Collaboration not Isolation

I feel that this last year has been the best year when it comes to collaborating.  I recently had to write a paper about everything I have learned when it comes to instruction, curriculum and assessments.  Man, could I have kept writing!!  I feel that I have learned and progressed so much in 12 years of teaching.  I think back to my first year of teaching Kindergarten at Life School Oak Cliff.  I wasn't scared but I surely felt as though I didn't know what I was doing.  I thought, "They're only 5 year olds so I can't mess them up too bad!"  Although I don't think I did a bad job per se but I definitely could have done a lot more.  Our team would meet once a week and decide who would put in lesson plans for the next week.  It was more isolation than it was collaboration.  I would basically follow what they had done the year before and didn't think twice about it.  I felt like I didn't quite know what I was doing and I didn't want my team to know that I didn't know what I was doing so I did the best I could.  We had a great team that was supportive of each other but I definitely felt "alone" when it came to what I did in my classroom.  They did it their way and I did it my way.

How times have changed though!  On my 3rd grade team this year, we meet every spare moment to discuss best practices.  We are looking at how each individual standard is worded and what it looked like on the STAAR test to make sure we are in alignment in our instruction.  We work so hard to vary our teaching styles to make sure we are hitting different learning styles for our students.  We plan out every moment of each day before we put anything on our lesson plans.  We definitely work harder than we ever have but each of us are more invested in the instruction that is taking place within our classrooms.  I am so glad that I don't feel isolated anymore but truly feel it is the better way.  I certainly don't claim to know all there is when it comes to teaching 3rd grade reading so I want to work with other teaching professionals that can help me be better at what I do.  Our best ideas come from collaborating together!!  I am so thankful for a team that cares about each day's instruction.