# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Working together on their notes empowers middle and high school students to see how they contribute to constructing meaning in the classroom.

There's a large body of research that supports a shift in the role of the teacher from the traditional lecturer to that of facilitator, where students become co-constructors of meaning as the class engages with the content. In the rapid move to online learning, many educators turned to innovative means to involve students in cocreating knowledge in virtual learning environments.

This cocreation can continue as we head back to the classroom, and whether students are participating in online or in-person learning, cocreated notes are a helpful tool to increase ownership and empower students to take part in meaning-making in the classroom.

How Cocreated Notes Work

The teacher and students generate cocreated notes as class unfolds. The structure and format may vary, but the fundamental principle remains the same. As the teacher delivers content, they utilize questioning and discussion to elicit connections and synthesis from the students. For example, rather than simply presenting a new vocabulary word, the teacher may ask students to share any background knowledge they may have as to the word's meaning and include a student-generated definition in the shared notes.

As students reveal their thoughts, they contribute information to a shared document that the class organizes together. The teacher highlights important pieces of information to ensure understanding, and this results in teachable moments that the teacher can utilize to clarify important concepts.

The following guidelines can ensure success with cocreated notes.

Select a format: There are many viable options for note-taking to share with students. For example, teachers can create blank Cornell notes through a T chart on a Google Doc. The teacher then shares this with students so they can make contributions throughout the class. Another option for shared note-taking is Lucidchart, which allows for shared creation of mind maps or Explain Everything shared whiteboards for visual note-taking together.

As the class creates notes, the teacher uses the chosen format to organize the information into reader-friendly chunks, adding bulleted lists or boldfaced headings to sections of the notes, for example. It's even better if the students suggest strategies for organizing and chunking information.

Communicate expectations: Teachers know their students. Some classes will be able to responsibly share editing rights for the note-taking document in real time. Clear expectations can set the stage for success during shared editing. Guidelines might look like: include appropriate information only, try not to type over each other's text, and no one should worry about spelling errors. Some classes will need to receive the notes in a view-only format and make verbal suggestions throughout class to create the shared notes.

The key is that this is a living document that's created, edited, and revised using student ideas, direction, and voices.

Plan ahead and be purposeful: In addition to planning for the format of the notes, the teacher can identify the essential content they wish to add to the notes. Then, they can craft questions that will encourage students to provide this information as the class explores the content. These questions may vary based on the desired responses. A range of question types may best engage students, including open-ended inquiries whenever possible. Question stems aligned to Bloom's Taxonomy can help elicit critical thinking and discussion. Bloom's Taxonomy offers teachers the chance to craft questions that invite critical thinking, elaboration, and inferential reasoning.

The idea is to invite student-to-student discussion about the material. After the students chew on the content together for a bit, the main question is "What should we include in our notes?" This allows for student-led synthesis and increases the likelihood of retention.

Share and revisit: Once the class has polished the final product, the teacher makes sure the notes are shared with all students. The teacher can credit the class with helping to create the notes and revisit the notes often as everyone makes their way through the content together. As students become masters of cocreated notes as a classroom routine, they can divide into smaller groups to create shared notes with greater independence. The groups submit their notes to the teacher, who pulls them together into master notes for the class to study. The intent is that the teacher and the students create the notes in a collaborative format with a focus on student voices, not the sole voice of the teacher.

Encourage simultaneous note-taking: Some students may elect to take their own notes, and this can be a positive. For these students, the cocreated notes become a backup resource to bolster their own collection of information. It's crucial to encourage student autonomy in note-taking so that the teacher doesn't own the knowledge. The teacher and students delve into the material together and harvest the main nuggets together. Whether this means the students rely on the cocreated document or they create their own using another medium, all participants have a shared interest in finding the key points embedded in the body of content.

Sharing ownership in the classroom involves a bit of risk. Teachers must let go of the expert role and understand that students do best when they have the opportunity to take part in meaning-making. Strategies such as cocreated notes offer a structured approach to collaborative learning in the classroom, inviting students to work with their teacher to construct meaning from content knowledge.

When students understand that their background knowledge, perspective, and critical lens are welcome in the classroom, there's a much greater likelihood that they'll stay engaged at a high level.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Collaborating on Note-Taking Boosts Student Engagement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Working together on their notes empowers middle and high school students to see how they contribute to constructing meaning in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.headline
 Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues.

# data[].attributes.subject
 Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues.

# data[].attributes.body
INDICATOR 4b

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Group projects - you either love them or hate them, right?

As a student, I absolutely hated group projects. I was one of the nerdy kids that was always striving for an A and felt like I was put into groups with people that did not care as much as I did. Therefore, I ended up doing about 90% of the group project - mostly because of my own high standards. I always viewed the requirements of a project as the minimum expectations, whereas many students viewed it as the requirements for a good grade. Neither of us was right or wrong but it was simply how my brain operated. (Maybe it still operates that way...!) Therefore, I always had this feeling of frustration or anxiety when group projects were assigned because I felt like many students were not carrying their own weight. Again, sometimes that was the case and other times it was my own expectations being slightly unrealistic.

As a teacher, I have really come to love group projects. I have found that this type of collaboration is beneficial for all students, whether they are your high achievers or struggling students. Many high achieving students don't work well in groups, so it is an incredibly important process for them to go through to learn how to successfully work with others in their future careers. For struggling students, group projects can be beneficial by helping them to find their voice and get support from their peers. While I think we can all agree that group projects can be very beneficial to our students, the same question always arises:
How do we hold all students in the group accountable?
This can be a tricky question. Obviously, we don't want to promote any sort of "tattle telling" if a student is not working with others in their group project. After all, this could lead to feelings of discouragement, frustration, or possibly bullying. However, we do want to hold them accountable for their roles in the project.

To help with this, I developed the following Google Form:

Click HERE for your own copy.

At the beginning of the survey, students are required to share about their involvement, roles, and accomplishments within the group project. After they evaluate themselves, they will share about the involvement, roles, and accomplishments of their fellow group members. In addition to this, there are also sentence frames to help students write their evaluations.

A few quick tips:

Spend time discussing the difference between objective/subjective evaluations before they fill out the survey. Encourage students to write statements such as "I observed..." rather than "Jack did not..." Encourage students to use the sentence frames to help them maintain their objectivity.

Encourage students to be detailed in their evaluations because collaboration will be a part of their final evaluation.

As the teacher, spend time comparing their evaluations to the other group members, as well as your own observations from class. By the end of the project, you should have a strong feeling about which students were working well together, as well as which students were not.

Overall, I think it is important to note that the "Group Participation Survey" is simply one part of the evaluation process but it does help to maintain accountability. Remember to record your own observations and be actively involved with the groups to ensure that everyone is meeting their goals.

How do you create accountability during group projects? Share your ideas below!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Creating Accountability in Group Projects with Google Forms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Group projects - you either love them or hate them, right? As a student, I absolutely hated group projects. I was one of the nerdy kids that was always striving for an A and felt like I was put into groups with people that did not care as much as I did.

# data[].attributes.headline
Demonstrate cultural competency when communicating with students, parents and colleagues and interact with them as co-collaborators in student learning.

# data[].attributes.subject
Demonstrate cultural competency when communicating with students, parents and colleagues and interact with them as co-collaborators in student learning.

# data[].attributes.body
INDICATOR 4d

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The act of listening is perhaps the most underrated skill there is in education. As teachers, we are often asked to "do" a lot more than necessary: memorize standards, plan lessons, prepare for various assessments, call homes, provide a warm environment for our students (and visitors), attend faculty meetings with varying effectiveness and relevance, grade mounds of papers, and take what little time we have left to eat and sleep, usually less than we should.

Yet, with the laundry list of things that teachers do, check for, and assess, we might be better off staying still and letting students tell us more about what they need.

This is especially crucial in situations where we may or may not share similar backgrounds with the students we teach. We've known for decades that building relationships is a central part of our work, but this has even larger implications when we work with disadvantaged students. The teacher-student relationship has so many subtle nuances across race, gender, and class lines that opening our eyes to these nuances would make us better educators. Time and again, we see a growing number of educators willing to forgo the need to jump directly into teaching, educators who are more into getting to know the students.

After all, we shouldn't be preparing to teach content or the students we imagine might be there, but rather the students in front of us.

We can do this by taking up some of the skills we wish to impart on our own students. In our classrooms, however, that's not enough. For excellence, we may need to switch the way we talk to and about students. Here are some workable strategies that I've used and observed.

Build Relationships, But as a Teacher First

Everyone has a different approach to classroom management. Some don't smile until December, if ever. Others can't help but smile and laugh throughout the year. Some impart their wisdom with diatribes and speeches, while others know how to quietly move about the room and make their presence felt. The common thread in all of those cases is students understanding that the teacher cares and has a specific way of showing that he or she cares. A few teachers have said, "The student might not be able to read, but they can read you." That's powerful in the context of schools where teachers don't have the same cultural background as the students. When teachers have a passion for the students in front of them, and not just for the subject they're teaching, everyone wins.

This also means, simultaneously, that teachers shouldn't seek to create friendships in the normal sense. Many of my students would shake their heads at other teachers who tried to create friendships with them, saying they wanted a teacher, not another friend. While this might seem counterintuitive to progressive education (whatever that means), we must recognize that many students find comfort in having someone who provides stability and structure. Speaking of which. . .

Create a Fair and Equitable Environment

Currently, we've seen a surge of research that shows how real the school-to-prison pipeline has gotten. Black girls, for instance, face suspension at three times the rate of white girls, and black boys face suspension at six times the rate of white boys in NYC and Boston schools. With harsher systemic punishment doled out in our most vulnerable places, we need to recognize that classrooms are often the first place where students see inequity, and it's usually not in the resources but in their treatment. We can create rules with students and believe in restorative justice, but until we reflect on the ways that we interact with students in their weakest moments, we will continue to perpetuate inequity.

For instance, when a student comes in late, do we first ask why they're late or do we yell and banter about their lateness? Do we address individual students' weaknesses in front of the entire class or seek to have private conversations first? Do we try to build a community of learners or do we harshly deny student agency? There are ways to be strict without being inhumane, but too often, some of us think quiet is the ultimate goal by any means necessary. Instead, we should strive to understand the students individually and develop a common sense of purpose for them collectively.

Ask Questions as a Form of Disarming

Too often, we come into situation with inherent biases that we might not recognize. Works from Peggy McIntosh, such as "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack (PDF 18KB), and Project Implicit underline the need to work against some of our deeply-held beliefs. In the classroom, we need to recognize the privileges we bring and ask better questions. Humility in some aspects can make us more attuned to the needs of all students, but especially underserved students. When we ask good, honest questions of our students in the moments when we as teachers don't understand something, we seem more genuine.

Earlier in my career, for example, I thought I knew all about my students, so when I saw someone sleeping in class, I would attribute that to laziness or apathy. One day, we called his parent into school to find out what was going on and why this student couldn't pay attention. As it turned out, his mother worked weird factory shifts, from 3PM to midnight, often leaving him with little supervision. One night, he accidentally left his keys inside his apartment, which meant he was locked out until she got home. Every teacher needs that sort of humility, even if we share a cultural background, because it can be easy to forget that we teach students.

After that experience, I tend to ask more than I assume, which should be a general rule of thumb for all teachers. Those with even less information about the students should ask more questions. Some of our most intelligent civil rights organizations recently joined forces to make recommendations to President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about the future of education. The one that stuck out the most for me was the idea of cultural competence as professional competence. In many circles, this matters more than our current debates on testing, Common Core, and school funding. For our students, the person who they see as the beacon of hope or the agent of their oppression (and everything in between) is their teacher. Excellent educators embrace this for themselves and for all of their students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Empowering Educators Through Cultural Competence | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The act of listening is perhaps the most underrated skill there is in education. As teachers, we are often asked to "do" a lot more than necessary: memorize standards, plan lessons, prepare for various assessments, call homes, provide a warm environment for our students (and visitors), attend faculty meetings with varying effectiveness and relevance, grade mounds of papers, and take what little time we have left to eat and sleep, usually less than we should.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The murder of George Floyd has led to a movement to hold police departments and officers accountable. It's also an opportunity for educators to work on becoming culturally competent in a diverse society.

The National Education Association describes cultural competence as "having an awareness of one's own cultural identity and views about difference, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of students and their families." The differences that make individuals unique are essential ingredients of America, part of our country's strength.

When educators fail to acknowledge their own biases and assumptions, the hindrance of a student's developmental process is inevitable. Having good intentions is not sufficient; the actions are what will be seen and felt by students. What one individual may perceive as innocent can have detrimental ramifications. Districts need to feel the urgency and race to end exclusionary practices by practicing the following:

R Recognize your own biases, ideas, and stereotypes of cultures that are different from your own.

A Admit/Acknowledge that there are differences in the treatment of people based on their appearance.

C Commit to being a part of the change that is needed in seeing that people are treated fairly.

E Educate yourself and others on cultural differences to gain more understanding.

No longer can administrators and staff steer away from cultural conversations. Cultural competence is more than just learning about the music students enjoy or understanding their slang. For individuals to become competent in another culture, they must first understand their own biases and stereotypical ideas. This recognition allows people to become more aware of their thoughts and actions towards others who do not look like them.

The opportunity is now for districts to address the reality of bias, stereotypes, and cultural differences for cultural competency. While Covid-19 and preparing for another school closure is necessary, so is the importance of cultural competency. If districts forfeit the opportunity to address injustice, the damage could be catastrophic.
Cultural Competence in Schools
Many classrooms are diverse as a result of either the differences within the student population or the differences between the teaching population and the student body. If cultural competency is to become an essential component of schools, training must be more than a single day. Checking off back-to-school professional-development boxes is insufficient to identify, address, and begin to resolve bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.

To begin, schools must shift away from the notion of culture as a celebration or event. Instead, schools should move to a view of culture as experiences, knowledge, beliefs, and values that affect the lives of everyone in the school building.

Gaining cultural competency will require a plan. Tight schedules and the need for pandemic-related preparations do not leave an abundance of time for cultural competency training. However, the time does allow for foundational discussions. School districts should provide training throughout the entire year.
Understanding Cultural Awareness

Know the Community You Serve - Teachers sometimes work in communities where they do not live. The biggest mistake with this practice is when educators fail to educate themselves about the community in which they serve.

I can recall a specific day when the main road into school was shut down. A teacher had difficulty navigating into work and asked for help getting home. As I led the teacher in my car through the parts of the city where our students lived, the teacher called my phone to make sure the route we were on was safe. I reassured the teacher the route was safe and continued to navigate through the city. Once we exited the city and the teacher was familiar with the area, I received a call thanking me for my help. I asked the teacher if this route was a route she would take in the future. The response was an emphatic no. In essence, the teacher was unwilling and afraid to navigate the same city streets as the population we serve.

There can be vast differences between hearsay about a community and the factual historical reality of the community. Fear should not be the driving emotion when serving a community. Asking questions and searching for answers to help better serve the community should be the prevailing mindset.

Identify Areas for Growth - Everyone has a past and upbringing that has shaped the way they view the world. Those experiences themselves are not negative, but when these experiences skew the way a person views others, an adjustment may be required.

A few years ago, a teacher entered my office upset about the disposition of a student. As the student stood beside the upset teacher, I began to listen to the teacher explain the incident. What was explained was the reality that the teacher was upset with the student's disrespectful attitude. I asked for more details about the perceived disrespectful nature of the attitude. The teacher described colloquialism, tone, and a lack of eye contact. At that moment I dismissed the student and explained that the student was not being disrespectful, but rather what the teacher was experiencing was the method of communication in which the student interacts with his community.

Educators must have an inner dialogue to determine what experiences have shaped the teacher's views of students. Districts must create space to have a broader discussion and be realistic about how teachers' individual bias encroaches on the rights of students. The space for a macro conversation for the district is necessary and must be accompanied with how cultural awareness is reflected in individual buildings.

Listen and Observe-What may seem as a simple task is rarely practiced. The beginning of understanding is listening. When one is constantly talking there is no room for listening.

In my early years as an educator, I served as dean of school culture. One responsibility of the job was to oversee school discipline in a predominantly black school. One classroom of 13 students included a white male teacher and one white male student. This particular student was involved in several incidents daily. One of his first comments was always, "no one understands, and no one listens to me." Everything came to climax one day. I had to mediate a situation between the student's parent and the teacher. What was uncovered in the meeting was the student felt no one understood him because he was white, and he did not feel welcomed in the school. As a school, we failed this student by not taking the time to listen to his needs.

Districts and educators fail at cultural awareness because listening has not been initiated. Listen to the parents, listen to the students, listen to your peers, listen to your staff. When what you hear corroborates what you see, act. Far too often districts fail to see because they fail to listen.

Develop Cross-Cultural Skills-One of the biggest mistakes made across cultures is the attempt to try to fit in. Fitting in leads to offensive words that can cause a strain in relationships.

Just last year I was in the school's main office receiving food from parents for a cultural celebration. One specific dish a parent made was heated to a high temperature. To show my newly acquired Spanish skills I uttered to the parent "mucho caliente." As I watched the front office staff gasp and show visible signs of discomfort, I knew I said something wrong. When the parent left the office I immediately asked, "Did I say something wrong?" I learned using the term "mucho caliente" to the opposite sex is offensive even though I was talking about food and not the parent. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Cross-cultural skills take time and an intentional effort rooted in understanding.

Cultural awareness is not only being aware of black students. Cultural competency is recognizing the differences in everyone represented in the school regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Now is the time to lean into cultural competency to strengthen the relationships between the school and the community. Districts cannot assume staff understand cultural competence. Leaders must take the initiative to provide adequate space to discuss cultural differences and reestablish norms built on cultural competency. Talking about change is over. Now is the time for words to become actions.
George Farmer is an administrator at an elementary school in Camden, New Jersey, and a doctoral candidate in educational leadership at Capella University.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Schools and Teachers Can Get Better at Cultural Competence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The valuable lesson of a "mucho caliente" mistake

# data[].attributes.headline
Use collaborative tools to expand students' authentic, real-world learning experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams and students, locally and globally.

# data[].attributes.subject
Use collaborative tools to expand students' authentic, real-world learning experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams and students, locally and globally.

# data[].attributes.body
INDICATOR 4c

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Flipgrid was created for a single class, ( 's University of Minnesota PHD students, to be exact), but it didn't take long for educators to begin using Flipgrid to connect with classrooms around the world.

A Kindergarten class in Iowa connected with Kindergarten students in Sudan.

Three Norwegian educators connected their students with classes in South Dakota.

A high school English teacher in New York connected his students with a middle school Science class in Ohio.

Educators have made thousands of connections, using Flipgrid to increase social learning, global empathy, and cultural understanding. They inspired us to create CoPilotsso you can collaboratively manage your Grids and Topics with a fellow educator.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Flipgrid was created for a single class, ( 's University of Minnesota PHD students, to be exact), but it didn't take long for educators to begin using Flipgrid to connect with classrooms around the world. A Kindergarten class in Iowa connected with Kindergarten students in Sudan.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If I could only go back all those years to when I was young and just emerging in my craft (and in my understanding of myself), I would dive headfirst into bettering my skills and strategies for teaching sixth graders math.

Facing Fears

What I now know about the fear in not feeling comfortable teaching something is to go toward it rather than move away from it. Here's an example of this idea: Several years back, a high school teacher I know transitioned from teaching American history (in 11th grade) for 12 years to teaching world history (in 10th grade). She was nervous, as she felt she couldn't teach with the same nuance and depth when she had so many countries and time periods to cover. She also felt shaky about her expertise and understanding of some of the world history content she was required to teach.

A few months into the school year, I asked her how it was going. "You know, I decided to be a learner alongside the students for the content where I feel I have less expertise. I work more as a facilitator when that content comes around, and question and probe with the students. I think they're learning more than they would have if I was doing more direct instruction and had more content expertise. Go figure!"

Taking Action

In my years of observation, this is not a common approach. What's more common-with experienced teachers and new ones alike-is avoidance (as I did with those sixth-grade math lessons). There's a lot of expectation that we're already supposed to know our content through and through since, hey, we're the teachers.

So how do we tackle avoidance syndrome, move toward our weaknesses, and become more proactive? I offer up these suggestions.

1. First, admit what you don't know. We have to admit this to ourselves and then to others who can help. Are you great at writing thesis statements but not sure how to plan the teaching and learning of it for a room full of 12-year-olds? Ask a more experienced colleague for guidance and materials. Then dive in. We only learn by doing and reflecting when it comes to this craft-or any craft for that matter. Kurt Vonnegut said,"We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down."

2. Use what you do know. A good number of teaching and learning strategies do carry over from content to content. If the content and subject are new for you, remember that you're trained to teach and are already equipped with an array of pedagogical tools.

3. Observe colleagues. Find those teachers who have mastery of the subject or content you are weak in and who have pedagogical practices that are effective and engaging for teaching that content. Every chance you get, sit in their room and watch, take notes, ask questions after the lessons, and reflect on your next steps.

4. Make sure you understand what you're teaching before you teach it. Break it down for yourself so you can break it down for kids. Slow down if you have to. If you barrel ahead, you'll confuse them, and as we know, teaching something incorrectly or inefficiently can be difficult to undo. Be prepared, but allow yourself to be a learner alongside your students. Both are possible simultaneously.

5. Actively seek professional development. You may need to go beyond what is offered by your school or district. You can sign up for professional development online (such as webinars) through organizations such as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) or the National Education Association (NEA). You can also enroll in a class (or two) at a local university. Find content experts on your campus, have routine discussions with these master teachers, and acquire their well-developed materials.

6. Keep moving toward, not away from, what you don't know. If you're a new teacher-or not so new but grappling with a new grade level, a new subject, or simply new content-embrace the discomfort and keep that learner's hat firmly on. Trust me, this will make you a better teacher because none of us are ever done learning as teachers.

Perhaps you've been teaching third grade at the same school for 10 years? Most likely there's somewhere in your practice you feel vulnerable. Move toward that place and dive in. And if there's a novice at your school, someone you know who is experiencing a lot of uncertainty and vulnerability, reach out as soon as you have a moment and offer guidance and support.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Power of Admitting What We Don't Know

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If I could only go back all those years to when I was young and just emerging in my craft (and in my understanding of myself), I would dive headfirst into bettering my skills and strategies for teaching sixth graders math.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
On learning alongside her students... 2018 Kansas Teacher of the Year, Samantha Neill

# data[].attributes.headline
Dedicate planning time to collaborate with colleagues to create authentic learning experiences that leverage technology.

# data[].attributes.subject
Dedicate planning time to collaborate with colleagues to create authentic learning experiences that leverage technology.

# data[].attributes.body
INDICATOR 4a

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This Is the Year I'm Going to Write Alongside My Students

"Hey there, come on in! I'm Tim." Nervously, I shook hands with the man who looked to be around twenty or so, his blond hair scruffy but his smile genuine. Looking around, I noticed the apartment was small, but neatly kept. "I see you brought your saxophone," Tim chirped. "Want to get started?" Tim was my new saxophone teacher, and he had a reputation for being excellent. At the end of our first lesson (which went really well), Tim invited me to come hear him play with his college jazz lab band. "Come check it out!" he said. So that following weekend, I convinced my mom to take a couple of my sixth grade friends and me out to Tim's community college so we could listen to the performance. Wow! Tim's playing was remarkable, and I remember feeling so lucky to have such a great player for a teacher.

As a young musician, the fact that my teacher not only knew how to teach, but also played and lived the life of a musician too really mattered. I would venture to say, this holds true for all (or at least many) endeavors- when the teacher not only brings the knowledge and pedagogy to teach, but also love, passion, and an ability to demonstrate- whether it be playing an instrument, speaking another language, or writing- a certain authenticity is added. My father used to call it "walking the talk." This week, my colleagues at Two Writing Teachers are committed to supporting teachers in dreaming big for this year's writing workshop. Perhaps part of your dream for this year will be to authentically live the life of a writer!
Why write alongside our students?
Writing is hard. So, as a teacher of writing, I certainly did not start out writing alongside my students. One big reason for this was not making a connection between the power of living like a writer and inspiring student writers. But one of my mentors once told me, "Telling is not teaching." And I realized at some point that if I, as a teacher of writing, put myself in the seat of my learners, I would better be able to anticipate some of the struggles, challenges, and possibilities my writers would face in the course of learning to write.

About ten years ago, I had the great fortune to attend a workshop by Donna Santman. In her session, Donna pointed out that oftentimes we attempt to teach strategies that we ourselves (the teachers) would never use. "What are the strategies you use really?" she posed. "Teach kids those strategies; for those will be the ones you will have the most command over." Although she was talking about reading, the same can be said of writing. And I realized that only writing ourselves will reveal what strategies truly work.

In a June post, I quoted Katie Wood Ray, author and expert in writing who once said, "

Everything we do in writing workshop teaches students. Either we can be walking, breathing, talking examples of all we advocate for our students, or we can have them sitting around wondering why we are trying to get them into something that we are obviously not into ourselves. They see me as someone who writes, which is how I'm asking them to see themselves, and this is a key ingredient to learning anything. They listen to me because they can see that I know what I'm talking about. You can't get that if you don't write."

When we write alongside our students, we show them that writing is something worth working at, something worth the effort to improve. And, as Katie Wood Ray intimates in her quote above, by acting and living as an authentic writer ourselves we support our students' writerly identities, a vital yet oft overlooked factor in teaching writing.

John Hattie, Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, analyzed hundreds of meta-analyses for the purposes of determining what factors in education produce the highest effect sizes. In other words, Hattie wanted to learn what things we do as teachers can and do make the biggest difference. Toward the top of the list was found to be: "Teacher credibility in the eyes of students" (click here for more). Just like my teacher Tim earned credibility in my young eyes as a budding saxophonist, so too do we earn credibility by being writers ourselves.
Obstacles to writing alongside students and possible solutions
For many of us, we are at least vaguely aware of the value of living like a writer and how that can help us become stronger teachers of writing. But obstacles get in the way- for the purposes of this blog post, let's call those obstacles "stories." Below, I'll use the term "stories" in place of "obstacles" to empower us; just like we have the power to change the stories we write, we might also consider a few suggestions for changing the stories we live.

When it comes to writing alongside our students, some stories that will predictably surface in our minds might be:

"But I'm not a good writer." Choosing to write alongside students can create a feeling that we are exposing vulnerabilities. But what if we chose to view our own writing in the same way we hope our students will view it- as something we are striving to get better at doing? Similar to reading, writing is a skill learned in use. We become better at it by doing it more. If our students see us working to get better, and they also see us placing our trust and confidence in them as an audience, think of how that might make them feel as writers? How inspiring for young writers!

"I don't have the time." Yes, we are all busy, very busy. But we can remember that schedules are moral documents. They reflect what we truly believe in. Therefore, what we make time for is reflective of what we are committed to and hold as important. So, if you are just starting out with a fresh, new commitment to write alongside your students, you may want to start small; instead of trying every strategy you aim to teach, try just a few and share those attempts with students. Or try committing to doing some writing every month. You may also request that some teacher meeting time be devoted to teachers writing. By whatever way we choose to start small, it is likely we can experience a small taste of the wonder and discovery that is writing, and this can inspire us to want to find time to do more.

"It's not that important to write myself." It actually is important! In a recent Slice of Life Tuesday post, Kathleen encouraged us to check out teacher and long-time slicer Lisa Corbett's podcast interview. During this interview, Lisa quotes Lucy Calkins by saying, "If you want to be a good teacher of writers, you need to be a writer yourself. You'll never be able to teach them really well unless you're going through that experience and experiencing the writing process for yourself." Having personally experienced a material change in her teaching, Lisa goes on to say, "Just being a writer [myself] and going through the process has enhanced my teaching in every aspect of my day."

"I'll do that next year." Committing to writing alongside your students is significant, but I would argue it is not the same as other "big" commitments that require altering multiple facets of our lives. We might think about phrases we will be able to use this year if we start writing, supportive teaching and conferring phrases such as:

"You know, when I tried this in my writing . . ."

"Okay, let me try this [strategy] in my writing now . . ."

"So here's something I tried that you might try, too . . ."

"I feel like I've been working on this same thing! Let me show you what I tried..."

How to make it happen:

Gather inspiring materials- It may not seem that important, but artists and musicians would attest to the power of quality materials and equipment. Treat yourself to a beautiful notebook- it can help!

Tap helpful resources- Many resources exist online to support teachers taking on a new role as teacher-as-writer. Check out our Two Writing Teachers "Slicer" Community on SOL Tuesdays (click here for an example); one of the most supportive ways to begin a writing life is to share with an audience that will provide you with constructive feedback. Also, consider visiting #Teachwrite, another supportive community, and/or connecting with your local chapter of the National Writing Project at https://www.nwp.org/. The NWP is a place teachers can attend workshops that encourage teacher writing or provide a forum for teachers to share personal writing.

Enlist a colleague- Taking on a new commitment always becomes more possible when we have enrolled another person. Consider asking a colleague, either in your school, on Twitter, or even in another school, if they would be willing to take on writing alongside students with you. Supporting each other and holding one another accountable will make it more likely you will actually write!

Create a realistic goal- As I mentioned, you may wish to start small. Set small goals and work to meet them (see suggestions above for some ideas). Don't feel like writing every day (or even every week) is necessary (although we all know ourselves- What will be inspiring? What will feel overwhelming?). I recommend at least trying some of the strategies you plan to teach students in writing workshop as an important place to start.

Embrace the imperfection- It is highly unlikely a new writing commitment will go perfectly. Life will happen. But let us not let that stop us!

After studying with Tim, I went on to become first chair saxophonist in our high school symphonic band. I also transferred a lot of what Tim taught me to the piano, the instrument I still play today. And I can honestly say that although his knowledge and ability to teach were important, his passion and his life as a musician played an equal if not more significant role. He inspired me! That is what learners need. And hey, remember we don't worry about being the next great novelist. For as teacher/author/presenter Penny Kittle recently said, "Teachers don't have to be great writers, they should just be a step ahead of their kids. They need to model the process, not the product." As my father would say, we need to walk our talk.

This giveaway is for a copy of Kids 1st from Day 1: A Teacher's Guide to Today's Classroom. Thanks to Heinemann for donating a copy for one reader. (You must have a U.S. mailing address to win a copy of this book.)

For a chance to win this copy of Kids 1st from Day 1: A Teacher's Guide to Today's Classroom, please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Sunday, August 12th at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Melanie Meehan will use a random number generator to pick the winner's commenter number. His/her name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Monday, August 13th.

Please leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment so Melanie can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, our contact at Heinemann will ship the book to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)

If you are the winner of the book, Melanie will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS - KIDS 1ST. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. A new winner will be chosen if a response isn't received within five days of the giveaway announcement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This Is the Year I'm Going to Write Alongside My Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When a teacher not only brings the knowledge and pedagogy to teach, but also love, passion, and an ability to demonstrate-- whether it be playing an instrument, speaking another language, or writing-- a certain authenticity is added. My father used to call it "walking the talk."

# data[].attributes.headline
Balancing Teacher Autonomy and Collaboration

# data[].attributes.subject
Balancing Teacher Autonomy and Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Good teachers are growing practitioners. They know their students, their content, and their standards-but they are not satisfied with the status quo. Like all successful professionals, good teachers strive to grow their knowledge and adapt to changes in the landscape of their work. Good teachers know their own expertise is critical in the classroom; they also know the input of colleagues strengthens that expertise. While it can be difficult to find the right balance between personal skill and combined efforts in the classroom, it is worth the effort.

Working together is becoming more of a norm across our profession. At its best, collaboration among teachers encourages creativity, professionalism, and student achievement. Teachers around the world are collaborating with peers in local and even global contexts to take charge of their own personal development, exchange lesson ideas as part of professional development, and mentor new teachers.

When I attended school in the 1990s, the textbook was the main resource in most classrooms. Teachers often planned their school year around the chapters in the book. But when I started my teaching career in 2013, it was in a school and district where teacher collaboration was highly valued-other teachers were the main resource, not a set of textbooks. Many of my worries as a new teacher were eased because I knew I could count on my coworkers for advice, lesson ideas, or even copies of lesson plans they used. I reciprocated by sharing my own lessons and ideas. We wrote tests and quizzes and planned or updated our pacing guides together in our professional learning community (PLC).
Collaboration Overkill: The "Stepford" Teachers
There is another side to collaboration that is often ignored. When administrators become overzealous and mandate "collaboration overkill," teachers have little time for reflection and lose their autonomy.

Teachers stuck in over-planned, micromanaged workplaces remind me of the women in The Stepford Wives. Administrators' efforts to produce "perfect," predictable results across classrooms make teachers robotic in their actions. In these situations, teachers are expected to use the same lessons, quizzes, assignments, projects, and tests on a day-to-day basis. Their professional discretion over how to approach a new skill, standard, or curriculum can be virtually nonexistent.

Sometimes administrators cite teacher input in a scripted curriculum as evidence of the "collaborative" nature of this approach. But when teachers are expected to adhere to restrictive guidelines, they will inevitably suffer the burnout of bureaucracy. Educators who are subjected to this bureaucracy can become exhausted while trying to implement tools, scripts, and lessons that they don't necessarily agree with or understand. This loss of autonomy signifies a lack of respect for teachers. Unreasonable mandates, coupled with this disrespect, are common factors in teachers' decisions to leave the profession.
How Teachers Can Find Their Balance
As experts of our own profession, teachers must take an active role in balancing the need to make choices based on our own expertise with the positive effects of collaboration. For teachers who feel isolated in their schools, one way to find balance is to identify a collaboration buddy. Sharing your workload with even one trusted colleague can spark creativity and help ward off burnout. Veteran teachers can serve as an invaluable resource for newbie teachers looking to fine-tune a new idea, while novice teachers can spark excitement for the learning process in veteran teachers. Help could be just down the hall-but you have to seek it out. If you're having a hard time finding a buddy in your own department, expand your search. Technology makes connecting with like-minded individuals in other departments, or even other schools and districts, possible.

If you work in a place that doesn't seem to support teacher autonomy, ask to speak to your principal, dean, or the assistant principal in charge of instruction. Voice the pros of your point of view and address the administration's concerns. Then bring the conversation back to how your suggestions will benefit your students. In the past, I've started the conversation by mentioning how and why a specific lesson or approach to a learning standard would specifically benefit my students more than the suggested methods.

You can use an extended professional learning network to find and field new ideas. Seek out Twitter chats hosted by trusted educator groups such as Student Achievement Partners, Teacher to Teacher, and the Center for Teaching Quality, and subject-specific groups like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
How Administrators Can Find Their Own Balance
I am a strong believer in proposing solutions, rather than focusing on complaints. With that in mind, here are my ideas for administrators who are striving to ensure a quality education for all students while also honoring teachers' professional autonomy:

1. Set minimum guidelines. These parameters should be your non-negotiable policies for what teachers are expected to do, or not do, in each course.

2. Focus on the big picture. Our most important priority is to provide a quality education for all students. Supporting and leveraging the talents of caring teachers with strong content knowledge is the best way to ensure that all students will receive a quality education.

3. Seek feedback. It is evident that you respect and trust teachers when you allow or encourage them to offer feedback on new curriculum or resources. Another way to show respect is to ask for reasoning or research when a teacher wants to approach learning standards in a different way than their colleagues. Other PLC members, department chairs, content experts, or even professional articles can give you insight and peace of mind.

Educators who work in a collaborative setting are able to share the workload and enjoy the benefits of receiving feedback and support from other professionals in the classroom. A passionate teacher with a strong understanding of her students and content guidelines has the power to excite students about learning. For teachers to keep the joy of teaching and pass on the joy of learning, finding a balance between autonomy and collaboration is a necessary step-and it benefits our No. 1 concern: our students.

Web Only

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
Back to Top

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Balancing Teacher Autonomy and Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Good teachers are growing practitioners. They know their students, their content, and their standards-but they are not satisfied with the status quo. Like all successful professionals, good teachers strive to grow their knowledge and adapt to changes in the landscape of their work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mention group work and you're confronted with pointed questions and criticisms. The big problems, according to our audience: One or two students do all the work; it can be hard on introverts; and grading the group isn't fair to the individuals.

But the research suggests that a certain amount of group work is beneficial.

"The most effective creative process alternates between time in groups, collaboration, interaction, and conversation... [and] times of solitude, where something different happens cognitively in your brain," says Dr. Keith Sawyer, a researcher on creativity and collaboration, and author of Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration.

So we looked through our archives and reached out to educators on Facebook to find out what solutions they've come up with for these common problems.

Making Sure Everyone Participates

"How many times have we put students in groups only to watch them interact with their laptops instead of each other? Or complain about a lazy teammate?" asks Mary Burns, a former French, Latin, and English middle and high school teacher who now offers professional development in technology integration.

Unequal participation is perhaps the most common complaint about group work. Still, a review of Edutopia's archives-and the tens of thousands of insights we receive in comments and reactions to our articles-revealed a handful of practices that educators use to promote equal participation. These involve setting out clear expectations for group work, increasing accountability among participants, and nurturing a productive group work dynamic.

Norms: At Aptos Middle School in San Francisco, the first step for group work is establishing group norms. Taji Allen-Sanchez, a sixth- and seventh-grade science teacher, lists expectations on the whiteboard, such as "everyone contributes" and "help others do things for themselves."

For ambitious projects, Mikel Grady Jones, a high school math teacher in Houston, takes it a step further, asking her students to sign a group contract in which they agree on how they'll divide the tasks and on expectations like "we all promise to do our work on time." Heather Wolpert-Gawron, an English middle school teacher in Los Angeles, suggests creating a classroom contract with your students at the start of the year, so that agreed-upon norms can be referenced each time a new group activity begins.

Group size: It's a simple fix, but the size of the groups can help establish the right dynamics. Generally, smaller groups are better because students can't get away with hiding while the work is completed by others.

"When there is less room to hide, nonparticipation is more difficult," says Burns. She recommends groups of four to five students, while Brande Tucker Arthur, a 10th-grade biology teacher in Lynchburg, Virginia, recommends even smaller groups of two or three students.

Meaningful roles: Roles can play an important part in keeping students accountable, but not all roles are helpful. A role like materials manager, for example, won't actively engage a student in contributing to a group problem; the roles must be both meaningful and interdependent.

At University Park Campus School, a grade 7-12 school in Worcester, Massachusetts, students take on highly interdependent roles like summarizer, questioner, and clarifier. In an ongoing project, the questioner asks probing questions about the problem and suggests a few ideas on how to solve it, while the clarifier attempts to clear up any confusion, restates the problem, and selects a possible strategy the group will use as they move forward.
Courtesy of University Park Campus School
At Design 39, a K-8 school in San Diego, groups and roles are assigned randomly using Random Team Generator, but ClassDojo, Team Shake, and drawing students' names from a container can also do the trick. In a practice called vertical learning, Design 39 students conduct group work publicly, writing out their thought processes on whiteboards to facilitate group feedback. The combination of randomizing teams and public sharing exposes students to a range of problem-solving approaches, gets them more comfortable with making mistakes, promotes teamwork, and allows kids to utilize different skill sets during each project.

Rich tasks: Making sure that a project is challenging and compelling is critical. A rich task is a problem that has multiple pathways to the solution and that one person would have difficulty solving on their own.

In an eighth-grade math class at Design 39, one recent rich task explored the concept of how monetary investments grow: Groups were tasked with solving exponential growth problems using simple and compound interest rates.

Rich tasks are not just for math class. When Dan St. Louis, the principal of University Park, was a teacher, he asked his English students to come up with a group definition of the word Orwellian. They did this through the jigsaw method, a type of grouping strategy that John Hattie's study Visible Learning ranked as highly effective.

"Five groups of five students might each read a different news article about the modern world," says St. Louis. "Then each student would join a new group of five where they need to explain their previous group's article to each other and make connections to each. Using these connections, the group must then construct a definition of the word Orwellian." For another example of the jigsaw approach, see this video from Cult of Pedagogy.

Supporting Introverts

Teachers worry about the impact of group work on introverts. Some of our educators suggest that giving introverts choice in who they're grouped with can help them feel more comfortable.

"Even the quietest students are usually comfortable and confident when they are with peers with whom they connect," says Shelly Kunkle, a veteran teacher at Wasawee Middle School in North Webster, Indiana. Wolpert-Gawron asks her students to list four peers they want to work with and then makes sure to pair them with one from their list.

Having defined roles within groups-like clarifier or questioner-also provides structure for students who may be less comfortable within complex social dynamics, and ensures that introverts don't get overshadowed by their more extroverted peers.

Finally, be mindful that introverted students often simply need time to recharge. "Many introverts do not mind and even enjoy interacting in groups as long as they get some quiet time and solitude to recharge. It's not about being shy or feeling unsafe in a large group," says Barb Larochelle, a recently retired high school English teacher in Edmonton, Alberta, who taught for 29 years.

"I planned classes with some time to work quietly alone, some time to interact in smaller groups or as a whole class, and some time to get up and move around a little. A whole class of any one of those is going to be hard on one group, but a balance works well."

Assessing Group Work

Grading group work is problematic. Often, you don't have a clear understanding of what each student knows, and a single student's lack of effort can torpedo the group grade. To some degree, strategies that assign meaningful roles or that require public presentations from groups provide a window in to each student's knowledge and contributions.

But not all classwork needs to be graded. Suzanna Kruger, a high school science teacher in Seaside, Oregon, doesn't grade group work-there are plenty of individual assignments that receive grades, and plenty of other opportunities for formative assessment.

John McCarthy, a former high school English and social studies teacher and current education consultant and adjunct professor at Madonna University for the graduate department for education, suggests using group presentations or group products as a non-graded review for a test. But if you want to grade group work, he recommends making all academic assessments within group work individual assessments. For example, instead of grading a group presentation, McCarthy grades each student on an essay, which the students then use to create their group presentation.

Laura Moffit, a fifth-grade teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina, uses self and peer evaluations to shed light on how each student is contributing to group work-starting with a lesson on how to do an objective evaluation. "Just have students circle :), :|, or :( on three to five statements about each partner, anonymously," Moffit commented on Facebook. "Then give the evaluations back to each group member. Finding out what people really think of your performance is a wake-up call."

And Ted Malefyt, a middle school science teacher in Hamilton, Michigan, carries a clipboard with the class list formatted in a spreadsheet and walks around checking in on students while they do group work.

"Using this spreadsheet, you have your own record of which student is meeting your expectations and who needs extra help," explains Malefyt. "As formative assessment takes place, quickly document with simple checkmarks."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Educators weigh in on solutions to the common pitfalls of group work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Research suggests that collaboration with colleagues around student instruction is an essential part of every teacher's job and results in rising student achievement. These are the findings Carrie R. Leana, a professor of organizations and management at the University of Pittsburgh, writes about in the fall 2011 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

In her piece, The Missing Link in School Reform, she writes that many so-called reformers argue for increasing human capital - factors such as teacher experience, subject knowledge, and pedagogical skills - in schools. "The power of teacher human capital, the value of outsiders, and the centrality of the principal in instructional practice-form the implicit or explicit core of many reform efforts today." These beliefs are not research-based, however.

The positive effects of social capital have been demonstrated by empirical research. What's social capital? Leana says that social capital

resides in the relationships among teachers. In response to the question 'Why are some teachers better than others?' a human capital perspective would answer that some teachers are just better trained, more gifted, or more motivated. A social capital perspective would answer the same question by looking not just at what a teacher knows, but also where she gets that knowledge. If she has a problem with a particular student, where does the teacher go for information and advice? Who does she use to sound out her own ideas or assumptions about teaching? Who does she confide in about the gaps in her understanding of her subject knowledge?

In a study of more than 1,200 kindergarten through fifth grade teachers in New York City Leana and her co-workers found the following.

Students showed higher gains in math achievement when their teachers reported frequent conversations with their peers that centered on math, and when there was a feeling of trust or closeness among teachers. In other words, teacher social capital was a significant predictor of student achievement gains above and beyond teacher experience or ability in the classroom.

Linette Branham, CEA's director of policy and professional practice, says that CEA has been advocating for years for professional learning for teachers that fits this model.

"When teachers work together with their colleagues to look at student learning data, use it to determine student learning needs, and then determine their own learning needs based on what students need, they design programs that really help improve instruction. That's social capital at its finest."

Professional development training that CEA carried out for local associations last year is based on this collaborative approach.

"It's great to see more research supporting the importance of social capital," said Branham. "We hope this research draws more attention to the importance of teacher collaboration around student instruction."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Research Shows Teacher Collaboration Helps Raise Student Achievement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Research suggests that collaboration with colleagues around student instruction is an essential part of every teacher's job and results in rising student achievement. These are the findings Carrie R. Leana, a professor of organizations and management at the University of Pittsburgh, writes about in the fall 2011 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

# data[].attributes.headline
Google Classroom for Teacher Collaboration

# data[].attributes.subject
Google Classroom for Teacher Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Collaboration. It's one of the biggest buzzwords in education, and when done properly can take your teaching to the next level. The problem is that time is not something teachers have a lot of. What tools exist for asynchronous collaboration that will actually make life easier while enhancing student learning?

This was my guiding question as I considered ISTE Teaching Standard 4: "Educators dedicate time to collaborate with both colleagues and students to improve practice, discover and share resources and ideas, and solve problems." Technology is an obvious asset when considering ways to asynchronously collaborate.

Like a growing majority of schools across America, my former school was a Google school. My department and I used Google Apps for Education extensively to communicate and collaborate. We shared resources, planned assessments, and compared student results using Gmail, Drive, and the commenting features within Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. This strategy worked well for the most part. However, I knew there had to be a way to streamline the process by collecting all this information in one place, sort of how Google Classroom helped me corral all my students' work files, comments, and information into one place. And then it hit me...why not use Google Classroom to collaborate with your department?

I've been told my Google kung-fu is strong, but I couldn't find any teachers currently using Classroom as a tool for collaboration. What I did find is a principal using Classroom to share information and hold teachers accountable. Amy Heavin is an elementary school principal in Indiana whose frustration with the large number of emails, announcements, and random Shared with Me files in Google Drive led her to create several Google Classrooms for communication between teachers. She creates classes by grade-level and instead of sending out mass emails that are easily lost or deleted, she posts the information in the appropriate class. As a principal, she also utilizes the assignment option to keep track of which teachers had submitted required forms.

As I read Heavin's post, I kept thinking about how great it would be to apply this same concept, but within department or grade levels. Instead of it being used strictly for communication and accountability, it could be used as a powerful collaboration tool. All teachers within the department or grade level could be added as co-teachers so that anyone could post and access shared materials. I see this being a place to send reminders, share resources, co-plan lessons, ask questions, share student successes, and house commonly used files.

This Google Classroom "hack" streamlines the collaboration and communication process while allowing teachers to access or input information asynchronously. It would promote ongoing collaboration and work to break down the silo effect between classrooms. To demonstrate how I envision this collaboration happening, I created a sample Classroom and made the following screencast overview.

When implementing a digital collaboration system (whether that is with Google Classroom or another tool), it is important to acknowledge that such systems require careful planning. Richard Beach suggests the following approach:

Step 1: Get all teachers on board with the plan. They must see it as valuable if you want them to participate.

Step 2: Create a leadership team of select administrators, parents, teachers, and/or community members who already utilize digital tools. The leadership team then develops a plan for the district to implement tools within PLCs.

Step 3: Recruit a group of teachers to pilot the digital PLC tool of the school's choosing. (2012)

While Beach's steps are certainly helpful, I would encourage teachers in districts without an adopted system to take the initiative to try a digital collaborative approach. Even if your school isn't a Google school, you can create and participate in classes via Google Classroom for free.

Source:

Beach, R. (2012). Can Online Learning Communities Foster Professional Development?. Language Arts, [online] 89(4), pp.260-1. Available at: http://www.ncte.org.ezproxy.spu.edu/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/LA/0894-mar2012/LA0894Research.pdf [Accessed 5 Apr. 2018].

Heavin, A. (2017). Streamlining Teachers and Staff with Google Classroom. [online] Fractus Learning. Available at: https://www.fractuslearning.com/2015/09/30/staff-streamlining-google-classroom/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2018].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Google Classroom for Teacher Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Collaboration. It's one of the biggest buzzwords in education, and when done properly can take your teaching to the next level. The problem is that time is not something teachers have a lot of. What tools exist for asynchronous collaboration that will actually make life easier while enhancing student learning?

# data[].attributes.headline
Three Ways to Encourage Student Collaboration

# data[].attributes.subject
Three Ways to Encourage Student Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Three Ways to Encourage Student Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here are some ways you can encourage collaboration amongst students. Tips include allowing students time to think alone, pairing students in a strategic way, and assign roles during lesson.

# data[].attributes.body
Each color shows what that student contributed to the collaborative document. This can be seen in Version History of a google doc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How It's Done

The seventh-grade curriculum at University Park includes a strong focus on building foundational group-work skills. A lot of students are self-conscious when they come to UPCS, observes math teacher Kathy Murphy. "They don't want others to know if they're having trouble with solving a problem, and they're shy about speaking," says Murphy.

UPCS' middle school grades introduce students to the roles and expectations of group work and build their comfort around participating. By high school, the teachers can step back to let students direct their own group work.

Here's how UPCS educators teach group work:

Step 1: Help Students Experience Group Work Through Warm-Up Activities

Warm-up activities can increase your students' awareness about what makes good and bad group work.

"Students think that they do good group work, but then you see students who aren't talking to each other," says Murphy. "They're like, 'Here, let me read that,' and they do it on their own. That's not group work."

In Murphy's seventh-grade class, her students do the following warm-up activities to help them better understand what doing good group work feels like:

1. Without talking, have your students line up by height. "All students understand what height is. It's definitely accessible to all," explains Murphy. Time your students to see how quickly they can do this activity.

2. Without talking, have your students line up by birthday. Time them.

3. Have your students line by the number of their street address. This time, your students can say only their street number.

4. Reflect with your students. Murphy asks her students, "What do you notice?" They realize that when they talk and listen to each other, group work is easier, and they are able to achieve their goal more quickly.

Step 2: Share How People Learn in Different Ways

Share a personal example of how you have learned from a student to show that everybody has a unique perspective, something to contribute, and that there are many ways to come up with one solution.

Murphy shares a story with her class about assigning a problem to a previous class. "I myself, being a college graduate and a math major, had this big, elaborate way to solve it. But a ten-year-old did the same exact problem, and I couldn't believe how fabulous his answer was. We got the same answer, and we got to the solution differently. He drew a picture, and it was fabulous."

Step 3: Build Comfort Around Speaking in a Group

At the beginning of the year, assign problems that every student can access and feel comfortable about contributing his or her ideas. By incorporating low-stakes writing or verbal prompts (such as, "What do you notice?"), you encourage kids to feel safe in participating. "Even if they don't know the answer, they can say, 'Well, I noticed there's a pattern that is increasing by two,'" says Murphy.

Step 4: Give Students Roles

In middle school, teachers at University Park lay out more defined roles for their students. Having these specific roles helps students feel more comfortable with participating and prompts them with ways to participate. By the upper grades of high school, students no longer need roles defined for them and are able to jump into group work without guidance.

Roles vary depending on the subject and assignment. "In a literature circle, one person may have the researcher role, one person the facilitator role, and one person the wordsmith role," suggests Principal St. Louis.

In Murphy's seventh-grade math class, she has her students take on the group roles of a questioner, summarizer, and clarifier.

To help her students follow through with their roles, Murphy gives them a sheet of paper with their role description and verbal prompts. This builds comfort in speaking up because they're following directions, instead of having to know what to say or how to contribute on their own.

Here's a sample of what their role directions and prompts look like:
Your Job as Questioner:
Read the problem to the group. After the summarizer takes a turn:

Determine what questions to ask about what you read.

Explain what you were thinking while the problem was read aloud.

Describe a possible strategy and ask your group if it will work.

You can start your conversation with:

I wonder what it means when the problem said _______?

How can we _______?

Could we use _______ to start to solve this problem? ( _______ could be a table, chart, picture, equation.)

In solving the problem:

Check all math calculations for accuracy.

Make sure each group member participates in completing the work.

Ask questions about each step of your work to make sure everyone understands how to solve the problem.

"It's like a baby learning to walk," offers Murphy. "They need a little stroller to hold onto or a ledge to brace themselves. And until they can do that, you can't take that away. It's easing them into being able to do great group work on their own."

Download UPCS' directions and group work prompts for the roles of questioner, summarizer, clarifier, designer/artist, reader/checker, and writer/questioner (PDF).

Step 5: Create a Strong Group-Work Problem

Created by UPCS, here are the characteristics of a good group-work problem:

It involves a goal that would be difficult to accomplish alone.

The roles that students take on to solve the problem are interdependent.

There are multiple interpretations on solving the problem.

It includes an element of discovery and curiosity.

It connects to a piece of literature.

It needs to be rigorous. The expectations for a group problem are set higher than a problem that a student would solve alone, and the end product must be something more rigorous than drawing a picture and making a poster.

Students should explore and synthesize unfamiliar sources (for example, as if preparing for a debate).

Students should understand the content deeply enough that they're able to teach it.

"One of my favorite group-work activities when I taught Orwell's 1984 was a jigsaw where, for example, five groups of five students might each read a different news article about the modern world," recalls St. Louis. "Then, each student would join a new group of five where they need to explain their previous group's article to each other and make connections to each. Using these connections, the group must then construct a definition of the word 'Orwellian.' I certainly could have simply told passive students the definition of this term and what it means, but by enabling them to actively construct their own knowledge, they internalize the ideas more deeply -- as well as internalize their ability to have voice and agency in an academic setting."

Step 6: Group Students by Their Complementary Strengths

If a group problem requires different skills, choose students with those skills so that they can solve the problem together and rely on each other for their different strengths. "Sometimes I'll group students together because I know that this particular kid is good at drawing one thing out of another, or that one of them might have strong spatial skills, and another might have strong symbolic skills, and if we could have them working together, they can try to bridge that," explains Shannon Hammond, a University Park ninth, eleventh, and twelfth-grade teacher. "If I know a kid is particularly going to struggle with some construction aspect, they're going to be balanced with somebody that isn't as challenged by the construction aspect."

Help parents and students understand that every student has something to contribute.

Sometimes parents will tell you that they want their student to be challenged and question how group work can do that. Sometimes you'll get students with a strong understanding of the content who want to work on their own without classmates slowing them down.

When students or parents share these concerns with Murphy, she tells them about the three levels of understanding and explanation:

1. You know enough to convince yourself.

2. You know enough to convince a friend who loves you.

3. You know enough to convince a skeptic.

"That's what I talk to the high fliers about," says Murphy. "They're solid in their understanding and can do the work, but how well can they explain it to others? Explaining what you know to others raises your level of understanding, and a lot of kids struggle with that."

Murphy often has students who at first don't see the value in working with others. They may be good at putting what they know into an equation, but when she asks them to show their understanding in another way -- with blocks, for example -- they have a hard time with it. When this happens, often the students whose ability they doubted are able to help them. "Even the kid who thinks they are the top student can learn something from the other students," states Murphy, "and they learn that we all have different strengths and different things that we can contribute."

Step 7: Assess Group Work

A big part of assessing group work is watching the group in action and seeing how they work together, says Murphy. When her students work in groups, she has every student write in his or her own notebook. Knowing what her students should be able to accomplish by the end of class, such as completing three math problems, she can look at their notebooks and see how far they have gotten. If they've only completed one problem, she knows that she should check their understanding or how they're working with other students.

Here are some of Murphy's formative assessments to check student understanding:

Quick quizzes: She gives each student one to two problems (similar to problems that they've solved within their group) to check their individual understanding.

Exit tickets: A group work rubric (PDF) is an exit ticket for students to grade themselves on how they worked in their group and how their group worked as a whole. Her students are honest with their reflections, and if they rate themselves a one or a two, she asks, "How can we improve that?"

Daily check-ins: Five to seven minutes before class ends, Murphy's eighth-grade students reflect on how they each did that day (What was good about today? Any ah-ha moments?). "Even though I'm hopefully meeting every group multiple times during the class, individually, each student can say how they think the day went, " says Murphy. "They'll say if they are confused about something. They'll say if they thought it worked great."

"Student voice is really important to us," declares St. Louis, and the student voice and agency that University Park fosters in their students flows outside of the classroom. "I have kids come to me as a group every single day. I had four seventh-grade students come to me the other day. They want to do a bake sale to raise money for the Lymphoma Society." His students set up a fundraiser competition between seventh and eighth grade. St. Louis concludes, "They see the value in teamwork."

Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Collaborative Learning to Build Student Agency | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The seventh-grade curriculum at University Park includes a strong focus on building foundational group-work skills. A lot of students are self-conscious when they come to UPCS, observes math teacher Kathy Murphy. "They don't want others to know if they're having trouble with solving a problem, and they're shy about speaking," says Murphy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
To make this approach work, teachers must be willing to "cede the floor" to the students. Other things to consider are the need to create an effective classroom geography, focus on the process, build accountability, let students teach one another, and encourage students to be in tune with one another.

How It's Done

Building Strong Collaborative Learning

Teachers at the College Preparatory School encourage classroom collaboration by assigning students to groups to review their homework, do daily class worksheets, participate in moderated discussions, and complete hands-on projects. Often, teachers give students group tests, which, like the class worksheets, are designed to be harder than the individual assignments. Students quickly realize that they are able to solve problems as a group that they would not be able to solve as individuals. Some of the other ways teachers foster a collaborative-learning environment follow:

Creating an Effective Classroom Geography

In math classes, the students sit face-to-face in groups of four tables to collaborate. In English classes, students sit around a Harkness table (a large wooden table capable of seating the entire class), which allows every student to see the teacher and all the members of the class as they speak. The foundation is that students come prepared to discuss and collaborate.

Focusing on the Process, Not Right Answers

In math, four times a year, each student is given a set of values or codes to substitute in the equations so that even though the students are working together, they have to focus on the mathematical process and not just the "right answer." In English, the discussions are open-ended, allowing for multiple right answers.

Building Accountability

In math classes, students frequently take group tests and can consult with one another on the answers, but the teacher chooses only one test at random to grade for the group. Because the group work is intentionally more difficult, this process keeps individual students accountable for full participation in group work. To measure how well the groups work together, the teacher also gives out a group-collaboration grade for each unit, which is worth 10 percent of a student's grade.

While students participate in the group discussions around the Harkness table in English, the teacher selects one student to be the moderator and another to be the discussion tracker who records the flow of the conversations. The moderator can look at the discussion tracker's notes and see which students he should invite to chime in.

Letting Students Teach One Another

In math and English, teachers cede the floor to students so they can teach one another. In math class, students are given challenging class problems that encourage them to seek ideas and advice from their group members.

In English, juniors are grouped with seniors, which helps the younger students learn how the process works by watching and learning from the older students. Additionally, pairs of students are invited to lead the discussions. The English discussions are also held online, and students are required to participate and comment on at least two other student comments.

Encouraging Students to Be In Tune With One Another

In math classes, students are grouped intentionally to provide a mix of skill levels, which helps them to be more sensitive to group members' needs. The teacher provides feedback on helping the groups interact well, which helps the more vocal students to step back and let the other students participate more.

Every English class starts with a moment of quiet after which students are asked to share their energy and stress levels. Often teachers assign different roles that allow students to focus on the discussion: the scribe takes notes for the entire class, the moderator ensures a smooth discussion, and the discussion tracker maps the flow of the discussion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Building Collaborative Problem Solvers | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To make this approach work, teachers must be willing to "cede the floor" to the students. Other things to consider are the need to create an effective classroom geography, focus on the process, build accountability, let students teach one another, and encourage students to be in tune with one another.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teaching is simultaneously one of the hardest and one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. We often say that students make it worth it, but there's something else that can make or break your happiness as a teacher: your colleagues.

In this article, " Research Shows Teacher Collaboration Helps Raise Student Achievement," researcher Carrie Leana writes about the missing link in school reform: teacher collaboration. In her study of over 1,000 4th and 5th grade teachers in New York City, Leana found that, "students showed higher gains in math achievement when their teachers reported frequent conversations with their peers that centered on math, and when there was a feeling of trust or closeness among teachers."

Collaboration begins with finding time to connect with colleagues, to share thoughts, and provide support. Here are 3 tips for successful collaboration:

1. Build Relationships: Teaching is emotionally draining, and the best colleagues can be there for you in all types of situations. A student erupted in anger? Go next door at lunch time and get a hug. A student said a wildly funny thing in the middle of class? Pop your head into a colleague's classroom and let your laughter loose.

Remember to ask your colleagues to share their trials and triumphs with you, too. Sometimes just asking fellow teachers how their day is going opens up the doors for productive and bonding conversations.

The relationships you build with colleagues aren't just good for your mental well being; they're also the foundation of collaboration that can result in increased student achievement. Just like building relationships with students lays the groundwork for academic success, building relationships with colleagues lays the groundwork for effective collaboration.

2. Find Time to Collaborate: Shared planning time allows teachers to collaborate during the school day. With shared planning time, teachers are able to make strides in planning rigorous and appropriate lessons for their students.

Ideally, your school provides you time within the school day to collaborate with colleagues. If this is not possible, consider lobbying to use some of your school's professional development time for grade level or department teams.

Consider ways that you can collaborate both in and outside school. Sneak a few minutes before or after school to check in with colleagues. Think about collaborating virtually using Google Docs, Skype, or email.

Watch these videos to see examples of collaborative teams in action:

Teaching as a Team Sport (Video Playlist)
Algebra Team: Teacher Collaboration
Leadership Teams (Success at the Core Learning Module)

3. Share Responsibility: The best teacher teams complement each other. Share the responsibility for planning by dividing tasks based on your strengths and interests. When deciding how to share responsibility, consider these questions:

What do I enjoy planning? What does my colleague enjoy planning?

How much time do we have?

What makes sense to plan together? What could we plan separately?

How can we share our plans and get feedback from each other?

Successful collaborations happen when teachers work together to share the workload instead of doubling their efforts. From the delegation of tasks, teachers are also able to learn more from each other as they come back together to review and assemble their separate assignments into a cohesive lesson plan.
Download a printable version of this blog. Lily Jones taught K/1 for seven years in Northern California. She has experience as a curriculum developer, instructional coach, teacher trainer, and is also a contributing writer for Teaching Channel.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching is simultaneously one of the hardest and one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. We often say that students make it worth it, but there's something else that can make or break your happiness as a teacher: your colleagues.

# data[].attributes.headline
Dollar Street - Look at how families live across the world!

# data[].attributes.subject
Dollar Street - Look at how families live across the world!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Projects - Teachers' Guide to Global Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Teachers' Guide to Global, Collaborative Teaching and Learning is a searchable database of global projects and resources to help educators foster global competence and build connections with...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Grade School Students How to Make Global Impact

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At John Stanford International School in Seattle, teacher Nicole Silver offers a Festivals of Light unit to encourage global perspectives in her students. For more information and tips, visit http://www.edutopia.org/stw-global-competence-classroom-tips

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a truly global connection with milllions of students having participated.

What is it?

The premise is simple; we pick a book to read aloud to our students during a set 6-week period and during that time we try to make as many global connections as possible. Each teacher decides how much time they would like to dedicate and how involved they would like to be. Some people choose to connect with just one class, while others go for as many as possible. The scope and depth of the project is up to you. While there are commonly used such as Skype, Twitter, Padlet, or Flipgrid, you choose the tools that will make the most sense for you. Teachers get a community of other educators to do a global project with, hopefully inspiring them to continue these connections through the year.

When is it?

Once a year, starting in early October and running through mid-November. Due to the time commitment, this is only a once a year project, however, two fantastic spin-off projects run at other times; the New Zealand Read Aloud and the French version of GRA, Ecouter Lire le Monde.

I have questions as a Participant

Please see " For Participants" to have all of your questions answered.

I have questions as an Author

Please see "For Authors" to have all of your questions answered.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To see the blog with the latest news and ideas, go here. To join our Facebook Community, go here - this is how you sign up The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a...

# data[].attributes.headline
Hear how global classrooms impact students and teachers

# data[].attributes.subject
Hear how global classrooms impact students and teachers