Collaboration is an Investment in Students and Colleagues

I appreciate Ed inviting me to write on his blog. Professionally, I have been or currently work as: a middle school teacher, science specialist, homeless outreach specialist for Virginia’s McKinney-Vento program, education consultant in the areas teacher selection and evaluation, education writer, and program coordinator. For me education is a vocation, not a job. As I respond to the call to fulfill roles or create new roles, I rely on collaboration. Perhaps the value of collaboration is a benefit of being the oldest of four children and by working together, my siblings and I got “things” done that simply transferred over to my professional life where its value is constantly affirmed.

Today, I was reminded of that book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss when Dr. Loury Floyd emailed me that her article on using home learning kits with elementary aged students with special needs had been published. When I clicked on the link (http://isc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/44/3/160), I saw that her co-author was Dr. Lisa Vernon-Dotson. Lisa, Loury, and I were doctoral students together at The College of William and Mary. As I wrote Loury a congratulatory note, I reflected upon presentations related to parental involvement we had done nearly a decade earlier and remarked that I was thrilled to see former classmates’ names contributing to the education profession. I realized that our professors had prepared us to work together and contribute, and seeing the names in print was part of the actualization of William and Mary, fellow students, and faculty investment in us. When we started our doctoral studies, we had an idea, but truly did not know the places we’d go once we graduated a few years later.

Dr. Floyd and Vernon-Dotson’s collaboration inspired my inaugural post for this blog. Regardless of our professional role, we invest in our students so that they can apply the skills and knowledge taught in the classroom in broader settings. We are often more effective when we collaborate with each other. By modeling this collaborative spirit, our students experienced the outcomes of teamwork and the power of sharing resources as we worked towards goals. Sometimes as in the case of Loury and Lisa’s article, we can see the positive impact of our collaborative efforts.

So back to Loury and Lisa’s publication, certainly they collaborated in order to write the article. However topic of the article in which teachers at North Carolina elementary school collaborated with the school Parent Teacher Association (PTA) exemplified collaboration. The groups identified the need of increasing family involvement learning opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds, students with disabilities, and students identified as at-risk. The PTA and the teachers collaborated to address the need. The PTA secured external funding and the teachers designed “home learning kits” for the families to keep. The kits provided instructions and materials for caregivers to use active learning strategies with their children. Further special education teachers collaborated with general education teachers to ensure that Individualized Education Program goals were a part of the design process. Then the PTA held a workshop for families so teachers could model how to use the kits. So what were the outcomes of all this collaboration? Students and parents were receptive and positive about using the kits. In the first year of the program 29 families participated and the number families involved doubled in the second year. Parents were asking questions and engaging in dialogues with teachers about their child’s learning, so quality of communication between school and home increased. The benefits of the investment of the PTA and teachers were evident in the positive involvement of caregivers, connections between school and home, and educational outcomes (specific outcomes were not noted in the article).

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and the article inspired this blog both describe a journey. Yet consider the following three questions:

• Collaboration has a local impact, but how do you or I share collaborative efforts so there is the potential to affect others?
• What wonderful collaborative efforts are working?
• What “sandpaper issues” in collaboration need smoothing?