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Hello everyone, my name is Alexandra and I am teacher in a public kindergarten in Attica Greece. I also  am a PhD student in Department of Communication &Media Studies at National and Kapodistrian University. I mostly interested in democratic education and in the way we can encourage collaboration in classroom.
In this picture we can see Rodopoli the region where is my school. It was a team work.
I am very happy that i participate in this course.

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The portrait of War
1.6 Module 1 Learning activity

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1.6 Module 1 Learning activity

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1.6 Module 1 Learning ActivityA poster for the earthquakeStudents:19The students were divided in 5 teams (each table was the center of a team) in order to create a warning poster about the action required before the earthquake as an impact prevention. After completing this activity I noticed that in fact there was a low level of collaboration. I say that because they were already printed pictures and therefore the students just matched them to the poster. They didn’t have to decide something functional or solve a problem. They just have to match the pictures. Therefore just be in a team doesn’t mean that you are experience a high level of collaboration.  High level of collaboration. The portraits of peace and war Students:19 After reading a fairytale about a city and its citizen that forced "war" to exile, pupils decided to co-create the portraits of war and peace and also the city . In this story the building of the city (post, town hall, squares and statues) were functioning in a different way. In this town there was also a museum. In this museum there were portraits that were reflecting the feeling and the inner thoughts of the visitors. If the visitors were happy the portraits were colorful and bright but if the visitors were sad then the portraits were dark and with sad colors.This story was the motivation for the children to draw the portraits of peace and war since that was our project that time. All the pupils wanted to draw in both portraits, so as team we decided to do it as a game. Each time 5 kids draw in the table of war together and in the table of peace also. The pupils decided the team and the time that they have before start to draw the discuss and decide what exactly to draw. Who will draw guns or soldiers and who will draw flowers and happy kids. When the activity ended its group have draw in both portraits and all the teams have draw something different that adds to the portraits and their meaning.I believe that the fact that pupils took all the initiative what to draw, how to be separated and what they prefer to craft from the story was the factor that made this activity  an activity of high level of collaboration.

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1.6 Module 1 Learning ActivityA poster for the earthquakeStudents:19The students were divided in 5 teams (each table was the center of a team) in order to create a warning poster about the action required before the earthquake as an impact prevention. After completing this activity I noticed that in fact there was a low level of collaboration. I say that because they were already printed pictures and therefore the students just matched them to the poster. They didn’t have to decide something functional or solve a problem. They just have to match the pictures. Therefore just be in a team doesn’t mean that you are experience a high level of collaboration.  High level of collaboration. The portraits of peace and war Students:19 After reading a fairytale about a city and its citizen that forced "war" to exile, pupils decided to co-create the portraits of war and peace and also the city . In this story the building of the city (post, town hall, squares and statues) were functioning in a different way. In this town there was also a museum. In this museum there were portraits that were reflecting the feeling and the inner thoughts of the visitors. If the visitors were happy the portraits were colorful and bright but if the visitors were sad then the portraits were dark and with sad colors.This story was the motivation for the children to draw the portraits of peace and war since that was our project that time. All the pupils wanted to draw in both portraits, so as team we decided to do it as a game. Each time 5 kids draw in the table of war together and in the table of peace also. The pupils decided the team and the time that they have before start to draw the discuss and decide what exactly to draw. Who will draw guns or soldiers and who will draw flowers and happy kids. When the activity ended its group have draw in both portraits and all the teams have draw something different that adds to the portraits and their meaning.I believe that the fact that pupils took all the initiative what to draw, how to be separated and what they prefer to craft from the story was the factor that made this activity  an activity of high level of collaboration.

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Module 2: How can you design collaborative learning in the classroom?

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Module 2: How can you design collaborative learning in the classroom?

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I totally I agree with Prof. Butler. Successful collaboration is a human issue so all the members involve, teachers and pupils must feel the same about what collaboration really means. Efforts must be supported. First of all it is important to develop relationships among participants. Often, in the rush to get started on a project, we put students together and tell them to "get to work." It will be better if we give our classroom the time and the appropriate activities to get to know one another, to build personal ties, in order to develop a common understanding .
In Greece inkindergarten we are 2,3 or 4 teacher so it is easier to develop a fuctional collaboration. Often we have the same pupils so it is important to have a common way of teaching.
Often we have steady collaboration  with collegues outside our school via skype or regular correspondence

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Module 1: What is collaborative learning?

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Module 1: What is collaborative learning?

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The first module was an introduction to this way of teaching and also makinh the classroom and school environment more interactive and learning. As i have written in the course padlet circular tables, round time discussion (circle time) are the basic factors in teaching in kindergarten.
In my classroom for interaction and collaboration i usually use :
Skype
Wiki (pbworks) and
youtube
https://www.youtube.com/user/taxeis2kanali1
With skype and youtube we do video conferences with an other kindergarten in Peiraius and we collaborate in educational project.

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Module 3: How can you assess collaborative learning?

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Module 3: How can you assess collaborative learning?

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The evaluation of a project is a procedure that troubles me. But in a collaborative plan the evaluation seems like a regular part of the project. I usually use pictures of the phase of a project or the drawings of the kids (since I teach in kindergarten) in order to assess the project and to re-plan.
Sometime i use a simply daisy printable in order to draw inside of the petals the step of a project.

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https://v.gd/CAsGVj

My autumn leaves
My school is a public kindergarten school. My classroom consists from 20 pupils of age 4-5.5 years old. In this lesson plan, we are going to explore a famous painter. Art represents life. In this activity, pupils discover through observation of Magritte's famous painting "the Blaze",  the changes in nature during autumn. After that in small groups they re-create the painting but this time they choose how to present their mystery leaf. In this painting, trees are represented as leaves. In the printed version of the painting that each team has instead of a blue leaf, there is a blank shape of the leaf. Between red-orange leaves, there is a different leaf a blue one. Each group has to find a way to implement all the ideas about the way that their leaf would be.  It is a project so the activities will be held in a week.

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What do you think about the ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned by Valentina? Do you find it an interesting approach, and is it one you have experience with? Valentina mentions the need for teachers to bring their best skills and practices to the team while remaining flexible to adapt them in case others suggest better ways of working. Do you agree with this, and what are your experiences of acting on the constructive criticisms of other teachers?

Collaboration in the classroom it is useful for the teachers too. In Greece in the all-day kindergarten (8ap-4pm) there was the co-teaching rotation. One week up to one month the first teacher was responsible for the morning lesson and the other for the afternoon. The curriculum was common and reform by both teachers. Nowadays for the whole year the morning there is a teacher responsible and the afternoon another. By the curriculum they don;t share common time in the classroom and their schedule may be different.
In my opinion, it is highly important to share the classroom as teammates with one other teacher.  You must be flexible and ready to listen to his opinion too.
I agree with the changes that Valentina did, they are helpful and the give solution to many challenges of collaborative teaching.

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4.5 How technology can facilitate teacher collaboration

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4.5 How technology can facilitate teacher collaboration

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My moto?
Sharing is carring

I always thought that the important key is time. When teachers have the chance and the time to get to know each other then is easier to develop communication skills or to build a strong trust between them.
Sometimes is difficult to convince others to work in a more collaborative way and in a way of sharing and understanding the aspect of others.

On the other hand, technology is a powerful tool.
I personally use Skype, youtube, google drive, and wikis. We others teachers that we collaborate we use in an interactive way. We use it to form and reform the task. We use them with our pupils also in order to talk to each other and solve the problems or difficulties of the activity.