Standard 2: Teaching and Learning
School library media candidates model and promote collaborative planning with classroom teachers in order to teach concepts and skills of information processes integrated with classroom content. They partner with other education professionals to develop and deliver an integrated information skills curriculum. Candidates design and implement instruction that engages the student’s interests, passions, and needs which drive their learning.
Reflection
Before starting this program, the amount of collaboration I engaged in was minimal. Our school currently employs the course team method of collaboration and it works well for basic content area collaboration. The one major issue with course teams is that it limits the number of colleagues you collaborate with. Currently, I am on a course team with only one other person. Although it is great to have another colleague to share ideas and examine assessment data with, it is unfortunate as teachers from other content areas could really help bring different perspectives to the table. My experiences in the program have opened many doors to collaboration among colleagues at my own school and beyond.
Firstly, the professional readings many of the classes require helped me understand the foundations of collaboration. I learned that it is not merely a sharing of ideas but working together to create content and assessments that deepen student understanding. My research into best practices included many articles pertaining to collaboration and the research that shows that collaboration works on many different levels.
Developing the information literacy plan involved extensive collaboration with a fellow teacher. I chose to use someone in a different content area so that I could get comfortable working with teachers that teach different content from my own. This was a great experience as he brought a different perspective and helped me develop techniques to use in my own classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him on this project. The technology integrated unit also helped me collaborate with other teachers and my media specialist. She was an invaluable resource as I developed the plan and worked with her to schedule classes in various computer labs across campus.
As I developed my personal learning network, I learned more and more about collaboration. My professional learning network now includes websites and resources targeted specifically at collaboration. These resources proved to help foster those collaborative relationships as well as enrich the activities that were developed through the collaboration.
Firstly, the professional readings many of the classes require helped me understand the foundations of collaboration. I learned that it is not merely a sharing of ideas but working together to create content and assessments that deepen student understanding. My research into best practices included many articles pertaining to collaboration and the research that shows that collaboration works on many different levels.
Developing the information literacy plan involved extensive collaboration with a fellow teacher. I chose to use someone in a different content area so that I could get comfortable working with teachers that teach different content from my own. This was a great experience as he brought a different perspective and helped me develop techniques to use in my own classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him on this project. The technology integrated unit also helped me collaborate with other teachers and my media specialist. She was an invaluable resource as I developed the plan and worked with her to schedule classes in various computer labs across campus.
As I developed my personal learning network, I learned more and more about collaboration. My professional learning network now includes websites and resources targeted specifically at collaboration. These resources proved to help foster those collaborative relationships as well as enrich the activities that were developed through the collaboration.