About me as a Collaborator - Digital Artifact
I have chosen this picture to represent some of my experiences as a collaborator. It wasn’t long ago before I went into administration that I worked closely with some of my upper intermediate colleagues. This image represents the achievement we had as a team throughout many years of working together quite closely. The picture is an image of myself and a colleague high-fiving while being completely drenched with water balloons at a grade 7 celebration. This colleague was a fellow grade 6/7 teacher in which I worked side-by-side for five years. The students had just completed their farewell ceremony and were excited to be enjoying a moment in the sun after an exciting day celebrating their successes. As they threw water balloons in our direction and parents sat back and laughed, the smiles on our faces say it all. This was truly a collaborative experience all in the name of inclusive education.
During this time, there wasn’t a lesson, project, quiz or unit we didn’t plan together. Utilizing our own experiences and a series of resources written by Faye Brownlie, Leyton Schnellert, Marian Small to name a few. Each day, after school ended, we would sit down together and craft the next day’s or week’s learning opportunities for students. At the time, we were both teaching two grade 6/7 classes, but of course, we were sitting down with other inquiry groups to get the best out of each other and for our students. We focused on three key areas identified for inclusive learning opportunities. As stated by Rose and Meyer in Student Diversity,
• “Engage students by tapping into their interests and emotions.
• Show new information to students in a variety of ways.
• Provide students with different ways to show what they know” (Brownlie, 2016, 39).
One of great additions to our team was that of learning support. We collaborated with one of our LST teachers almost daily to focus on inclusion of all learners. According to Faye Brownlie, “When a team chooses key strategies and skills to target across a grade, the learning resource teacher can assist them in modeling these strategies, adapting them across subject areas; this teacher can also assist the team in making units of study more accessible for all students” (Brownlie, 2016, 16).
One of the school-wide initiatives that we took on was based on an action inquiry project to alleviate anxiety in learners utilizing social and emotional programming as well as divergent teaching strategies. Throughout this process, we worked with several primary and intermediate teachers, learning support teachers and integration teachers to best support our learning community. We attending multiple evening workshops and observed teachers within our school to propel this process. One of the key focuses was the social and emotional programming to support our students. Throughout this program (Second Step), we conducted lessons, created monthly themed bulletins, school-wide assemblies and even morning announcements utilizing the language and strategies from this program.
Additionally, we led math workshops for staff on utilizing number routines, talks and open-ended questioning within the classroom. Throughout these workshops, we were once again able to sit down with a team to best use the resources available to us and engage our variety of learners. District helping teachers would join us and guide us in our practice, as well as demonstrate their own strategies in the classroom.
One of our annual highlights was initiating a Science and Innovation Fair based on inquiry-based learning. As one of our guiding resources, we utilized the works of Kaser and Halbert and the Spiral Playbook. They explain, “The beauty of the spiral of inquiry is that it is built on evidence-based concepts you already know and practices you may already use. But there are features that, in combination, distinguish this cycle of inquiry from other forms of action research. For example: it requires collaboration” (Kaser and Halbert, 2017). It was through our collaboration we were able to develop pre and post assemblies, timeline and motivational bulletins, lessons based on inquiry and student reflections throughout this experience. The final school-wide fair was one in which primary students, community members, judges and even secondary students would come and marvel at student learning.
After examining the above picture closely, many things stood out in my mind. The high fives represent a successful year of collaboration, learning and engagement for students and final wrap up barbecue to reflect on our accomplishments. It also demonstrates the enjoyment we have to target a range of leaners by including the whole learning community. Shelly Moor uses a bowling metaphor to emphasize the importance of including all learners. She mentions teaching a class is like ten pin bowling in which hitting the 7 and 10 outside pins are the most difficult. Shelley states, “Those pins are the students who need the most support, and the ones who need the most challenge” (Shelley Moore: Transforming Inclusive Education, 2016).
References:
Brownlie, F., Feniak, C., & Schnellert, L. (2016). Student Diversity, 3rd edition: Teaching Strategies to Meet the Learning Needs of All
Students in K-10 Classrooms (third edition). Pembroke Publishers.
Kaser Halbert, L. J. (2017). The Spirals Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools. C21 Canada –
Canadians for 21st Century Learning and Innovation.
Shelley Moore: Transforming Inclusive Education. (2016, April 4). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYtUlU8MjlY