4.7 Irish teachers’ reflections on teacher collaboration by EUN Partnership aisbl

Barbara

barbara_anna_zi — 2016-11-14 12:19:40 UTC

It is a challenge to find time for teacher collaboration, but at the same there are so many digital tools that can help us save time and make our work more effective. At my workplace, both academic and vocational teachers work together.

Marianthi Arvanitidou- Greece

1canislupus22 — 2016-11-14 13:11:54 UTC

I agree and I find it very challenging

Stella Maris Berdaxagar from Argentina.

SMBerdaxagar — 2016-11-14 13:50:26 UTC

Collaborative platforms make it easier for teachers to work together as long as there is a relentless decision to do it. It requires time, timely feedback/forward, substantive decisions and PD training .Knowledge is ubiquitous and time a limited resource . It needs human engagement to take the greatest advantage of it all. It is important to work within and across subjects to achieve global awareness , multiple intelligences development and take a whole perspective of our praxis as well as more knowledge and skills for life.

Deborah

2016-11-14 14:43:34 UTC

I know many teachers who would really like to work collaboratively, and do, in part within the school or within a district. These teachers now need to be provided with knowledge/training, so as to become aware of what is available as far as technology is concerned. They need to learn how to use these various digital collaboration tools, and then as a next step, find out which one or ones are most suited to their needs and environment.
There is still a long way to go - in order to get the word and knowledge out there!

Maria Daniela Roberto

2016-11-14 14:51:46 UTC

Surely the teamwork of teachers is a challenge, an interesting proposalfor collaboration, but at the same time can be sometimes an obstacle tocarrying out of the activities proposed. In fact, some teachers do not liketo work together, while it would be desirable to share a common path,so this could be of great help in learning the class

Crristina

cristinapeicuti — 2016-11-14 15:21:36 UTC

I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful.

Nils, Germany

2016-11-14 16:24:52 UTC

This is a big problem because of the different timetables and most colleagues do not want to spend extra time in school. Me neither and it's sometimes hard to find someone you would like to collaborate with.

Maria, Italia

mariagranatiero — 2016-11-14 16:52:56 UTC

Yes, find time to plan, to compare and talk is difficult. we must do more and after work and it's not easy. especially when it is not considered

Helen, Belgium

2016-11-14 17:15:02 UTC

Very few schools or school systems recognise the benefits of collaboration. Providing time within the structure of the working week would be the ideal scenario. Working with teachers from your own school, particularly different disciplines or year groups is very valuable. Having a shared understanding of the purpose of the meeting is essential. In a previous school, we also had essential agreements to help structure the collaboration meetings to maximise the opportunities. Working with teachers from other schools can introduce you to new ideas and fresh perspectives. We need to seize opportunities and make the most of them for ourselves and for our students.

Marilena, Greece

becsa1 — 2016-11-14 17:52:00 UTC

I do agree that finding time is a big challenge for teacher collaboration. In secondary education, there is no allotted time within the school day for teacher collaboration, only on after school hours. So, it is based on teachers’ willingness and attitude to try something new, to develop themselves professionally etc.

Rosa

rosadilonardo — 2016-11-14 18:10:41 UTC

Rosa(

rosadilonardo — 2016-11-14 18:10:44 UTC

Rosa

rosadilonardo — 2016-11-14 18:10:46 UTC

Rosa / Italy

rosadilonardo — 2016-11-14 18:10:50 UTC

I agree that we can have a lot of the benefits with collaboration between teachers if we haa dedicated time and space to devote to collaborating together, the advantages of working with teachers from different disciplines, and how technology can facilitate the process.

Tamar Chalakheshashvili Georgia

tamarigia — 2016-11-14 18:20:13 UTC

Administration support is needed, enough time, commitment, interest, the environment

Vasso Lalakidou, Greece

lalakidou — 2016-11-14 19:03:30 UTC

I totally agree when there are no other obligations for the teachers to their schools. In greek secondary education, teachers have extra work such as the students' absences, the staff's payroll, the timetable and this is always spending of time. Therefore, it is practically difficult finding time within the school day. (Last year, in order to collaborate with the teacher of special education classes we programmed our meetings out of school.) Of course, working with teachers from different disciplines is useful and I believe that they have to overcome their personal prejudices to have a productive result.

Stefania Z. Rome

stefania_zambardino — 2016-11-14 19:07:01 UTC

It needs that the teacher collaborate for change the old teaching model. I agree tha working together increase the teacher' s skills

Cinzia Centrone

centrone_cinzia — 2016-11-14 19:21:16 UTC

It's very difficult to find time within the school day for teacher collaboration. It has been useful for me to collaborate with my colleagues through online environments. In this way we have had the opportunity to communcate, to share, to plan interdisciplinary lessons. In the past I've had the opportunity to collaborate not only with teachers of my discipline, but also with teachers of other disciplines. I find this type of collaboration very interesting and useful.

Belgin Saka, Turkey

belgins — 2016-11-14 19:47:16 UTC

I agree ..

Despoina Amarantidou, Greece

damarant — 2016-11-14 20:01:11 UTC

I think that Content and Language Integrated Learning is a necessary step for actual collaboration among teachers. There are some exercises that require French, German and English vocabulary and I really find it very motivating to cooperate with my colleagues instead of surfing the Internet to find the equivalent word.

Els Teerlinck Belgium

els_teerlinck — 2016-11-14 21:02:32 UTC

There is nothing I would like to do more than this. The problem is however that if we do this, we won't have 24 but at least 40 children in one classroom and this may be to much. You also need to find the right person to collaborate with and I would need a big classroom in wich there can sit 40 students or more...

Annamaria Egido, Italy

2016-11-14 21:09:50 UTC

I do agree that finding time is a big challenge for teacher collaboration.

Tiziana Italy

2016-11-14 22:49:27 UTC

We are often " shy" and " afraid" of collaboration. I think we should all try to do this . It is hard but I know that in some schools teachers work and collaborate...... one mind alone cannot do much, many minds can make better lesssons and tasks.

ALex_PT

teacheralex_dua — 2016-11-15 01:04:44 UTC

Finding time is always challenging but within the school day for teacher collaboration is an impossible mission because no one is willing to do it. I’m sorry if I’m sounding too pessimistic, but that’s the truth. People aren’t used to working this way and can’t even find ways and solutions to overcome that. Working collaboratively is a very enriching and rewarding experience and even more with teachers from different areas and that’s why eTwinning projects are mostly so fruitful – common goals in spite of the different backgrounds.

Anita M. Italy

2016-11-15 07:56:48 UTC

I agree that finding a daly time for teacher collaboration can give more results between teachers and then with students.Actually we don't invest too much for that .Collegues are anxious to lead their classes and time is still now a condition to share . I think that could be a big advantage discuss and share within the school day to follow better the develop of our learning common plan , to create evaluations tools and to respect the continuum in what we are doing

Francesca, Italy

francesca_lombardi1973 — 2016-11-15 08:06:49 UTC

Nowadays collaborative time and space for teachers is really necessary and successful schools are distinguishable from unsuccessful ones by the frequency and extent to which teachers discuss practice, collaboratively design materials and inform and critique one another.
Personally at home I start using daily Moocs, E twinning and many other digital applications or social medias to display and share ideas and materials, but I notice that I need more time also at school (not at home in my free time!) to analyze, plan and create my lesson in collaboration with other teachers.

Angelo, Rivoli, Italy

Angelo — 2016-11-15 11:38:55 UTC

Finding time to collaborate with colleagus is actually difficult during ordinary mornings of school, but not impossible. One of the point is to have a leadership that supports, facilitates and enhances these moments of cooperation. Another aspect is that collaboration requires creativity in finding new projects on which work together: my experience tells me that in the vast majority of the time the routine stifles creativity, which most often arises spontaneously. The new plan for teachers' formation 2016-19 launched by the Italian Ministry surely creates new conditions to foster collaboration, but it is necessary that this plan is well understood, and then creatively implemented.

Helly, Vienna

h_swaton — 2016-11-15 11:43:54 UTC

I fully agree. Time is the most important fact in collaboration.

Maria Pnaou/ Kalymnos, Greece

maria_themelis — 2016-11-15 12:53:14 UTC

I definetely agree!

Elisabete Carvalho, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas, Paula Usha_Portugal

2016-11-15 13:15:41 UTC

We also found that the great challenge for collaborative work among teachers is to achieve "real time" within a teacher's work day. The vast majority of us are happy to accept the perspective that collaborative work is a huge asset but the problem, however, lies in the fact that for reasons of school organization collaboration between teachers of the same disciplines often summarized to an exchange of e-mails, materials, restricting work to a division of tasks and sharing worksheets. It is urgent and necessary to find physical spaces and time schedules for each of us of the same or different disciplines to work within schools walls collaboratively. In order to overcome these difficulties, it is essential to be open to new learning, the use of new technologies will facilitate our work and also, it is important to realize that it is essential that you leave your comfort zone to experience a change. Only in this way can we create a true collaborative network, using information technologies, so that the work is no longer cooperative and this collaboration will then be able to be inter-disciplinary and inter-schools.
Finding a common time to implement a true collaborative work should not be a luxury but rather an effective need to debate with other teachers.

Valerica- Romania

dvaly2010 — 2016-11-15 13:46:51 UTC

As a primary school teacher I teach different subjects, so I collaborated several times with my colleagues who teach Science, History, Physics when I needed their experience .

Elisabete Carvalho, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas, Paula Usha_Portugal

2016-11-15 14:48:39 UTC

Kimberley Edwards, Ireland

2016-11-15 15:07:46 UTC

Finding time during the school day is challenging, this is why social media, videos and e-mails are so helpful. Working with teachers from different disciplines is very important and gives new ideas. I think this can work anytime, you just need to be brave and go to another department and get involved in the conversation!

Serena Visai, Italy

2016-11-15 15:56:54 UTC

We are not working together at Middle school and we don’t meet to work collaboratively. I start adressing ideas to a teacher I know would be interested and I suggested to meet to work on the same topic collaboratively (English and Geography/History) . I think the first condition is good will, but also seeing good example that proves the effectiveness of collaboration. ��)�/+

Mimma, Italy

mimma_gioia — 2016-11-15 16:15:23 UTC

Finding time to collaborate with colleagues is not impossible. We can also use online environments to communicate. I think that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful.

Richard, Brussels

2016-11-15 17:58:38 UTC

I happily work with a colleague who is generally happy to collaborate throughout the working day, during breaks , before and after school. However, we create this time. Dedicated time built into the school timetable would encourage more and more teachers to collaborate.

Collaboration with teachers from other disciplines challenges us to think outside our comfort zone and perhaps come up with new ideas!

Angelamaria Galderisi, Italy

soleemare_a — 2016-11-15 19:09:35 UTC

If I could find time within the school day for teacher collaboration, it would be fantastic. But in Italian schools it is inpossible because teachers have a strict orario to respect so they should find time for collaboration in a different moment of the day, perhaps in the afternoon or during school holidays. According to me working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful and I have direct experience ot this. I teach English in a Technical Secondary School where the leading matters are Systems and Networks, ICT and Technology. Moreover students have to study a technical English dealing with the same topics of the leading matters. So collaboration is a needed condition and each teacher has to be willing to work in team.

Sarah Mallia, Malta

sarahborg85 — 2016-11-15 19:53:37 UTC

I think that finding time to plan ahead is the most challenging task when collaborating. Usually we communicate via messages or email although it is not appropriate as it takes ages and there can be some misunderstandings. We also have 1/2 meetings everyday where we discuss things but there are so many things to discuss that usually we end up talking about other things which are also important to talk about but not on the agenda.

Fátima, Portugal

fffcaeiro — 2016-11-15 20:07:27 UTC

Work with colleagues is always a good experience because we can share about our work, our methodologies, our results - those we would like to have and those we have, in fact! The possibility of work together - even not always - brings us other challenges but also enriches us as individuals and as professionals.

Clara Abegão, Portugal

acjesus — 2016-11-15 20:16:35 UTC

I agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is a very challenging item. We have a school timetable with a lot a classes, a lot of work to do so that everything is done correctly and on time, and it´s difficult to have the time to work collaboratively.

The solutions are to work at home using technology, at night, weekends or sometimes even holidays. Working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful. For example, I teach biology and we have some times cross contents with geography, physics, chemistry, and of course, IT. But we must have a good social relation with those teachers, not only professional relation, if we want to do collaborative work with them. For me, I think it´s great. For the teacher and for the students.

Jasna Šojer/Croatia

jasna_sojer — 2016-11-15 20:50:34 UTC

It is great idea finding time within school day for collaboration but sometimes it is a bit hard because of different time table each teacher have in Croatia so mostly we are just passing by each other.

Roberta Scarselli

2016-11-15 21:48:16 UTC

Italy
It is important to expand our experiences as teachers and to get to know the good practices around us and at a distance.
I would like to learn more and more from other realities

João Reigado, Portugal

2016-11-15 23:55:27 UTC

I think it isn’t always ease to find effective time for teachers to collaborate, outside their classes. Honestly, I think that school curricula is too long. In Portugal, students spend much of the day in school and a great deal of that time is spent in the classroom. Students, specially young children, need to permanence in outdoor spaces, playing with their fellows in a free space. This free time of the students may be used profitably by the teachers in the development of co-lab activities. I consider the experience of working with teachers from other disciplines highly beneficial. It's always an opportunity to expand knowledge and learn good practices from other teachers.

Isabella Santoro

issabella1 — 2016-11-16 05:19:08 UTC

It's not impossible to find time to collaborate with collegues during ordinary time at school. The use of online enviroments are usefull to facilitate teacher collaboration, but first of all it's necessary a change of mind: collaborative teaching and learning is more interesting, usefull and productive than individual teaching and learning.

Vanesa, Croatia

2016-11-16 07:46:37 UTC

Time schedule is really a challenge. In my experience, we have to be ready to compromise and work outside of our working time if we want something to work. I think that working with teachers from other disciplines can be very useful.

Elisabetta, SA

anicia1 — 2016-11-16 08:17:03 UTC

I think that in order to share knowledge and, above all, resources, teachers need to feel safe. Need to feel that they are actually learning something from their sharing and that they will receive something valuable back. I’ve just finished a course on another platform my school paid for. The course was good, but the organizers did not know how to make collaboration work. Therefore, when they created a FB page to connect previous students and ask them to share their resources no one did it. The designers of the course did not implement this mentality along the course, no pair review or other forms of connection among students; they themselves did not share any resource about the topics we were discussing. In short: it was good to have a space to reflect about some topics, but it was a solo work. I think it is impossible to have our students to collaborate if we are not willing to do so. It is hard to find time, but technology can definitely help.

emma giurlani, Italy

2016-11-16 09:58:07 UTC

I totally agree with all what has been said in the video above. What add more? I'm aware of the huge opportunity we have been given by attending to this MOOC and I'll concentrate upon developing my learning designer about the interesting activities I have already planned with my etwinning partners for the project we have started a month ago. Time and timetabling are of course very important in order to collaborate with colleagues inside our school. It is challenging and sharing resources , ideas and planning together giving us mutual feedback is a great opportunity to improving also our students skills and knowledge, ad prof.Deirdre says.

Cristina Paliotes, Portugal

2016-11-16 10:09:59 UTC

Finding time to plan, compare, and talk these days is difficult. Teachers and students spend more and more time in school, and each time they have less time. Gathering after a harder working day becomes. Discussing and sharing within the school day is a plus, but it is very complicated.

Katarzyna Kwiatek-Grabarska, Poland

2016-11-16 11:59:16 UTC

Yes, the most difficult in all this is a system that reduces the time to carry out additional tasks. We have one lesson a week, specific tasks to accomplish, and yet we would like to cooperate. What I fail to cooperation in science and geography because I teach these two subjects. It happens that the Polish teacher asks you to teach children to use a text editor to prepare their CV. Unfortunately, this is still very little. Personally on lessons informatics I weave content from both the Polish language, mathematics, physics, geography, history, biology, etc. but mostly they are my own initiative and ideas.

Ana Franco, Barcelos, Portugal

ana_lufranco — 2016-11-16 12:30:04 UTC

Yes I agree that the greatest difficulty in collaborative work is having time for different teachers to come together and prepare new materials, new strategies.
Working in articulation with different disciplines, as mentioned here in the video is of extreme importance.I also teach information technologies and I try to work on the contents of other subjects within my class.

Paula Gomes,-Portugal

2016-11-16 13:52:49 UTC

I fully agree. Time is the most important fact in collaboration.

Heidi Belgium

heidischrijversterbeuke — 2016-11-16 13:58:24 UTC

I agree time is a big challenge, but sometimes we meet after school hours to discuss on those collaboration projects. Or we use the 'spring-uren" the hours we don't actually teach to work on the collaboration. If you want to do this, you will find a way. Where there is a will there's always a way. It takes a lot of time and effort but it is more than worth it. I'm currently working with a colleague who teaches something totally different. We have setup the project and we fine tune is along we go.. We provide a briefing by mail or face-to-face to know where we are and that way we can adjust or modify things if needed or find alternatives ... I really enjoy collobartive teaching and hope there will be many more times to come!

Mar

mcricci — 2016-11-16 15:36:14 UTC

Maria Chiara, Italy

mcricci — 2016-11-16 15:36:17 UTC

I definitely agree that time is the most challenging aspect of collaborative teaching. We are always short of time and collaborating isn't still considered a fundamental part of our job. I think that there should be fixed hours every month completely dedicated to designing, planning together, teachers of the same class or teachers of the same subject. At the moment we have only hasty teachers meeting where we have to speak about everything (students, parents, grades a nd so on so forth). The problem is also that our work iS paid so badly that teaches don't want to make the effort of doing more than the necessary.

Maria and Anna, Italy

mariadecarlo — 2016-11-16 16:10:03 UTC

Yes, is very important the  collaboration between teachers of different disciplines. Indeed we collaborate (Religion and Science) and we have a mutual, individual and professional enrichment.

Anna and Maria, Italy

annagrignetti — 2016-11-16 16:10:18 UTC

It's very important collaboration between teachers of different disciplines. Indeed we collaborate (Science and Religion), and we have a mutual, individual and professional enrichment.

Emiliana, Italy

emiliana_rufo — 2016-11-16 16:14:40 UTC

I always use ICT in my lessons and I support other teachers in my school to do the same. It is difficult to collaborate when we actually are in our classrooms, but we choose topics to develop together by different points of view. Using tools, such as shared documents, email and Drive let us keep in touch even outside the school.

Emiliana, Italy

emiliana_rufo — 2016-11-16 16:14:43 UTC

I always use ICT in my lessons and I support other teachers in my school to do the same. It is difficult to collaborate when we actually are in our classrooms, but we choose topics to develop together by different points of view. Using tools, such as shared documents, emails and Drive let us keep in touch even outside the school.

Jesus Leão, Portugal

2016-11-16 16:35:32 UTC

Nowadays, and taking into account the numerous tasks teachers have, it is indeed a challenge to find time within the school day for collaboration.

To overcome this challenge, in my school, when we have a joint work to do, we join during the break (which is common to all first cycle teachers), we organize the work, distribute tasks and decide what form and/or the tools that we will use to carry out the activity and define deadlines.

Whenever there is a need to physically come together, we do it at the end of the day, after school or during one of the breaks.

I have no doubt that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful, however I have no experience at this level, since the first cycle works in single teacher regime.

Filipe Mira, Portugal

filipe_mira — 2016-11-16 18:35:00 UTC

I also agree that one of the greatest difficulties in collaborative teaching is the little time teachers have to plan activities. When I develop a collaborative work with my colleagues, we try to distribute the tasks and then we discuss online (email). I believe that working with teachers from other disciplines is an asset to increase the sharing that will benefit students. My class is currently attending T.I.C class where my colleague and I plan some activities together. I think that in order to develop this type of work there should be a good environment and motivation of the stakeholders.

viki doga, greece

2016-11-16 18:58:37 UTC

really helpful

viki doga, greece

2016-11-16 18:58:44 UTC

Catarina Rodrigues, Portugal

canrodrigues — 2016-11-16 19:44:58 UTC

I agree whit this point of view. Collaboration and finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging. However it is not impossible. School leadership can have a very important role managing teachers schedules and teachers training. Working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful and very interesting in some years (for instance when student's don't have national examinations).

Arlindo Pereira, Portugal

2016-11-16 20:24:01 UTC

At school nowadays, time is scarce so it´s difficult for teachers to meet and talk, and thus, finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging. It would be important teachers have hours to work with the pairs and to define common strategies. I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful because, like the video says, "we have different ideas, different skills that we can bring, and we could share resources".

The necessary conditions are related with working conditions in terms of materials, space and time and also in terms of changing the mentality of some colleagues in relation to this kind of work.

Jaime Martins, Portugal

joncmartins — 2016-11-16 21:44:09 UTC

I agree that one of the worst difficulties is the lack of time and the enormous curricula. But everybody can try and it will be really challenging to find that time for an effective collaboration. It will be a surplus for everybody.

Paulo Martins_Portugal

2016-11-16 21:59:35 UTC

I couldn’t agree more. It is very difficult to find time within the school day to teacher collaboration. In Primary School we only have time to collaborate after 17:30. It is the end of a working day and we are tired. I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be useful, because you change ideas, resources, combine diferente skills. In my case, I am experiencing co-Teaching at Fridays, with a Physical Education teacher for one hour. It has been a great experience because we work together with the group of students, we share information, ideas and we help eachother. We will be developing this experience along the school year, so we will have time to get better and to put some of this Mooc expertise in practise. I think that for teacher collaboration succeds we need time at school, during the week, for that purpose. Time to sit, to share ideas, resources, to plan, to assess.

CÁTIA SANTOS - PORTUGAL

badkat187 — 2016-11-16 22:35:14 UTC

I work in a school that promotes hours for group work, in the same area and in the same class. When time is not enough, we work via mail.
I think that when more diverse the group of teachers is better and will enrich more activities and experiences.

Ângela and Tânia, Portugal

taniaalves23 — 2016-11-16 23:01:40 UTC

We agreed that it is a good idea to find time at school to meet. We all have class and the schedules are different. Most of the time we have to "talk" through the online tools.

Hülya, TURKEY

hulyaos31 — 2016-11-17 09:48:31 UTC

In our school, every week on Tuesdays, science teachers come together and share their ideas and we help each other. We try to make new science projects with students and share these projects in science fair. I agree that it is so effective and help teachers to develop their skills.

Julia, Portugal

2016-11-17 10:42:20 UTC

I think teaching with teachers from various disciplines can be very interesting for students because the content is related to various areas of knowledge, and students can learn and understand more easily. To function it takes time to coordinate the tasks between the teachers. After several practices all the work becomes easier.

Sandra, Portugal

sandra_alves_ — 2016-11-17 11:50:41 UTC

I agree that lack of time is a discouraging factor for doing collaborative work. In our schools, the teacher plays many roles besides teaching. The teacher, in general, has many classes with many students and lots of paperwork.
The teacher needs time to devote to teaching, developing and implementing new strategies in collaboration with peers. we need to focus on the teaching / learning process of your students.
To do this, in addition to time also needs adequate physical spaces and technologies in the school.

Kristina Kaučić, Croatia

2016-11-17 14:15:02 UTC

It is challenging, but achievable . Working with teachers from different disciplines is ver useful, but I do not have any experience of it. My colleagues are not willing to try that.

Cristiana, Portugal

cristianafreire — 2016-11-17 15:10:04 UTC

Finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is more than a challenge, it's a necessity!

It is fundamental for those who are starting this methodology of work, as it happens in the school where I teach.

The experience I have tells me that when there is no specific time for this task, as long as we have the will to do it, we end up using the technology we have available, but face-to-face contact is essential.

I believe that working with colleagues from other disciplines is very enriching because of the skills of each one, but also because it allows us to work on the same theme from different points of view, allowing students to establish relationships that might otherwise not be explicit .

This year, teachers of natural sciences and physics and chemistry are working towards this – at the end of last year, we redistribute contents of the 3 years of the 3rd cycle, in order to establish a common thread between the 2 disciplines. For example, study the chemical reactions (physicochemical) that occur in cells, in ecosystems ... (natural sciences). It has been a very big challenge! In the future we may be able to unite the two disciplines in one!

Ailbhe, Ireland

2016-11-17 15:27:42 UTC

Teacher collaboration can be difficult to implement but is extremely necessary in some situations. For example, I teach science but collaborate with an English support teacher in order to facilitate students in my class who do not speak English as their first language.

Sara, Portugal

sgamito — 2016-11-17 15:40:50 UTC

It is not easy to find effective time for teachers to collaborate outside their classrooms. I personally consider the school curricula very long. In Portugal, students spend much of the day in school and much of that time is spent in the classroom. Students, especially the younger ones, need to play in outdoor spaces. This free time for students can be used profitably by teachers in developing co-lab activities. I find the experience of working with teachers from other disciplines highly beneficial. It is always an opportunity to expand knowledge and learn good practices from other teachers.

Alessandra M., Italy

prof_alemurgia — 2016-11-17 15:59:33 UTC

In the past, when in Italy it was still possible in a secondary school for 2 teachers of different disciplines to work together in the same class, I had the opportunity to collaborate effectively with colleagues of different disciplines, and it was a great experience. Today the schedule is a limiting factor and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find the time to share ideas and collaborate with our colleagues, but it’s not an impossible task, and technology is a useful support. �;��[L�ۭ

Catia, Sweden

katyfpr — 2016-11-17 16:20:02 UTC

There is no doubts that time is a "big stone" that creates huge difficulties for teachers to collaborate.
What we do in my school is to have in our schedule specific hours for working together, and some times we have specific days for working with a specific topic, or for analysing what we have been doing.

Costas Moschonas

2016-11-17 16:57:47 UTC

I think time is a difficulty that you have to overcome in order to collaborate. I believe that collaboration among teachers with different subjects is fascinating for students because they get a spherical view.

Anabela Gonçalves, José Rui Ferreira and Teresa Fonseca, Portugal

2016-11-17 19:31:56 UTC

Having time and using it effectively is always challenging. It is very difficult to find time in a day’s work, especially when you teach six or seven classes, from different levels and age groups. Finding time to collaborate, especially when you want to move forward to processing, analyzing and sharing, is very difficult. Thinking, rethinking, discussing, analysing, drawing conclusions, designing, redesigning take a huge amount of time. However, collaboration is also sharing and that can save us a lot of time too. Working with teachers from different areas is not very common but we think it is always a very fulfilling experience. Take this MOOC, for example. We think that you need time, organization, respect for others’ opinions and thoughts to develop this kind of work.

Olga Keramida-Greece

2016-11-17 21:01:17 UTC

Yes,working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful.

Cristina Cruz, PT

cristinasccruz — 2016-11-17 21:35:08 UTC

I think that all teachers benefit from the fact that they can share methodologies, methods, tools or materials to enrich their professional performance. Schools and their directors and the pedagogical council should be able to organize meetings where this sharing can be done ,so that interdisciplinarity is an evidence, and collaboration can be disseminated through this way.

Heidi, Germany

2016-11-17 22:11:35 UTC

I fully agree that time lacks for collaborating with other teachers, but interacting and collaborating with teachers from different disciplines generally can be very useful, interesting and good for opening our mind. We might think more in different disciplines coming together rather than remaining always among our own disciplines

Ana Fernandes, Portugal

apmfm — 2016-11-17 22:48:02 UTC

Yes, the major challenge to collaborative work is the lack of time in schools!
The teacher's excessively full timetables, the countless tasks they have to carry out in schools and the long school programmes to comply are real obstacles to collaboration.
The desired solution would pass through reducing the workload and school programmes in order to give teachers time to work in scholar environment.
Interdisciplinarity is useful and reveals itself as effective in students learning. It allows a better time management and avoids the repetition of the same topics in different subjects. In order for interdisciplinary work to function reflection moments are needed, as well as ellaborating learning activities designs. That is only achieved with teacher's collaborative work.

Giovanna, Italy

giovanna_biceg1 — 2016-11-18 07:45:20 UTC

Time for collaboration is the second big challenge, after convincing teachers that collaboration makes life easier. At the moment I give 2 hours of my time table to work collaboratively with my colleagues, but I can do this only because my Headteacher believes that this is very important.

Kateryna Kramnychna, Ukraine

rocksy_12 — 2016-11-18 07:51:04 UTC

It's a really hard task to find time for collaboration, but it is a possible way to do your best for your pupils!

Jana, Germany

oldpadlet — 2016-11-18 09:18:09 UTC

Thanks for sharing these real life reflections. We have exactly the same problems: Days are not long enough. Time is a luxury. Personally, I love cross-curricular projects. It is important to show kids that subjects do not exist in an isolated space and that they are actually linked. They enjoy seeing teachers in the role of learners. Plus, it is a good experience for teachers because they get an insight into what kids have to cope with every day. Suddenly, they are not experts any more - but some students might help them out with something. This is the way to grow and create something that is bigger than its single parts.

Agata Kuźmiek - Poland

2016-11-18 13:30:12 UTC

The period of cooperation is the great challenge now spend approx. 3 hours of time to improve the skills of its employees. Director motivates us to such meetings, to translate into better results in teaching children.

Margarida Sousa PT

margaridaferin — 2016-11-18 14:12:23 UTC

I agree that finding time within the school day is very challenging and difficult, too.
But , working with teachers from different disciplines is very useful and I had related some experiences, before.
The main condition is: a general revision of the educational project in our schools from our timetables to our real and main objectives.
What school do we want for our students?

Maria Natália Couto, Portugal

2016-11-18 15:43:57 UTC

As I have already said in previous posts, time in Portuguese schools is a serious constraint that hinders any kind of mindset to work collaborativelly.

Giorgia, Romania

giorgiagroza — 2016-11-18 16:32:58 UTC

Yes, this is a challenge to work collaborativly with other teacher from different disciplines.

Zeljka Korlevic

mravak57 — 2016-11-18 17:17:50 UTC

Finding time and opportunity is crucial and is also very hard. Working with teachers from different disciplines is very useful and is motivating for students as well as for teachers

I agree. Collaboration is a a challange: I try to collaborate with English and French teachers for CLIL projects and it was great

luriboni — 2016-11-18 17:23:21 UTC

Vitor M. N. Fernandes, Portugal

vmnf — 2016-11-18 18:08:44 UTC

Time,... Yes, time is very hard to find. Already reflected about this topic before. Mostly because is hard to find schedule slots to work with other teachers in school. Also because most of teachers time is to prepare next classes due to sometimes the number of topics / areas that teacher has.
Solution to meet and try to collaborate is to schedule meetings in school, from time to time, to address some topics. But this is not regular and so collaboration level is reduced. Teacher schedules do not take into account those collaborative requirements. Still we live in an evolving world and change seems closer and closer. Let's expect the best.
Yes, it is useful. Has said before have a small project InfoTech - Programming and Robotics club where students work together in projects. A project like CanSat requires extensive knowledge on multiple areas like Physics, Electronics, Materials... I would be easy to see how contributes from multiple teachers to improve this project development would be important. I will try to put this challenge over the table this year and expect to have some good feedback and participation.
Time and Space! Time must be considered on each school year start and somehow given to whom requires it and uses it. Space, yes physical space, where teachers can work together and ultimately with their students, but a space that is not static. We need multi-purpose spaces that are flexible and adapt to each day requirements. Also spaces that look clean, new, with materials required to improve students motivation. I work in a public school and sometimes public investment is very narrow so this process will be slow but I expect it will happen soon.

Thomas, Austria

t_schoftner — 2016-11-18 18:47:02 UTC

Sometimes it's really hard to find the time for collaborating with other teachers and this is exactly where digital technologies come in.
I think that the cross-curricular approach (pairing e.g. an English teacher with a Science teacher) can lead to very "fruitful" outcomes - sometimes you're so cooped up in your own world (subject) that is becomes easy to miss the forest for the trees.

Maria Teresa / Italy

teresarughi — 2016-11-18 19:17:18 UTC

The important tip Professor Butler shares in this video is to go beyond the single unit focus and look at how activities can develop over time. I definetely agree on the fact that with this MOOC we've had another great opportunity to see good examples and good practices to implement collaboration.

Gisella de Liddo, italy

2016-11-18 20:33:28 UTC

The idea I liked most is the one that the observation and planning of the activities followed a Continuum pattern, so that all the activities were thought as developing and changing over time. Teachers have to get very well organized to find time to do these activities, as teaching has become much more engaging than in the past, with all the bureau work we have to do.

Enrica Maragliano - Italy

EMGe — 2016-11-18 21:07:22 UTC

Sometimes it is harder to find time to work with your school colleagues than with foreign partners is an eTwinning project and usually we work with colleagues at school in the morning or in the early afternoon while you can work with partners at nighttime in a more relaxed context. I love crosscurricular approach, so for me it is obvious that is really important to work with colleagues belonging to different subjects: teachers' creativity and intelligence can be the key to find point of contacts to develop some teaching units and help students to see the same thing from many different point of view.

Enrica Maragliano - Italy

EMGe — 2016-11-18 21:09:00 UTC

work among the different teachers is difficult, but if we do we discover great resources and possibilities. In my secondary school I do a co-teaching experience with fellow physical education and other class with a colleague in mathematics and physics. Together we have created interdisciplinary modules and are simultaneously present in the classroom the two teachers. We will develop some activities that we plan for our students in a collaborative way and we intend to use the padlet in a phase of work.

2016-11-18 22:12:46 UTC

Rosaria marino, Italy

Kondylo Glarou/Greece

seagullitsa — 2016-11-18 22:18:10 UTC

I have experienced collaboration with a colleague on extra curriculum activities -Environmental Education and Comenius projects - when I was working in another school. It’s difficult to find time within the school day for collaboration. Usually we collaborated after school at home organizing our activities for the next meeting with our pupils.

Concetta Drago, Italy

concetta_drago — 2016-11-18 22:46:10 UTC

I enjoy very much to collaborate with other collegues by using the on line community.

Mafalda Lapa, Portugal

lapa_mafalda — 2016-11-18 23:20:23 UTC

No doubt that finding time is the major obstacle for me to collaborate with other teachers. I don't have good solutions. But the MOOCs are an excellent form of collaborate. I think the world really needs to sit and think what do we want ofr our students: contents or skills.

Francesca, Italy

francescagiala — 2016-11-18 23:23:10 UTC

Armindo Serra, Cristina Rocha, Fátima Nave, Sara Gamito, Ana Marques, Rita Gil, Martine Mendes, Carmo Martins, Margarida Coelho - Portugal

mcrisroch1 — 2016-11-19 01:42:12 UTC

In fact, the struggle we found harder to solve is time issues. This happens because we have a high number of classes. Some colleagues, like Geography or Hsitory teachers have about 7 or 8 classes, each one with 26 to 30 students... well it gets hard to find the best moment to work together and plan. But, as we already focused in the 4.6 we manage using technology, staying after school, from 05h30 pm till 08h00 pm, and work after that, through the night, when it's needed.
We believe that curriculum as well as the number of classes, students per class and hours should be reorganized and, at least, three times a week, there should be a period of two to three hours after school, but earlier than 17h 30min, for teachers to create together, to discuss, evaluate and redo whatever is needed to get better results with our students.

Jole, Sicily

jolecapo — 2016-11-19 08:54:02 UTC

Assuming that the collaboration with colleagues is a strong point in the educational process is important to find time to do so. It is not always possible to school to which we devote a few afternoons of the week to meet on Skype and collaborate on Google Drive.

Olga Tsaruk, Ukraine

ovotsaruk — 2016-11-19 13:04:21 UTC

Good work needs much time and strength and patienсe. I agree that collaboration between
myself and other teachers is really good. We are sharing ideas and sharing content. The only condition is your wish to collaborate.

Arminda Pereira, Portugal

armindapereira1 — 2016-11-19 13:08:20 UTC

Finding time for ‘true teacher collaboration’ is challenging in the way schools are currently organised because you do need time to plan and organise how we are going to work together. The teacher's excessively full timetables, the countless tasks we must carry out in schools and the long school programmes to comply are real obstacles to collaboration. Day-to-day life, it’s busy and is very easy using some of the online environments because we are in different locations, different subject departments, and different schools and we need a place to exchange experiences and knowledgewith teachers from different disciplines, to ask questions, to reduce worries, overcome fears and conflicts and combine different skills.

Lúcia, Portugal

2016-11-19 13:22:52 UTC

In fact, time is an issue and it is difficult for us to find the time to truly collaborate with our peers. If you want to plan an activity together, discuss ideas, analyze, organize, reorganize, it takes a lot of time…..that comes as no surprise.

Technology can be seen as a timesaver but it would be useful to have some time in our schedule that could be used for the purpose of collaborating.

Working together with other subjects, as mentioned in the video, can be an asset for both teachers and students. It’s always an opportunity to grow professionally and to give our students learning experiences that are motivating.

Elvia/Italy

2016-11-19 13:30:04 UTC

In primary school each team of teachers ( teachers teaching to the same class) has two hours per week to design lessons together.
In my school, in the two last years, once a month, we have started to design with teachers of the other classes, too ( same level).
Who believe in team teaching and collaboration have produced a lot of work to sharing.
Other groups regret that kind of organization and they just chat to each other to pass the time
In my opinion, carrying on this way, we could Increase the teacher collaborative groups, step by step.

Ann, Ireland

ann_mchugh — 2016-11-19 15:31:58 UTC

Time is a huge issue in Irish schools. Teachers must plan for this collaboration, put time aside for it, but it will often be unpaid and above and beyond a 'normal' working week.
Interdisciplinary work can be very effective and consolidate learning for the students.

Cesare Maramici, Italy

2016-11-19 16:01:52 UTC

Sono d'accordo che trovare il tempo entro il giorno di scuola per la collaborazione insegnante è difficile.
Non ero in grado di superare questa sfida! Collaboro solo occasionalmente con altri insegnanti.
Credo che il principale potrebbe svolgere un ruolo importante per creare le condizioni necessarie per la collaborazione degli insegnanti,
per esempio una parte delle ore di lavoro di un insegnante potrebbe essere dedicato per la formazione e le opportunità di collaborazione all'interno della scuola.

Michal

2016-11-19 16:02:17 UTC

The way I see it, if teachers really want to collaborate, they can find he time. I think that the lack of time is often just an excuse.
I have collaborated with my colleagues who teach completely different subjects, however, I find this type of collaboration really enriching both for teachers and students. We have worked on international and local projects, organised school events and even taught lessons together.

Lucrezia Di Molfetta Italy

edimol — 2016-11-19 16:04:21 UTC

Teachers' collaboration is very important for effective teaching, nevertheless very little time in our working hours is dedicated to collaboration. I think it is important to plan a different school system for starting a new perspective of teaching.

Merle, Estonia

merle_pahn — 2016-11-19 16:11:12 UTC

I agree that finding time within the school dayfor teachers collaboration is challenging. We have meeting every Monday morning with teachers from different disciplines for better collaboration. We discuss about different questions and it´s very useful

Antónia Brandão/José Ruão, PT

dolores_brandao — 2016-11-19 16:28:22 UTC

Yes we agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging. But we also agree that after seeing the benefits of that kind of work it can be easier to find it.

With a restricted number of colleagues our experiences of this are positive, sometimes we meet in person, sometimes we meet on line, those are our solutions to overcome this challenge.

Teachers feel overwhelmed with workpaper, bureaucracy and meetings that are not well conducted and most of the subjects are not helpful to students progress.That an issue to move beyond. But we agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful, and in the past we had good experiences of this? One of conditions needed for this to work is an open mind.

Isabel Graça, Portugal

2016-11-19 17:08:45 UTC

Time is one of the key words for collaboration to happen. We often see teachers working together in lunch time, between classes, but the results don’t have a great impact in teachers’ practice or in the classroom. So we must have the conditions and an open mind to do it.

Ana, Portugal

analivramento — 2016-11-19 17:20:48 UTC

It's extremely important to find a common school hour for teachers being together collaborating as a department group. It happens in my school but unfortunatelly this time is being spent to read laws and burocratic work...It's very useful to work with teachers from different subjects and I'm implementing small attempts as a teacher librarian. That's one of my responsibilities in this job. Small steps are being taken to improve the school environment in what concerns collaboration

Helena Louzeiro, Portugal

helenalouzeiro — 2016-11-19 18:27:31 UTC

Finding the time for teacher collaborating is challenging.
Sometimes we do collaborative work at luch, late in the night... when we can!
The web tools are very important to do this kind of work, because it's easier to work with teachers from other countries.

Eduardo, Israel

eduardolina1 — 2016-11-19 18:54:40 UTC

Finding time to collaborate with fellow teachers at school is challenging indeed. I am, however, trying to do so helping English teachers in my school (Kugel in Holon, Israel) use Moodle for Blended Learning. While we are at the showing and sharing stage, with one of my colleagues I hope to create a learning unit which we will use with our pupils (two different courses - same level), and take it beyond, getting some collaboration among pupils from both courses. It may not happen with the first unit we create, but that is a goal for the following one. The main condition to make this work is teacher determination to see it through.

Sabrina Petrillo, ITALY

2016-11-19 19:35:52 UTC

I do agree with Ms Farrell about the chance that we Secondary English teachers have to work with colleagues from different disciplines in order to share resources. I've been working for a long time in a technical institute where my colleagues and me have been implementing projects in Electronics, ICT and Chemistry and my experiences with subject teachers have enhanced our pupils’ ability to solve practical problems as well as their proficiency in ESL.

Cristina/Pisa

2016-11-19 20:50:42 UTC

I have pointed out the problem of time from the beginning of this course without knowing that this would have become an issue of discussion. now in Italy there are lots of courses abut CLIL (content language integrated learning) obligatory in the secondary schools and from next year in primary and middle schools too. This means that teachers of different subecjects have to cooperate, coordiante and cooperate in order to build up didactic units or curriculum of different subjects taught in English. It will be very challenging for everyone!

Sara Viotti, Italy

sara_viotti — 2016-11-19 21:58:59 UTC

In the past, I found on my way teachers who definetly didn't want collaborate with me. Neverthless, I've always noticed that the common participation in project is a good point of start to collaborate between teachers of different subjects. I mean, before we had the fantastic opportunities that digital tools provide us to work together also when standing in different places or countries, the teachers of a same school worked in cross curricular project based on a shared topin, and it ran very well if the team prepared a well designed project plan. I remember specially a project about "Cities" in 1998. We decided the kids would investigate the topic organizing informations about past and present of relevant european cities (geography, history), environmental problems and industries (geography, sciences), novels or poetry about cities (mother tongue, languages and literature).

Daniel Caridade, PT

dcaridade — 2016-11-19 22:48:13 UTC

Time is indeed a problem. I think the better way to deal with it is by using digital tools that allow us to overcome it. That leads to another problem, some teachers still don't have the skills to work with these tools and need to find time to get training with them. Then there's the problem with will to do collaborative projects.
There are lots of possibilities of interdisciplinary activities if we have the time to establish relations between all the classes' subjects. That should be done in the long run, it's impossible to do it as fast as we'd like it. But experienced teachers already have an idea of some of the subjects they can interchange with others and they should build on that. This interconneciton makes our job easier and allows the students to better undestand the complexities and possibilities of connecting subjects and establishing relations between them. As said before we should lead by our own examples.

Lívia, PT

liviasor — 2016-11-20 09:20:50 UTC

Time is precious and there's never enough time to do all you want to do! We need time to teach ourselves the tools there are available now. One needs to try and see what's better to one's students. We sure need collaboration, then it would be easier to learn. I try to work with mixed subects groups...not always successfully. We also need to design activities which make students work together and you always want something good, productive. That's hard work! You need to look at learning intentions and learning outcomes. I really liked the part where it is mentioned we need to focus on students needs (where are they now?; where to go?), not on our needs. Look at teaching as a continuum. The steps are clear. Let's do it.

Paola Arduini, Italy

paolarduini — 2016-11-20 10:07:17 UTC

Once again, I underline the positive and effective model of collaboration established in Italian Primary school of Tempo Pieno, with two teachers in each class and two hours per week devoted to common planning and evaluation

Sidonia, Romania

sidogeocris — 2016-11-20 10:17:16 UTC

It's extremely important to find a common school hour for teachers being together collaborating as a department group

Sara, Italy

luciacaldesi — 2016-11-20 11:03:22 UTC

Collaboration is really important in school, above all for students. If teachers worked together on a common plan/program, student would be more motivated and study for them would be easier.
However, it is not always easy to find collegues who want to collaborate, I think most of them find work on their owns easier than working in group.

Joana, Portugal

juanagomes — 2016-11-20 11:13:55 UTC

I agree that time can be an issue, especially to collaborate within the school environment, as well as aligning timetables, but technologies, as said, can help. In my school, I work collaboratively with all teacher's, but especially with the 1st grade teacher and it's awesome!

Conceição Varela / Portugal

conceicao_varela — 2016-11-20 12:05:06 UTC

Yes, I do agree that time is the biggest challenge for effective teacher collaboration. The way we try to overcome this challenge is by using digital tools that allow us to communicate and collaborate efficiently without being physically together in the school environment, such as collaborative writing based on cloud storage and edition and communication tools like Skype and Google Talk. However, even with all these tools, as soon as a teacher is at home it becomes a parent and a wife/husband and finding time to dedicate to work activities is still a challenge. That's why, time for the teachers to get together in the school environment during their working day is very important if not at all critical for the success of teacher collaboration.

Petra, USA

drpe — 2016-11-20 13:15:54 UTC

I absolutely agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging. Though it benefits the school, the school does not make time for it. So far, any collaboration project had to find time outside the regular schedule, at night, on weekends. That’s another reason why not many teachers are enthusiastic about the prospect of collaborative work. I think that working with teachers from different disciplines can be useful: one gets a new perspective; one learns about a new style, it enriches the students’ experience. I have worked with teachers from the Arts, History, English, and Science Department. The conditions needed to make this work are the willingness to be open-minded, to use at least some technology - and being able to tolerate the effects of sleep-deprivation. J

Vitalija, Lithuania

2016-11-20 15:18:13 UTC

I agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging, but, on the other hand, teachers are very busy people and they have their own families. If a teacher has some extra duties at school, 7 lessons per day, preparation for them, collaboration with other teachers, when will a teacher communicate with his or her family members? Working with teachers from different disciplines perhaps can be useful, but I practically don't have any possibility for that because of the strict timetable at our school. To my mind, school administration should think about the conditions for teacher collaboration

Cristina Teixeira, Portugal

2016-11-20 15:58:29 UTC

Teachers' collaboration is very important for effective teaching, nevertheless the short amount of time on our working hours that is dedicated to collaboration. I think it's extremely important to find common school hours for teachers being together collaborating as in a department group.

Finding the time for actual collaboration is the second big challenge, considering that teachers are convinced for the benefits of such collaboration. I believe that collaboration among teachers with different subjects is fascinating for students because they get a spherical perspective, enhancing their learning goals.

DEBORA

debora_defina — 2016-11-20 16:06:50 UTC

Teacher collaboration between different schools and different discipline is really good to build a complete work because everyone can share own experiences, skills, ideas etc.

Maria Tomaz, Portugal

anjostomaz1 — 2016-11-20 17:37:37 UTC

The digital tools greatly facilitate the connection between us teachers since the time spent in the school neither allows us to work collaboratively, and in some schools where it exists is for meetings for another purpose. But it is an effort I have to make because it has many advantages and can in the long and medium time facilitate the very management of my time.

Angeliki Kougiourouki, Greece

akougiou — 2016-11-20 17:52:58 UTC

Angeliki Kougiourouki, Greece

akougiou — 2016-11-20 17:52:59 UTC

Although it is difficult to find extra time to collaborate with other colleagues within the school day, I try to do it so almost every day, discussing things that we should do concerning an idea or a project to develop. I collaborate also with my colleagues using google forms to share ideas or exchanging mails. As for the collaboration with other teachers from abroad, eTwinning platform with adobe connect or eTwinning projects give me the chance to collaborate and benefit from it.

Paola Biondi, Italy

paola_biondi19 — 2016-11-20 18:01:18 UTC

I have already answered in part in the previous padlet. Rarely have I been able to work effectively with colleagues from other disciplines. this year I'm trying hope it proves to be a positive experience

Fatih TOY / Turkey

2016-11-20 18:16:45 UTC

Undoubtedly it is a great challenge in our school to find time for collaboration particularly in our school which works with 2 shifts. We don't have a long break between classes. I think an institutional attitude needs to be developed in order to spread the collaboration in any school.

Adina Marcu,Romania

adinamarcu9 — 2016-11-20 18:51:32 UTC

Collaboration between different schools and different discipline is the best way to create a complete work,because all can share their experience and ideas

Raul Coutinho

2016-11-20 18:58:58 UTC

A Collaboration between schools is Promotes more efficient and creative work

João Peças - Portugal

2016-11-20 18:59:41 UTC

I agree with the importance of working collaboratively with teachers from different disciplines, although I believe it is necessary to have a great knowledge and involvement among the people who will work in this way. This type of work allows, as I mentioned in the padlet, a great sharing and mutual learning.

Rosella, Italy

rosella_manni — 2016-11-20 20:10:00 UTC

Interdisciplinary teaching can provide a powerful model of academic engagement for both instructors and students. It allows the exchange of new information, a shift in intellectual paradigms formerly based on ownership of knowledge, and the pleasure of a collaborative effort.
Yet, interdisciplinary teaching is not a panacea to the challenges of designing a course, of working in the classroom, of interacting with one’s own students, and of addressing the often very specific needs of one’s department. Collaborative efforts can, in fact, make the larger process of teaching more complex, requiring greater organization, patience, and flexibility.

Mariangela Bielli, italy

mariangela_biel — 2016-11-20 21:42:48 UTC

In day-to-day school life it’s really hard to just to find time to plan together but to find time to teach cooperatively and not just single subjects.
In my eTwinning experience I have been working with a Science teacher and I find it very useful because we collaborate on the same activity with different tasks planned together. This is not the rule yet but I think it is the best way.

Silvia Zorzi, Italy

2016-11-20 22:13:51 UTC

If I want that students work in collaboration, I also have to work in this way with my colleagues. Time lack is a big problem, I use my extra time to work in a collaborative way, using Technology (dropbox, google docs, WhatsApp)

Evi Karella-Greece

spevispevi — 2016-11-20 22:39:58 UTC

Yes I agree that finding time for collaboration within the school day is very challenging. I also agree that working with teachers from different disciplines is very helpful.

Carla Nascimento-ortugal

cmfn1402631 — 2016-11-20 23:27:18 UTC

Yes I agree that finding time for collaboration within the school day is very challenging.
It's not impossible to find time to collaborate with colleagues during ordinary time at school. The use of online environments are usefully to facilitate teacher collaboration, but first of all it's necessary a change of mind: collaborative teaching and learning is more interesting, usefully and productive than individual teaching and learning.

Rui Vieira, Portugal

miguelvieira_com — 2016-11-21 00:08:02 UTC

I think the issue here is all about time: Everybody’s schedule is completely full, and still, people have to manage to get together with colleagues and work! Sometimes you can do it, sometimes you don’t have the time… In the school where I work, teachers’ schedules have, fortunately, a bit of time to dedicate to collaborative work (but It is still in beta testing, because this was the first year). Nevertheless, teachers are trying to make an effort, to improve, to get better, to deliver a better learning experience to their students!

Everybody will benefit with sharing: methods, tools or materials to enrich work!

Nazaré Firmino, Portugal

nazare_firmino — 2016-11-21 01:33:08 UTC

I agree is not easy to find time within the school day for teacher collaboration. In Portugal teachers’ schedule is full and most teachers have some extra duties and a lot of burocratic work at school, what makes it difficult. In my school, teachers asked and now we have a common school hour for teachers of the same department being together collaborating - sharing and discussing ideas, materials, methods and tools. Teachers and students benefit. We also try to work with colleagues from different disciplines, but it’s even more difficult. The use of online environments facilitates teacher collaboration, but it’s not enough. In my opinion the conditions needed for teacher collaboration should be foreseen in the organization of the school year.

Dulce Freire, Fernanda Cunha, Marco Fernandes and Vítor Silva, Portugal

marcocfernandes — 2016-11-21 01:51:59 UTC

Yes, we agree with the first question. It is one of the main reasons that teachers point out not to try something new and different and hence be a hindrance to collaborative work. So far only the four of us who are carrying out this MOOC and another one or two are engaged in this situation, the solutions found were stealing time to the family and as we lived away from each other we turned to the mail to exchange ideas and the group created for this purpose In the office 365. Yes, we agree with the work interdisciplinary, however, again in our school this is not verified. In general teachers are not available to this. The need to use knowledge from one area in another (for example: Physics and Mathematics or Chemistry and Biology) is proof of this situation, it would be useful to have the experience and knowledge of colleagues from other areas.

To start we need to change mentalities, then conditions such time within the school day to work together, above mentioned, and features such as functional net ...

rosa calvino

rosacalvino8 — 2016-11-21 07:41:42 UTC

I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very usefu

Paulo Torcato, Portugal

2016-11-21 09:30:17 UTC

Usually I work with other subjects teachers.
Example:
Math, ICT and Programming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIpXrdi5WKU
Arts, ICT, RObotics, Physics and Programming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQdh-h9tecw&t=54s

Veronica, Italy

vb_keohane — 2016-11-21 10:14:51 UTC

It would be so nice to have the time and timetabling factor embedded in school organization in order to really experiment with collaborative teaching. This year I have a free lesson which fortunately corresponds to a free lesson which the Art History teacher has. This means that we can work together on an eTwinning project together with partners in Greece and Cyprus where I help out on the language factor and he has all the mathematical and architectural skills. It's really great but this experience is based on more luck than judgement. I wonder if I have the courage to suggest to the colleague who organizes our school timetable to bear this in mind next year.

Letizia Zozi, Italy

2016-11-21 10:22:18 UTC

This year I am working in a secondary school as an "empowering teacher", a new entry into italian teacher roles. I was charged of planning projects, but I am compelled to work with colleagues that have no idea about PBL, collaborative learning and teaching. It's very hard for me, a true challenge. There is a lot of confusion about sharing responsibilities, planning activities and the assessments. They are obsessed only about outcomes and time scheduling. But I want students have a good experience. So I'm trying to use my little space of autonomy to show other approaches and practices and let my colleagues see how different (and effective) they are. I hope that my behaviour could produce new mindset in my colleagues. But I should have better skills about leadership!

Simona, the Czech Republic

simonabrothankova — 2016-11-21 10:49:45 UTC

I see a set time for collaboration as an excellent idea. However, I am afraid there would be opposition to it in my school. Nearly all the colleagues want to leave work as fast as possible and the idea of staying at work longer to collaborate would be off-putting for them. I could see it last week when a colleague of mine loudly protested that she would have to get to school an hour earlier than usual. And she is young and has no children. Unfortunately she is not the only one to behave like that. There are not many colleagues to show a willingness to stay at work longer to do something for their students.

Teresa Pombo,. Portugal

teresapombo — 2016-11-21 12:16:35 UTC

I believe that the Time factor has really an huge importance. Sometimes school organisation does not benefitiate collaborative work and that's why technologies can assume a more important role, allowing collaborative work at a distance. The most important condition in fact is the wiil to do collaborative work, to have all the actors at the same pace.

Maria Vasilopoulou, Greece

mbasilopoulou — 2016-11-21 13:24:09 UTC

Collaboration with my school colleagues has been encouraged through projects. Not only us but our students as well seemed to enjoy the result as a particular topic was elaborated through crosscurricular approach.Beyond project work is difficult to collaborate though. HERE you can see an example of successful collaboration between school colleagues and colleagues from Spain.

Elisabetta Italy

elisabettamarigo1 — 2016-11-21 13:48:59 UTC

To answer these questions I have to turn back to the nineties when I used to work in a secondary school "Liceo linguistico Europeo" On those days we teachers from different subjects spent long hours at school to plan, share and organize projects together to enable our students to have a different views about a specific topic. Very little technology was involved in those years, but cooperation among teachers seemed to be effective. But time passes and and in Italy lots of things have happened: two or more school education reforms and in the meanwhile I moved from Liceo to a technological secondary school. These last few years have dramatically changed my approach to my discipline which is English, and the need to work together seems to be for me even more urgent. And here technology have come at handy. In my school there are 160 teachers, a huge number. Every year most of us change classes, students and colleagues, some of us move to other schools. But we are lucky, the school is equipped with many IT instruments and tools: computers for the ITC course, interactive white boards in every classroom, digital electronic register educational platform such as moodle. Despite this, cooperation and collaboration among teachers is still a challenge. I cooperate with few of my colleagues, some others seem to be interested but somehow scared of the amount of time which this work necessarily requires. In my opinion the conditions needed to work together is more awareness of our talents and expertise, to talk with each other at a reasonable pace even though in day-to-day life, it’s really busy, and much more as for example, taking part in MOOC to see, compare experiences,share ideas and cooperate with other colleagues all around Europe

Ariana Vacaretu, Romania

ariana_vacaretu — 2016-11-21 15:38:48 UTC

I completly agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging. There is the school timetable, there are different school tasks .... it is not easy to find a time slot when 3-4 teachers are available for working together. Working with teachers from different disciplines is very useful - as it brings different working procedures (discipline specific) and different knowledge together. Life is not made-up of diciplines .... in real life, the student has to solve problems which are not discipline specific. Collaboration with teachers from different disciplines can support us to provide high quality learning experiences to our students.

Rossana, Italy

rossana_demartino — 2016-11-21 15:51:35 UTC

It would be a very important and effective experience to work in a real collaboratively way with my colleagues, but this doesn't happen very frequently. I think that this depends on the good will of a group of teachers that are aware of this aspect of teaching. Last year I worked with my colleagues of different subjects and everyone took own ideas and experience to realize some projects. This should be part of our professional experience; considering the working in group as a process that goes on in time , but it must be designed and planned to work well and have excellent results.

Cinzia Masia, Italy

attasonitabas — 2016-11-21 16:48:01 UTC

I agree because certain periods we are really busy at school and it is nearly impossible to find time to collaborate and meet . My solutions: we text messages, send emails and then we look for a spare hour at school to meet and define our ideas. I totally agree that collaboration among different subject teachers is the ideal condition of working at school in order to plan cross curricula projects and activities

Teresa Rowett - Portugal

2016-11-21 19:02:16 UTC

The time factor is in fact the key to an effective collaboration. In our schools we are submerged with having to teach many classes and doing many tasks in the middle of that process. Teachers are tired and on top of that there are the disciplinary problems they have to deal with. When teachers meet and work together they are often using their personal time, obviously our profession cannot depend on the good will of the teachers.

Katarina,Serbia

2016-11-21 19:28:51 UTC

I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be useful.
But finding the time for collaboration within the school day is very challenging.

2016-11-21 20:00:57 UTC

In ers

Hanefi, Turke

2016-11-21 20:37:24 UTC

Because I am a teacher in a village, finding time is really challenging for us.

Atanasija, Croatia

atbilic — 2016-11-21 20:55:58 UTC

I think it is difficult, but also, it is not unmanegable. The biggest problem is finding additional time and desire to collaborate.

Marta, Portugal

istruka — 2016-11-21 22:12:18 UTC

I find that the question of time is fundamental for an effective collaborative work. teachers simply don't have time to work together because they are used to having their own rythm of work. At school teachers have plenty of work to do and when they finish it they still have work to do at home. So, it's easier to plan everything alone or, from time to time, ask colleagues about what they are doing. Usually we use the evaluation meetings at the end of terms to share experiences but that happens 3 times a year...

Maria Rizza/ Sicily

rowri — 2016-11-21 22:36:53 UTC

It is difficult for teachers to find time within the school for collaboration but I also now by experience that if teachers want to work togeter they have great opportunity by using techonology, Indeed I find very useful to be able to go on an online environment, and put forward what I have been doing, or look at what somebody else has been doing. And I can do it at my own pace, so it doesn’t require that I have to be in the same place at the same time. And it does allow the sharing of a range of resources, be it video or documents. That’s what I found significant and beneficial-This is the way I work in Twinspace for E-twinning Projects or Erasmus projects .

Something that I thought would be a big challenge today was working with different subject groups but again if teachers want to get to a common result they exchange ideas, they can enrich themselves .
It is useful to design learning activities together with the colleagues and compare and exchange ideas between groups and get feedback from different groups, then to decide what technologies it is possible to use to make the collaboration more effective. So, it’s an iterative cycle. The condition to work at interdisciplinary way is to have a flexible mindset and being so humble to be willing to ask for help when it is necessary. But this is not the attitude I find among my colleagues unfortunately,though i try to convince them to try new ways of teaching out !!�� 4

Teresa - Portugal

2016-11-21 23:26:06 UTC

Yes, finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging, but nowadays, technology helps a lot. Sometimes it is only at night, at home, that there is time to prepare the work for school and sharing documents over internet or communication through digital tools makes the job a lot easier.
I also agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful and sometimes we need some help in order to do this. For me, this Mooc is helping a lot.

Pedro Elias, Portugal

pedroelias — 2016-11-21 23:56:30 UTC

I agree that it is important to find time to collaborate with teachers from other disciplines, but often we do not have the time to do this. Faithfully, the tools of communication and collaboration are a great help.

Lorraine, PR

2016-11-22 05:02:48 UTC

In my school I have just one hour of professional development so teachers find it hard to take their time to review my classes and activities so they can assess and make recommendations so we count on our peers good faith in helping out so we can get the feedback.

Isabel Costa

costaisabel60 — 2016-11-22 09:01:02 UTC

In my opinion, it is increasingly difficult in Portugal to work as a team, not because there are no common themes that can be worked on or activities that can be developed together, but there is no time for teachers to do it on their schedule School time. I think the Ministry of Education has to rethink the hourly distribution. This collaborative work can also not be followed by bureaucratic work, such as making a minutes of the teachers' meeting. It should be a time for informal sharing and where teachers can effectively learn from each other.

Carlos Silva, Portugal

2016-11-22 10:53:00 UTC

I believe in the benefits of collaboration teacher within the school day. I make already collaboration work with other teachers about the main documents of the school. But I have to work harder to make more often some collaboration work about the work to do with students in different disciplines. The example presented is very good. Getting feedback from different groups or subjects when we are making our design it could be very useful. I will keep doing some work with teachers from different disciplines. But I want to improve and be more effectivein this collaborative work. I think it should start with different teachers, because I see this only with the same teachers. In my opinion teachers should have some courses, inside the school, to share and know really good experiences about collaboration work.

Irena, Poland

irenagd — 2016-11-22 10:57:50 UTC

Undoubtedly, teachers collaboration within school day is beneficial. It can help teachers solve current problems and improve their skills. Unfortunatelly , it is sometimes difficult to adjust timetables to let this kind of meetings exist.
I stongly believe that collaborating with teachers from different disciplines can be successful. Teachers should be open-minded and try to apply others' solutions in their subjects. They need to be aware of the fact that not every attempt should be successful at the beginning. But making mistakes is humane. so we need to keep trying.

Sue - AUS

suzanne_durick — 2016-11-22 12:07:29 UTC

At my school we team teach so it's fantastic for feedback regularly. i think I'd like to set aside formal feedback time for discussion about projects etc too.

Marina-Italy

2016-11-22 12:19:09 UTC

I often am in need of other teachers, especially when arranging for school trips, I ask my collegues for suggestions in orde to get the most from this experience. I find time to get in touch with them in the weekends, during schools breaks and online, but I'd like, as I've written before, to have dedicated occasions for this, once a week for example, as it happens in the primary school here in Italy. This opportunity would be more involving, complete and effective.

Fátima, Portugal

2016-11-22 13:53:52 UTC

I really agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging because in ou school schedules we don't have any time for collaboration. So, we have to do it out of schools or after school. To overcome this challenge we communicate and collaborate using some digital technologies such as Google Drive or some communication platforms. In my opinion, the collaboration with teachers from other disciplines is crucial to give students an understanding that all the subjects are connected and that all are important in their learning process.

Patrizia, Italy

patrizia_brion — 2016-11-22 17:14:15 UTC

Ioannis Velonakis, Greece

2016-11-22 19:00:07 UTC

In Greek school nowadays finding time for true teacher’s collaboration is a real challenge. Most teachers simply teach their subjects and leave, since they have to go to more than two schools. In most cases, the only person who can be found at school almost all the time is the Head. As far as I am concerned, before two years I had to collaborate with three other colleagues, most of them with completely different disciplines, some of them were not at my school every day. Actually, one of them was at our school only for two days and the program was so tight that we could hardly meet during the working day. We tried to overcome the problem by using phone calls, meetings at non-working hours and digital communication tools, like e-mail, Google Hangouts, Skype and Google Docs. Of course I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful and the above mentioned case was a very useful one. The main conditions necessary for this work are the fourth ones mentioned in previous sections as well as open-minds combined with a lot of patience….

Conceição Aleixo, Portugal

caleixonline — 2016-11-22 19:18:52 UTC

Finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is really a challenge. In my school, as we have no classes at Wednesday afternoon, we can plan and schedule meetings for collaborating teams work.

Palmira Serrano, Portugal

palmiraserrano — 2016-11-22 19:34:20 UTC

Finding time is always a challenge for a teacher, but time to collaborate is necessary and needs to be contemplated at the time we can do it and this decision is part of the direction of the school.
Interdisciplinarity is very important for the success of the students and when working collaboratively we must bear this in mind

Ionela Lazea, Romania

kameeliah16bis — 2016-11-22 20:21:00 UTC

I agree with the teachers from Ireland. In my case is a little simpler as I work in a kindergarten with another 18 colleagues and we all teach the same preschool subjects. Nevertheless, we exchange ideas, plans and activities and we work closely mostly with the teachers who teach the same age group.

Marta Pereira

mpereira89_1 — 2016-11-22 22:23:28 UTC

Finding time at school to work collaboratively is practically impossible. To overcome this problem we have to use the online tools mostly. Working with teachers from other disciplines may be important but it is still a more difficult challenge to realize. In my opinion, it is necessary to find activities of common interest that can put into practice the knowledge acquired in the two disciplinary areas and both teachers dominate the same online tools or find time in school to do this work which is even more difficult.

Ana, Portugal

anasalonso — 2016-11-22 22:40:31 UTC

There are benefits of having a dedicated time and space to devote to collaborating together. Collaborating with teachers from different subjects using technology facilitate the process of communication/collaboration.

Elisabete Gouveia, Portugal

2016-11-22 23:43:31 UTC

Time is always a problem for a teacher but the challenge is how to overcome it because to collaborate we need some quality time. It's very difficult but we have to try.

Isbel Cabo

isacabo_1978 — 2016-11-22 23:56:48 UTC

I agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging. I work with my colleagues after classes in persona or during the day online, because we reconized the benefits of collaborative work. I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful, because we talk about different things and all teachers grow with others' experiences. In my opinion, the condition needed for collaborative work is to have time to work together in timetable.

Fátima Vieira, Portugal

fatima_vieira — 2016-11-23 00:07:39 UTC

It is not easy in some portuguese schools, teachers, without common timetables and without offices, to meet to share and work as a team.
In some schools it is already tried that this time of meeting and sharing can happen, as in my school, where every fifteen days each group of teachers meets. It is important not only to share using new techonologies but the meeting of teachers.

Maria, Portugal

ameliamagalhaes — 2016-11-23 00:32:02 UTC

Jose, Portugal

jafscruz — 2016-11-23 09:14:29 UTC

In my opinion the truthly way of having time to be collaborative is schedulelling time, by school management, at the teachers timetable, and let teachers have some changes to work together in small activities, class activities, at least. By other hand, we need to stay consciencious and available to negociate, to find a way together in working collaboratively.

Regarding students work, is very important to know that collaborative tasks between teachers that envolved students also may require some time for students, so is important stay in touch with student's timetable and manage activities that allow students to have time for themselves.

All activities that I have done with other teachers were great, and students enjoyed very much and the best part is that they don't forget the content that they did work in this kind of activities, leading, in that way, to deep learning :)

For example working with english teacher, history teacher, my students (in my ICT discipline) developed a Scratch quiz about historical facts, in english, about some european countries; another example is working with Physics teacher, our students developed a 2D animation simulating the planets's orbits in solar system.

Alexandra Figueiredo, Portugal

xanafig — 2016-11-23 12:26:42 UTC

I totally agree with colleague José, from Portugal.

Sandra Teixeira, Portugal

2016-11-23 15:03:20 UTC

In my opinion teachers must have hours in their lective time to work collaboratively. This hours should be written by the school administration, at the teachers timetable. Let the teachers make some changes in their work, is another need. The portuguese curriculum is open minded, but the objectives to achive are a lot, and difficult ones, accounting student's age. So, school'directors put grades above all. They don't consider that teachers can work themes differently, and have good results in exams, e.g. Everybody knows that collaborative work takes more time to achieve knowledge. So, why spend more time, when teachers can explain everything???
Regarding students work, is very important to know that collaborative tasks allow students to have time for themselves, this way they will learn and remember longer the subjects they are working, because of motivation.
All activities that I have done with other teachers were great, students enjoyed very much and the best part is that they didn't forget anything. The environment in school was excellent, among all the comunity.
The work that I do best with students is experimental work. They learn things more profund, and mostly, they like to share their knowledge with colleagues from other classes. Technology is an important resource to that success. I use different apps, simulators and sensors.

Cristina Abegão

2016-11-23 18:16:21 UTC

Time is always a problem for a teacher. The challenge is how to overcome it It's very difficult but we have to try.

Donatella Cavion, italy

donatellacavion — 2016-11-23 22:29:43 UTC

To find time is always a problem but I think that it's very important to collaborate with other teachers in order to share experiences, materials and so on. I think that is fundamental to have collaboration also with teachers of other disciplines becouse we have to think about inte-disciplinary modules. Of course all this asks a lot of time and work. in my opinion at least 2 hours a week should be dedicated to this collaboration.

It is important to develop a culture of collboration between teachers first

andreaman75 — 2016-11-24 08:21:27 UTC

Camelia

TO THE ATTENTION OF DAVID LANIGHAN

zatram66 — 2016-11-24 13:46:23 UTC

Dear colleague,

I apologized I sent you another colleague's peer review.

The electronic system doesn't allow me to send you a second review.

So, the manager of the course I asked for help,

told me to attach the link of your review here.

Sorry

https://app.box.com/s/kz0c09m6sqbugo0o9cc19qxrudlx0206

Marta Battocchia

Teresa Pires, Portugal

2016-11-24 14:58:26 UTC

Time and the great volume of work are great obstacles for a teacher. The challenge is how to overcome it. It's very difficult, but we have to try.

Anna bormida

annabormida — 2016-11-24 17:43:31 UTC

Italy
I think that it’s very important finding time for collaboration. If I’m attending the course i think so !

Time for these activities is really diufficult to find but it’s a chance we can have to improve our teaching work.

Anna C. Italy

ciaramellaanna — 2016-11-26 11:43:33 UTC

I'm agree that to find time to between teachers collaboration is challenging but is important and necessary and we must groped to overcoming any obstacle.
I agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful.
My opinion for this to work is to be open and willing to collaborate.

Marina R Italy

ruggieri_marina — 2016-11-26 11:43:36 UTC

I think that collaborating with other teachers offers great opportunities to grow, clarify doubts, overcoming difficulties. Really we must get used to find the time for this. It could be hard at first owing to our lack of time, but in the future we will save a lot of that time..

Anna Rosa, Italy

ar_b — 2016-11-26 13:46:55 UTC

I agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging, but technology helps us to better communicate. Furthermore, in my experience, the collaboration with teachers from different disciplines is very important.

Now I'm enjoying very much the suggestion on the involvement of sceptical teachers too, so that they could be part of a team as observers. For me this is a very informative topic.

Honorata Pereira, Portugal

honoratapereira — 2016-11-26 20:37:24 UTC

I think the collaboration between teachers of different disciplines is not only important as it is also key.
With the new digital tools there is always the possibility of collaborating and our students as well. There is also the possibility that we can collaborate with teachers and students from other countries even in the context of the classroom.

Cidália Marques, Portugal

cidaliam — 2016-11-26 21:57:20 UTC

Is very challenging but is impossible to work alone in schools these days.
If we don't the learning process is compromised.
Meetings between teachers, spaces in their schedule to meet, teacher training are the options that we have to pursiut.
This te way to go, if we want the students prepared for the future.

Anna Maria, Italy

mattielloannamaria — 2016-11-26 22:41:19 UTC

I think cooperation among teachers is necessary and useful to let our pupils acquire key competences. The essencial condition is that every teacher in a group should understand the need to cooperate.

Fayna McNulty, Spain.

2016-11-26 23:19:50 UTC

I find it impossible to collaborate with colleagues during school hours because we are always with our classes in teaching time, and after Teaching, we only have one hour for parents meetings and official paperwork. So imagine the amount of homework we take home and no time for coordination and collaboration is provided.
I agree with many of you that point out lack of time as an issue, and I liked Teresa Rowet's comment about it.
About the importance of collaboration between teachers from different disciplines, I agree with Honorata Pereira as being very enritching and open minded for teachers experience, but again the lack of time is an obstacle.

Rosa Caeiro, Portugal

rosafcaeiro — 2016-11-27 02:21:50 UTC

Collaborative work can be very productive, but it requires a lot of dedication, time and reflection. Can not be done after 5 or 6 hours of classes at various levels. The school needs to find time so that teachers can do collaborative work. I have done some collaborative work, with colleagues from Geography, but it is very difficult, there are compatible hours.

Natasa Vrapcevic

2016-11-27 18:02:47 UTC

When teachers collaborate, they are models for pupils. Collaboration could be very productive but it must be a good and hard working team of people.

Paula Gonçalves, Portugal

paulaalexandra_goncalves — 2016-11-27 20:18:10 UTC

Collaborate with other teachers require a lot of time to do that. Unfortunately, this kind of teaching methodolgy is not yet comprised in teachers timetables and most of thr times we do it by spending less time with our families or planning or correcting our students work.

I strongly believe that finding time for collaboration with other teachers can be challenging but very useful and should be implemented whenever possible.

paulina_rozmus — 2016-11-27 21:52:28 UTC

Cristina Parente, Portugal

CrisParente — 2016-11-30 09:38:18 UTC

"Finding time for ‘true teacher collaboration’ is challenging in the way schools are currently organised" is quite a challenge nowadays but it's more and more crucial. Working with teachers from different subjects can be useful because sometimes the topics are the same and they can be worked at the same time in different subjects; we can also share resources. I think teachers' timetable should have time for collaborative work.

Virginia Esteves, Portugal

virginiaesteves — 2016-11-30 21:54:23 UTC

I think that finding time to work collaboratively is difficult but finding motivation to do that is even more difficult. We should start thinking that this methodology is more effective and that we all will get benefits at the end.
I agree that we should have time to work at school with our collegues and that this type os methodologies should be promoted by our Ministries.

Rovena Hoxha

rovena_hoxha — 2017-10-16 12:33:52 UTC

Collaboration with teacher