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I have always believed that collaboration is the act of bringing talented individuals together to work on and toward a common goal, objective, or task. It is important that everyone understands that they have something to offer and contribute to the final product. Each member of the collaborative team must be able to listen first and understand that uniqueness and differences make the group stronger and more adaptable to finding solutions to problems. The best tool I have found to foster goog collaboration is clickup. Clickup is a project-based management and communication platform not only keeps everyone informed and aware of what is happening in real-time with the project but also allows for reflection and problem-solving.

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I have been using Nearpod for the last three years and love how much it lets the class interact. There are some things that they have to individually answer but I always give the students an opportunity to share their response to let others hear that perspective. Videos and pictures give the visual that some students need and fun quizzes that are similar to kahoot are built into most premade slides. The majority of my students look forward to this, they know I incorporate one in each unit and it will last for at least two days. It is so rare that I can get all or most students to enjoy the same thing.

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As hard as it can be to get students to participate in activities the benefit gained in the end is worth the effort to keep trying activities with your students and helping them learn as they go. The more activities you do with your students the easier it should get for the students to participate in activities. Activities in class, be in small group, large group, or individual, allow amazing opportunities for collaboration to occur.

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Collaboration!  Blue Angels - August 25, 2019- Photo by Tammy

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Learning and collaboration needs to happen with ease in today's classes.  Students must learn to work with others and teachers must create an environment that allows for grace and understanding among students in the classroom.

Various forms of collaboration can be recognized each day.  It might be a Kahoot or Quizziz with students having to create a team name based on the students on the team.  Or a collaboration activity might be a student gallery walk to complete problems in the hallway or classroom while helping their others.  For instance, last week I utilized a collaboration activity of matching rational function graphs with their respective function.

Also, students collaborating during homework time is carefully selected (to ensure each student is learning and retaining the newest concept.)  The necessity to collaborate is the norm.

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My favorite strategy to encourage collaboration is Google Jamboards. Similar to Padlet, students can add sticky notes with test, drawings, or pictures to their slide in a way that is very user-friendly. Students can work together on a slide, or work on their own and look at other slides for inspiration/ideas. I like to include Gallery Walks with Jamboard when students are working individually, in order to give them time to see what their peers have come up with. In Google Jamboard the teacher can set a permanent background to the slides (since I teach math, I typically replace the background with a task for students to complete) and the students can annotate on top of that background. This makes for a short-prep assignment where students can work together to solve a task at hand, while being able to view other slides if they get stuck or confused.

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A strategy that I have tried to implement in my rehearsals on a more regular basis, is allowing more feedback and discussion about what the students are hearing from each other and not always relying on me to give them the information or tell them what do it. Sometimes those discussion are as simple as asking open-ended questions about what they are hearing or ways that they think we could improve. At times the questioning is more specific about how they are feeling in their parts compared to those around them. Do they feel they are contributing equally? The more ownership they can have as a group will hopefully provide more motivation for students to continually improve.

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One strategy I use to encourage collaboration in my classroom is Divide and Conquer. I have found that it was difficult for myself and students to establish group work in a productive way. There was always arguing over who was and wasn't doing their part. With Divide and Conquer, students are expected to answer a question independently and then come together as a group brainstorm a response base on everyones answers. This holds students accountable for completing their own work, but can participate in an overall group discussion.

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Another way that I encourage Collaboration amongst my students is through a partner reading program that we call PALS. In PALS, students are grouped with a partner of similar reading level, and they assigned alternating roles as being the "coach" or the "reader." Each pair is also given a score sheet. The goal of the process is for the students to read challenging texts and assist each other in comprehending and reading the words aloud fluently. For each correctly said sentence, the coach will award the reader a point on their sheet. If the reader makes a mistake or fumbles a word however, the coach will say, "check," and then a prescribed process of assistance will begin where the coach assists the reader in figuring out that word and successfully speaking the sentence. Only after the sentence has been correctly spoken will the group receive a point, no matter how many attempts it takes for them to figure it out. In this way, success is only a matter of time, but it rewards effort. You can't "miss" a point, you just may have to stick with it for a few attempts. If neither the reader or the coach can figure the word(s) in question out, they can then raise their hand and I will come assist them with figuring it out. After a short interval of time, normally three to five minutes, the coach and the reader will switch, and the process will begin again. This takes reading and placing the growth of reading comprehension and fluency into a starkly collaborative sphere, and I think that it's quite effective.

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One strategy I use to encourage collaboration with my students is by putting together literature circles at least one time per literary unit that we walk through together in my ELA classroom. Typically these lit circles involve a group of up-to four students who are assigned a specific section or aspect of the text and then are given jobs to each look out for as they work. For example, one student might be the quote-finder. Their job is to find and record any pertinent quotes that they feel like help to understand the main idea or theme of their section. Another student may be the summarizer. Their job is to create a short summary of how they would describe to others what the main idea and supporting details/events of the piece were to those in the class who were not in their group. Depending on group size. I expand or split the group to have even more roles for students to fulfill. I may also give students some duplicate roles and have them come together and create one singular, unified piece after both looking at their role separately. At the end of the activity process, each literature circle is then responsible for presenting their work to the class. In this way the entire class may cover a lot of ground quickly, and tasking the students with collaborating through the use of specialized roles and then teaching their content to their peers, I can hopefully engage them at a higher DOK than I might have otherwise.

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One strategy I use to encourage collaboration in my classroom is Table Talk/Partner Talk. Table/Partner Talk ranges from topic discussions to projects and hands-on learning activities. For the first quarter of the year, I assign groups for them to work in. Once I know my students (who can work together and who can absolutely not work together), I then offer students the choice to team up with students that have things in common with, or someone they haven't teamed up with before.  Once groups are created, discussions and activities can begin.

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As a Middle School Health and High School Health Science teacher my go to collaboration strategy is Jigsaw. I find it is a great way to get a basic understanding of the subject/content that we are learning.  With currently EdTech tools available you can make this this activity visual and utilizing tech to inspire learning.  From this activity I move to PBL activity.  The key to successful collaboration is understanding your students and learning styles grouping them appropriately to maximize each students strength.

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In the past when I have used group work. I have always been really clear about roles and expectations for students so when they start working on an activity or a project each one of them knows their role. I think this also encourages accountability. If you are put into a team and given a responsibility you play a specific part in the desired outcome. Clear defined expectations are also essential for discussions as well. Finally reflecting on what you have learned helps the individual collect his or her thoughts on what they learned from their team. So it is not a magic activity. I try and be very upfront about what is expected from students when I do any activity with them whether it is groups or individual.

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My favorite strategy to encourage collaboration with my students is by providing sentence starters to guide discussions. Many times, students do not feel comfortable during discussions because they are not sure where to start. I use this strategy most when discussing how we solved our math problems. I provide sentence starters that require students to add their own critical thinking and helps them become the teachers. I display these sentence starters all year long so students can use them as a resource.

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My favorite strategy to encourage collaboration within my classroom is not digital. I encourage white board work. If my students had an IPad with apple pencils, I have found great digital tools to use for this strategy. However, because our kiddos have Chromebook, they cannot draw. The power of the whiteboard is unquestionable. It does not have to be a specific sized white board, just a space for students to write their work down for others to see. We do work in small groups with smaller white board and as a class with the large white board. Displaying their work, allows for students to discuss what they did and mistakes.

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One strategy that I use in my class to encourage teamwork is a "Tiger Paw" incentive. We use Class Dojo for individual praise and incentives, but as a whole class my students can earn big tiger paws for going above and beyond. They can be earned by following directions on a difficult task, by being helpful, by showing teamwork in an assignment, etc. The catch is, it has to be the whole group doing the right thing to earn it. Once they have earned 10 tiger paws, they can choose a reward such as dodgeball in the gym, pajama day, something the whole group decides together. This really helps students get on the same team. They all want the reward, and by the first month or so into the school year, they are all helping each other out, reminding each other of expectations, and working together to reach their goals.

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I recently have used Class Dojo to create groups. When in Class Dojo, you can click the toolkit and then group maker. Here you can pick how many students you want in a group starting at 2 to however big you want your groups to be. This way it's at random, because I always tend to find myself putting the same people always into the same groups. Now, my students get to work with other students that they don't always tend to work with or want to work with creating more classroom community!

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In my elementary music classroom we have to be able to sing and play instruments together as a performing group. Sometimes the group dynamic is really good from day one and other times we have a lot of work to do for the students to trust one another. Some students are very insecure about their voices and are reluctant to share it with the class so we start out in small groups. These groups work together to sing/play a song or create movement to the music so they can bring it back to the big group and show what they have created. Often times students begin to find it easier to share their voices after they have spent a little more time in a small group doing something other than singing such as playing a classroom percussion instrument. Spending the time to build relationships and trust, even if it is a simple as coloring a picture together, brings out the smiles and eventually the voices that we like to hear singing together.

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I encourage collaboration and teamwork with my students by grouping them into (ideally) teams of 4. After taking some time to get to know my second graders I try to create groups that allows each student to bring a particular talent or strength to the team. However, my favorite collaborations are when my teammate and I are able to get both of our classes together and put them into blended teams for projects and experiments!

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My favorite part of collaboration in the science classroom is when students get to do a group project or presentation together and have to figure out what they are going to do the project over. I have introduced anatomy projects to my 7th grade students and they have loved doing them. One project is recreating 3 body systems on a life sized human body poster. They get to pick the 3 body systems and have to figure out who is doing what and how they will contribute to the project. Some of the projects turn out amazing because the group was able to work together and solve problems they had come up. Another project is one I give my 6th grade students over colonizing a new planet. They have options on how they want to present the project. They can either write a slides presentation, draw a poster, or a 3D model of their habitat they would live in for colonizing a new planet. They get super creative with the project.

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In School Suspension is not supposed to be a collaborative classroom but I make it happen anyway because we are here to learn. The strategy that I have found works best is making sure there is an opportunity for students to learn from one another. For example, an 8th grader will have the opportunity to teach or mentor a 6th grader on a math assignment. My goal is to help the kids understand that all the subjects build upon themselves. What is learned in earlier parts of their schooling will be used again at some point in life. This also builds the leadership capability between both age groups.

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Creating collaboration in my room is something I still need to work on. I do however have my tables grouped together to allow for think-pair-share or table talk during my presentations of the new lesson. I often listen to my students talk and discuss each others artwork in these groups. Looking through this board I can see many different tools I could use to enhance collaboration!

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Flexible seating has had the greatest impact in my classroom. Using the existing furniture plus some donated items, I created groups within my room that have a shared workspace. Since the pandemic and the need to socially distant the students, I have noticed a dramatic impact on my behavior management and the ability of my students work together in a shared workspace. They are able to share materials, talk with each other more and create better.

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Padlet created at beginning of HS scary movie music unit we just started.

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It seems redundant to say Padlet since we are creating this on a Padlet, but I really do love this tool.  In my music classroom, I have used Padlet to get brainstorming collab ideas moving at beginning of units for several semesters now.  I can almost always get even the most disinterested high school student into creating something when they get to google search a meme.  While I have to pull more from some students than others when it comes to creating the discussion on the post, at least I'm getting involvement almost 100% of the time.  I teach in alternative setting and each new semester a whole new group of students come.  They don't know each other, they are being pulled away from their homeschool and put into my school and they are NOT interested in talking to each other yet.  Part of the assignment in my class when doing a collab Padlet is they have to "like" all the posts that they read and then comment on two others' posts.  I enjoy that I can filter out "profanity" and make it to where I have to approve posts before students can see them.  Great teacher function!
This is a full "break the ice" activity that doesn't require them having in-depth conversations, but they still get read and engage with other classmates.  I even keep the same board for all my high school students so they get to read what students have done in the past.  I like the idea here of keeping the same Padlet for years!  I always start over with a new semester, but getting to read what other students over the years have written here is very intriguing for me to apply to my classroom as well.

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Creating teams can be an interesting challenge. However, I have found it best to make sure that students have the same teams for at least a quarter. I then change this 2nd quarter. As keeping the same team, will help them grow as a team. However, I also find it important to rotate the teams out so they learn to work with many not just one team.

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Since I teach English, I love having students work together on letter corrections. I will give each group a letter that I wrote that is FULL of different errors-like as many as I can make without it being unreadable. Each student, armed with a different color, needs to work together to find and correct as many mistakes as possible. This helps students with different writing and reading skill levels get used to reading and editing together, and helps them get used to spotting mistakes, and seeing what they struggle to spot. It's a great way to get kids ready to edit each others' work without as much distrust and nervousness about making and sharing mistakes.

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One my favorite resources for collaboration is Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It allows individual to share what is being worked on and each individual can update with his/her part. In addition, if they have google hangouts, they can create groups to discuss things from a distance. With today's technology the sky is the limit.

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The biggest part of collaboration is to build on the the terminology "team". Students become more active in teams if everyone on the team is acting as a team. It is important for each student learn and understand what it is to be part of the/a "team". Students also have to understand that team is not one person, so each person on the team should have a role in building the project/assignment. In addition, each person on the team needs to be respectful of each other.

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Using the term "teams" instead of "groups" makes so much sense!  I can't wait to start using this strategy in my classroom.  I believe that getting students to think about what it mean to be part of team and having those discussions before working with peers will help make collaboration in the classroom so much more meaningful.

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I love the idea of using the word teams instead of groups. Teams are more cohesive and have a focused goal. When talking about teams students can relate and understand how working together makes it better for all. I plan to use this idea from now on.
I just taught a lesson on working together today in summer school. We read and discussed a story about working together. After I gave my students a tower of plastic cups and challenged them to stack them to make a pyramid as tall as me. They loved working together and seeing how successful they could be. I only had a few students so we only had one pyramid of cups but I plan to use this lesson again in the fall and challenge teams against teams to see which one can build the tallest tower of cups.
I also have flexible seating in my classroom and encourage working with each other to learn from each other. I start this at the beginning of the year with cooperation games and activities. I enjoy giving my students the flexibility to feel comfortable where ever they sit or who ever they are working with. We learn these skills throughout the year with various tasks.

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One strategy that I use every day in my classroom is "Ask 3 before me". If a student missed a part of the instructions, forgot a step, or isn't sure what to do next I tell them to use "Ask 3 before me". This allows students to talk with their peers and find the answers on their own rather than me just handing them the answer. I will also change it up a little bit and toward the end of a project have the students do a directed ask 3. This time I have the students ask 3 of there peers "What can I add or change about this to make it better?" This allows for a more artist viewpoint and seeing that not all artworks are done when we think they are. I alway love hearing some of the idea that the students come up with on how to make them better and some times they are things I don't even think of.

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When introducing collaboration to students, I often start off with the Marshmallow Challenge.
I love to see how students interact.  After the challenge is complete, we have a class discussion about what it takes to be part of a good collaboration, creating an anchor chart.  A few weeks into the school year, I have the students work in the same team and do the challenge again.

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Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?

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One tool I use to foster collaborative groups in my classroom is to have students find commonality with their peers. For example, I may have students take a personality tests and group themselves by their personality. Or, I may have students pick a side of a debate and meet with the people who chose their same side. I often start group work by having students make a list of everything they can find that they have in common with their group. I will set a timer and the group to come up with the most unique points wins. This encourages students to talk to one another and gives shy or lower-achieving students a way to participate meaningfully in the early stages of group work. When group work is complete, I have students reflect independently on what worked and what did not work with their group. I often use a combination of a rubric and a free-response. As students work, I make sure that each person has a clearly defined job in their group and knows exactly what they are accountable for.

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A few of the strategies I use to foster a collaborative environment include personality tests, group roles and norms, rubrics, peer and self evaluations, and open communication. I like to do personality tests at the beginning of the year so the kids can learn about themselves. I teach freshmen, so they are really coming into their own personalities and starting on their journey of self-discovery. I always devote class time to letting students come up with roles and norms for their groups for larger projects. In addition, peer evaluation can help to keep the kids accountable.

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As a high school teacher, I have benefitted from using Kagan strategies in the classroom. Typically, I set up groups of four and each desk has a number and letter taped in the right upper corner. When students collaborate, each number or letter has a role (changes depending on the activity). I pick a number at random and the chosen person from each group shares out the groups' answers with the whole class. It's great for accountability purposes and it gives each student a chance to share out throughout the school year.

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I use a lot of collaboration in my writing lessons. Students are paired up and work together for a whole unit. Then they will switch partners for the next unit to be able to work with others. These partnerships allow them to get ideas from each other for whatever it is they are writing about. They will edit each other's writing once they have a draft finished. They will even discuss published writing piece that go with the type of writing we are doing in class. We talk about different prompts they can use with each other like "I agree with... because..." or "I disagree with... because..." I call it our writing community. They don't just work with their partner. They can work with other pairs as well. They can get together and bounce ideas off of each other to help improve their writing.

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When my school first went 1:1 with Chromebooks, a lot of my coworkers thought it was fine to keep their traditional student desks organized into rows in their classrooms. Many teachers in my building did not recognize or even think that the mere addition of Chromebook technology in the classroom encouraged collaboration among the students. Too many teachers thought that the Chromebooks would just get rid of the amount of actual paper that flowed through the classroom on a daily basis. During that same school year, tables were being made available for teachers who wanted them in the classroom. Once some teachers got those tables, they were able to see how it really changed the learning dynamic in the room, let alone the space it freed up and allowed a teacher to roam a little more freely. I was one of the teachers who wanted tables. I was so excited about getting Chromebooks that I started hitting things at full tilt when it came to incorporating tech in my curriculum, especially once I got my tables. The student collaboration factor instantly was taken up a few notches! One thing that was heavily suggested to me by our ed tech specialist (with whom I now work closely) was to move my "station" to the rear of the classroom. I thought she was crazy at first. For one, I thought how is the teacher supposed to be located in the back of the room?? I loved my workspace and my personal area of the classroom. I didn't want to disrupt my workflow. What I did was move my podium to the back of my classroom. When teaching, I was at my podium normally anyway as I felt that it was a convenient space my students could find me and it allowed me to jump up quickly and go help any students who needed it. Once I moved my podium to the back, I instantly loved it! I was a lot like the teacher in the Remake Your Class video who had his classroom reorganized. I was in the middle of the action with the students. Not only was I READILY available and part of the "mix," I was able to see what the students were doing on their Chromebooks (for the most part, depending on how they were positioned at their tables). So, for anyone wanting to change up the physical landscape in his/her classroom, moving the teacher space/hub right into the middle of things will definitely change the classroom dynamic. It seems like such a small move (and it is!), but it's certainly worth it because it sets things in motion so much more efficiently for learning!

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Teaching collaboration is a foundation that kindergarten students learn from day one in my classroom. We start by having an anchor chart with images of how we will learn throughout the year. Then we have a project where students build with some gears. They all start out by themself but they are missing pieces. The students have to find the missing piece and connect it. Then I have a "key" that makes the gears move. This shows that without working together the gears don't move. Students refer back to that project throughout the year. We continue to build different strategies of collaboration as the year goes on.

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My favorite way to have my students collaborate is when I pair them for Coding. In computer programming you have a navigator and a driver. Then I have them switch then and also they switch partners. It is awesome to see, I have them switch every 15 mins every 30 starting out. They also have to go to the board and write their questions which ever group can answer it they write the answer up there. Right now since we are dealing with Covid the students wouldn't be able to do this style of project base learning. Pltw has become one of my favorite things to teach my students.

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One of my collaborative assignments I enjoy doing is during my figurative language unit. I created a Google Slides presentation that they all access together with editing rights. We cover eight different types of figrative language, then, I split the class into four small groups. I then require each group to fill out their two slides for two different types of figurative language, and there are just enough jobs for each person to do for the slides. When they are all finished with their slides, they take turns presenting and teaching the class their figurative language examples. It gives the students an opportunity to spread out the workload and earn a speaking grade to the class since everyone speaks for just a little.

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I like to start by building relationships and bonds with the students. I feel like this creates an environment where the students feel comfortable in sharing ideas without judgement. In my Algebra 1 classes, we used to do a lot of collaborative activities when we were face-to-face. But with learning  happening mainly via Google Classroom, I am having to come up with other ideas. I've used Flipgrid several times, which was quite successful. Flipgrid is a fun way for students to show off their creative personalities and to be able to interact with each other.

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Something that I have found really helpful when teaching collaboration is to intentionally teach what my expectations of it are for my students.  At the beginning of the year we teach what accountable talk looks and sounds like.  Students learn that when collaborating if you aren't the speaker you should be actively listening.  When your the speaker here is how you can agree, disagree, and build off of someone else's ideas.  My team of fourth grade teachers uses a handy resource from Head Over Heels For Teaching on Teachers Pay Teachers to keep accountable talk phrases always within reach of our students. That way when they are collaborating and are not sure how to share their thinking they have a tool that can help them. I've also found my students who are not the natural "talkers" use the resource as a way to feel comfortable becoming part of the conversation. Students also need to be shown that everyone's thoughts are valuable. This requires a lot of modelling from the teacher, but lets students know that their thoughts are expected to be heard and respected.

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A collaborative strategy I have tried making my class jobs into teams. We start this at the very beginning of the year. This helps when we move into group projects for social studies and science. Students apply for a job and are given their top 3 choices. Then they come up with what duties do they envision for that team and specific job within that team. They meet on a schedule they set, discuss what the plan is if someone is not holding up their end, and switch jobs within that team when they want. Giving students these choices and responsibility truly makes a differences when they collaborate with curriculum because they have already came across solutions for common group problems. This also allows me to put my attention on their learning and less on their behaviors.

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My favorite way to form a collaborative environment in the K-5 music classroom is to prepare for and put on a mini musical.  In order to successfully complete the end goal, students must work together as a team.   Throughout the process, students have to listen to each other, know their own singing and/or speaking parts (pull their own weight), can contribute to the creative process (choreography, costume selection, set design), and make sure everyone is included.  Throughout the process,  a wonderful sense of camaraderie and ownership is formed.

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Something I use to encourage collaboration is just the simple idea of arranging PHYSICAL SPACE to my advantage. I am fortunate enough to have a classroom where I have desks AND lab stations. Each student has 2 assigned places in class, one for more serious quiet independent study and a 2nd which is part of a table and have the lab station equipment available as well. This is a collaborative space to try new design projects, share ideas and perform lab work.

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Some of my favorite collaborative structures I use in my classroom come from Kagan Cooperative Learning. I have 6 tables of 4 in my classroom and students are strategically placed in each spot according to academic level and personality. When students are first placed in a new team, they participate in a team builder where they find things they have in common with one another to determine a common team name. My students always enjoy this activity and I find it's a good way for students to begin feeling comfortable collaborating with those at their table. I also love that I can call teams by their unique names instead of Team 1, Team 2, etc.

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One of my favorite ways to encourage collaboration is to give students the choice on how and with whom they will collaborate. For example, instead of prescribing strict rules on group size, I might allow students to work in groups of 2, 3, or 4. This offers more flexibility and gives students a little freedom to choose a structure that supports their personal preferences and best learning.

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A rather interesting idea that I have tried is mixed seating every day of class. Students are never allowed to sit in the same seat (unless of course it randomly assigns them there)! The students are always traveling among the room and having to work with different pods. It's particularly powerful to see students work with peers they may not connect with every day. Students will absolutely hate it at first, but I found that they eventually find it to be the "norm" and the complaints die out quickly. I really enjoy seeing students from all aspects of life collaborating with one another and getting to know each other. The only issue with this is if you have students that need to be seated in certain places in the classroom to accommodate individual learning plans but this can easily be worked around as that one student can stay in the same place or zone as everyone else is being randomly shuffled.

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When I first started teaching Kindergarten we had the traditional tables and chairs.  I started observing classrooms, listening about alternative seating and thought to myself I really want to try this. I started slow by making my own bench with milk crates, foam and plywood. I made two of them and my students enjoyed a change in the reading center. A few years back I learned about Donors choose and they were having a Match Offer for flexible seating through Target (they were matching offers). So I decided to create a project based on what I thought my students would enjoy. I looked at Pinterest/Blogs and created a good handful of seating choices. My first project totaled up to $1, 000 in yoga chairs, pillows, wobble stools, folding chairs and lap desks and it was just to start my change. It wasn't for every table. I was amazed how fast it was funded so I decided to do a 2nd project asking for then enough for my whole class to have a choice in seating. It was like Christmas for about 5 days straight as boxes kept being delivered. :) But most importantly how it B brought my students together-colaborating and even their behaviors improved. They had a choice.... they picked what worked for them. They didn't have to sit in traditional chairs if they didn't want to but I still had it be an option. I lowered and raised tables to meet the needs of those tools I just brought into my classroom.

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In my previous school I had a mixture of both triangle desks and tables, so it was really easy to arrange my room in such a way that students were always grouped up. The triangle desks could easily be put into groups of 3 or 6 depending on how large I wanted my group to be. Then putting two tables together made a nice group of four. As a class where there was a lot of time to work in groups, that made my life a lot easier. It is much harder this year in my new school with the sled desks. I feel like they don't fit together as well, so usually I just have them in pairs.

Besides grouping desks to enhance collaboration, another tool that I have been known to use is an "Ask 3 before you ask me" routine. This forces students to collaborate (or ask) 3 other students for help or to teach them something before they are allowed to ask me for help. This usually sparks great conversation among students and usually resolves the question before it gets to me.

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One strategy I have used to foster a positive collaboration environment is with 2 stars and a wish feedback. I was taught this strategy by a coworker. I used this after a peer gallery walk after a writing piece. Students read each others writing and filled out a half sheet with 2 stars and 1 wish. The two stars represent 2 really awesome things they saw or read. The wish is something that they wish they read or saw that could make it even better. Students loved the positive feedback and compliments.

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In my classroom I love when students learn something from other students. I love seeing students ask other students for help and when students help other students out. I really encourage everyone to communicate with each other. One of my rules is ask your neighbors before you raise your hand and ask me. This lets students teach other students and learn from other students. Another collaboration strategy I like doing is share time.

After reading a book I ask my students to “turn and face a partner and say nothing.” Students quietly turn and face someone sitting right by them. They don’t get up and go to their best friend. This way they share ideas with someone they may not typically partner up with. I will them ask an open-ended question about the book or something related to the book. I set the timer and when it starts students share. I will get on their level and listen in. When the timer is up, they turn and face me. I will pull Popsicle sticks with student’s names on them. Those students will get to share what they said to their partner out loud to the class. Then I would have students turn and face a partner again. I usually ask a few questions. It gets the students thinking and communicating with one another. Also, students learn how to listen and take turns talking which is a great skill for my kiddos to learn.

Every day during writing students get to share what they wrote. I have students share with those around them during writing (to keep each other on track and catch any mistakes). Then at the end of writing students can get up and share with someone they don’t sit by. I encourage students to kindly tell their partner when they see an error such as a misspelled word. Also, I encourage students to give positive feedback.

During math after I am done teaching the lesson students partner up, find somewhere to sit, and work together. If student’s need help, then they come to my table and I work with them in a small group. Students are only allowed to help each other, not give each other the answers. They know when working with a partner during math that giving them answers does not help them learn.

My students do a good job communicating and helping each other out every day.

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Hello
I am a teacher that changes my seating and set-up every month.   I have flexible seating that can be easily moved around the room as needed.  This not only changes up my groupings, but it forces students to work with different students.  My students all know that these groupings will change throughout the year and the number of groups and how many are in each group are consistently changing.

Right now, with the start of a new semester,  I had them sitting in partners.   With a larger group need then they just pair up with the partner group by them.  Desks can move around very easily also.  If I need a larger group, then I just use the  rows together.   If someone doesn't like where they are, they just have to handle it for a few weeks and it will all change again.
(Besides, they will all have to work with those they do not always get along with - WE HAVE TO LEARN TO HANDLE OURSELVES and STILL PRODUCE WORK!!)

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I have tables in my classroom in "L" shapes to maximize space and walk-ability in my classroom. Students know that they are sitting at the same table as their regular shoulder partner, but they also know that their "L" shaped tables are their groups of 3-4. We collaborate quite often, but I try to vary up my methods of collaboration to allow for further creativity and to introduce many tools/strategies for students to learn and use. After almost every group collaboration project, students participate in a reflection type discussion where they can give constructive critiques to other groups to improve upon in the future.

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My classroom has tables instead of desks. This allows students to discuss with one another as well as share a common space with others. This allows students to learn how to work together to keep their tables organized while they are working together. We also have random pairings of 2, 3, and 4 students in a team to complete an assignment or participate in a discussion, this allows each student to work with everyone instead of the same few students each time.

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In my classroom I have 5 tables that seat four. I love having tables rather than desks because it automatically fosters collaboration. Throughout the year I encourage students to work together on many assignments. At the beginning of the year we spend time learning how to truly help each other by giving helpful comments, encouragement when others might be struggling, and tips or hints, without doing someone else work. At the first grade level this is a very hard concept to understand. I also want them to learn how to lean on each other for support rather than always coming to me for a quick answer. During stations I have a rule "ask three before me". I loved the idea of using the term "teams" rather than "groups". There is a big difference between the two. I currently use the term groups for everything. I plan to start using the term "teams" to help foster a more collaborative mindset.

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Like Lindsay, my classroom is all "alternative" seating. I don't have even one desk. All of the different types of tables are painted with whiteboard paint. I find that of everything else I might do to have my students collaborate with each other, it's the whiteboard table tops that really get them working as a team. As I watch them during a process where they are in small "teams" to come up with an answer all heads are bent towards the table and they are all furiously writing, editing, erasing, talking, and rewriting. I know this can be done with a piece of paper and pencil, but it's something about being able to write and erase directly on the table that really gets my students thinking and working as a team.

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My classroom consists of tables instead of desks and wide, cushioned chairs. I arrange them so the students are able to work in groups of four. They choose their own seats and stay that way unless they make me move them. Collaboration is important in my class. Once the lesson is presented, before I answer questions on homework, I ask them the same the question, "did you ask anyone at your table for help?" I encourage them to use each other inside and outside the classroom for help.

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In the classroom, my desks were constantly moving from day to day depending on the activity and learning objective for that day.  I also used to place name cards on the desks each day, so they not only were sitting in a different location depending on desk arrangement but also mixed up on a regular basis who they were sitting by.  This allowed for our daily interactions to happen with someone new.  In a language classroom there are a lot of opportunities for paired conversations or questioning and it was nice to not always talk to the same person.

I also have used both in my classroom and with teachers in PD sessions, a back channel that allows for people to ask questions without having to ask questions out loud.  This boosts confidence which hopefully in turn lends itself to more collaboration in the long run with everyone feeling that their opinion matters and is heard.  I've had good luck with answergarden.com and most recently the free and highly accessible Q & A function in Google Slides. We have also used Padlet (like this) and a lot of Google Communities for sharing and commenting. We now use Seesaw in a lot of our classrooms to share work and teach appropriate commenting to students.

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My classroom consists of mainly desks and a couple of tables all arranged so that students are able to collaborate with one another. I also have 4 large carpet areas in my classroom of which some contain chairs, bean bags, or large fluffy pillows - we use these spaces also during group/team time to collaborate in a more comfortable manner, if the students choose to. During carpet time/whole group we also collaborate by having partners that we think-pair-share with. I also try to incorporate working collaboratively once a week by having the students share their Google Doc Writing piece with a partner in the classroom for peer editing.

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In my class students sit in Kagan groups. I have their groups labeled with a different superhero for each table. Doing this has made it easier if I just wanted to call on a specific table. I also have access to chromebooks in my classroom and have left the chat open in Google Classroom so students can discuss through this if they have questions or if I want them to discuss as a whole class. I also have them discuss as tables and try to do a Kagan strategy at least every other day if possible.

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In my classroom, with the types of desks and tables I have, it has made it easy to form collaborative seating arrangements. All of the students are also able to see the front of the room where the board is easily. Besides seating, my classroom is collaborative because we do a lot of group/partner work. My students are constantly asked to share their thoughts and ideas with those around them. We also do a lot of think-pair-share, which helps foster a collaborative environment.

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My classroom already physically lends itself to collaboration because I have complete flexible seating.  There are tables of varying heights and sizes around the room, as well as open spaces where a group can work on the floor or at a counter.  Although I have taken the first step toward a collaborative environment, the act of facilitating true collaboration is my challenge.  I was inspired by the article that talked about a team vs. a group and have decided to focus on building collaborative skills by putting my class into teams that they stick with for a longer period of time. While it is important to be able to work with many different types of people, it is also important to build relationships and trust with teammates before you become truly interdependent.

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Like others, I have tried multiple seating arrangements in the past.  We have tables rather than desks, which to me is positive for collaboration but negative for materials and organization.  I kind of want to try getting rid of desks and tables completely with the exception of those used for mini lessons, conferences, and centers.  Since I work with little people, they are used to being on the floor and it allows more space in the classroom to be used.  I am thinking about making small work spaces around the room that is like a designated place to work in teams and collaborate.  Each one will have a whiteboard. In the end, I often find the furniture to be hindering collaboration, so maybe removing that stumbling block?

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Reading everyone's comments about flexible seating and the way in which it fosters collaboration has made me VERY excited for the coming year with a class of older kids. I have learned throughout this week that I can loosen the reigns and trust my students to do more, rather than rely on myself to do it all on my own. I am looking forward to giving my students QR codes that link to their district logins, pushing out assignments through Google and Dojo Portfolio through their iPads, and offering new collaborative tools to my teammates that will be useful to us at PD. I am excited to get back to work and begin collaborating in my classroom, with my peers, and with my (sometimes unreachable) admin.

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I want the collaboration process to be active, so I have designated whiteboard space for each team to use as they need, for whatever they need. Some days it may be used to draw designs, others for programming, others to simply brainstorm. Built-in problem to this: Space used for Group A during 3rd hour will be used by Group D during 4th hour, so all of Group A's work is erased. There is often nothing for teams to come back to on subsequent days without taking a picture at the end of every class period. My school just went 1:1 and the laptops have inking capabilities, so I am going to try to have the students use the whiteboard app since it has a sharing option to see how effective this is as an alternative.

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I have tried multiple seating arrangements to help facilitate collaboration and to allow students to not have to strain to look to the front of the class when needed. Last year I used a double U pattern. It allowed everyone to look forward as needed, but also allowed students in the inside U to turn around and work with the outside U in smaller groups. I could then either walk to the inside or outside of the room and meet with all students and not have to navigate aisles of backpacks.

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In my classroom, I have designed my room for collaboration with flexible seating.  If students are comfortable, it will help increase engagement which allows for collaboration to be more beneficial.  Students are allowed to move about my room as needed to work and/or collaborate with other students. This also helps with the time constraints and managing their time.  Collaboration only works if everyone is participating and my room set-up helps to increase productivity.

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I have arranged class seating to naturally prompt collaborative interactions between students. As a psychology teacher, I tend to be mindful of how the physical environment affects behavior and thus, try to capitalize on that as much as possible.

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When doing a review or even learning new concepts, finding experts for math problems and working through a speed dating activity or something similar students are able to discuss out how to find the solution. At times, I have found that students tend to listen to a student better on a concept than they do to myself even when they are explaining it the exact same way I did.

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In my classroom, students are constantly collaborating and bouncing ideas off of each other.  We do a lot of partner work and group work at the third grade level.  Students love working together and learning from each other.  I have found that they are more likely to participate and give it more effort when they are in small groups of 3-4, rather than individually or even a larger group setting.  It is amazing how much this helps with their confidence level within the whole group discussions at the end of a lesson.

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To foster a collaborative environment in my classroom I allow groups or teams to collaborate when needed. When creating groups, I try to do so evenly. However, sometimes teams just get stuck. Instead of swooping in and helping the group I allow them to work with other groups. Not only are students collaborating within their smaller team but they get to share ideas across teams during the learning process. Then we come together at the end to share and discuss as a whole class.

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In my classroom students must always collaborate with each as we are playing band music together and we must work towards the ultimate goal of playing together. One way to help this goal is by students getting with fellow classmates to record them playing their marching band music and uploading into our classroom for us to keep up on their progress in the marching show. All students must do their part for the show to be a success in the fall.

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In my grades 7-12 HS Band class, collaboration is expected and built in. Each instrumental section sits near each other in order to be able to hear, adjust and work with each other. Part of our daily rehearsal is sectional work, where each section works together, or collaborates, to improve the group project which is our musical performance. My section leaders and drum majors are appointed to keep track of progress, identify goals and when they are met, and to help those students who are not meeting their goals. Successful bands do not happen without collaboration on many levels.

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When teaching my students to collaborate, an idea I am wanting to incorporate is a mini-group model. I like the idea of creating a four-person group for a big assignment/project for a quarter. During that quarter, I would have the students rotate partners from their main group so that students are constantly working with new, yet familiar colleagues.

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My partner teacher and I are constantly creating opportunities for our classrooms to work together and collaborate on cross-curricular projects.  Whether it be in writing, social studies, science, etc. - our past and present students know us for our "projects".  In line with these activities, we work hard to ensure that our students are collaborating and communicating with one another in an appropriate and respectful manner.  In line with this, prior to the start of any project, my partner teacher and I work to create student groups that contain individuals that not only will work well together - based on the task at hand - but will also deepen their learning and stretch their capabilities. We find that it is so crucial to provide our students with these types of opportunities - so that they can see the potential they have and to learn that success is a group effort - requiring the diverse perspectives and skills of all involved.

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I have used a couple of different ways to create collaboration with my students. They have used discussion board posts on Canvas, but my favorite is Quizlet, where I have them work together as teams to complete matching activities. This really brings them together and they have to work as a team. They all use their iPads to see the questions, but the answers are dispersed among all their devices so they have to discuss and agree before answering.

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I really liked the idea that instead of having collaborative groups I could have collaborative, “Teams.” I already have groups set up for my classroom, but am going to  give them a chance to make a team name and I think that will give them a sense of togetherness that will help them cooperate and collaborate at a different level. Some great tools I have used to help facilitate collaboration are Kagan’s Cooperative Learning techniques. One I particularly like is, “Round Robin,” where the teacher asks a question and teammates take turns answering.

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One method I have used to have my students collaborate is using Google Docs/Slides to create presentations as a team. I have also used them for literature circles which I have absolutely loved. There are some issues with this in my grade level because students are a little more immature and like to mess with each other's progress. They don't even realize this costs them more time in the long run.

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Teaching a project-based Media course,  it’s important I have an organized seating arrangement that encourages students to interact with one another. To form a more collaborative classroom, student desks are centered in the middle of the room in Pods of 4-6, and my Macs are set up 4 to a table along the walls. This allows me easy access to all groups as they collaborate, and it saves time when they need to move from the computers to the desks. I start off the semester with a discussion about teamwork and the importance of helping one another. I find most high school students are pretty good about working together. We share what we like and dislike about group work and then we set up our rules for collaboration.
Last year, I found this great article, that we review before any group project. Here's the document I created with the link to the original article:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UCVi0j4qBAqKpJwpFKjwiXTe0zLDhyI6xy6xdY9EJuE/edit#

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To form a more collaborative classroom, I have my students practice using accountable talk stems. My first graders learn how to agree, disagree, and ask for clarification without hurting others' feelings or coming off as rude. This allows for them to have productive conversations with others rather than arguing. With first grade, it's baby steps!

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To form a more collaborative classroom, my students meet with other groups to share an idea together. When assigned a group project, they work with their group for the majority of the time but I allow 10 minutes for one person of each group to go around and share ideas with the other groups. The group member then goes back to the original group they are in and shares the ideas to his/her members. This allows collaboration not just within the groups but also between each group

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In reading, we have a country study unit. As a class, we researched and studied Japan. Then, students were able to choose a country of their choice from a list, and this placed students in groups with others interested in studying the same country. I arranged students' desks into groups based on their countries. Each group had a Padlet board they could use for organizing their research. Students could add text, photos, maps, videos etc. that could be used for their project. Groups took their research and created a slide show using Google Slides or Haiku Deck.

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In the beginning of the school year, I always try to start collaboration with a few fun activities that allow my students to work in teams. One of those activities is "Save Sam" this requires students to work with pairs to get a gummy worm out from under their plastic cup and put a life saver on him using only paper clips. The other activity is done in groups of 3 or 4. The students have one large construction paper and have to work together to make the longest paper chain. Both activities require communication and teamwork. They are very fun and it gives me a good idea of how the students are individually in groups.

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When I introduce collaboration to my students, I like to share two stories. These two stories teach the importance of working together. The first story is the Little Red Hen. I relate this to all PBL projects. The second story is the The Three Pigs. I read the version where the first and second pig don't make it. From this story the students can see that every pig had an idea but they didn't talk it through which unfortunately cost two pigs their lives.
I also do a group writing  where we build a story. The topic is given and every student must contribute sentences to the story.

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To form a more collaborative environment in the classroom, students learn and practice talk moves. They do this by learning how to actively listen to peers talk, try repeating what they say and then politely agreeing or disagreeing, and then adding their own thinking on to what others say. Students do this when they turn and talk to their partner during a lesson, when they work in small groups during independent work time, or when they are collaborating at their desk in groups with other students. This allows students to sharing their ideas and thinking, and hear classmates thinking and response to a learning skill. It allows them to learn from their peers and lets their peers become teachers. The space between students when at their desk allows them to flow easily from peer to peer. When on the floor it promotes a positive environment for them to communicate and work together. The collaboration space allows me to circle both areas and listen to student ideas and thoughts. Both areas, for the teacher and students, promote a positive work space.

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For me the most fun and collaboration we had was using a shared Google drive folder. We were all able to view each others work and collaborate with one another. We would do our work obviously, but there was also some harmless fun like changing colors of fonts, adding an extra page with a cat at the bottom, etc. For me it was so cool because I was there for my students process of writing and editing. I could provide real time feedback to what they were doing. I think it helped that we were very close in that class. Classroom environment really aided in the collaboration atmosphere of using the drive effectively.

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To create a more collaborative environment in my classroom, I have arranged my desk in groups. There are four-six desks at each grouping. This arrangement allows my students to face each other which makes it easier to have a discussion about their work. I use red, yellow, and green cups to monitor on task behavior. I use small caddies with separate compartments to organize their supplies when they are working on a project together. I include the text or any other resources along with any supplies they will need to use in these caddies to minimize distractions and maximize work time.

Technology is a great way to encourage collaboration. I have created a project in Schoology that I will be using to teach my summer school class. For this project, I have separated the class into four groups. Each group will be responsible for learning about their assigned part of the project. After they become experts on their part of the project, they will share their information with other groups. Students will work collaboratively with their expert group and then again with other groups in the class to share their information.

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When reviewing for math tests, I always have my students take a practice math test together that is very similar to the one they will be taking for a grade. I encourage students to group together to help one another find answers as well as help each other when they are not understanding. At the beginning of the year, I spent a great amount of time creating an environment in which the students know that it's ok to make mistakes in front of one another because that's how we learn. It takes time to build that trust with each other, but my class has done a great job this year of collaborating with one another. They are great about taking on a "teacher" role when their peers don't understand and know that they cannot just give answers to each other when they are stuck. My students seem to feel empowered when another classmate asks them for help and the conversations tend to stay academic focused versus random chit-chat.

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Since I have a large 4th grade group for my math class this year, I have tried to create many opportunities for my students to collaborate in my classroom. One way I have chosen to do this is by rearranging my room to where my students liked to be. I used to have my desks in groups, but my students didn't like that. Once I moved the desks in a way that created more space for them to move around on their own, they really enjoyed that. I also brought a few more rugs into my room so they wouldn't have to sit on the cold, hard floor. They seemed to really like this, since most of them flock to the carpeted areas.

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I have used readworks all year but now have moved on with front row ed articles.  We are able to all view the articles and questions online and take turns reading aloud.  The students can work together to find answers and help each other with context clues.  I like to do this at least 3 times a week. We also do this by printing out the articles and highlighting.  They can help each other find paragraph 4 and so on.  Reading comprehension can be very overwhelming. I like to see students help each other and offer tips and advice.

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Since I am an Instructional Coach, I am trying to help teachers district wide to collaborate within their grade level or on a topic like math or expand their PLN's since we only have two horizontal erd's a year. For the Kindergarten teachers district wide, I created a Shared Resource folder so they could upload them on the Horizontal ERD meetings after we shared our favorite strategies/resources on a topic. For the math committee, I hosted a Twitter chat for the book Mathematical Mindsets. At our district wide PD day this week, I presented to K-12 staff on exploring social media through the lens of professional development. We created a data base of our favorite hashtags, Twitter/Instagram handles, Facebook groups blogs and resource links to various topics and educator so they could grow their own PLN's.

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I like doing different science groups. I provide them with a prompt/problem/question and the group has to come up with a solution to it all on their own. They have to construct the experiment, procedure, get the materials, and conduct it on their own. Yes, this took awhile to build up to this point, but now they are completely on their own and HAVE to work together to be successful in science.

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At the beginning of the year I really try to set the tone for my class by practicing how to work and collaborate with one another. We talk about how it is okay to disagree with each other but it is important to do it in a respectful way. I am truly so proud of how the majority of my students are able to work with others so well. For example, when students finish everything that has been assigned to them for math, and they performed well that day, they are allowed to help their classmates with problems they are struggling with while I work with a small group. Their willingness to help is so awesome, but it is also great to see them walk through problems step by step and engage in academic conversation with their classmates (not just give answers).

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Whenever we are reviewing for a test I always have my 5th graders work on it by themselves for 5-10 minutes. I tell them skip over things you're struggling with and accomplish what you know for sure. I then open it up for them to work with a partner. This lets them think pair share and peer coach with minimal prodding from me.  Listening to them "argue" over an answer then come to an agreement is priceless and allows me to showcase it to the rest of the class when it happens and how it should look.  Finally I have the pairs match with a 2nd pair. Here I call it Fact Checking. The goal of this section is to open up discussion. I have the groups compare answers and star the questions where there are discrepancies. They then go back to their resources and try to figure out how to compromise on an answer or sometimes they come up with hybridized answers. Finally as a class we go over them with the students themselves generating the correct answers and not me.

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One way I have incorporated student collaboration is in Literature Circles. I have a document that each group uses during the reading block where they read their assigned book and collaborate in a document on google. Then on Fridays they meet and go over the document and talk about their roles and what they did on their assigned pages. They enjoy doing this and this makes them very engaged in what they are reading. The only issue we have with it, is the students chatting and commenting on the document and then students moving things in the presentation that were not theirs.

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We played driver/navigator for coding games. Drivers complete all the work while navigators tell them what to do. You can't move without navigators directions. It is a fun way to begin collaboration in a computer lab.

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Teaching high school I am always looking for a new way to encourage the students to use each other as a resource before coming to me.  One of my favorite requirements I utilize in class is:
"ASK 3 BEFORE ME!"
Students are required to ask 3 different classmates for help before they come to me to ask a question. This encourages them to get up and move around the room and consult with students they might not normally ask a question to. Creates great socialization and communication skills and typically they find the answer before they even need to consult me. Puts the ownership of learning on the students!!

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I have been working on letting the students become familiar with an assignment to the point where they can ask to do it in a variety of ways. This created ownership. A group last semester turned in a presentation through snap chat that involved them reporting about method acting! Students can collaborate the way they want in my class, and that is important to them and myself. Do not be scared to make a mistake when implementing new strategies, because you will probably make a mistake but you can always learn from those mistakes.