Pooling Our Resources
Posted by Sherry McGregor on 09 Jun 2009 | Posted in: Grade 1, Grades 2-3, Inspiration and Motivation, Intermediate, Kindergarten, Meet the Mailbox®, Planning and Curriculum, Preschool, Relationships and Team Building, Teachers and Teaching, The Mailbox
| Yesterday was a great day. Fellow editor Krystle Jones was working on a reproducible partner game for The Mailbox® magazine, Intermediate. We had talked over the idea and were both sure it was going to be great. Then, when Krystle started working on it, several issues popped up. So we sat down to problem-solve. Boy! We hit one wall after another. Several times, we just looked at each other wondering if there was a solution. |  |
But we kept working, talking, drawing, writing, and talking some more. And you know what? We did it. We came up with a fun game that will give students lots of great practice. I’m convinced that the key to our success was collaborating.
Thinking about collaboration took me right back to teaching and the way a simple idea could absolutely blossom when a few of us worked on it together. There was the archaeological dig Patti and I spent an afternoon re-creating in her yard. (Patti lived a block away from our school.) Then there was the time Valerie immersed Sandy, Mark, and me in the culture of Northwest Coast Native Americans, so we could help our students have a potlatch with the fifth graders from another school. I could go on and on. (Maybe in my next blog…) It all comes down to this, though—collaboration! It inspires me and drives me to be my best. So, instead of more stories from me, why don’t you post a story or two about a time when collaborating has inspired you?
Congratulations to Jamie Nolan, Data Administrator; Port Washington, USFD; Port Washington, NY. She is the winner of the Math Skills Workout Book (Grade 4) in our weekly blog drawing.
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22 Responses to “Pooling Our Resources”
More Comments Pages: « 1 [2] Show All Comments
More Comments Pages: « 1 [2] Show All Comments
It is great to be able to collaborate with other teachers. I think it really builds the bond that you have. It can really help reduce stress. It helps your stress level by knowing you are both going through it or one of you has been through the same situation before. It also helps stress by reducing your workload when you can work together. It helps by having someone to share with, talk with and have a great laugh with!
Been there, done that! It’s amazing how when you try to solve problems two heads really think better than one, but it’s great to have input from people that are not in the situation itself and can provide you with ideas and things you couldn’t have thought of because you are too involved in the situation.
At my elementary school we get together with our grade level teams at least once a week to plan. Our principal has also arranged for us to get a planning day with a substitute each 9 weeks where we can really focus with our grade level team members on the upcoming 9 weeks of school. This collaboration was built even stronger when we began incorporating our ESL and specialists teachers on what we did each meeting by emailing them, giving them copies of our meeting notes, or by asking them to stop by our grade level planning time. It also helps that each of us on the team have particular strong suits that make planning much easier. We’ve learned to break up the tasks between ourselves since we all are required to teach the same standards with the same materials. It just makes sense to help each other out because in doing so we make our own jobs easier!
We collaborate on a weekly basis. We meet with our principal once a week to discuss problems or sometimes just to have a gripe session. Then my team meets together without the principal to discuss problems, share projects, ideas, etc. When we meet, we usually find we are within a day or two other in teaching thw objectives. After all, two minds are better than one–imagine seven.
our collaboration works at our weekly meetings when our following week`s theme is discussed.we share poems, songs,science and art activies.we bring our ideas and brainstorm ,coming up with new ones and everyone works it out to their preschool level.
The staff at our center collaborated to put together a terrific end of the year Beach bash! The center was decorated beautifully and a wonderful time was had by children, parents, grandparents, and staff as well.
Collaboration is what makes our school thrive. Not only do our grade level teams work together to meet the needs of all of our students, but after reading a research article on differentiating instruction the whole school is going to collaborate to show how we differentiate at each grade level giving each teacher hundreds of ways to help students no matter the grade level.
I have also been working with my suite mate teacher for 5 years now (since her first year teaching and my first at the school) We work so well together that all one of us has to say is a book title or a topic and the other can immediately think of a great lesson to connect to our basal series. If one of us ever got moved to another grade I don’t know what we would do.
My collaborators are my own children. I am always asking for their input before I take it to school to use.
Collaboration brings together the unique attributes of each person involved. Brainstorming together is better and better with each participant. New ideas and approaches just seem to materialize out of nowhere, but we know it’s all because we’re working together with a common goal!
I agree wholeheartedly with collaboration. I teach in a small parochial school with two of each grade level. My parallel teacher and I have been working together for 10 years now. We can practically finish each others’ thoughts.
What one of us doesn’t think of, the other one does. It makes light of our work when we work together.