TA reflections and feedback: How has that impacted on our collaboration within our hub?

After surveying the teachers at school, we then surveyed the therapists and the teacher aides as these people are an integral part of our team. Each class has at least 2 teacher aides and a team of therapists, they are asked to collaborate and provide experiences that best suit and help individuals needs.

After receiving the feedback from 27 TAs and reading the responses Tash and myself reflected on the way we collaborate with our TAs. We know that we have a great team, the TAs are fantastic and we use some of their strengths. We think that we collaborate with them quite well…. But the survey made us reflect and question how can we make it better still. This relates back to our hypothesis:

Specifically:

What does effective collaboration look like?

If we are to be a synergetic team then how do we all get on the same page about collaboration?

Previous to reflecting:

Our TAs co teach with each other when we learn through rotations, we have weekly meetings where we discuss how the week has gone and reflecting on the term. We have one TA who take our music as this is a strength of hers.We also have quick catch ups after learning during morning tea and lunch and at the end of the day to see how things have gone and ask specifically about individual learners and think about the next steps.

Is this enough….

When looking at the responses:

I feel that we could involve our TAs more with regards to the planning, especially by giving ourselves more time to reflect and talk about specific child’s needs.

I feel we do this quite well, we respect our TAs and encourage them to take the lead. We tend to set the activities, but again could they perhaps have more say in the type of activities set out.

Everyone who responded felt that collaboration is important. 

Hypothesis:

If we are to be a synergetic team then how do we all get on the same page about collaboration?

Next Steps: We love being a creative hub and feel that art and craft plays a significant role in children’s learning. We have a TA who has a passion for this area. With this in mind we have given her more control with regards to how and what learning in this area looks like. We discuss with her what outcomes we would like and share ideas about what we would like the children to experience, she in turn would share her knowledge and ideas. We have 1 TA who we can reflect with at the end of the day, but not the others as they leave the same time as the children, how can we get past this? In term 3 Tash and myself have worked out some time on Monday and Tuesday when we can touch base with our TAs to discuss the week ahead, the children’s IEPs and activities. We will also be able to use this time to record evidence around children’s IEP goals. As Tash is not in on Mondays we have also worked a time on Friday where she can go through learning for the following Monday. The teacher who covers for Tash plans with us about what happens on Mondays. We can use our weekly meetings with our TAs, more effectively. Term 3 will be a time for reflections on how we best collaborate with our TAs. During and at the end of the term, we will do a couple of posts to reflect on this, how it is going and get our TAs responses and thoughts.