Teacher Collaboration GSO 1 Project Proposal Stefanie Coe Sonoma State University Educational Leadership and Technology

Teacher Collaboration

The Problem This year two of NUSD’s three middle schools were put into PI There is no communication across the district Secondary math committee was created and is proving ineffective

Why collaboration? “Teachers work in teams, engaging in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning. This process, in turn, leads to higher levels of student achievement” (DuFour, pg. 8) “improving student achievement across a school requires more than competent individual teachers (DuFour and Marzano, p. 67)” “Teacher collegiality has been highlighted as a crucial factor in educational change and professional development” (Grunberg and Armellini, 2005, p.171).

Why collaboration through technology? “…these systems [conferencing on the web] allow more students to participate in discussions, because students may choose to participate anonymously as well as post their messages, when they are ready, without feeling any time pressure (Angeli, Valanides, and Bonk p. 32)”. “In summary, it has been acknowledged that , as well as other CMC technologies, may help overcome some of the barriers to human communication that inhibit collegiality (Grunberg and Armellini, 2005, p.172)”.

The ongoing pursuit…

The Survey

Teacher Comments “sub plans have to be created and the students miss out on a day of instruction” “TIME and LACK OF MONETARY REWARDS (basically not being paid)” “time, time, and more time”

Possible Solution Google Groups Online discussion group Allows multiple people to discuss a topic NUSD group