Chapter 4 Collaboration

Things I Do and Plan To Do……

Collaboration is working together as a team with two or more people to achieve a goal. It is sharing knowledge and gaining knowledge from others. I personally enjoy working together with someone. When I did a long term substitute I was so thankful to have teachers their to help and guide me. I was able to meet with a veteran teacher once a week that helped me tremendously through the couple months that I was there. When I did have a student that was being evaluated, I made sure to keep close ties with the school psychologist to make sure the student was getting all the help they could. I think that you can usually get more accomplished and end up achieving more as you work together. Collaboration is something that I use a lot in my classroom. Depending on the students I allow them to work together with a partner or in groups. I think that students can learn from each other and need to sometimes have a chance to work with someone rather than always doing independent work.

Things I Do Not Do…..

         Working with families and parents is intimidating to me. I worry that I will make parents or guardians mad because of something I taught or did not do correctly. In the text, it discusses how students with disabilities have a more successful experience if the teacher and parents work together. This is something that I struggle with and must work on before I have a classroom of my own. I also do not teach the listening skills to students. I think teaching responsive, nonverbal, and verbal skills should be taught in every grade so students know how to listen to others in the classroom. This would help students not argue or overreact when there is a disagreement.

Things I Need To Improve…..

            Communication and listening skills are two main keys that I can improve on. I never thought about teaching students listening and communication skills. There has been numerous times where I will catch students arguing or not getting along during partner work. I usually would switch the partners but I never thought the problem might simply be a miscommunication or listening skills were not being used. I need to before using groups or partners, teach students how to work with others. Students need to be able to respect, communicate and listen.