maria pairitz's
community of teachers portfolio
xiii. collaboration
evidence
As an educator, it is essential that I have developed interpersonal skills in working with key stakeholders in the education of my students as relationships with parents, colleagues, and the broader community are imperative to promoting students’ learning. Being able to effectively function in a variety of collaborative settings with diverse voices and perspectives requires authentic communication, established guidelines, and keeping a clear goal in sight. Through my experiences in my own education and mentorship, I have come to value these relationships and their contributions to my students’ lives and my own teaching practice.
The evidence I have compiled are examples of my ability to thrive in collaborative settings and yield exemplary results. These pieces of evidence include, my experience collaborating with others include participating in my mentor’s Professional Development Day at Fishers High School, helping my mentor develop curriculum for her new drawing four class, leading the parent open house presentation, working with an old high school teacher develop a lesson plan that integrates technology, learning from collaborative experiences from my my mentor and other teachers, creating a community shuffle lesson plan with my peers, and writing a group essay for my Introduction to Educational Thought course.
These experiences are important because they have helped me develop strategies and discover tools for working in collaborative settings. For example, I found Google docs to be an effective tool in collaboration with colleagues and peers as it allowed greater flexibility for meeting up online to work on projects together and automatically keep every member of the collaboration with the latest version of documents. This tool does not, however, replace direct communication and work time. While this was helpful, I discovered that projects that were - for a majority of the time - collaborated on in person were richer and had a better sense of unity. Working in groups has also shown me that there is a need for a leader so there is a clear sense of direction without the leader overpowering or dictating the desires of the individual participants of the collaboration. The evidence also includes instances where collaboration has failed or gone wrong and has helped me learn ways these mistakes could be avoided next time. In most instances, clearly established and communicated guidelines for collaboration would have solved the problem. Collaboration also works best when individuals authentically communicate their personal opinions and ideas instead of suppressing their voice as to seem agreeable. At their core, all of the tools and strategies I have discovered address communication. Communication is key to the success of any collaborative effort.
I can use these learned collaborative strategies and tools in future instances of collaboration. These could include creating a cross-curricular lesson with a colleague outside of the art department, creating projects with my mentor using Google docs and OneNote since we are not together everyday, and co-teaching with my mentor.
A pattern I have noticed in all these experiences is that I tend to take the lead role in the group. I am very outspoken and I know that I have to work on not overpowering the voices of others just because I believe my way is the “right” way. My mentorship is a good experience for me because my mentor automatically takes the lead role in most instances unless she directs me to take the lead on a certain project, so it gives me the opportunity to experience collaboration under a leader and see how I can be more effective and fair in future cases where I may be the leader. I think one thing I do well as a leader in a group though is staying on top of everything. In collaborative settings it can be easy to procrastinate or think “someone will take care of it at some point,” but I do a good job making sure the group and myself are on track.
Overall, I have had substantial experience working in collaborative settings on a variety of projects. I believe in all cases the groups I have been in have produced exceptional work. I also have shown my ability to communicate and collaborate with parents. I will continue to seek opportunities to integrate the arts into outside subject areas and vice versa. I will also continue to lean on my colleagues to share and receive new ideas that can be implemented in the classroom. I believe the evidence provided currently though is enough to receive ready to teach.
Professional Learning Community Presentations: Professional Development Day
(Click on images below to view full size)
Fishers High School has encouraged staff to develop PLC's within departments to emphasize the importance of their teachers' professional development. The visual and performing arts departments have joined together to create a PLC that has smaller learning groups that focus in and research specific topics including assessment, differentiation, performance, engagement, and community outreach. These learning groups collaborate, researching ideas, methods, and examples, to create short presentations to give to the larger PLC that they can further collaborate on to see if there's ways to incorporate these ideas into their own classrooms. I think PLC's are an important form of collaboration within the school and I am glad I have a mentorship at a school who values and encourages collaboration among their staff. I am not sure how many schools have active and effective PLC's, if I got a position at a school that didn't though, I would definitely seek to create one. Collaboration among colleagues is essential to the growth and development of all teachers. Reflecting on the PLC meeting I attended, what I noticed was that education is trying to move towards project based curriculums in every subject and this is exactly what the arts do already, so if the rest of our school listened to our experiences and how we create, facilitate, and assess project based learning, instead of having this attitude that the arts are just unstructured, participation based, blow off classes, they could benefit from and implement some of our ideas into their curriculums.
This was the schedule for the Visual and Performing Arts PLC.
The Literacy Committee had a quick survey for the entire staff at Fishers so they could begin collaborating on resources and materials for their teachers.
The art department collaborated on the topic of differentiation. With differentiation that comes naturally in the art classroom (each student has his/her own ideas for projects) it comes with a lot of individual questions. They created SODA to have students try and problem solve before coming to them for help so they are not flooded by students during the class time.
Parent Open House
Parents can play a vital role in their child's education but in order for parents to feel like they have a say or feel invited to collaborate with their child's teacher, a relationship has to be established. Fishers HS hosts a parent open house for parents spend two hours in the schedule of their child and meet their teachers. I asked Danielle if I could prepare and lead the presentation so parents could get to know me and begin to establish that relationship. While I was speaking to them, I made sure to make eye contact, smile, use hand gestures, and humor to begin to establish trust with them. I made sure to let them know that if they felt like I needed to know of any outside circumstances that may affect their child's performance in class to contact me so I can make proper accommodation. In addition, I conveyed my enthusiasm for my profession and for working with their children. I believe I established great relationships with all the parents that attended that will hopefully provide further opportunities for collaboration.
In this service learning project for EDUC-W 200, Using Computers in Education, I paired with my computer graphic's teacher from high school to create a lesson that integrated technology. I chose Mr. Koch because his class uses computers on a daily basis, so access would not be an issue, but also to see if there were any other tools I could introduce him to to enhance his lessons and make them more engaging and effective. I collaborated with him over email to understand his needs, limitations, and ideas for incorporating technology into one of his lessons. Collaborating with a working teacher was a great experience during my first year pursuing my BS in education because it allowed me to create solutions for a real teacher and classroom, so my project was more authentic. I had a great time working with Mr. Koch because he was a prompt responder to my emails and enthusiastic about my suggestions.
Drawing 4 Curriculum
I have entered my mentorship with Ms. Ontiveros at a very opportune time as she is creating a curriculum out of scratch for a new Drawing 4 class this semester. This has provided a lot of opportunity for her and I to collaborate on ideas for sketchbook assignments, class exercises, and large projects for her students. I have used Google docs as a space for her and I to collaborate on sketchbook ideas, two of which she has incorporated into her curriculum for drawing four. We also worked together on developing a lesson plan for the first project for the class called the Many Layers of Your Hero. Ms. Ontiveros has been enthusiastic and constructive in collaborating with me during her prep hour and over email and google docs. We have great ideas ahead for the remainder of the semester.
For our third writing in EDUC-H 205, Introduction to Educational Thought, we had to answer if education should be democratic in its means or ends (or both) and why. Someone suggested making the essay a group essay, so the class voted on it and ended up being unanimous and we formed our groups. Most of my peers saw this as an opportunity to cut down on work by dividing the essay into three or four parts that each person was responsible for and then stitch it together before handing it in. My group decided that we wanted to a more intensive collaboration where we all wrote together so our essay was cohesive and had one voice. We set up times to meet as a group and work on the essay together, but in between meetings we would still work on it together over google docs. Google docs is a great tool for collaboration as it is easy to share with each other and automatically updates for each person with every edit made. Our group essay ended up receiving the highest score in the class as we took the time to actually collaborate and hear each others' ideas. This provided us with richer conversation and a deeper perspective in our essay.
I collaborated with two other peers on a project for CoT's Community Shuffle. We decided to do a bottle cap mural to promote recycling and being environmentally conscious in an artistic and engaging way. We met during class and developed a lesson plan and then assigned jobs to help pull together the materials necessary. We all collected bottle caps from around campus and at recycling centers. I painted a large board for the bottle caps to be glued on so there was a template and the other two brought glue guns. Then the mural itself was a collaboration between two groups of peers from other seminar groups who came in and glued the bottle caps to the board. The final result turned out great!
All About Me Worksheet
Ms. Ontiveros collaborates often with the special education department when it comes to students enrolled in her class and non-inclusive students she invites in her class to spend a period drawing or working on an art project the rest of the class is doing. Through these experiences, Ms. Ontiveros has created a worksheet for students in special education to fill out so she and other teachers know more about them as a student and can incorporate their interests into her lessons. This collaboration between departments has been a great example for me and I intend to collaborate and communicate with my future colleagues about all of my students to get a better picture of my students as a whole.
Journal Excerpts
Tonight was open house for parents to follow their kid's schedule and meet with each teacher. I asked Danielle if I could present and she was totally on board! It was a great experience! The parents were very receptive and kind, I think even a little impressed :) HERE is the presentation I gave. It was great because I had one parent come up to me and express how grateful she was that I had discretely asked her son what accommodations he would need for the test tomorrow. She said he came home so happy that one of his teachers had even bothered to ask him. It made me really happy that I made a child and his family happy and feel looked out and cared for.
For the Intro to 3D classes, Ms. O decided to change the wire activity into a wire bust/self portrait instead of a wire shoe sculpture. So while the students worked on their principles and elements packet, I helped Ms. O figure out how best to introduce the project and how to create a base for them to create their sculptures. It was really difficult. We had to test three different methods of starting wire bust. Then, while she wrote up a lesson plan, I created an activity for them to do before starting their wire self portraits so they can better understand facial proportions.
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The rest of the day I worked on a project for the band director at Fishers. He is working on a set design for his indoor percussion group and asked the art department to create designs to paste onto these totem poles. We used the designs the students created in their "snowflake" activity. I think it will look great! I worked on this project just so I could get my name onto his radar so when a better time comes I can inquire about working with the marching band's color guard while I student teach next fall. One thing that did put me and Ms. O off a little was the fact that he wanted us to basically design the set, costumes, masks, and props for the whole show, as if the art department is some workshop with endless resources and expendable hours. I think it is great when teachers can work and collaborate on projects together, but I think the art department tends to be perceived as this source of free creative and artistic labor. It will be important for me to learn how to create conditions under which I can collaborate with colleagues in other departments without it being my students providing a free service for an event or project that only really benefits the other students and drains resources and time from my own curriculum. It has to benefit and enrich both parties involved.
- Ms. O and I spent prep collaborating on sketchbook ideas for drawing 4. I'm really going to take hold of this opportunity because she's developing the curriculum from scratch since they've never had a drawing for, and there's only 3 students so I'm able to collaborate on the curriculum in a relatively low risk setting. I think this will also be a good opportunity because she teaches AP art during the same class period as Drawing 4, so I can work with the drawing students so she can focus her energy on the AP students who have a portfolio due soon. She sent me examples of curriculum maps for her other classes so I can work on one for Drawing
(in link to notes for the day)
- spoke to one teacher during month about a collaborative art project between her photography class and an english class. The idea is that students in the english class are to hand write a letter to their future children about their hopes and fears for them. These letters will be superimposed over photographs her students take of themselves or children (I'm not totally clear on all the details). The problem that is arising is that the english teacher did not understand the intensity these letters were supposed to have and only had his students work on the project for maybe 15 minutes and then sent sloppy, one sentence "letters" to the photography students. She had to explain that their penmanship matters and that these should be deep, heartfelt letters so the english teacher had them redo it. She was just frustrated that he didn't understand that her students would be working on this project for two week while his students only worked on it for less than a class period. Clear communication seems key in this instance as the english teacher was not on the same page.
(in link to notes for the day)
- there is a student, Chandler, who is a non-inclusive student, but Ms. O is close with the special education teachers across the hall so she let’s them come in and draw during class sometimes. She provides a workspace and gave him his own sketchbook and coloring pages. I think it's great that Ms. O has a great relationship with the special education department so they can collaborate and provide opportunities for their non-inclusive students to work with peers in inclusive classrooms.
- talked to me about one of the part time art teachers who has been just using lesson plans she has already created for the course. All the art teachers share their lesson plans on OneNote so they can collaborate easier and modify ideas from their colleagues, but he just straight steals them and passes them as his own without credit. He criticizes “mistakes” she makes on them and she’s like “make your own then”. He’s in trouble with admin because he isn’t being an effective teacher so he’s supposed to be turning in a lesson plan for each week, and he’s been turning in her lesson plans as his own. She has removed him from the art teachers' collaboration page.