Collaboration

Collaboration is an essential element for successful teaching and a significant part of my repertoire. I regularly share with and learn from colleagues to ensure the best possible instruction for all students. My students also benefit from working alongside each other in meaningful ways. Besides day-to-day collaboration, I have embarked on occasional projects that go beyond the classroom to incorporate school and community.

"Befriending the Cloud" is a presentation I recently gave at the Google for Education Summit here in Bangkok. The purpose was to share with other educators the process and benefits of my students' recent exchange with University of Akron pre-service teachers, as described in earlier posts.

Here are some samples of other collaborations I have undertaken to benefit my students and include the wider community in our classroom learning: 

• Global Issues Discussion Series - Evening lectures presented by my 9th grade Humanities students and local experts 
• RIS Teacher Recruitment Brochure - includes "Best of Thailand" articles written by my 8th grade Language Arts students
• School visit from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor - invited by students in my 7th grade Civics class

I'm always interested in collaboration opportunities, and learning about ways in which other educators go beyond the classroom, so please share your experiences and ideas.

See One, Do One, Teach One

One short year after participating in and meeting well-connected educators at Learning 2.011, and six months after EARCOS12, I was offered an opportunity to present at in my school's professional development in-service today.

Compared to many illustrious and inspiring individuals in my Personal Learning Network (PLN), my dabbling in the wide, wide world of connected educators does not add up to much. However, the combination of my LinkedIn profile, few dozen Tweets, a limited Edmodo presence, my yet-to-be-published Facebook page, and this well-intended, if skeletal, blog represents an honest attempt.

Much of my connectedness is self-directed; my husband has also been active in cultivating global contacts and resources, so I have also had a partner with whom I could exchange thoughts along the way. The development of my growing PLN is also thanks to (mostly) indirect motivation from the people with whom I have connected; a PLN's value-added.

So, my husband Kevin and I joined forces today and shared ideas and resources about creating PLN's with our colleagues. Though neither of us are experts, we focused on the vast resources and benefits of a PLN (special note: all presentation resources came to us by way of PLNs), tools we use or know about, as well as some of the trials and errors that we have made along the way (plenty!). We tried to keep the presentation pretty basic and encouraging, knowing that very few of our colleagues regularly used tools such as Twitter or LinkedIn. In fact, Twitter shut us down after numerous coworkers signed up for new accounts. Think we alerted the spam blockers?

Ideally, a few more people may now broaden their networking beyond the school walls to contribute to the global education community, learn from it, and pass the benefits along to their well-deserving students. See one, do one, teach one; it's not just for surgery anymore.

A New Collaboration for Culture and Education and ??

In our globalized world, many of us have committed cultural faux pas and ended up learning a valuable lesson, and its no wonder the most impactful cultural exchanges occur first hand. Real world lessons. Learning need not be painful or humiliating, however. Unanticipated realizations that individuals laugh at the same visual joke despite differences in language, ethnicity, income, gender, religion, whatever, is just as lasting, if not more so. 

Even though my students are already pretty well-traveled, they are hungry for even more, authentic cultural exchanges. After mixed results with QuadBlogs previously, I was open to trying something new this year.

A former colleague connected me with Dr. Brad Maguth from the University of Akron in Ohio to collaborate with students in his Social Studies methodology course. Enthusiastic about collaboration, I signed on without knowing much else. Thus, my mostly Asian, grade 10 students will be collaborating with American pre-service teachers several years their senior. 

For me, envisioning future teachers who step into their classroom on day one with an enhanced global perspective was well worth extra time and energy the collaboration may entail. Besides, since university is just over the horizon for my students, the collaboration provides opportunities to learn the “real” scoop from those who have already tread the path, perhaps start building their PLNs, and, of course, have some real-life cultural exchanges along the way.

Dr. Maguth was originally interested in having the undergrad and graduate students in his class get to know mine through sharing of projects, videos, and correspondence (via ePals). The plan was after getting to know my grade 10s, the pre-service teachers would design a lesson for them, which I would adapt if needed, implement, video, and then Dr. Maguth and his students would embark on reflection. 

In reality, the collaboration, while still new, has so far resulted in a multitude of organic and unanticipated discussions ranging from PLNs, the ages of college students in the US, favorite musicians, TCKs, stereotypes and cultural competence, how I became an international educator, and perspectives on current events, including the sharing of haikus written about Mitt Romney, the Duchess of Cambridge, fiery protests, and contested Asian islands.

There has not been much talk about the planned-on lesson lately; we will eventually get to it. In the meantime, the organic discussions continue, and opportunities for both mildly embarrassing and enlightening cultural lessons are ongoing. 

Stay tuned for more updates. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear about other collaborations between pre-service teachers and distant classrooms that may be taking place. Or, if they don't already exist, why not?