I'm not sure how anyone can work in a school without collaborating with others in the building. I collaborate with lots of different people on a daily basis. I work very closely with my third grade team and we plan together every week. During this planning time we discuss different instructional strategies and what works for our specific students. We receive support from our related arts staff by integrating lessons. For example, when teaching sound, the music teachers will work with us on the unit and have students participate in sound activities in music class. Other teachers like speech, resource, and ESOL are often called on when needing help for specific strategies.
While I do collaborate on a daily basis, I do feel like I need a deeper collaboration with the speech, resource, and ESOL teachers. I think all teachers could benefit from a planned meeting time every week with these people. More often, our collaboration is a passing in the hallway or a quick email to ask a question. I would love to have these teachers plan with me to develop lessons to better suit my students who are learning disable or have specific learning needs.
I think it would be my job to reach out to these teachers first. With budget cuts, these teachers now serve multiple schools and many different children. It would be my responsibility to schedule a time to meet with them and pick their brains for new strategies. Time is the biggest obstacle to meaningful collaboration, but it is such a worthwhile pursuit in the end.
I enjoyed reading! I love that you emphasized that even as you are collaborating, you are still keeping in mind what works for your classroom and your students! I feel my weakness is also in collaboration with resource teachers. I hope you will be able to schedule a set time to meet with resource teachers in order to help the students be successful.
ReplyDeleteps - Congrats on the soon - to - be addition to the family!
**We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own. ~Ben Sweetland
I agree with a lot of your points! I also would think that it would be very difficult to work in a school and not collaborate with others. I think you made a great point about not having the time or opportunity to collaborate as much as we should with ESOL and Resource students. I think this is probably a difficult feat because our students that receive these services have such individual needs we wouldn't be able to meet with them as a grade level, it would need to be more of a one-on-one collaboration.
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