The Power of Collaboration
Teaching, at its best, is a pure expression of creativity. Creating quality learning opportunities for our students is a creative endeavor, like painting a picture or writing a poem. Like other artists, sometimes we create something and we are less than satisfied with the results. Other times, we may create a masterpiece that is full of potential. If you are looking for a way to add excitement to the creation process and to increase the number of amazing learning opportunities that you create, I highly suggest that you tap into the power of collaboration.
Other artists use the power of collaboration to produce impressive results. Think of a bunch of writers in a “writers’ room” working on a television show, or a group of musicians creating music together as a band. Each member of the group will bring their own ideas, skills and knowledge to the group. Although many teachers work in isolation on their own particular teaching resources, we can also form groups like other creative types. If one creative teacher can produce an excellent learning opportunity, imagine what a team of creative teachers can do!
Of course, the idea of teachers working as a team to improve teaching and learning is not a new one. Many schools and districts have formed teaching teams called “Professional Learning Communities” with varying degrees of success. I love the idea of these groups, provided that the formality of the implementation doesn’t have a negative impact on the creativity of the individual teachers or the potential enjoyment associated with the collaboration.
Even before formal groups like these Professional Learning Communities were formed, like-minded teachers have been meeting in classrooms and faculty rooms to share ideas and brainstorm ways to improve lesson plans. One thing that has changed is that the tools for collaboration are always getting better. With online collaborative tools, you can collaborate with people that you rarely or never see face-to-face.
Most teachers are familiar with the use of shared documents, like those found on Google drives or Office 365 accounts. A quick internet search will also reveal many websites that offer collaboration tools, such as; Slack, Thinkbinder and Podio. Learning management systems like Schoology have been designed to make collaboration between teachers quite easy. The method for collaboration doesn’t matter as much as the practice.
It is our hope that this blog, Team of Teachers, can also become a place for collaboration. Any teacher who contributes to our comment section is part of our team. In time, we hope to exchange may ideas, lessons and labs with all of you.
Do you belong to a formal Professional Learning Community? Do you have any informal collaboration partners or groups? What seems to work best for you? Feel free to comment below.
