Collaboration In Schools
Promoting Student Achievement Through Collaboration
What is Collaboration?
Collaboration is a style of interaction between individuals engaged in shared decision making as they work toward a common goal.
Classroom Management
To encourage parents and colleagues to support the management of the classroom, it is important for a teacher to share their plan for classroom management. They need to know that you have a plan and be aware of your rationale for rules, positive recognition, and consequences (Burden & Byrd, 2013). Rules and expectations should be discussed with your students, they should be posted in the classroom for students to be visually reminded on a consistent basis. Teachers should also discuss their plan during a back-to-school night or send home a letter with a return slip to ensure understanding from both student and parent.
Teacher Collaboration
As a teacher there are many reasons to collaborate, but according to Burden and Byrd, the primary reasons fall into these specific categories. 1. To meet the needs of the students. 2 To improve professional competence by engaging in professional development activities. and 3. To provide leadership when addressing a school improvement issue. (2013) Educators should always be open to collaboration, in fact, a teacher collaborates with many individuals, such as, students, parents, administration, peers, and other school professionals to assist students. There are many books and articles to help educators develop authentic collaborative relationships, one to check out would be Teacher Collaboration for Professional Learning (Lassonde et al., 2009). Teachers must also possess certain skills to collaborate effectively, communication, problem solving, conflict resolution, and administrative and management skills.
Students Relationships
Having a genuine relationship with your students helps students feel more comfortable. Best practice in student collaboration is to have positive expectations and increased sensitivity to the needs of students. Teachers collaborating with students can also be useful in teaching to keep communication ongoing and establish goals and expectations (Burden & Byrd, 2013).
Family Relationships
A student's learning should not stop when they leave school. Communication with parents and being attentive to what they say and what they don't say, can keep them and the educator informed. Parents can be partners in supporting the learning of their children (Burden & Boyd, 2013). Best practices in the area of family relationships are being friendly and keeping the lines of communication open. Educators should involve parents/family in special events and activities, ask questions, and create after-school events to encourage interaction and communication.
School Relationships
There are various attributes that help the development and continued improvement of what is considered to be an outstanding school. The four main factors are: 1. Teachers who focus on their job and communicate and collaborate among each other about education. 2. Continually assessing and reflecting on others performance and styles of teaching. 3. Working as a collective team versus independently to plan, evaluate, and organize. 4. Learning from each other. (Evans, 2013)
Community Relationships
Genesee Valley Educational Partnership states, “Meaningful Community Involvement plays an important role in student success. Many schools are actively involved in designing professional learning communities where school and community work together in partnership with families to educate youth and the entire school community.” (2014). Schools can support the community through field trips to local businesses, this is a good way to show the different possibilities for future vocations and to demonstrate how infrastructure and basic economics play a role in our society.