Collaborate with other staff, the community, higher education, other agencies, and cultural institutions, as well as parents and other caregivers, for the benefit of students.
Collaboration is very important to incorporate within your classroom. Within my classes, I have personally seen the impact of collaboration in a class. In my ENG307 class (a class about media in the English classroom), we collaborated with people in other states as well as other countries such as Japan through DS106. Having your work viewed and commented on by someone across the world is an amazing feeling. However, some schools do not have the resources to collaborate across the world, but it should not stop teachers from collaborating amongst each other. You can go as small as collaborating with the teacher next door, across the hall, or another district.
Through collaboration, students may learn many new ideas, perspectives, and skills. When you constantly have students working independently, they are missing out on all the knowledge someone else may know. Collaboration is not copying, it is instead putting together ideas and making them the best they can be. Below you may see some pictures of my students collaborating together in order to better understand the themes and quotes in Hamlet.
For the culminating project of Hamlet we held a debate.
- Pro or con: Could Hamlet use the insanity plea if he were brought up on charges for murder?
- Pro or con: Was the Ghost in Hamlet helping Hamlet or tempting him towards sin?
debate_guidelines.docx | |
File Size: | 82 kb |
File Type: | docx |
This was an effective form of collaboration because it really got the students working together. A little bit of friendly competition always helps fuel their fire! Students were asked to defend their positions by using the text, Hamlet, scholarly articles (they had library time), and any other evidence they saw fit.
With my seventh graders, I liked to use collaboration in my classroom as well. In order to introduce Shakespeare, I had them do a research project in groups - each group got their own assigned subject and they were expected to teach the class about their topic using a poster (made in class). This project worked very well and students loved making posters! They just got excited from the sight of crayons!
Below are some pictures of the students working in groups on their project. In addition, there are some pictures of the finished product!
With my seventh graders, I liked to use collaboration in my classroom as well. In order to introduce Shakespeare, I had them do a research project in groups - each group got their own assigned subject and they were expected to teach the class about their topic using a poster (made in class). This project worked very well and students loved making posters! They just got excited from the sight of crayons!
Below are some pictures of the students working in groups on their project. In addition, there are some pictures of the finished product!
shakespeare_research.doc | |
File Size: | 29 kb |
File Type: | doc |
Collaboration does not end in the classroom. As a teacher, you must be in contact with parents as well because it is important to keep parents up to date with their child's progress. When I get my own classroom, I do not want to be the type of teacher that only calls home when a student is disruptive. It is just as important to let parents know when their child is doing well.
As a student teacher, I did not have as much collaboration with parents as I would have liked. I just did not feel that it was appropriate for me to call home to parents because I am still learning and am not technically a faculty member of my school. However, I did have to send home a few emails. Below are a few examples.
As a student teacher, I did not have as much collaboration with parents as I would have liked. I just did not feel that it was appropriate for me to call home to parents because I am still learning and am not technically a faculty member of my school. However, I did have to send home a few emails. Below are a few examples.
parentemail1.pdf | |
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parentemail2.png | |
File Size: | 221 kb |
File Type: | png |
parentemail3.pdf | |
File Size: | 217 kb |
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