Collaboration

On this page, share examples and stories of successful collaborations you have been a part of in your school, and/or tools that you use to facilitate collaboration, such as collaborative planning templates, Web 2.0 tools, etc. Use the horizontal rule button in the toolbar above to separate things that are shared.



Middle Schools Notes and Reflections-Celebration Session

Stacey Sweet English/Media Specialist Vantage Point High School

Below is a link to a blog that an English teacher and I created for one of her literature classes. The teacher and I were talking during a professional development, and the topic of reader response journals was brought up. This teacher, Maura Huebl, and I agreed that there is high value in implementing something like a reader response journal, but that the format, responding to prompts in a notebook, seems outdated. Plus, using spiral notebooks for these journals limits opportunities to share thoughts with others. That is when we decided to try out a class blog for her lit. class. We collaborated on the construction of the blog. Maura provided the content, and I created the actual blog as well as assisted with instructing the students how to use it. The blog has been a huge success this year. The students are more enthusiastic to respond to literature when they can do it on a blog. Plus, the students are very genuine when it comes to responding to each other. All in all, the blog was awesome and is definitely something that I can see using over and over again.

Here is the link to the blog: []

Pam Campbell, Gunnison Community School (K-8) Library Media Specialist

Here are a couple of forms that are easy to email back and forth when opportunities for face to face meetings are few and far between. The planning template is easy for printing and jotting when an actual meeting can occur.



Joyce Smith, Teacher-Librarian - Colorado Springs Christian Schools

Our 7th grade social studies teacher and I planned two projects that definitely engaged the students and excited them during their research on the American Revolutionary War. In addition to the research skills that were applied, students were introduced to Voice Thread and Animoto. Students were excited to dig for information that would enhance their presentations. The Voice Thread was a group effort, which required each group to design a story board in Google docs before making their presentation. Each student had to write a short report on one military leader and cover one topic from a list of given topics for the group presentation. The Animoto project required them to focus on his or her selected leader and communicate that leader’s qualities in 30 seconds. To get an idea of what the final project looked like, click on the links below: [] [] media type="custom" key="6007903"

Yvonne Miller, Teacher Librarian - Sagewood Middle School

We have a great Library Tech Committee that is passionate and committed to ET/IL. This is a PDF of a Power Point Presentation we created for an in-service using eInstruction's Classroom Performance System or more commonly known as Clickers to engage the staff. Embedded in the PowerPoint were student samples of Podcast, iPhoto Projects and Videos of student work. Teachers who collaborated with me shared their experiences of the entire process. We asked staff members to respond using a remote response system to demonstrate use of that technology as well. This PDF is in 2 parts to allow for the upload.





Becky Johnson, Teacher Librarian - East Middle School, Grand Junction

This is a LiveBinder that I put together to showcase and celebrate student projects that have resulted from several collaborative units that I've taught this year. Enjoy!

media type="custom" key="6009933"

High School Examples

Download lego program to use in Math
 * []

Physics and Math and Ancient Civilization teachers came together to learn
 * catapults created in Physics
 * firing marshmallows at castles and recording Math equations
 * castles created by Ancient Civilization

Real Lives Educational Simulation with World Language, history, geography, writing, science(population and environmental impacts),
 * []

[|Photostories] in Humanities with Historical songs

Chunk the Power Point Project to enrich it
 * ppt/ add database research/add videos +sound
 * (just for fun- If Lincoln had a [|ppt for the Gettysburg address])

Zoho Samples from Phil's Social Studies Model [|Japan notebook 1] [|Japan notebook 2] [|Japan notebook 3]
 * []

Teaching with Primary Sources Library of Congress UNC Teaching with Primary Sources Metro State Teaching with Primary Sources

Wikis for Collaboration In Denver Public Schools this year we have used Wikis as a place to share and collaborate across the district. Technology Teachers and School Librarians work together in Professional Learning Communities and share their work at: http://iltworkshop.wikispaces.com/ There is plenty of information about technology tools and collaborative opportunities.

Rebecca Neff - Lincoln Elementary School (Colorado Springs School District #11)

Attached is the Excel file we used for goal-setting with our 5th graders. I'm sure I'll do a bit of tweaking to it over time. Please feel free to use it and adapt the idea to fit your school/situation. If anyone plays with the idea and comes up with an adaptation that works well with the primary students, I'd love to see that!