The
mark of a professional educator is their desire to collaborate with colleagues
to improve student learning. Over the years teaching has developed into a
profession where it has become the norm to isolate oneself in their classroom
and have little contact with the outside. In an earlier era that was decidedly
less tech, where direct instruction and teaching from the textbook was the norm,
this approach may have been feasible, however in today’s world, teaching this
way is an anachronism from a simpler time. Never before has it become so
crucial for teachers to step outside their comfort zone and engage in
meaningful collaboration.
As
a field we are moving away from the pedagogy of the past that was driven by
textbooks, worksheets, rote memorization, regurgitation, and teacher centered
classrooms to a pedagogy of the future that capitalizes on student-centered,
differentiated instruction that utilizes 21st century skills such as teamwork,
creativity, online research, presentation skills, problem solving, and formal
reasoning. As problem based learning (PBL) continues to gain traction as an
effective learning tool it will become even more necessary for teachers to
change their thinking regarding collaboration. But as the National Staff
Development Council recently reported in a study titled, "Professional
Learning in the Learning Profession." the United States "is far
behind in providing public school teachers with opportunities to participate in
extended learning opportunities and productive collaborative communities."[i]
Most
high school teachers enjoy collaboration opportunities only a few times a year
during district-wide staff development days. This is not enough time for
meaningful collaboration however. To effectively plan curricular units and
projects, monitor student growth, and discuss best practices, teachers should
meet at a minimum of once a week. But as educational researcher P.C. Schlechty
points out “The one commodity teachers and administrators say they do not have
enough of, even more than money, is time: time to teach, time to converse, time
to think, time to plan, time to talk, even time to go to the restroom or have a
cup of coffee. Time is indeed precious in school.”
A
lot of attention has been given to Finland for its innovative and novel
approach to becoming a world leader in education. According to the Program for
International Student Assessment or PISA, which assess the performance of 15
year olds in reading, writing and math, in 2009 Finland ranked near the top of
the world in educational achievement. Only Shanghai-China, and Korea did better
overall. The United States came in at 17th. Finland’s success, despite
conventional wisdom, was not the result of increased high stakes test (they
don’t have any) or teacher evaluations and merit pay (they don’t have those
either) or significant increases in educational funding (Finland spends 6.4% of
GDP on education compared with 5.7% in the U.S.). Rather Finland is committed
to treating its teachers like professionals. “Teachers at all levels of
schooling expect that they are given the full range of professional autonomy to
practice what they have been educated to do: plan, teach, diagnose, execute,
and evaluate. They also expect to be provided time to accomplish all of these
goals inside and outside of normal classroom duties. Indeed, in Finland,
teachers spend relatively less time teaching than their peers in many other
countries. In an ideal world teachers would be provided ample time to collaborate, but since this isn't a perfect world, it is a professional imperative that we make time, English
politician and philanthropist Charles Buxton got it right when he said “You
will never “find” time for anything. If you want time, you must make it, ”
making time could mean using nontraditional technological platforms in place of
fact to face communication. For example teachers could use password protected
message boards, Edmodo, email, text messaging and Google Docs, to collaborate
with each other when face to face meetings are not practical.
Collaboration
also means sharing. As any seasoned classroom teacher knows, teachers can be
very territorial in regards to their teaching resources and for a variety of
reasons are loath to share them with others. For the life of me I cannot
understand why some think this way. Perhaps they do not want to share out of insecurity,
they believe that others may teach the lesson better than they can, or perhaps
because they feel that since they put the hard work into creating the lesson no
one else should teach it but them. However, I think it is important to take a
step back and remember why we became teachers in the first place, hopefully it
was not to educate just the students sitting in your classroom, but to educate
as many students as possible regardless of whose class they may be in. Teaching
should not be turned into some kind of competition between teachers, rather we
should check our egos and work together for the common good of all students.
The more students you can reach through collaboration to include the sharing of
resources the better.
I
know that some will argue that there are lazy teachers who want to do nothing
more than just show up to work and teach someone elses’s lesson plan. These
teachers seldom, if ever, create their own lessons and never meaningfully
contribute to the teaching community. I would respond to these teachers that if
your mission is to educate all students, not just the ones sitting in your
classroom, then I look at sharing with teachers like this as an opportunity to
accomplish your goal. It is one of the times when you take the high road and do
what’s right for students.
Sharing
with other teachers is especially important when the borrower in question is an
inexperienced teacher. I don’t know any teacher new to the classroom who had an
entire year of lesson plans and teaching resources ready to go their first day.
Becoming an accomplished educator takes years. As a profession we have a
responsibility to assist our novice teachers. But all too many times this is
not the case. I remember my first year teaching, I was assigned to a behavior
school and I was the only social studies teacher there. I had no books, no
lesson plans, and I was completely lost. Luckily for me there was a veteran
teacher in the district who had some extra textbooks, all I needed to do was
pick them up. I remember stepping into this teacher’s classroom, it was
absolutely amazing, he taught world history and his room was decorated floor to
ceiling with posters, artifacts, and other paraphernalia, there was even a life
sized suit of armor! I was giddy with excitement at the prospect of having
textbooks for my students and I thought while I was at it I might as well see
if I could borrow some curriculum resources too. Judging from the room, his lessons
must be fantastic. Upon my request the teacher’s face tightened up revealing
deep set frown lines across his forehead, I’ll never forget what he said “I’ve
worked hard over the years developing these lessons, and you expect me to just
give them to you, a first year teacher?” I was dumbstruck; I didn’t know what
to say, so I thanked him and left. Ever since that experience, I have made all
of my resources available to anyone who asks, because it is the right thing to
do.
Collaboration is not
limited to the teachers at your school and in your district, rather the
internet has introduced unlimited opportunities for teachers to network and
share information with each other. Twitter, Pintrest, YouTube, Facebook, blogs,
and websites, are among the several ways that teachers can share lesson plans,
ideas, research findings, book reviews, and teaching techniques. I have become
a better teacher as a result of the information that I have gained from other
teachers on line.
[i]
Wei, Ruth C., Linda Darling-Hammond,
Alethea Andree, Nikole Richardson, and Stelios Orphanos. Profesional
Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in
the U.S. and Abroad. Rep. National Staff Development Council, Feb. 2009.
Web. 18 Jan. 2013. http://www.srnleads.org/resources/publications/pdf/nsdc_profdev_tech_report.pdf.
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