Collaboration

**Collaboration**

“…the biggest, most sweeping change in our relationship with the Internet may not be as much the availability to publish as it is the ability to share, connect, and create with many, many others of liked mines and interests.” – Blogs, Wiki's, and Podcasts 

What is Collaboration? Collaboration is creating a network of educators, students and/or parents who work together to share and create knowledge as a community. It is a peer based learning experience that connects those seeking knowledge with others in order to disseminate ideas, resources and information. With the use of technology, collaboration is now connecting people from across the room to across the globe.

**Our Proposal**

1. Host a parent Educational Outreach Program in the evenings that caters to middle school related topics. These mini-courses would offer information such as how to help students with homework, support their social-emotional health, or use the internet or social networking sites like Facebook and vary each term. Classes would meet once a week for a hour and utilize the appropriate space at Parker such as the auditorium, classrooms or the computer lab. Each would be taught be a certified teacher with experience with adult learners and be offered free of charge to parents.

2. The Instructional Leadership Team at Parker is currently piloting a cohort based approach to goal setting and professional development. The pilot allows teachers to create small interest based cohorts in which to pursue their professional development goals. Groups such as this offer its members support and foster a culture of teamwork and collaboration. It breaks down the notion that teacher learning is an individual pursuit and replaces it with a shared responsibility for improving teaching and learning. This program would be made permanent and monthly professional time would be set aside for cohorts to meet.

3. Social networking would be embedded into the curriculum for students and used a professional development tool for teachers. Online sites such as Skype, Twitter, Facebook and blogging provide students and teachers with the opportunity to create content and upload it to share with others through the internet. Safe and meaningful use of these sites would connect Parker students with experts in the field, students with similar interests or knowledge pursuits, and a wealth of video, audio and print information uploaded by others. Teachers would use social networks to create their own "Professional Learning Networks" (PLN) and connect with other educators around the country and around the world. Like students, teachers would create and upload content, share resources, knowledge and articles about professional practice and develop relationships with others with similar interests or learning objectives.

4. Classroom design would foster the ability for students to work together to learn and solve problems. Specifically, classrooms would be designed with small learning centers to allow students to work on multiple topics at once. The centers would be equipt with computers, cameras, microphones, headphones and large monitors for use of Skype and other social networking opportunities. Classrooms would also use round tables and comfortable, movable chairs to build a sense that students must work together to succeed. Students should feel more comfortable and able to adapt and change the positioning of the classroom with the lesson.

** 21st Century Skills **
 * 1) Life & Career Skills
 * 2) Flexibility & Adaptability (77)
 * 3) ** Initiative & Self-Directive (79) **
 * 4) ** Social & Cross-Cultural Skills (81) **
 * 5) Productivity & Accountability Skills (83)
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Leadership & Responsibility (84)
 * 7) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Learning & Innovation Skills
 * 8) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Critical Thinking & Problem Solving (52)
 * 9) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">** Communication & Collaboration Skills (55) **
 * 10) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Creativity & Innovation Skills (59)
 * 11) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Information, Technology, and Media Skills
 * 12) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Digital Literacy Skills (67) **
 * 13) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Media Literacy (69) **
 * 14) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ICT Literacy (71)

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">** What Others Are Saying ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> media type="youtube" key="X1KWG1-m0pw?rel=0" height="251" width="336" <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Students are hungering for meaningful connections with one another... This ability to connect has largely been ignored or blocked by many in the educational community who would rather maintain the entrenched style of a classroom that has been around for over a hundred years. But there are some educators creating safe, meaningful, engaging “flat” online projects and collaboratives who are experiencing incredible results in their classrooms and sharing it with one another.” ~Julie Lindsay & Vicki Davis, Flat Classroom Project (www.flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com)

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Nicholas Provenzano, an English teacher and technology curriculum specialist for Grosse Pointe South High School in the 8,500-student Grosse Pointe, Mich., public schools, said professional development through social networking, particularly [|__Twitter__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “has been the best professional development I’ve had in my life, and I’ve been a teacher 10 years. It gives me 24/7 access to some of the smartest people in education.” For Mr. Provenzano, a discussion on Twitter (where he has 10,000 followers) can prompt other teachers to tweet him classroom resources, which can lead to a follow-up post on his blog, The Nerdy Teacher, where a richer discussion may take place. That discussion then translates to his classroom, where he puts those ideas into action.” ~ Michelle R. Davis, Education Week ( [])

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">"Both face-to-face and virtual collaboration online have been shown to increase learning motivation, creat better and more innovative results, and develop social and cros-cultural skills. Learning in a community of learners who share knowledge, questions, skills, progress, and passion for a subject is exactly how adults learn when they participate in their communities of work and professional practice." ~Bernie Trilling & Charles Fadel, 21st Century Skills

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">** How Does This Connect With Outside Of The Community? **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Collaboration is only possible when people have the opportunity to connect and develop meaningful relationships. Through our emphasis on collaboration and the use of social networking, students will develop their communication and social skills, build relationships with others outside of Reading, and be better prepared for success in the future.