A long time ago, I faced the challenge of collaborating with my fellow colleagues in the same building. Well, this is never easy, eh? Finding common planning time, finding common interests and finding that topic that a team of teachers could work on together was always a challenge. This was especially true since I am “just” a PE teacher and just a guy that supervises kids having fun. What would I know about math, science, art, humanities etc. etc. etc.?
Then I landed at a school where I was part of the core team of teachers for grade 5. Hmmmm, well it was a team with common planning time and topics were discussed amongst the group about collaboration. Unfortunately, the team was dominated by “old timers” that had an agenda and viewed things with blinders on. We collaborated but really, never with something that I was truly interested in or had anything to do with PE. I was along for the ride. This situation was ok for a while but I felt like a trail horse, just following along. I proposed an “Olympics” unit. Wow, I thought! What a cool way to bring in all the subjects for a worldwide event! Did I mention finding common interests? Well, that was the sticking point and it didn’t quite fit into everyone’s schedule. I tried.
Today’s world allows us to look beyond our “team”. In a TED talk given by Don Tapscott, he simply describes the internet as a “Big Global Computer” and a brilliant avenue for collaboration. He gave an example of a gold company that held an online contest to help find gold in the earth at the mine. The “Gold Corp Challenge” was successful, landing billionis of dollars worth of gold. Mr. Tapscott has dubbed this kind of collaboration as an “Ideagora”. A way to use the internet for collaboration. Hmmm…there must be a way I can make my teaching better with this same idea. Who will reap the reward of this? Well, me, of course, as I might be able to gain more knowledge but in the end, its my students that will get the “billions” of chances to learn.
I’m rubbing my palms together, scheming on what topic I can collaborate with other PE teachers with. Ahah! My archery unit! I am on a PE teacher forum on Facebook. I can put out a call for teachers teaching archery. What are they doing? What equipment do they use? How is their unit structured? I will surely get many answers. This is an example of collaboration and I have instantly found people that are interested in my topic! Brilliant!
This is just one example of how I can collaborate with other teachers. The internet gives us so many opportunities like this. Internet tools such as “google drive” help facilitate everything. Communication was never easier. Even within the confines of my own building, teachers are able to instantly add ideas to a topic at a time that is convenient. Sometimes meetings are a bit contrived and timing is off. Oh, I wish I had said that or Darn, I didn’t think of that are feelings I have had in the past having left a team meeting. With google docs, its so easy to go back and express something…a change, a new idea or anything can be caught up with at a later time simply by updating a google doc. Awesome!
I have not given up with collaboration with the colleagues in my building. Whenever I teach basketball, I repeatedly refer to math equations. What angle is best for your shot? What force is needed to make a basket? There is so much math in sports! What is the percentage of shots you can make in one minute? What is the history of basketball? How did you feel when you left the basketball court today and reflect on this in your journal? There is so much potential but it all comes back to interest and energy to get things done. Every teacher is so stretched to meet the needs of their curriculum that it becomes impossible to include everyone in such a unit. Maybe I need to find a “sport school” to work at?!
Its not difficult to see that the internet has made infinate opportunities for collaboration. Now, its just a matter of matching interests and energy of teachers for the magic to happen.
