Collaboration – what a concept!
For most journalism teachers, frequent content-area collaboration in the form of a PLC, or even just talking shop with another teacher in your building, is impossible. Most of the time, the journalism teacher is a “singleton” – the only one in the building who teaches in that area.
We all know that support is vital, and it makes our jobs and our lives so much easier. This summer, while involved in work for another class I teach, that point became crystal clear. Along with journalism, this year I’ll be teaching AVID. It’s my first year, and I’m a little overwhelmed just thinking about it.
I met with our building’s other AVID teacher for about eight hours this summer. We talked about scheduling for the freshman class. We talked about the activities and assignments she has done with freshmen in the past. We made to-do lists. I feel better prepared for this class than I’ve ever felt about my journalism classes at this point in the summer.
All because I could collaborate with that other teacher. In that case, we weren’t necessarily developing a SMART goal or collecting data, but we were working together, bouncing ideas off each other, talking about what worked.
For years, journalism teachers have commiserated via the listserv, over the phone, or while at summer workshops. Let’s raise that commiseration up a notch – let’s make it collaboration, in the form of Professional Learning Communities. These PLCs can be developed on geographic lines, or with people who are far-flung. Use the tools you have available, and work with your group to improve student learning in your classrooms.
It’s my hope that the new PLC committee can help teachers who are looking for that collaborative connection. We want to hook you up with teachers interested in collecting data on the same content and talk about what works (and what doesn’t) in your classrooms. We want journalism teachers to be able to answer the four basic questions: What do we want our students to know? How do we know they know it? What do we do if they don’t know it? What do we do when they already know it?
Please let us know if you’re interested in working as part of a collaborative team of journalism teachers.