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Family is a word that is used a lot now for teams, departments, schools. I like it better than team, because family is unconditional Love and support. Family can get mad at you, but you are still family so you are still supported.
Jewel Brumley

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Making time for collaborative activities, especially if one wishes to focus on this and conduct weekly or even monthly opportunities. Among staff meetings, lessons, extra curricular programs etc. this is something that will need finite planning.

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Getting teachers to visit each other's classrooms (in different subjects) has been an eye opener. We have done it a few times, and it has really opened teachers' eyes up to what their colleagues are doing in the classroom and considered how their own subjects feeds into that. It also generated a lot of respect for one another along with sharing best practice ideas.

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I completely agree that time is the biggest factor, and I would add to that effective use of time.  Keeping teachers on task and truly collaborating can be a challenge even when there is time set aside.

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I completely agree that time is the biggest factor, and I would add to that effective use of time.  Keeping teachers on task and truly collaborating can be a challenge even when there is time set aside.

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~ Alita Miller

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A challenge we see at the secondary level is teachers who need time to collaborate with multiple teams.  It is rare that a teacher only teaches Freshman English, for example.  She may 

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A challenge we see at the secondary level is teachers who need time to collaborate with multiple teams.  It is rare that a teacher only teaches Freshman English, for example.  She may 

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I've been trying to find "silver linings" to this difficult year of remote and hybrid learning, and one is definitely teachers' increased comfort with technology.  I believe we can leverage this to develop more opportunities for collaboration.  Teachers don't need to be in the same room to effectively collaborate.  Teachers can meet together at a time that works best for them through Google Meet, Zoom, etc.  "Singleton teachers" (the only one on a campus who teaches a particular subject/class)  can more easily collaborate with teachers from other schools using their new technology skills.

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I've been trying to find "silver linings" to this difficult year of remote and hybrid learning, and one is definitely teachers' increased comfort with technology.  I believe we can leverage this to develop more opportunities for collaboration.  Teachers don't need to be in the same room to effectively collaborate.  Teachers can meet together at a time that works best for them through Google Meet, Zoom, etc.  "Singleton teachers" (the only one on a campus who teaches a particular subject/class)  can more easily collaborate with teachers from other schools using their new technology skills.

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Yep, I have to agree that the biggest challenge on collaboration is time. We collaborate brilliantly within our departments (2 hours scheduled every week), but anything cross-subject is far harder to find the time for. We are working on this though and have a whole-DP meeting once a month, as well as a-synchronous activities (a positive covid response!).

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Since we started monthly meetings, the interaction between departments has improved greatly. Outside of our meetings, teachers are now far more comfortable sharing ideas with each other - facilitated simply by being put in cross-subject groups, which have extended to meeting for lunch or coffee. We do a lot of online meetings, but hopefully we can continue the good that has come out of them (ease of communication) and be more physical - just because it's nicer to be face to face with someone!

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I do agree with the previous comment outlining 'time' as the challenge. But for me, time is a given and the challenge with time perhaps lies in the way we organise our schedule and priorities to focus on what is important. For example, since this is my first year in my role at the school, I discovered a few meeting practices are oriented around logistic and information sessions. Teachers sit for 1.5 hour to have a one-way mode of communicating, which can be easily communicated through email. This is something that I wish to change but it has to come from an understanding of the importance of collaboration; why do we collaborate, who benefits from our collaboration and how this practice can improve the effectiveness of the programme, student learning and performance?

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The new school year certainly brings great hope for me to lead the whole school's development on a few priorities we set up for our strategic planning. My role and responsibilities (as I work to support my subordinates; primary and secondary principal) require me to make pathways to suggest those changes. I have been trusted by the school board to lead these changes, which is a bit of a pressure.

Working closely with the DP coordinator. This is something I will welcome in the next school year. We are having a newly appointed DP coordinator from internal teaching staff. I have been monitoring this person as a Physic teacher and is impressed with his teaching practice. When opportunities arise for the current DP coordinator to be taking a role as the vice principal and the physic teacher is promoted to be the new DP coordinator, I feel that this decision will make a greater impact in the way the school moves forward.

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I agree that time is one of the key issues but also agree that effective use of time is crucial. Whilst we are not overburdened with meetings at my current school, we could do more to put better protocols in place to ensure that meetings are more efficient.

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Whilst it's obvious, COVID-19 has had a big impact on the ability to collaborate. I think we will need to recalibrate our approach to this once the pandemic has properly ended.

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I do think that the pandemic has really focused us all more on teacher and student well-being. I am hoping that we use this momentum to put in a place a more integrated program around the ATL skills, many of which provide the basis for work with students to reduce levels of stress, procrastination and improve mental health.

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I think greater collaboration between teachers and teaching teams makes a more positive environment for both staff and students. Peer observations happen frequently and teachers are encouraged to see what students are learning other classrooms. Teachers are learning from each other and this is a great model for students to follow.

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It is important for the staff to understand that collaboration is an important aspect to be able to become a better team and give a better service to the students, which should be the goal of the school. Having a good feedback mechanism between all of the departments is a pivotal point to make sure that we all go towards the same direction. Having weekly meetings with specific goals to accomplish during those meetings and with a long term goal in mind is very important, and constant communication where everyone gets involved and  brainstorms ideas on how to get the school better are crucial aspect to take into consideration.

Ed

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Definitely, time is a huge facrtor at our school. We have teachers with big loads and not a lot of IB experience so they have to spend a lot of time extra preparing for classes grading etc.... I understand that time management skills are crucial in those cases but also having a decent load helps teachers to prepare better classes and be more effective.

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by George Kumazawa

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Deliberate focus on weaving in ATL.. by George Kumazawa

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Deliberate focus on weaving in ATL.. by George Kumazawa

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Up until now there has been no one in charge of ensuring that ATL is explicitly taught or learned. I am so excited that this is going to change drastically!

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I think one of the challenges people face when collaborating is not being on the same page. Teachers could support students define a common goal so that they could have better synergy, This is the same with teachers and collabioration which in this case the IB coordinator could support teachers with finding a common goal (Nasrin Barootchi)

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I think building a sense of community in school and creating a culture of collaboration go hand in hand. They both grow together. So any strategy that would support the community building would build the culture of collaboration as well. ( Nasrin Barootchi)

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Time is always a challenge. There never seems to be enough of it. Scheduling larger group meeting is extremely difficult as the vast majority of my faculty have extra curricular responsibilities outside of school hours (clubs, sports, etc). We have worked in a number of "pd type" days to give us some time but it is never enough to maximize the collaborations.
- Chris Bromley

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Time is always at a premium in all of our lives. The key is time and priorities. That is why when something has to get done you select the busiest person who gets things done. some one who has time on their hands, can ten to procrastinate.  During COVID look at who worked on plans, units and reading that they have always wanted to do well. They used time to their advantage.
We did have several teachers collaborate separately from the formal times of collaboration. Now the key is how to keep that going. Just because we can now meet in person, some collaboration is more convenient from various locations on google meet or zoom.  Let's utilize that to keep the collaboration going.
Jewel Brumley