Session+8

8.1 Wallwisher
[|Wallwisher/Summer 2011]

8.2 Teacher Conversations
Article by Sara Bernard on Edutopia.org: Collaborative Crusader: Creating a Twenty-First-Century Learning Community for Teachers

How does your school/district currently support and or encourage collaboration between teachers?

We currently have early release meetings for one hour, usually every week. Sometimes these meetings are used for administrative tasks, but they are often content meetings. In addition we have two hours of monthly late entry time, most of which is used for professional development, trainings, or content meetings.

How much do you seek to collaborate with teachers and how do you accomplish this?

Most of our common planning time is fairly structured. We are usually given specific tasks to complete. Any additional collaboration is on our own time. The chemistry teachers have made it a habit to meet after school once a month or so to check in and plan common activities and assessments. We also collaborate informally before and after classes on a frequent basis. We communicate via email regularly. At the end of the school year, we created a wikispace for the very purpose of collaborating amongst classes. We also recently set up all of our classes on a joint Moodle site, so we will be able to share resources there as well. Hopefully both will be valuable means of collaboration for us next year.

To what extent do you think collaboration is of growing importance for teachers seeking to implement a 21st century classroom?

Collaboration is extremely important for the implementation of a 21st century classroom. Just as in a non-21st century classroom, teachers constantly consult each other for ideas, resources, manipulatives etc. There is no need to "reinvent the wheel" for each assignment when others have followed the same pathway before. Collaboration is perhaps even more important to the 21st century teacher, since so many lessons, assignments, and assessments can potentially be vamped up to the 21st century, it is a nearly impossible task for one teacher alone. As we have done in the chemistry department, if teachers share their newfound wisdom and resources, it makes the conversion process much more manageable.

In what ways, if any, do you see the thoughts in this article applying to student conversation?

It's funny- there actually is very little discussion in the article of how students will benefit from the increased teacher collaboration. It does mention, "Now she's intent on emphasizing project learning, creativity, problem-solving skills, and technology -- from blogs to wikis to RSS feeds -- to engage and connect her students." The implication is that student conversation will increase both in quality and quantity as a result deist ANCing teachers' knowledge of technology, but the connection is not directly stated.

**8.3 Innovation in Education**
//"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew//." Abraham Lincoln

Sir Ken Robinson TED talk: @http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/865

See Discussion tab for my reflections on the above quote and video.

**8.4 Collaboration activity**
Google doc presentation: __[]__

Once other classmates have added their slides, review the entire presentation and think about how you might use these strategies in your classroom and/or lesson.

**8.5 Forum Post**
Click here: [|8.5 Forum Post]