7 Tips For Successful Collaboration Who We Are and What We Do We are National Board Certified Teachers who have been collaborative partners for almost a decade at Oceanside High School in New York. Our collaboration works because we’re working together towards a common goal: helping our students reach their fullest potential. We teach two integrated sections of ninth grade Honors English and Social Studies, where our students move as a cohort between our classes, giving them an experience that illustrates how English and Social Studies are related by providing them with the opportunity to read text deeply, and link themes occurring across both classrooms. In addition, we team teach a Conference class where students delve deeper into the humanities, exploring concepts that link us all in the human experience. Every year we have the opportunity to teach grades other than the ninth grade integrated program, and we choose to stay together. Carve Out Common Planning Time Use Your School Schedule To Your Advantage Maintain Hope
Position Statement on Flexible Scheduling The library program is fully integrated into the educational program so that students, teachers, and school librarians become partners in learning. This integration strengthens the teaching for learning process to ensure students are active learners who guide and continually assess their learning process. Open access to a quality school library program is essential for students to develop the vital skills necessary to analyze, evaluate, interpret, and communicate information and ideas in a variety of formats. Inquiry skills are taught and learned within the context of the curriculum and may occur in the classroom, the library, or at home with 24/7 accessibility to a wide range of resources, technologies, and services. The integrated library program philosophy requires an open schedule that includes flexible and equitable access to physical and virtual collections for staff and students. The PARENTS advocate for a library program that provides their child with access 24/7.
How School Leaders Can Attend to the Emotional Side of Change “It’s a conservator’s occupation,” Evans said. “Tons of what we do in school are about values that don’t, we hope, change. It’s not just about things that do change.” These tensions inherent to the system mean that what educators most need is not constant change, which can be off-putting and stressful if sustained for too long, but creativity. There is value in much of what schools currently teach, but there’s also plenty of room for creative teaching strategies to reach all students. One of the most difficult things about leading change in schools, according to Evans, is that there often aren’t clear structures to deal with conflict or disagreement. “In school, everything is personal, which is how we want it,” Evans said. Evans draws on the work of Roland Barth, who describes the difference between congeniality and collegiality. “If you take the congenial out of the school, you strip it of all the connective tissue that makes it a decent place to be,” Evans said.
How to Create Fruitful Co-Teaching Partnerships A MiddleWeb Bog By now co-teachers around the nation have had a chance to get off on the right foot. I hope you had a flying start! The first goal for co-teachers is to pave the way for a successful year by establishing a learning environment that nurtures a sense of community. If you are working together by choice, it’s likely you are well into a good groove by now! A forced pairing can flourish This is the reality: most co-teachers find themselves together in the same classroom because somebody says they have to be. Some “forced pairings” rise to the occasion and decide to just make it work. My quest to elevate co-teaching has always been to find an antidote for the feelings of resignation that frequently emerge when co-teachers are forced into a relationship. Jim Knight’s partnership approach Jim Knight For starters, colleagues should find common ground and engage in one-to-one meetings to get at the heart of the emotional stance and perspectives of each other. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Embrace Your PD Role | Building a Culture of Collaboration® Teacher librarians wear many hats, and some hats cross many roles listed in a job description. In our daily school library hustle and bustle, we may not think of ourselves as professional developers for our colleagues, but indeed we wear that hat in many ways. This is not a radical new idea, but merely a recognition that providing access to new information, new literature, new technology, and new pedagogy for teachers in our schools, has always been part of our mission, and is based in a collaborative model. As Ken Haycock has said, teacher librarians lead from the middle, not from a position of power, but through social influence. (2010, 2) So let’s take a minute to focus on the myriad ways we interact to share access to information and ideas with our teaching colleagues, and to be intentional about improving and expanding our PD offerings. This month BACC bloggers have opened up a discussion about reaching out to our colleagues with PD opportunities-the why and how. Work cited:
Co-Teaching Without Boxes or Boundaries A MiddleWeb Blog The metaphor “thinking outside of the box” has recently been brought to my attention in a number of situations as people have reached out to say, “We need your ‘out of the box’ thinking on this…” After hearing this statement a number of times over the last few weeks, it made me think about what we are actually saying when we use this fairly clichéd expression. Of course thinking and learning are contextual – and there are times when thinking inside the box may be appropriate. But overall, thinking out of the box has gained momentum as a valued way of creating solutions. OK, so you guessed it: I am going in the direction of co-teaching and the need for co-teachers to allow their thinking to be stretched and empowered! Before you read on, take a moment and guide yourself to think about finding solutions through a fresh perspective. Out of the Box Co-Thinking In fact I’m thinking when two teachers are in the room and in-synch, there’s no need for in-box or out-of-box thinking.
Seven Tips to Make Teacher Collaboration Time Productive Become a Teacher >> Browse Articles >> Hot Topics Featured Author: Mrs. Laura Owen Mrs. Owen is currently teaching 3rd grade at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, GA. Add Mrs. The opinions and statements made in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the opinions or representations of the University of Phoenix. About University of Phoenix At the largest private university in North America, you can attend classes at one of our more than 190 convenient locations. Earn your degree sooner than you think. While widely available, not all programs are available in all locations or in both online and on-campus formats. University of Phoenix University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association (ncahlc.org). Walk into a school today and you will rarely see teachers independently planning for instruction. 1. Determine who will be doing what at each team meeting and develop an organized system. 2. 3.
Collaboration/Cooperative Teaching/Teacher Tools/Types of Co-Teaching Types of Co-Teaching What are the five types of co-teaching? Friend, Reising, and Cook (1993) identified five options teachers typically use when implementing a co-teaching model. As teams progress through these 5 types, it is important to remember these types are hierarchical across three variables. First, as you move down the continuum of models, more and more planning time together is needed. Second, as you progress in the models, teachers need an equal level of content knowledge to make the model work effectively. Lead and Support One teacher leads and another offers assistance and support to individuals or small groups. Station Teaching Students are divided into heterogeneous groups and work at classroom stations with each teacher. Parallel Teaching Teachers jointly plan instruction, but each may deliver it to half the class or small groups. Alternative Teaching Team Teaching Both teachers share the planning and instruction of students in a coordinated fashion.
S.O.S. for Information Literacy Collaboration is an evolving process that does not happen overnight. Here are some of our tips for developing successful collaborative relationships. Develop a "collaborative mentality." This means your collaboration "antennae" are always seeking out collaboration opportunities wherever and whenever they arise.Get "up close and personal" with the curricula for each grade level in your school and determine the most likely "payoff points," where you can immediately provide services and resources to meet the needs of both teachers and students.Hang out with teachers; have lunch in the teachers' room, go to team planning meetings, join curriculum and technology committees---whatever it takes to be able to interact and learn what's important to them and their students.Be enthusiastic, approachable, and a good listener. You might also find the brief ERIC Digest "Teachers and Librarians: Collaborative Relationships" to be helpful as a background on collaborative relationships.
Deep Learning Experiences within a Fixed Schedule – School Library Connection Blog Fixed schedule got you feeling trapped? This week, we’re featuring a few favorites from our archive, after Sue Kowalski put in a request from #ALAAC16 for some resources to support our many colleagues on fixed schedules. Today’s article from Julie Green and Laurie Olmsted focuses on creating deep learning experiences for second graders within a fixed schedule. Subscribers will find dozens more relevant resources at our online home and can also look forward to a great new article on this topic by Ernie Cox in the August/September 2016 issue of the magazine. Two and a half years ago, elementary school librarians in the Birmingham Public School district had to change to a fixed schedule for half the day with kindergarten through second grade students. As a result of this change, school librarians at the lower elementary level typically saw one kindergarten, one first grade, and one second grade class each day. A Jump-Start Further Research Implementation References: Aston, Dianna H.