We're In This Together
Once again today, I learned about the power of collaboration!
When people are learning, whether it's students, teachers, or parents (or any mixture of those); when we work together we learn so much better - our knowledge grows faster, we often come to a better understanding of things, we learning new things, we reaffirm what we already know, we are more willing to experiment, we can help each other with fixing mistakes and we can work things out together.
I'm lucky in my day to day work. I get to collaborate all day long. Primarily, I get work with students in our school learning commons. I love helping other teachers create new projects that will help our students understand concepts in more in-depth ways. I love finding meaningful ways to integrate the use of technology that enables students to create projects that show and build their understanding of what they are learning. Being able to work through problems with students and come up with a variety of solutions shows the power of learning through personalization.
The other side of my work is working with teachers to help move practice forward and by building capacity. It's amazing to work along side another teacher and actually teach together. Being able to bounce ideas of each other, trying new things together and make adjustments to the learning cycle on the spot is so powerful. I really feel like my own learning has come so far since working in this role. I hope other teachers and especially our students are benefiting from this as well.
I love the 5th principle of the Teacher Effectiveness Framework - TEACHERS IMPROVE THEIR PRACTICE IN THE COMPANY OF THEIR PEERS. For me this principle has been key in growing and developing my teaching practice.
Today I was reminded that we're in this together. When we work together through collaboration, we're all winners!
When people are learning, whether it's students, teachers, or parents (or any mixture of those); when we work together we learn so much better - our knowledge grows faster, we often come to a better understanding of things, we learning new things, we reaffirm what we already know, we are more willing to experiment, we can help each other with fixing mistakes and we can work things out together.
I'm lucky in my day to day work. I get to collaborate all day long. Primarily, I get work with students in our school learning commons. I love helping other teachers create new projects that will help our students understand concepts in more in-depth ways. I love finding meaningful ways to integrate the use of technology that enables students to create projects that show and build their understanding of what they are learning. Being able to work through problems with students and come up with a variety of solutions shows the power of learning through personalization.
The other side of my work is working with teachers to help move practice forward and by building capacity. It's amazing to work along side another teacher and actually teach together. Being able to bounce ideas of each other, trying new things together and make adjustments to the learning cycle on the spot is so powerful. I really feel like my own learning has come so far since working in this role. I hope other teachers and especially our students are benefiting from this as well.
I love the 5th principle of the Teacher Effectiveness Framework - TEACHERS IMPROVE THEIR PRACTICE IN THE COMPANY OF THEIR PEERS. For me this principle has been key in growing and developing my teaching practice.
Today I was reminded that we're in this together. When we work together through collaboration, we're all winners!
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One of the homes of collaboration in our school - The Learning Commons
Steve Clark (@stevewclark)is a learning leader at Chris Akkerman School in Calgary's NE. His mission in life is transforming the school library to an innovative and dynamic learning environment - A learning commons.
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