I consider myself to be a very lucky lady on many levels. I have an
amazing family who definitely keep me grounded, a phenomenal job that I
honestly look forward to going to everyday (some days I am looking forward to
it because it is another day closer to a holiday, but you know how that goes)
and I am most lucky in the fact that I work with amazing teachers and staff
across my district. I work in a smaller district (We have two middle schools
which feed into our high school) so we are a close knit group. Most of the
teachers in our district were once students in those same classrooms. I,
however, was not one of the “locals” when I took the job at our middle school.
I went to one of the two very large high schools in my district, but I
knew pretty much everyone. When I was asked to come in and interview for the
job at my school, this thought ran through my head, “Oh no! I don’t know anyone
and if I get the job then what am I going to do?” To those who know me you are
probably wondering why I would even begin to think that. As my husband will
tell you, I have no problem talking to anyone, anywhere. If there is someone to
chat with I will! (My three year old little boy is just like me and when we are
together it is double the trouble!!) But
I was worried. I knew that this was a tight knit, wonderful community and I
didn’t want to not fit in. After I
was offered the job, and accepted, the principal called me to let me know that
he was not going to be able to go to a conference and asked if I would like to
go. He said that a few of the other teachers were going and that it would be a
great opportunity for me to get to know some of them. I said yes immediately.
When I pulled into the parking lot, the nerves set in because I was
about to meet my very first teacher cohorts. Would they like me? Would they
think I was young and naïve? Would they look down on me because I wasn’t from
the community? All these things ran through my head as I watched two cars pull
in. Little did I know that those ladies who I was getting ready to meet would
become some of my very best friends within the school walls and outside of those
walls.
Needless to say, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Their smiles
began magnificent friendships and some of the best collaboration a first year
teacher could ever ask for. Over the
years we worked together to create amazing units for novels that included a
relay race to show the differences between the Greasers and the Socs in The Outsiders, we created podcasts,
movies and much more with the technology at our school and we were able to have
someone to go to when we just didn’t know what to do when our students weren’t
getting it. What is amazing is, this is going to be my ninth year teaching and
both of those ladies retired last year so you can see that there was quite an experience gap amongst us. To say I am going to be lost this coming year without them is an understatement. I learned quite a bit from both of them, but the biggest thing
that I learn from both of them is that COLLABORATION IS KEY.
It could have been easy for both of them to look at me and tell me that
while my ideas were “pretty good,” they had been teaching whatever it was for
20 plus years and we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. But they didn’t. They
listened, gave their input, we helped each other work through the kinks and
then we revisited to see what we liked, didn’t like, and what we needed to fix
before next time. I am sure that you are thinking of those people in your
school that you collaborate with on a regular basis. It could be for planning,
it could be for student concerns or it could be someone who you know you can go
to so that you can bounce ideas off of to see what they think. My best friend
teaches Science so when I go to her and am all excited about a lesson, she
patiently listens and nods her head and then gives me her honest thoughts on
what she likes, doesn’t like or thinks that I may need to consider. It is nice
to hear because, as an English teacher and all-things-books lover, I sometimes
forget that there are others out there who aren’t quite as in love with the
written word! (How dare they, right?)
With the Common Core State Standards, it is going to be imperative that
we collaborate with one another. Our community of collaborators is growing
though. We now have 46 states which have adopted the standards which makes our
network that much larger. Can you imagine all of the great ideas we are going
to get from each other? Our classrooms are going to be even better than they
ever have. There are so many teachers
across our country with amazing ideas and now we get to hear their ideas, share
our own and create learning environments for our students which encompass the
same things that our sister schools across the country do.
One of the best things I ever did was get involved with NCTE. I joined
four years ago and have been to the conference for the past two years. I am sad
to say that I will not be able to go this year (budgets are so tight which we
all know) and it is not because I want to be out of school. NO. It is because I
will not be able to hang out with my teacher friends that I have formed close
relationships over the past few years. We are spread out (literally) across the
United States and luckily we have Facebook to help us stay in contact! They are
my community. I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from each one of them (one
of them is a…. gasp… MATH teacher!! Love you Sandi!) and will continue to go to
them when I am trying to figure something out.
I am taking on a new job this year and will be focusing on the at-risk
readers. I am lucky that one of my very good friends Kellee is on that same
path with me, only she lives in Florida. When I was thinking about taking the
job, I chatted her and asked her questions, bounced ideas and just needed an
ear and she was able to give me insight and encouragement when I needed it. (By
the way, Kellee and our other friend Jen have an amazing blog that aids us in
using mentor texts to promote literacy. Check it out here)
Collaboration is key. You will hear me say that time and time again especially
with our new Common Core State Standards. We have to be on board with this and we
have to collaborate to ensure that we are doing the best that we can. We cannot
do this alone. Why would you want to? By thinking that we can do it alone and
that we don’t need to incorporate anyone else’s ideas or help into our
classroom is selfish. Those ideas are going to help reach students who may need
the information presented to them in a new way (even though we have done it 14
other ways) and then they have that light bulb moment.
Here is your challenge this week… find a new person to collaborate with
this week from another state. There are plenty of teacher organizations, blogs,
chat rooms and so much more out there. Use those resources and let me know who
you meet!
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