I believe that teacher collaboration is our best form of professional development and critical to student learning.
I work in a small one stream school where there are only 13 teachers. While it is not possible for us to collaborate at grade level, we do participate in staff collaboration as a means of sharing best teaching practices. At each monthly staff meeting one teacher shares a classroom practice. Once per month our principal provides one hour of school time for “divisional meetings”. At this time all primary or all elementary teachers meet to share and discuss teaching practices. We often lead our own inservices to share our expertise in a particular area. Our principal encourages and provides time for a teacher to visit another teacher’s classroom to observe teaching practices.
Beyond our little school with so many opportunities for collaboration, our teachers are also encouraged and substitute time can be provided so that we can pursue professional development by visiting another school to collaborate with and observe a teacher at the same grade level.
Our classrooms are full of different students; different learning styles and we have a variety of material to cover. Teacher collaboration is critical to accommodate all that is presented in our classrooms and to effectively teach ALL our students. It is the best means of discovering alternate ways of teaching.
