Preddy talks about school librarians taking a cue from Motown. Lead singers Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson were good, but they needed their backup singers to fill out the sound. Likewise, school librarians need collaboration for a complete teaching experience. Librarians should collaborate with teachers and students - and whoever is best at the task at hand takes the lead, while everyone else backs them up. In such a model, communication is important! Everyone involved must be sure to respond in a timely manner. I think this is a great analogy for collaboration. It does not place more emphasis on the librarian or the teacher, but instead both use their postitions and gifts to the benefit of the team.
Marcoux mentions that collaborating in schools is really good for the novice teacher. As we graduate and become teachers in the field, collaboration really does become really important. My roommate who is a teacher started at her school a year ago, and that first year she really valued her relationship with her mentor teacher. Viewing this more as collaboration, rather than I-have-more-experience-than-you-so-listen-to-me, may be better appreciated by the novice librarian.
Todd's point no. 5 for collaboration is to plan with mutuality of intent. When you collaborate with others, it is best if everyone has the same end goal. This hopefully means that everyone feels strongly about achieving the end goal, and will work harder to attain it. This could also mean that everyone involved will set aside any differences, be open to new ideas, and bring their own unique thoughts to the table.
I like what you have to say about setting aside differences. I've learned that this can be difficult for folks to achieve. Sometimes I think we all need to be reminded that we're there for the good of the kids.
ReplyDeletei totally agree. in my experience being forced to coteach, it really helps forge important relationships when you both realize how passionate you are about impacting student learning outcomes. build rapport first by showing your passion towards serving students and it becomes a lot easier to deal with differences when you have a similar goal.
DeleteI think that collaboration can be such a powerful tool for a novice teacher/librarian, and it builds really important relationships that can be used later on.
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