Collaborating with the School Community: Collaboration Series Part 4 [S4 E105]

Listen to the full episode below about collaborating with the school community:

Friends! Today we are finishing up a series on collaboration. This is our fourth of four episodes talking about collaboration. We started this off by talking about what collaboration is, what it can be, when it works, when it doesn't work, and what we call “lone wolf syndrome”.

Today, we're here to widen the perspective a bit and talk about collaborating with the community at large when it comes to individual students, a classroom setting, and the school as a whole. To spark some inspiration, we even have some fun projects that we have done in the past that we want to tell you all about!

But first, let’s define community. When we talk about collaborating with a community, we are talking about students, parents, families, caregivers, and other stakeholders on campus. This might include other teachers, administrators, coaches, etc.

It also needs to be said that we come to this conversation with a lot of compassion and complete understanding of what it is to not want to share everything all the time. It can be hard to open your doors to so many people because as educators, we often feel like everything we do is put under a microscope with such scrutiny. 

On the other hand, if you isolate yourself as the lone wolf, that’s when a lot of misunderstanding comes from with others. To put it simply, no one can have your back if they don’t know what you’re doing in your classroom! Once you begin to open up and welcome collaboration, we promise that it gets a lot less scary and more fun.

Ultimately, collaboration is what makes schools better. Hopefully this episode will encourage you to think about your life beyond the classroom and how you might involve other people. Whenever you can be part of your school in a bigger way, it can really feed your energy and sense of belonging!

Topics Covered:

  • Why it can sometimes be scary to open your doors to a wide community

  • Mindset shifts and hacks that can help manage the nerves of putting yourself out there

  • Specific ideas for creating sustainable solutions for parent and student communication

  • Campus collaborations that can benefit everyone

  • Amanda’s experience with her “Challenge to Change” project

  • Marie’s experience with putting on a college and career day for an entire junior class

Resources:

Related Episodes:

More about Brave New Teaching:

Join hosts Amanda Cardenas (Mud & Ink Teaching) and Marie Morris (The Caffeinated Classroom) in discussions about being brave, trying new things, and all things teaching! As seasoned classroom teachers, Amanda and Marie bring their experience, insight, energy, and oh, so many opinions and ideas... It's time for all teachers to take their classroom and teaching practice into their own hands!

Tune in on your favorite podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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