Collaborate to Grow

(7/14/13)

Tuesday, I did a search at Education Resource Information Center (www.eric.ed.gov) on teacher collaboration. I received over 10,000 articles referencing this topic. This week there was an article in Education Week stating that in order to implement common core standards properly, collaboration was going to be key. Two years ago our school tried to imbed collaboration within our daily schedule. Last year our district made a commitment to provide teacher collaboration at the beginning of the day on Wednesdays. I share all this to remind us of the importance of teacher collaboration.


For too many years, educators have worked in isolation. When I look at other successful professional organizations, I always see a team approach. The best hospitals have doctors who work as a team. The best law offices use a team of lawyers to attack a case. The best athletic teams work as a team. Over and over again successful companies, organizations, and athletic teams work together. The old saying that two heads are better than one is not just some cliché. To hammer the point, even more, I would like to share the following statement, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return on their labor; If either of them falls down, one can help the other up…Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NIV)


Collaboration is the key to the educators current and future success. Collaboration doesn’t mean that we all agree. Collaboration means we share our thoughts and ideas around a problem seeking the best solution while seeking consensus. As educators, our focus is on student learning. We collaborate on what needs to be learned, how we know students have learned it, what we will do for those who don’t, and what to do for those who already get it. These collaborative conversations may involve classroom management, classroom instruction, assessments, assessment results, etc. Again, addressing these issues is best done as a collaborative team using the expertise of you as professionals rather than in isolation. The more we do together, the greater chance we have for success!