Collaborating Classrooms?

In a classroom, full of energized children, there is a leader and educator. This educator decides the motion of the classroom, what lessons will be learned today, and how activities will be preformed on a daily basis. Besides the core curriculum of the day, another component is constantly added to the mix of the classroom. Not all are aware of the emotional attachment which accompanies the lessons of a school day. If a lesson was successful, there is the wonderment of "what did I do right"? When lessons do not go as planned, we crumble for a moment and then are pushed to move forward.

This moment of "failure" can be a staggering roadblock in education. Many times I feel as though I am the only person in this whole profession who hits these roadblocks a few times a week. However, after some shared reflection time with colleagues, I have found that this is true for everyone! This revelation led to me thinking about the world of education and the disconnect which can often occur between the staff of a school.

Teachers need moments to share lessons and ideas with each other. There is an inherent need for humans to talk about what happens in our daily lives. We learn best when we reflect about our day. This action has even been proven to extend long-term memory. Reflection inspires us to investigate new possibilities! People and children change constantly and our educational techniques need to evolve as well.

Along with reflection of our educational standings, this generation of education demands the need for collaboration of activities. How many hours are spent by individual teachers planning an elaborate unit for students? The answer is too many in my opinion. This is another place where disconnect happens in our educational plans. What one teacher includes in a unit might be completely skipped by the teacher next door. Why not make better use of the hours spent on a unit by collaborating with the neighbor teacher? Now each classroom is learning the same concept in similar ways!

Collaboration is easy and made user friendly with the aid of technology. Google Docs is a great way to share lesson plans and ideas. This revolutionary (not to mentions FREE) tool is easy to use and documents never fail to save. Plus, more than a single person can work on creating a lesson at the same time!

A Final Thought:

Could collaboration also help heal the broken chain of content standards between districts and states? I believe that this concept certainly could help. Those who are in the classroom are the ones who key to reform.