Reflections of a First-Year teacher on Collaboration

At the K-12 online conference, in their presentation titled “Toward a System of Online Curriculum-Sharing”, Rob Lucas and Kevin Driscoll discuss and show many examples of websites that allow teachers to share lesson plans and curriculum. As a young teacher, I have explored these websites on my own and these resources are important. However, it is much more important to me to have live collaboration, meaning my colleagues. I take time during my lunch or my conference period to talk to others about my teaching and curriculum. Here are my thoughts about what even 30 extra minutes could mean with my colleagues…

1. A stronger sense of self within the identity of the school. I would be able to feel out where I stand as far as discipline, curriculum, and presentation.
2. ALL students would more likely have a strong grasp of each department and their policies. For instance, maybe if the mathematics department used the same homework policy in each class, it would benefit the entire school because all students would know what to expect.
3. I would get to know my colleagues even more, including their positives and negatives. I would be able to bounce ideas off all of them to get feedback from people with different opinions.

Source: http://mrhiggins.net Submitted by Randall Deich, NESS Program Facilitator