Collaborativeness

Collaboration is a key element to the success of a teacher. Teachers need to talk about what is going on in their classroom with other teachers. This will allow teachers to compare and contrast what is and is not working in regards to teach the students. Teachers are always looking for a way to get more students to understand more material. Collaboration is different than group work in a few ways. Collaboration is more of a joint effort than group work can be. In groups there are commonly people that take over certain parts of the task at hand. Collaboration allows for more of a discussion as well. Group work is usually oriented around a task, while teachers collaborating is a way for them to see what they need to talk about or what they would like to talk about to better their teaching.

An example of collaboration can be observed from my summer work experience. I was part of a field maintenance crew at a baseball complex that was going to host the state tournament for the 14AAA Travel teams. Because there was so much that needed to be done, we all took jobs we knew how to do in order to get the tournament ready. If we saw someone doing a task that we felt could be done in a better way we went and talked about a new way to do that task. We were all working together to get the complex ready for the hundreds of people that would be showing up. I am confident that our discussions on how to improve our work really helped get the job done better than if it had just been a group project and we did individual tasks.

Efficacy

A teacher needs to be extremely confident with his or her abilities in the classroom. If they are not confident, the students will pick up on this. If a student does not have faith in the knowledge of their teacher they will not try as hard in the classroom. They will ask less questions and try to get away with doing the least amount of work possible. Demonstrating knowledge in the classroom should have limits though. A teacher should not show off their talents to the extent of what they are capable of, but rather use differentiated instruction to reach each child. If a student is having trouble then the teacher should use a simplified version until the student understands that concept, then add a little more detail into it. On the flip side, a student that is engaged in the material and succeeding should be pushed further, so in this case the teacher can use more of their knowledge to push the student further. Teachers should not settle for a class that absorbs the same information. Instead, they should push each child to the highest level they can perform and succeed in. A teacher that is confident in his or her abilities and knows the material will be able to reach more students than one who lacks these qualities.

These attributes of being confident, using their knowledge and differentiated instruction are all learned with experience. The teacher needs to connect to the students, but with such an age difference between them, the teacher might need to run a few trial and errors. The teacher needs to be observant of the students' needs and know what the best way for them to learn is. Collaborating with other teachers is a good way to learn the culture of the school and the students in it.