Collaboration...

 

                                                                    Image by Internet Marketing

I am really privilged to work with a small but incredibly supportive group of teachers. The most special thing for me about teaching for the past five years has been the friendship of the people I work with. We all started at roughly the same time and it's amazing the difference it makes to have people to bounce ideas of.  Sharing  stories of the funny / cute / insightful thing your student\s said that day. Something works well and we can't wait to get back and share it... someone's stuck and everyone stops as we all bounce ideas round till something fits. More than that each time someone uses your idea / resource they nearly always improve it... come up with a different twist or take.

So take a simple example.... I took some images found here into the classroom to focus a little on 'There is / are' . I passed these on to another teacher. She then took them into the classroom but instead of using them from the front she handed them out to the students and got them to chat about them in pairs before feeding back what they could see in their pictures. She then  passed them onto another teacher. She did the 2nd teacher's idea but then afterwards got them to spread the pictures out in front of the pairs and one of them described a picture whilst the other one guessed which one was being described. I then went into another class at the end of the week and used all three approaches to the pictures for a really nice well rounded 45 minutes of discussion.

That's just one example of 1000s ... I don't know where I would be without those three other teachers... I really don't. I've learned so much from them, sharing ideas saves so much time and that creative spark when you think... this is great but I could also do this ... or watch someone else make an intuitive jump that benefits you all is just a really fun thing to be a part of.

Then obviously there is this online world which I'm quickly realising is a vast ocean of more of the same but on a much grander scale. It's been overwhelming but also exciting and inspiring.

Which I guess is all a longwinded way of saying a heartfelt thanks to my friends who I work with every day. Without them I would not be the teacher I am today! But also a thanks in advance to this online world which is  very quickly helping me become the teacher I want to be :-)

Comments

[Naomishema]

I agree with every word!

[Anna Rose]

:-)))

[DavidWarr]

Great story.

[Anna Rose]

Thanks!