Expand upon what you’ve learned from the chapter by watching the video and answering the questions that follow.
++++when you do this one can you do it question by question for me. ++++
1. Collaborating with your colleagues can enrich your teaching in many areas. For example, collaboration can inform teachers’ practices and enable teachers’ further growth. One way that teachers collaborate is through the use of formal work groups. In this video, elementary grade-level teachers collaborate to strengthen their math reporting system.
Based on your own experiences and observations in early childhood settings, describe at least three topics of interest that you would choose for collaboration with colleagues (e.g., classroom safety, classroom management, family involvement, reading skill development, art centers). In what ways could collaboration enhance or elevate these issues in the early childhood setting?
2. You have been asked to propose to your colleagues the idea of meeting together and collaborating about your early childhood program. Discuss some of the points you will want to make as part of that discussion.
the video
[ Music ]
>> Collaboration to me means working together. Collaboration has special features, though, because people can work together but not share a common purpose and a common goal. And when I collaborate with colleagues, we’re coming together to share our work in a way that we’re working together on some predetermined goal or purpose.
>> And it’s so funny you say that. Like so much went into this stage, but when you look at it, it’s so vague —
>> Mm-hmm.
>> — and it really doesn’t say much at all.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> And I think that’s one of parents’ sort of biggest complaints is what does this really mean?
>> Mm-hmm.
>> Collaboration to me is realizing that you usually can’t do it all by yourself, and that — that different voices lend to a better outcome. One of the ways that we collaborate at my school is through workgroups. And we have several different small groups of teachers who decide on a certain topic that they want to look at more closely. Me and three other teachers come together once a week to talk about different math issues in the school — math curriculum, how our students are doing, if there are any holes in our curriculum, what we might need to improve. And we work on that for several weeks.
>> I was gonna say one — one thing you’re making me realize I can do is when I am doing the comments —
>> Mm-hmm.
>> — is to look more closely to — at this —
>> Right.
>> — and see what — what I can comment on that I might not have thought of. Like —
>> Right. Back to that.
>> Back to that.
>> Not every teacher has the benefit of a school that is founded on collaborative practices. But every teacher can experience collaboration. It does not have to occur as a formal workgroup, the way we process collaboration here. Collaboration can be as simple as making a connection with the teacher next door. My advice to new teachers would be to take the risk of making that outreach. It is worth the risk, and it is a risk. The first person you ask may say no, I really don’t have time to collaborate. Ask a second person. No, I really don’t have time. I tried that years ago. Ask a third person. Gee, it sounds interesting. You will find someone to connect with, and — and it’s important for your practice, it will make your life more rich.
>> Yeah, to be using the same language to describe where kids are would be a big deal. That would be good.
>> And I think that was part of what this was trying to do too —
>> Right.
>> — to help us figure out how to describe where kids are, and —
>> Today we had a great session in our math workgroup. We were preparing for first term report cards, and needed to make a recommendation to the whole staff about how we would handle different aspects of reporting math abilities and knowledge to families. After the workgroups have had chance to meet as a small group, we bring our recommendations back to the whole staff. When we meet, we have a specific goal of communicating what we discussed at our last session to the whole staff, so that we will send reports in a consistent manner to families.
>> That brings us to the math group, who’s going to not only report out, but spend a little more time talking about —
>> Yeah.
>> — some of the things that come up in your group?
>> So one of the main things we talked about was there is a disconnect between that 1, 2, 3, 4 key that we use, 4 being exceeds expectations, 3 is meets, 2 is approaches, 1 is you’re not gettin’ there, right? So we said that there was a disconnect between that —
>> Collaborating with colleagues helps inform my practice. When I do things that I’m not aware that I’m doing, they can see it and they point it out. If there are things that I don’t know about — if there’s a particular book, or a song that’s great for kids — anything that I’m not aware of, that informs my practice. They let me know.
>> And I don’t know if this is the time definitely to talk about it. Like I was making my face while you were talking, and I hope it wasn’t distracting, I’m sorry. But one thing I was thinking about was — was when we were talking about the stages. I thought people’s concern about the stages was that it wasn’t linked to the assessment. I didn’t realize — I didn’t realize that there was such a disconnect.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> You know — you know what I mean? And so —
>> Go ahead [inaudible].
>> That was part our discussion too. We — we liked the interviews, the people in the math group liked doing the interviews, and don’t want to lose that. So part of our recommendation too is that we keep that winter math interview as a — as another part of how — how you know your students as math learners. But since the math —
>> Another way that collaborating with my colleagues helps me become a better teacher is that they push my thinking. I don’t get to stay in a safe box — a safe teacher box. They push me to think about how could I make this better for this particular child? Or how could I use a broader lens in planning this lesson? It pushes me to think more, and to do more, instead of just settling for what I’ve got.
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