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?

Tools to use when collaborating

Tash and myself have been researching the different types of tools/app that we can incorporate and use when gathering information and ideas from our colleagues within Sommerville and further afield if we choose to go down this path.

Being in the situation that we are, working from home has given us the opportunity to investigate and learn about different technology that can help us to collaborate with one another.

Both these tools are interactive, it is not a “ look and listen” time it is more a “lets get involved” and share our thoughts and ideas.

This provides triggers for further discussions.

It is a live doc as well so can be added to and shared, providing evidence of people’s voice.

We have initially shared these 2 tools with our Sommerville COL colleagues for a further discussion on them.

Jamboard:

Pros:

Provided by Google, which we all use.

Can see each other's things as they are created.

Few options on how to present your ideas

All work on it together

Could we also use this with our children in class as they all have google accounts?

Shared information/working document that can be saved and referred to.

You can personlise it.

Cons:

No voice recording options

Extra app/tool to have, not used in Google

Padlet:

Pros:

Shared information/working document that can be saved and referred toHas voice recording

You can personalise it

The notes are organised automatically 

You are able to also share images and photos

Cons:

Editing options limited, the creator has more than the people shared into it

3 free Padlets, if you want more then you need to pay monthly subscription

Time delay before seeing what others have written

As yet we have not decided which one we would like to use, so sharing it with our COL colleagues at Sommerville is a good way of getting more feedback about them.

Learning to Collaborate online

To increase our knowledge and awareness of our new COL role all of the Sommerville COL staff have been meeting online each week. This is a great chance for us to learn with, from and about each other, brainstorming ideas. We have created our own community of practice within the COL. This is a great opportunity for us to give each other feedback on our learning goals and blogs and a chance to feed forward.

These group catch ups are invaluable and having the time while at home to make these regular has been a positive of working from home. We are already looking at how we will continue these sessions when we reduce down to level 1.

This allows us to share resources, learning links and presentations. We have created a Google Drive folder where we can keep track of notes and also share new information so everyone has access.

Through Tash’s university study she has created a Collaboration presentation which was shared with his group of teachers which has links to reading references and will be used to share information back with our school colleagues.

Through these group discussions we created with Devs the collaboration survey which generated our baseline data of our colleagues' understanding and connection with collaboration in their current practice.

Having Devs in this learning group is excellent, as she comes with knowledge from being in this role last year. Having a more knowledgeable learning partner is very important when co operating and growing as teachers. We all have a passion for play based learning and collaboration and all bring with us different strengths. This environment creates endless opportunities for inter professional learning.

HYPOTHESES and Possible Next Steps:

Our Teaching as Inquiry Hypotheses

• If we want a positive impact on learning in our hub then what does effective collaborative teaching look like?

• What does effective collaboration look like?

• If  we all view collaboration and interpret it differently then  how do we use it in school?

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

• If we collaborate effectively with the child's whanau what benefits does this have on their learning?

• If we are to find best practice of collaboration then where is the best place to find it?

• What forms of collaboration are most important?

Next steps:

We are at the start of our COL collaboration journey at Sommerville. There needs to be a lot of opportunity for observation between staff and opportunity for feedback to feed-forward learning and teaching practice. With this data we have been able to get a better insight into how the staff at Sommerville work with and feel about collaboration. As there are many different pathways (sensory, satellite, base, senior, junior, positive engagement) in the school, all with different needs we want to gain a clearer picture on how collaboration would work and look in different parts of the school. Our next step is to spend time discussing this with teachers from a range of pathways. 

We don't necessarily have the answers: just pose questions and give food for thought, experiment and share back our learning.

Introduction to 2020 Teaching as Inquiry - Collaboration

Hi, we are in our 3rd year of working together at the Sommerville Satellite at Stonefields School.

Stonefields school is purpose built for collaboration with open learning areas, different types of breakout spaces and different learning equipment, beanbags, stools, chairs, different shaped tables and computer areas.

For this to be a successful environment for teaching and learning to take place there needs to be a positive staff relationship with collaboration amoung staff, learners and whanāu. We feel we are working towards creating this successful space and hope to use this COL opportunity to trial different collaborative practice, learn from Stonefields, an exemplar collaborative school and share our new knowledge back with Sommerville School and other schools within the COL.

We also want to use this as an opportunity to see how group learning in collaborative spaces supports ākonga engagement specifically within our Hub. We will look at how we can ensure all learners are benefiting and learning with, from and about each other in different group activities.