Thank you to the May 19th Texas Library Association Webinar participants for sharing their ideas and experiences in building cultures of collaboration in their schools. If you were unable to attend, please see BACC co-blogger Karla Collins post-Webinar wrap-up.

The BACC co-bloggers gleaned our June topic from that conversation: collaborative teaching. We have divided the topic into four interrelated components: coplanning, coteaching, coassessing student work, and coassessing the effectiveness of the educators’ collaborative work. Each co-blogger will share her perspective on one stage of the coteaching process.

Before delving into coplanning, many Webinar participants shared the importance of building relationships with their classroom teacher and specialist colleagues. Making time to address this prerequisite for collaborative teaching is essential. In the Webinar chat, one participant noted, “Collaboration relies on cultivating relationships. You (school librarians) have to earn their trust.” Another wrote, “Offer to do the ‘little things’ to make friends and build relationships.”

In the above photograph, two teachers from the San Francisco Exploratorium Museum’s Teacher Institute examine the “String Thing” they built. Clearly, these two educators are learning together… and having fun doing it! It stands to reason that educators who enjoy learning together would also enjoy teaching together. In fact, more fun is one of the benefits cited by many coteachers—classroom teachers and school librarians alike.

In 2005, Dr. Keith Curry Lance and his colleagues conducted a study called “Powerful Libraries Make Powerful Learners.” These researchers looked for the activities in which effective school librarians engage. They compared the activities of school librarians serving in low performing schools with those in high achieving schools. They found that in high achieving schools school librarians spent 240% more time planning with teachers.

On Thursday, I will share my perspective on the coplanning process and a just-published testimonial from a high school English language arts teacher who talks about her successful coplanning experience with her school librarian.

Works Cited

Lance, Keith C., Marcia J. Rodney, and Christine Hamilton-Pennell. “Powerful Libraries Make Powerful Learners: The Illinois Study.” Illinois School Library Media Association. 2005. Web. 19 May 2015. <https://www.islma.org/pdf/ILStudy2.pdf>.

Snyder, Amy. “Exploratorium Teachers.” JPG. Wikimedia.org. 2009. Web. 29 May 2015. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exploratorium_teachers.jpg>