Collaboration is something we do a lot of at my school. Some of it is very informal such as two teachers talking in the hall before or after school about some problems a student may be having. Talking to another teacher who has had a student with a similar problem can be very helpful. Collaboration is sometimes more formal such as our weekly grade level meetings where we talk about what we will be working on in class the next week and upcoming important events. We also have Tuesday meetings as a faculty as well as once a month where we meet with the other teachers in the district at our grade level. Our most formal collaborative meetings would be when we have in an author or math specialist to work with us on new ideas and strategies. We collaborate when we conference with parents at conferences, and with phone calls and e-mails. Another type of collboration we have is our CLT meeting. This stands for Concord Leadership Team and it is made up of the grade chair person in each grade level. This group meets once a month and brings any concerns that may have come up in our school. Probably the most important type of collaboration we do is I-Team meeting where we deal with the specific needs of a struggling child. This type of collaboration involves the teacher, the parent, a councelor, agency representative and the school psychologist who has or will be doing the testing.
I think we do a great job of collaboration at my school. We have an essential agreement for our meeting times that we come up with each year together. One of the agreements state that we listen respectfully to others, a very important part of any meeting. We also agree to be open-minded to others ideas and to stay on task with the issues we are dealing with. In all of the meetings of every type that I have been involved with everyone has followed these agreements. It makes everything flow and certainly helps us accomplish our goals for that particular meeting. It's very important to come into every meeting with an open mind and a positive attitude. That's not always easy when you may be expecting a difficult situation, but usually even if there are some difficult feelings having a positive attitude and body language can do a lot towards making the meeting a productive one. Follow ups are also very important and while we do these they are not always in a timely manner. I would say this is our weakess in collaboration.
Time, I think is our biggest down fall. When it comes to the referral process, in my opinion, it is way too slow. We are all busy and have many children to take care of, but this is a process that needs to move as quickly as possible so that the student gets what they need in a timely manner. Finding the time to have the meetings that fit the teacher and parent schedules can also be really difficult. The worst scenario here is an I-Team meeting that takes a teacher away from his or her classroom during the school day. This seems to be happening more and more with parents work schedules and so many children that need some type of help.
I try to work my schedule with my own children so that I can make myself available to parents before and after school at times that will work for them. I usually let the others involved in the meetings set a time that works for them and then I make it work for me. I am a peace maker so keeping a good attitude and being open-minded usually isn't something that is difficult for me. There is always room for improvement however!
I think we do a great job with all of these collaborations.
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