Learning to Change the Way We Teach: Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Unit

Collaborate. Integrate. Reflect. We’ve heard it all before. But really, how do people do it? Join us as we share our collaborated research unit. Learn how we did it step-by-step, what worked, what didn’t and what we plan to change. You can even go home and copy what we did with your co-workers! Handouts available. PowerPoint, Handout 1, Handout 2

What were the things that made the 2nd grade teacher want to collaborate with the media specialist?

• Resources
• Information Literacy Skills (using an index, encyclopedia, magazines)
• understanding of the complimentary sets of teaching knowledge that each teacher offers the process.

Unifying model was the Wonder Wheel from Debbie Miller’s Reading with Meaning and it was enlivened by good topics (like spiders).

Things they liked:

2nd grade teacher  – integration of several learning objectives (language arts, tech, media) were accomplished within the scope of this project

Tech guy – continuous improvement of teaching practice over time. Things he would do differently – more care in citing sources, and using more non-Google resources (such as NC Wise Owl).

Teacher-Librarian – The results of collaboration are so powerful that all of this work is worth it.  Establishes a predictable process for students.

The multiple learning objectives were accomplished because the collaborative teaching was addressing the classroom goals (it was not an additional “thing” on top of everything else).  The next go round will include much more joint assessment.

• Continue to expand and depend on my Professional Learning Network (PLN). My PLN extends beyond the confines of my school and includes people from many different educational settings and geographic locations. This is an idea that David Warlick has discussed and will be addressing in upcoming webinars. Presently my PLN includes teachers in my building, Twitter, a couple of Nings, conferences and seminars, Blogs, and list servs.
• Reflective Practice – many of my resolutions will be interconnected and support one another. I want to make a concerted effort to think about my teaching. Action research projects will be one way to foster this practice. Reflection will demand that I set aside time each week to read professional publications, connect with my PLN about issues, and redesign projects that are not working.
• Read more YA. My summer gig at the public library of Wake County showed me that I am way behind on reading Young Adult fiction. I’ve not read the Stephanie Meyer books yet…
• More exploration of Constructivist Inquiry-Based education. The book In Search of Understanding has been my guide so far. I also will work this year to integrate the new Standards for the 21st Century Learner into my teaching practice. I am more and more convinced that real learning must begin with the individual student and where they are as a person at the moment they arrive in your classroom.
• Defeat the physical inbox - I am terrible at the paperwork end of things. Unfortunately, the wonderful administrative staff in our school have expanded by inbox capacity thus allowing me to further ignore it. I will stem the paper tide this year!
• Clean off your desk Mr. Cox – last year a student caught a glimpse of my desk (I thought I had closed the door). They said that they would never be allowed to have a mess like that in their locker. Good point. We encourage (and often demand) organizational performance from our students. I will clean my desk (and office). The time I will save looking for things could support all of the above resolutions.

There probably are more resolutions that will arise as the year progresses but this seems like a good place to start.

I’ve attended lectures by people who where incredibly informed and totally boring (please don’t read from the article you have written- I can do that!). How can our schools be both engaging and informative? I’m convinced that inquiry-based learning is one way to accomplish this goal. Meaningful, authentic learning begins with the questions we invite students to create not the questions we give to them. For a straight forward look at the inquiry based model visit this site hosted by the University of Illinois – http://www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/us/inquiry_page.php. Learning shouldn’t be a bitter pill we force students to take – it should be an exciting experience.