10 reasons people use to try to convince you that collaborative teaching is a good idea (and what they are really saying)

In the past I’ve taught in both collaborative teaching environments and in closed classrooms. I have to say, contrary to many other teachers, I MUCH prefer teaching in a closed classroom. I’m imaging that some of you might find you share some of the frustrations I’ve had when attempting to teach collaboratively.

Please note: When I talk about collaborative teaching (i.e. team teaching) I’m referring to a learning setting where a pair or a group of teachers are collectively responsible for multiple classes of students. In these settings, students don’t have a primary teacher, rather they are taught by a range of teachers. Teachers might teach certain lessons together, take separate fluid groups or one teacher may roam the room while another takes small groups or works one-on-one with students.

The following is a list of 10 reasons people have given me to try to convince me that collaborative teaching is a good idea. I’ve also included my take on each reason (i.e. what they really mean).

Reason 1: Experienced teachers can model quality teaching practice to the less experienced ones.

What they really mean: The experienced teacher will run the whole show and the less experienced teacher will act like an assistant. Think making coffee, photocopying, not having to plan and not being respected by the kids.

Reason 2: The workload can be shared within the team.

What they really mean: If you are the conscientious one you will end up doing EVERYTHING.

Reason 3: Team members can give each other honest feedback about the effectiveness of their teaching.

What they really mean: We know you’ll never tell your team mate that they’re @#$% but it sounds good in theory.

Reason 4: It’s beneficial for students to be exposed to a variety of teaching styles and teacher personalities. They may respond better to some more than others.

What they really mean: It’s like a popularity contest. You’ll have to compete with your teammates to win the kids over.

Reason 5: Collaborative teaching allows for more small-focus groups so teaching can be targeted to students’ individual needs.

What they really mean: Rather than getting to know 25 kids’ learning needs you’ll somehow need to get to know 70 children’s learning needs so that you can plan effective small group sessions.

Reason 6: You can model positive relationship skills to the students.

What they really mean: (grits teeth) “You WILL get along with your team mates.”

Reason 7: You can use each other’s strengths when planning.

What they really mean: Refer to number 2

Reason 8: There is more consistency for the kids because team mates cover each other when they’re sick or need time to plan.

What they really mean: You should feel guilty if you call in sick because your team mates will have to pick up your slack. And no. We don’t believe in forking out cash for relief/emergency teachers.

Reason 9: We’re very strategic about grouping teachers who we think will complement each other.

What they really mean: Refer back to number 2 AGAIN.

Reason 10: Closed classrooms are old school. We’re innovative so we’re committed to providing differentiated, fluid, student centred and rigorous collaborative teaching and learning opportunities that scaffold students to learn higher order thinking skills in 21^st century flexible and open learning communities.

What they really mean: Bluuurrgghhhhh VOMIT… It’s not about you, it’s not about the kids, IT’S ABOUT IMAGE!

Credit to Educlips for the graphic.

Why teaching higher order thinking skills is often overlooked

I think that most educators would agree with me when I say that “higher order thinking skills” are extremely important for students to develop. Despite this, I see many educators becoming stressed at the thought of having to teach them to their students.

Now, I don’t think that this because educators are unable to formulate questions and organise activities to promote higher order thinking. I think the issue is that educators don’t have sufficient time to prepare lessons that encourage the development of these skills!

Questions that promote students’ higher order thinking don’t just naturally roll off of my tongue during lessons (I’m sure there are educators out there who are super clever and can do this in their sleep… but this is not me. And yes, I envy those people!).

I can still remember the moment in which I realised that I was NOT a natural at promoting higher order thinking skills. I was teaching a grade two class and I was facilitating a class discussion. I was trying to think of a question I could ask my students that would require them to use higher order thinking skills. I looked over at the “higher order questions – teacher’s prompts” poster that was stuck next to my whiteboard. I then stared at the floor, constructing my clever question. Happy with my idea, I looked up at my students to ask it, aannnndddd…  my kids were rolling around on the floor…

So…. while many experts in the field, who are clearly naturals, expect educators to just spontaneously pop out higher order thinking questions, tasks and phrases during every subject, class discussion and possible teachable moment… this ain’t happening in my classroom! If I want to encourage my students to develop higher order thinking skills I need to be more prepared and plan in advance!

As a result, I’ve decided to add an extra prompt to my planning document that is solely for coming up with questions, activities and the like that promote higher order thinking skills in my students.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but using my updated planning document with the additional prompt ended up being pure torture! Two hours into planning a lesson I was STILL trying to come up with innovative ideas to encourage higher order thinking.

I had o go home and cook dinner for my son. I had a friend coming over for a drink. Spending this amount of time planning for every week was simple not possible.

I realised that it takes so much longer to plan a lesson that includes questions that promote higher order thinking than a lesson that doesn’t. For example, it is much quicker and easier to look at a curriculum outcome such as: ‘Students need to be able to add small groups of coins’… and get your kids to add small groups of coins (duh) than to think of questions such as: “Use four coins to make $1” or “How many 5c coins make up 20c?”. This is because if you want to get your students thinking, you need to be creative, think outside the box and actually use higher order thinking skills yourself. Who has time for this?

As teachers, we need to find ways to share our higher order thinking prompts and insights – to save us all time! This is where I plug my resources (it is the story of where they came from though, I promise). My resources aim to save teachers time and still get kids thinking. Simple as that!

You can check them out here:
Australian Money Task Cards Higher Order Thinking
Maths Project – Plan a Party
Area and Perimeter Task Cards Higher Order Thinking

6 things to keep in mind when teaching students about money

I’m sure a lot of educators can relate to me when I say that it is difficult to teach children about the concept of money. On sitting down to think about WHY this is the case, I realised that there are quite a few things that just wouldn’t seem logical or immediately make sense to students. And I think it is important to keep these issues in mind to help overcome some of the challenges when teaching this tricky concept.

*Please note that the issues I cover below are described in terms of Australian money, however many of these issues would also be relevant to other currencies.

• Coins and notes are an endangered species. So many items are paid for using ATM cards or through some sort of online transfer system so kids aren’t seeing coins and notes in their everyday lives. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of my students think they can buy something just by waving an object in the air!
• Size doesn’t matter. A 50 cent coin is worth less than a $2 coin, but is larger in size. This is confusing for little ones as they tend to think “the bigger, the better!”
• More coins doesn’t necessarily mean more money. I remember heading to a lolly store when I was a little one with so many coins I could hardly hold them. I was with my elder sister who ONLY had one coin. Hehehe I thought as I was dreaming of all of the lollies I would gobble down in front of her… only to find out that she had 2 whole dollars to spend and I only had 70 cents worth of 5 cent coins. Waaaaaaa! That was the day I learnt that gold matters!
• A Lyre what? One of the key ways to distinguish coins from one another is by looking at the images imprinted on them. I remember trying to explain to my students that a 10 cent coin had a Lyre bird on it and they were very confused. They didn’t think a bird could talk, let alone lie.
• Numbers on coins just don’t add up. Ever added coins with a 10, 2 and a 1 on them and gotten 13 cents instead of 3 dollars and 10 cents? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We need to remind our students that the gold coins and notes are worth dollars and the silver coins are worth cents. Thank goodness the bronze coins are no longer around.
• One and two cent coins keep rising from the dead. Even though 1 and 2 cent coins haven’t been around for ages there are still many items priced at, say, $4.99 or $12.99. How on earth do you expect my students to find notes and coins to pay for these items? It’s really five dollars I hear you say… well why doesn’t the tag just say five dollars? Surely this advertising trick is outdated by now!

I have made quite a few money-related teaching resources that try to get kids to think about and tackle many of these issues.

Please find the links to these resource below (NB. the Australian version of these task cards has been my best selling resource to date):

Australian Money task cards higher order thinking grades 3 and 4.

UK money task cards higher order thinking grades 3, 4 and 5.

US money task cards higher order thinking grades 3 and 4.

Credit to Hidesy’s Clipart for the graphic.

Five ways to encourage EVERYONE in your class to share their ideas

We’ve all been there. You’re facilitating a class discussion with a group of 30 students and the same 3 students keep answering EVERY SINGLE question (and they aren’t necessarily the more intelligent ones). By about the fifth time, one of these students speaks you awkwardly ignore the fact that their arm is waving around vigorously in the air and say “Does anyone else have anything to say?” you then pause and ask “Anyone?” At this point it’s tempting to just pick a random student and make them share their idea or share whatever they’re thinking (whether it’s on topic or not). However, this can be humiliating for the student and may discourage them from ever putting their hand up!

The following ideas describe ways in which I have encouraged my students to share their ideas, without embarrassment:

• The good ole ‘Think, Pair Share’. I’m sure you’ve had this thinking tool shoved down your throats at many professional development sessions. BUT I would argue that there is a reason why… It actually works! Believe it or not but some students need:

1. a) Time to think before answering a question, and
2. b) Someone to pass their ideas by before risking sharing an idea and having 29 pairs of eyes rolled at them (we all know how brutal school can be).

• Post it ‘Know’te. No matter how hard we try, some students just aren’t going to speak in front of their peers. They may be really shy, lack confidence or have been scarred by past “share time” experiences that have gotten ugly. If students write their idea on a post-it-note that is stuck on a whiteboard alongside their peers post-it-notes then their idea is less likely to be “stuck” to them (hehe get it?) or tracked back to them.

• She said, he said. I don’t know about you but for some reason I feel more comfortable relaying what someone else has said in front of a large group than sharing my own thoughts. It’s almost like if it’s wrong or sounds silly then it’s not my responsibility. To test out a strategy that reduces student accountability for ideas, pair-up or group your students and get them to share their ideas with just one or a few other students (this is a lot less confronting than speaking to a large group). Then ask one group member to share an idea that his or her “group” (shared responsibility) came up with.

• ‘Write as you think’ This one is for those students who spend their class discussion time gazing out the window, dreaming about sliding down the slippery dip at play time or trying to work out why there is a dictionary in the reading corner. If EVERY student has to respond to the questions that you pose then they have no choice but to focus in class and gather ideas to share with their peers.

• ‘Share Around’ Ask your students to sit in a circle and take turns sharing their ideas by going around the circle, one-by-one. Let students know that there is the option to say “pass”. See if more students are willing to share their ideas using this strategy. I can’t put my finger on it but for some reason this has been successful with my classes. I haven’t actually worked out why yet but there must be a reason. Either way, it’s a winner!

If you have any others please post them below (or if you’re a bit embarrassed maybe you could have a think, pair up with someone for a chat and then share your idea with me) 😉