Elaborated notes from Collaboration today:
The CCSS ensure that important concepts get taught.
How important is it for teachers to teach the same thing at the same time?
What would be the consequence of not having a correlated curriculum?
- A student may miss out on a concept if they change classes at the change of the semester.
- Collaboration of ideas (this is how I teach this concept, how about you?) would not happen AS instruction of that idea takes place for both parties.
- Anything else?
It is important to remember that "nobody knows how long it takes anybody to learn anything." The instruction of pacing should depend on the students.
Solve the first problem by making sure that the same things are taught each term (when students can change their classes). Teachers should each cover the same concepts during each respective term, and term 4 should be left unplanned for any concepts that there wasn't time to cover as well as testing (a large part of fourth term).
Teachers should have the autonomy to choose when in the term to teach the concepts, and how they should be taught. Teachers are professionals who know their craft and who know their students. They are in the best place to make decisions about the educational needs of their students.
As for collaboration, it does not have to take place while both teachers are on the same subject. If two teachers decide to teach something at the same time, that is their privilege to work together in their planning, assessment, and informing each other's practice. But every teacher has the right to teach something in whatever way they feel is best for their students and at the pacing they feel is best. The collaboration of ideas for planning and assessment to inform one's teaching by hearing the ideas of another teacher from the same grade level do not need to take place AS these teachers teach their units together.
Collaboration should mean sharing ideas and using those ideas to inform our own teaching practices. It should not mean teaching the same thing at the same time.
These are my views and ideas on the matter from my experience observing collaboration at my school and listening in on the discussion concerning what collaboration time should be used for. I'm still developing these ideas.
Here's an interesting study I read about teacher autonomy: the more autonomy a principal gives to his or her teachers, the more the teachers seem to give to the students. If we know that autonomy is an important motivational factor in learning, then how should we be treating teachers?
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