Collaboration...Good for Teachers and for Students!

As a teacher I am always looking for ways to challenge myself and move out of my comfort zone. Over the course of the past 3 years I have become comfortable with technology in education and have found innovative ways to use it in my classroom. This past year I moved from elementary to middle school, and again found new and different ways to be innovative in the classroom with technology.

This past week a whole new set of challenges appeared as I spent time working with a great group of educators! I was asked to work with 4 other teachers to create a Coding At the Middle School curriculum. Yes, we were creating a computer coding curriculum that would be integrated into the 6th grade Keyboarding curriculum - the first in Loudoun County Public Schools.  I don't code, and I was very unfamiliar with Scratch, the coding program that would be introduced to the 6th graders, so I was hesitant when I was asked to be part of this curriculum team. I was very excited about the ideas and the possibility that our school could be at the forefront of an innovative technology experience, but what would be my role?

When I think about the experiences this week and the final product that we are producing, one word comes to mind....Collaboration! Too often teachers isolate themselves and feel alone in what they are doing. They are hesitant to step out of their comfort zone and try new ideas, or struggle to find like-minded educators to share in their successes, and help them with their ideas. Teachers need to be part of a team where each member has unique strengths, and a forward thinking attitude. That's what this week was...a group of educators with different strengths and the willingness to collaborate and rely on each others strengths to create this great final product for our students.  I knew it would be a positive experience because of the individuals involved, and the positive educational climate that had been created in our school building by our principal.

As we started this adventure to create our C.A.M.S. (Coding at the Middle School) curriculum, I wasn't sure where I fit in. My role had been defined as the 21st Century Learning Design expert. I had been trained on 21CLD as a Microsoft Expert Educator and was tasked with making sure that 21CLD would be fully integrated into this curriculum that we were developing, but again...I don't code.  Now, after spending a week, I can proudly say that I can do basic Scratch programming!

I was part of the team that would be creating the Curriculum Guide - a narrative explanation for the teacher - of what would be happening during the Scratch instruction, and the pedagogy behind it. The other educators worked on the technical aspect of creating the Scratch programs for the students to begin with, and creating the challenge activities and open ended projects that would end each programming module.

working on the guide...

Collaboration comes to mind again...adults collaborating for the students! We were creating the document, they were creating the coding programs. We shared, we asked questions and we challenged each other. We had valuable discussions about why something should happen, and the best way to implement it. We had "deep" discussions about assessment and reflective writing. We discussed 21st Century Learning Design, self regulation, and knowledge construction. We tried out different tools, decided on different formats all while keeping a sense of humor and enjoying each other's company. And I learned!

working on the Scratch programming...

I learned about coding, and about Scratch, but most importantly... I learned and was reminded what a great tool collaboration is for adults! To work with a group of people from different educational backgrounds ( a keyboarding teacher, a middle school technology teacher, a high school technology teacher - and Scratch expert, and 2 English teachers) with different ideas and different knowledge bases was a great experience.

Our week culminated with a Show and Tell of sorts, for the district supervisors. We were sharing what we had developed, that would be implemented this fall with our sixth grade students. The keyboarding teacher will be doing the instructing once school begins, but we will be behind the scenes to support her through this journey.  As this meeting closed, and the supervisors were asking questions and sharing their thoughts, again the idea of collaboration came up. They were impressed with what we had produced, and they could see the amount of collaboration that had gone on through the week.

We, as 21st century educators, provide opportunities for our students to collaborate in the classroom, but when was the last time that you truly collaborated with your peers on a meaningful project? I can say this week!