Collaboration Reflection

As I approach the middle of term one I have been reflecting a lot on what collaboration means to me. Last year we did research, readings and held discussions on what we wanted our collaborative classroom to look like and now I have been working in this setting for a few weeks I have reflected again. I felt I needed to go back to the research and re-read Co-Teaching in a Nutshell to clarify how I view collaboration. So far this term we have started meeting in the morning for a Waiata, combining classes for PE and Library and cross-grouping students for core instructional subjects. Although all of these changes have been successful I don’t feel they are true collaboration as I feel my teaching day is still very single-cell based practice. By re-reading Co-Teaching in a Nutshell I refreshed my knowledge of what collaboration should look like and certainly gave myself a lot to think about! From the book I gained that collaboration is about two teachers working in the same space to provide the same content. Although I feel we are doing this to some extent I don’t feel we are making the most of working together. Something that was clear in the book that we are not doing is taking responsibility for the physical space jointly. We are still very much in the mindset of my room and your room even though the walls have come down. Another interesting point was that both teachers should be sharing in planning and asessement from day one. I don’t feel we do this very well and it has become apparent when starting to cross group that sharing that assessment and analysing process would have been really valuable to then teaching all of the children in rm 22/23. I feel I know my home class’ needs really well as I have assessed and analysed their ability and need but not so much the children in Nigel’s home class. This would be something I would like to change in our next round of assessment although will have to find some extra time!

The book really highlighted the need for complete openness and understanding between collaborative teachers. It repeatedly stated the need for teachers to plan together, teach together and assess together. I am still very much planning independently for the groups I teach and I think sharing this together would be valuable to all the children as both teachers are on the same page. Another point that I have been reflecting on is how we have cross-grouped our students. We made the choice that I would teach the higher groups across writing and maths and Nigel would teach the lower groups. Although this helps for planning it does now mean that I don’t have an input into some of my students core learning at all which can make reporting to parents tricky. I think this is one area I would like to change and reflect more on going forward.

I feel we are meeting the academic needs of the children well through our current cross-grouping model however the workload and trying to track all the students is quite tricky. When reflecting on how we are working and then reading the section on What Co-teaching is not it became clear to me that we have fallen into the trap of several of these models. For example the book states that collaboration is not combining two classes for one subject or unit and team teaching that area. I think this is what we are doing in PE which may not be as valuable as using both teachers to really differentiate the learning. Collaborative teaching is also not tag-teaming in which one teacher takes one subject then the other tags in, I think we have fallen into this model a few times!

When reviewing the various models of collaboration I realised that we should have started this process more in depth last year. There are several models that rely on observing each other teach before jumping in to full collaboration. I think if we had done this last year we may have been able to come up with a joint style before working together. But in the madness of term 4 it didn’t happen! The main thing I took from reading the different models is that teachers need to have joint leadership and status in the classroom. They need to plan together for everything to ensure consistency and clarity. The models can be changed as needed but shouldn’t be structured so one teacher is the expert and the other roams and supports behaviour and learning needs as this approach is not sustainable long term. We need to work smarter not harder e.g. use the one teach, one assist model during ‘admin’ times such as notices.

My idea of collaboration:

I think collaboration should draw from several different models throughout the day. For example at the start of the day it may be appropriate to use one teach, one assist when taking rolls and writing up notices etc. for the bulk of the day team teaching would take place as the teachers simultaneously teach the students. This would require a lot of pre-planning and organising to ensure the delivery was smooth and students didn’t view one teacher as better than the other.

• Plan and assess everything together
• Work smarter – take responsibility for different admin tasks, e.g. taking rolls, homework sheets, uploading data to assembly. Rotate these often to share workload.
• Students are all ‘one class’
• Instructional grouping is taught by taking students out of whole class, not sending students from room to room
• Students are group from ‘one class’ not from each class and outliers swapped.
• Clear responsibilities when teaching. E.g. on Monday I’ll teach triangle and manage rectangles and squares.
• Both teachers teach all groups over time to get an understanding of where all kids are at

Concerns/questions I still have:

• How to manage one teaching and one assisting – assistant teacher may be distracting to class discussion and/or sit observing so as not to disturb but not add value either
• Time for planning and talking – when will this happen!
• Parent contact when discussing children I haven’t taught for a term. We need to set up really clear ways of recording data and notes, both need to use same method to help with clarity.