Final Collaboration Blog

Christine Harrington
Final Collaboration Blog


I met with my collaborating teacher today. The meeting went very well. I was able to explain to her the Backward Design model and process. I showed her my unit and all the different stages. She asked many questions and I was able to answer them for her. I also explained to her what TPACK was and the purpose behind it. She thought all of the information was interesting and was impressed with the amount of work that was done for this class. I had her view my final reflection piece. Again, she was impressed and learned a lot.

We discussed out next steps for our team taught unit in the Fall. I now know that I will officially be teaching a regular straight graded kindergarten class. I can continue on with my unit as planned with the second grade class and collaborating teacher.

Pam and I set an agenda for this summer to be able to successfully meet the requirements of this unit and for this class. We decided to go over expectations for both grade levels...second grade and kindergarten. We will decide what we want each class to get out of the unit and what our overall goals will be. We will talk about a timeframe and what the schedule will look like once we are established and in our classrooms. We are looking into writing some grants (Barclay's and DonorsChoose) and seeking some additional monies to pursue a field trip and other necessities for the unit. We will look through Scholastic catalogs to find nonfiction texts that will be appropriate and beneficial for our classes. We will collaborate and go over our budgets to make sure we are meeting the needs of our children and the goals of this unit. We discussed briefly possibly changing the cooking show to an animal type show. It is a work in progress.

At one of our future meetings, we will put together a portaportal site for our children to utilize and research other websites and bookmark the ones we feel are appropriate and useful for our children.

Each year, teachers in our building are responsible for creating 2 professional goals to work on throughout the school year. The collaboration and teaching of this unit will be a professional goal that both Pam and I will establish and work on. We will look into professional literature, guides, and resources. We will be integrating technology. The fiction and nonfiction standard is a P.L.C SMART goal already created and established by our building and staff. There will be learning labs to assist children that will struggle to meet the goals and outcomes of this unit (fiction and nonfiction).

I am looking forward to team teaching and collaborating with Pam Brooks and her second grade classroom. I think we both have a lot to offer each other. The children will enjoy working together. I am anxious to see how much my kindergartners will be able to do and how much they will get out of this learning experience.

More collaboration blogs to come!!!