The Five Phases of Flattening a Classroom

Please take a moment to read this excellent blog posting by Ryan Bretag. Here is a teaser...

"...this article isn't another push for organizations to embrace a collaborative learning culture. It is a push for teachers to stop waiting for the organization and become a collaborative professional learner by changing fundamental behaviors inhibiting this and embracing action items that will allow it to happen."

Off you go, then. Don't come back here until you've read the post!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading his blog post and commented on it at that site. I am including my comment below, as well. It's in green.

I thought about our Fremd house as I read the post. I am seeing a good amount of collaboration among teachers at Fremd and I like to think our continued use of technology is partly to thank. For example, teachers ask teachers how to do this and that with the new tablet PCs and it is my hope that these conversations continue and include more talk and walk about best practices in their teaching. They are replacing old practices with better ones in the hopes that students learn better. Way to go, I say!

The key to this is managing your time by collaborating with others in your personal teaching network so that your teaching bag is full of tools for all kinds of learners. You won't have to worry about having enough time to collaborate becuase collaboration is part of what you do everyday. All of us took time in the past to learn how to be the teacher who continually looks at our own teaching and student learning with a critical eye toward continued improvement. I am so proud of so many teachers at Fremd who practice their teaching and student learning this way. Collaboration has become a way of life and survival for them as it was for me when I was in the classroom. As Ryan states, 'What if your students told you they did not have time to learn your subject?'

My comment to Ryan's post....
Closing the door to learning is key for me. This is what I encounter most often from teachers. The reason? Time. But this is 'false' time. Many teachers continually think teaching 21st Century skills are just something else to add to their already full plate instead of realizing that collaboration with colleagues will always keep that plate fairly clean! [This may seem like a confusing statement but it is very clear once you move this way!]

Second, the notion that a teacher is an independent contractor who can, and often will, do what they darn well please in 'their' classroom regardless of school/district goals is a very real attitude. Professional Learning Communities force teachers to expose themselves, as you say, and for many, this is frightening. Yet, this is what we expect students to do on a daily basis in a collaborative classroom.

Alfie Kohn, 'What to Look for in a Classroom,' (1998), mentions cooperative learning can be threatening because

1. it reduces control and predictability,
2. it demands attention to social goals,
3. it challenges our commitment to individualism, and
4. it challenges our commitment to the value of competition.

The same things could also be said about teacher collaboration and personal professional development. There is comfort in familiarity and teaching the same way year after year is easy. Teachers have to be reminded to 'see' students. What works for this student may not work for the next. What are your options? Collaborate with colleagues (near and far!) for they may have some thoughts worth thinking about and implementing. Explore Web 2.0 tools and the possiblities they offer for differentiated instruction.

Ask one simple question everyday, "Are the students actually learning anything?" It's not our plates that should be full but our bag of teaching tools that should be overflowing. This comes from "exploring, challenging, refining, and enhancing your professional practice" [everyday].