Teacher Collaboration

I found an article about teacher collaboration that I found interesting and helpful.

The first article that I found talks about what "new" teachers want from their colleagues.  One of the main ideas that most first year teachers talk about is "community.Community can include other general education teachers, special education teachers, any faculty within the school, parents, and people in the city or town.  Teachers can choose to use community as a benefit or they can choose to be isolated in their classroom and use their own ideas for instruction and close themselves off from any other people. 

The article talks about 5 ways to benefit from community

1. Sharing friendship and ideas - offer lesson plan ideas to each other and work on ideas together
2. Navigate curriculum together- experienced teachers can help new teachers with curriculum by guiding them through existing curriculum and give them ideas about instructional materials, and resources. Also sharing evaluation and assessment of students can help in choosing goals for those individuals
3. Discipline Together-be consistent with discipline from year to year.  Sharing individual student discipline needs with each other will help that student.
4. Observe and Reflect Together- As an experience teacher, make yourself available to the new teachers when they are seeking help.  By walking into the classroom and observing a problem, a new teacher can offer many ideas to a new teacher on ways of solving that problem. Later on then, reflect on the result. 
5. School Leaders' Role- school leaders can make sure that resources are offered to all teachers, whether it be technology, data or space.  Being able to have planning time together with other teachers is very important and school leaders can play a big part when planning for professional development.

Community building can be done in many places.  It doesn't just happen within the school setting.  Teachers can collaborate during a dinner or coffee or even at someone's home.  Some teachers may feel more comfortable with each other in a casual setting to discuss their needs and the needs of their students.

Wherever collaboration may take place, it is very important for teachers and their colleagues to take part in.  Learning from others and sharing ideas with others can make an  huge impact on your success as a teacher.