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For the Survey of Collaborative Practices interviews, I spoke with one of my department colleagues, an 11th grade social studies teacher; a special education teacher who teaches a couple of self-directed classes and also co-teaches a few World History classes; and a parent of a former student who I taught during both her sophomore and junior years of high school.

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Each person interviewed had some different ideas regarding collaboration, but at the same time, they all mentioned or discussed common ideas or themes such as open and free communication, a back-and-forth of ideas, working together to meet common goals, and helping or assisting each other when needed.

The general education teacher, special education teacher, and parent all see successful collaboration as an equal and mutually-supportive partnership and relationship.

Both teachers had the sense that collaboration is about sharing lessons, ideas, and helping colleagues get through the day together.

The parent discussed collaboration primarily in the sense of teachers and parents communicating back and forth to each other: teachers offering and providing consistent feedback, information, or overviews of what they are doing in class with the students is greatly beneficial for parents! As well, the parent interviewed mentioned that parents should also contact teachers to update them or keep them informed about anything that may be going on at home that might be affecting a student's personal life. Positive communication is important; parents want to be contacted about the good stuff, too.

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All three people interviewed basically stated that co-teaching happens when two (or more) teachers work in the same room and teach a class of students together.  While they all shared similar and common core ideas of what co-teaching means, each person had different views on the topic.

For the general education teacher,  she sees co-teaching as a way for teachers to work together to more effectively communicate and educate students about content material and have another body in the room to assist with classroom management, address and answer questions, and provide overall support. She explained that, to her, co-teaching is a great way for regular-ed teachers to have someone who can help them or provide them with the best practices to address and support students' individual needs and accomodations.

The special education teacher I interviewed mentioned all of the ideas discussed above by the general education teacher, but emphasized the importance of an equal partnership in the co-teaching pair. Both teachers need to communicate and work together to develop lessons; have an active role in the teaching process; and basically divide-and-conquer all aspects of teaching in the classroom, from presenting ideas to the students, to supervising and assisting during group and independent work, to answering questions students have, and to grading assignments and tests. If the general education teacher sees the special education co-teacher in the room more as an assistant, the relationship will not be postive, and both the students and teachers involved will not fully benefit.

In asking the parent interviewee about co-teaching, she has never experienced the co-teaching dynamic, but knows of friends of hers whose children were/are in co-taught classes. An interesting idea she brought up was that co-teaching should become a teaching method practiced in higher-level classes instead of only commonly for "low" or "special" classes. She thinks having two teacers in a classroom with highly-intelligent students who need to be challenged could be very beneficial to furthering their success and building even greater skills.

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Consultation = the serious stuff. Communication, assistance, support, and focusing on common goals are all part of consultations, just as they are all part of collaboration. However, the difference between collaboration and consultation for those I interviewed seems to be the level of formailty. Consultation sounds like a formal meeting or communication, while collaboration sounds more informal and "fun".

Both of the teachers I interviewed discussed these factors as part of consultations:
1. meetings
2. training
3. in-service days
4. formal discussions, evaluations, a professional or colleague or administrator coming in to the classroom to give advice or assistance regarding a specific area or concern.

For the parent interviewed, she sees consultation as a formal meeting with the parents and teacher or school counselor or principal. She stated that the word "consultation sounds serious or important." With a consultation, she says "the school probably called home and a teacher, principal, or counselor wants to meet with me to talk about my son or daughter."