New Year: What am I going to???

 This year, I am in a new class, single cell classroom. I am with a new team of TAs and therapists. I am based at a new host school and I have new children.

There is a lot to learn, get used to and set up!

A lot of barriers before I could even think about collaboration inside and outside of the class and what it may look like this year.

The key thing that I knew is what good collaboration looked and felt like as this is what was happening when Tash and myself were in a double satellite.

SO I know what I wanted to aim for, I had to get into a different mindset and realise that it may look different this year. 

First step: to accept the barriers, give myself time, to work through them before moving forward with collaboration.

BUT I knew from last year that collaboration had a positive effect on the children and their key competencies: Relating to others, Managing self and Participating and Contributing.

Term 1:

Finding my feet.

My new host school was in my local area, so I started having these amazing ideas of how I could collaborate with the local community. 

BUT I did not know these children, so I needed to build a relationship with them and the class team first. If I wanted to do some form of cross class collaboration then I needed to do it colleagues who I had already collaborated with, teachers and classes that muy new class already knew:

• Tash:  even though she was starting up a new satellite, we were on the same wavelength re collaborating,

• Adele:  as she had collaborated with the previous teacher of my new class 

• A work colleague who was really positive on creating new friendships as she also was in a single cell satellite.

If I started trying to collaborate with staff I already knew then at least 1 barrier was being addressed.

Results:

Above is a copy of my timetable from the first term:

I think I expected too much with regards to collaboration with my colleagues.

1. Music and Numicon worked well with the Glendowie college as we were using the teacher’s strengths. The issue became transporting my class and also additional louting that each class had organised.

2. Swimming with Tamaki Primary, Adele, was hit and miss. Upon reflection this was a result of teachers trying out new grouping, swimming pool issues, behaviour issues and transport issues. When it worked, it worked really well.

3. Meeting up with Owiaro for fitness. Susan and myself are very aware of the fact that we can’t provide certain opportunities for our learners at our host schools. BUT they are available at BASE. A big sfe sensory garden, a swing, bikes and a big trampoline. The aim was to meet at Base every Tuesday MT time so that the children can have a “play” and just be with one another as they were meeting each other for the first time. 

Issues arose: transport and my release day was on a Tuesday. We wanted to keep it to a Tuesday when the physios were at Base so could come and see our children. Term 1 did not really work. However we reflected and looked forward to how it could look better for term 2.

Reflection:

. My expectations were too high.

. Transport was always an issue.

. When it worked it looked amazing.

. Everybody needed to be onboard.

. Building in more time than you thought was needed, especially for getting the children to different places.

Questions relating back to hunches:

• What is the purpose of collaborating with another class during learning time?

• How effective from a teacher’s point of view is collaborating with others during teaching time?

• Is it worth it when there may be a few barriers to overcome?