Strategies for collaboration

Katy Golden

CO

Kabal, C. (2014). Strategies for successful collaboration. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/kriscia-cabral/strategies-effective-collaboration/

I really enjoyed this article because it's clear, concise, and written by a teacher about her experiences. She gives strategies about how to collaborate with a variety of specialists, not just media specialists.

This author encourages teachers and other educational professionals to "work smarter, not harder" through collaboration, and gives several strategies for collaborating. She encourages you to start by creating an actual document that serves as a working agreement for the entire year - this would be for a completely cotaught classroom, obviously- that clearly defines roles and responsibilities. While this might not be necessary for a single cotaught experience, it still might help to have clearly defined roles for the media specialist and classroom teacher. She also stresses the necessity to "communicate, communicate, communicate" and to connect with your students and coteachers in many different ways.

I'm excited to have the opportunity to coteach this fall and will definitely be using some of these collaboration strategies as I do!