was present. One agency I have worked in was a domestic violence shelter, which housed up to forty-five women and children. In addition, we ran a twenty-four hour crisis hotline, provided individual and group counseling services, and educated those out in the community about domestic violence. It took a lot of collaboration with colleagues to have the agency run smoothly and effectively. When issues arose with clients staying in the shelter, my colleagues and I would met to discuss the issues and how we were going to work together to solve them. Together we were able to discuss all of these factors and agree upon

I don't like saying it but sometimes its the reality and this can certainly be a challenge. If a fellow teacher does not believe in the process or does not think it will work, then you are at a standstill. Where does one go from there? I personally don't see how someone would be against assisting students but if that were the case, I think I would try my best to support my ELL/ELD students on my own. It wont be easy but those late nights will be worth it when my students are able to comprehend the lessons. That being said, I am sure that there are other teachers that would be willing to help if I were to reach out to them. At my current placement, I am very fortunate to have had positive experiences with collaboratively planning lessons and co-teaching. A fellow teacher candidate and I created an introductory social studies lesson about the Canadian provinces and territories. This was my first experience but it went really well. I think what worked when lesson planning was that we both listened to each others ideas and were honest about what things would and would not work with our students. When it came to co-teaching, we took turns and helped each other

I asked Mrs. Barkley if she worked with other teachers to plan and jointly facilitate learning; she told me that she personally does not. She said that she never combines classes or teaches with another teacher in the same classroom. She said the only thing that the teachers do together is come together in meetings and discuss progress of their classes and test scores. This came as a shock to me, I thought that teachers would be meeting often to combine curriculum in a way that’s meaningful. I thought that teachers would want to allow for cross-curricular projects to allow students to make the connections between subjects. When I am a teacher, I would like to work with other teachers to jointly facilitate learning, if possible.

There are several barriers to successful collaboration. Chen and Miles (2004) are quoted in the Browder and Spooner text to say that “teachers not only must have instructional skills for teacher children but also must have the competency to work effectively with families” (Browder and Spooner, 2011). In other words, teachers not only need to teach their students, but also their families. If a teacher does not have the ability to explain processes to parents, parents cannot assist their child. Some parents do not feel they have the knowledge to work with the members of the collaborative team. While they may have the intentions for their child, they do not always understand the processes. Parents may feel they are being ignored because they make suggestions or recommendations and typically if the suggestion is not part of an Evidence-based program, if it is not in line with school policies or IDEA, the school cannot implement the

Cooperative learning will be a method I use in my classroom. I believe that in a cooperative learning group a student can learn socialization skills and how to work with others. This goes along with the pragmatic/progressive philosophy that children learn by doing. The progressivism teaching style also includes the incorporation of problem-solving and critical thinking techniques. I want my students to learn to think for themselves and be able to function in society. At the same time, I will be a fellow learner myself and

I am primarily a secondary maths teacher, however, I also teach two periods of ESL (English as a Secondary Language) each week to year 6 non-native English speaking students. In the next two classes I intend to cover intermediate vocabulary and writing skills. During the planning process I want to focus on producing collaborative lessons where the students will work as small teams. I also want to