Educational Rant- collaboration

Educational Rant- collaboration

I have to go to mentoring meetings.  As a mentee.  Never mind that I have been teaching for 20+ years.  Because I am new in the district Where I currently work I am considered a “new” teacher.  I hate these meetings.  I hate being talked to and instructed at.  We also have homework and a workbook, and I am supposed to come to class prepared.  I refuse to do the work, so I show up unprepared.  The instructor engages us in guided discussion on the chapters of the book.  Yesterday I showed up. I confess I do not always show up.  I was handed a marker and told to write something I will do in my class in the next 30 days up on the butcher paper on the wall.  I did as I was told.  Then sat down and chatted with the guy next to me.

I enjoyed the dialogue.  We discussed what we do, you know, teach.  We briefly discussed education and administration and policy.  It was brief because we had to begin the lesson that was being handed to us.  But, just before the instructor started we both agreed that what we really needed was to collaborate.  That the powers that be never allow teachers time to discuss freely and collaborate.

One theme that popped up over and over during the mentor meeting was that we should allow our students to collaborate, to work independently and to have student-driven lessons.  This is the push, to get students to drive the lesson, to get students to work cooperatively, we want them to have input.  We want this for our students.  We want them to be able to think for themselves.  So, this leaves me wondering.  Why can’t teachers be allowed the same?

It is a lonely profession.  As teachers, we never have the time to talk to other teachers.   I crave this.  When I see other teachers at a staff meeting, I want to be allowed to sit with them and discuss with them.  I want to ask about individual students we may have in common, I want to ask about some great activity I overheard some kid talking about, I want to share this great success I had in class with someone that will really get it.  But, instead, we are shown a PowerPoint video, given a list of things we have to do, told to look at a page such and such in a book, listen to an administrator talk to us.  We are not allowed to talk.

Let’s apply this to a classroom.  I have this desperate need to share and collaborate with my peers.  Why would my students feel any differently?  Wouldn’t they want to work together to learn?  Wouldn’t they too want to discuss and talk things over with their peers?

I think how much more productive the mentor meetings I have to attend could be.  What if we were asked what topics we needed to discuss?  What if we were consulted on what areas we feel need support in?  What if we were given time to talk with our colleagues to come up with the questions?  What if we were given time to then ponder the questions?  What if the seasoned teachers that have to sit there and go over strategies they do instinctively could pair up with a true to life new teacher?

What if we could do this in the classroom?  What if I could give students a topic and some areas to focus on, then have them come up with the questions?  Then have them find the answers?  What if students were the ones driving their own learning?  What if?  What do you think would be the long-term outcomes?  Many of us do this.  But what I am talking about is deeper, and I will get to it in another post. But….

Seriously, think about it. If we want teachers to use collaboration in the classroom, shouldn’t we be collaborating?  In the midst of writing this, I decided I needed to go talk to another teacher.  It took us about 20 minutes during out lunch, and we came up with a plan.  We didn’t set out to have a plan.  We started by discussing education in general.  I asked, “What can we do?”  So we now have a plan of action.  We have a goal.  We came to a discussion with a desire, and now it has turned into a scheme to institute change.

If you have read my other posts, I am an advocate for change in the classroom.  Many teachers have students collaborate.  Many teachers do group work.  But what I am talking about is different altogether.  I am talking about students coming up with EVERYTHING. OK not everything, but close to it.  Keep in mind; I am talking about High School since that is my area.  My ideas would have to be modified for other levels.

Let’s say I want my students to learn about the Middle Ages.  There are specific things I want them to learn and understand.  But, I am not going to stand in front of the room and lecture, I am not going to assign pages in the text to read, I am not going to give worksheets or tests.  What I will give is a page with instructions, essential vocabulary and a rubric.  Maybe some ideas and sample finished products- especially the 1st time around.  In groups, in pairs or individually- students will be allowed to choose- the students will learn the Middle Ages through discovery.  They might need to start by generating questions and coming up with the questions they need to answer.  This is called curiosity.  We don’t teach this and we should.  From there the students will begin to respond to the questions.  They will have a goal.  They will need to decide how they will achieve this goal.  They will need to decide how they are going to prove what they have discovered.  Not learned, discovered.  Learning will happen when they have to present or teach what they discovered.

I want to do this.  I want to be given the time and opportunity to sit with my peers and come up with questions.  Believe me, we have questions.  I want to collaborate and discover the answers.  I want to be able to talk to my colleagues and find solutions and ideas to what ails education.  I want to be given the opportunity to be a problem solver and a thinker.  And I have a feeling my students feel the same way.