It starts from the top!

Welcome back! 

For this post I want to give you a little bit of background information on the district model for teaching and learning. I will also explain how and why I chose to start focusing on becoming a better teacher through collaboration.

During the 2013-2014 school year was when the principal at my elementary school really started promoting collaboration among teachers. Many of us thought we were working together before, but once we started to get professional training about collaboration we quickly realized that we were only touching the surface of truly teaching together. 

It all started with the talk of implementing Professional Learning Communities or PLCs. Our district hired Instructional Coaches from within who would work with teams to plan, teach and reflect. My principal also wanted us to start shifting to more data driven classrooms. We were still diving into the depth and rigor of the Common Core so we also began experimenting with Common Formative Assessments. Furthermore, it was also important to administrators that we start to plan our lessons based around the gradual release of responsibility. 

At the time I was just beginning my second year of teaching, but my first year of teaching 4th grade. I am at a smaller school with only two sections of classes at each grade level, and the other 4th grade teacher was a brand new classroom teacher. Combined we had one year of teaching experience. Yikes!

It was then that the other 4th grade teacher and I made the decision to make our decisions together! I found that the first step to being on a teacher team is to literally make the choice that you will, and want to work with others. You have to decide that you are open minded and flexible. Two things that take practice, time and commitment. However we knew that if we were going to tackle all of the new and changing initiatives we didn't want to do it alone, and that is how we began teaching together!