Re: Looking for some collaboration how-to

On 4/17/11, Jamie in MO wrote:
> This is very helpful. Thank you for taking time to respond.
>
> It makes sense to dig deeper by offering meaningful training
> instead of "on the fly" kinds of hallway conversations. It's a
> great idea to offer wiki access to build support materials, too.
>
> I also love Math Rules!
>
> Thanks for your many good suggestions here--this opens a lot of
> possibilities.
>
> On 4/17/11, Melanie wrote:
>> Hi, Jamie. I'm in Francis Howell. I may have met you at a
>> conference.
>>
>> I support school-wide enrichment through our school-wide
>> intervention time. I rotate grade levels every four week and
>> get to meet with the grade level for planning at least once
>> during the four weeks. Meeting with them to plan
>> intervention has made the most impact on collaboration
>> because I am more in touch with their needs for their
>> students. Would your principal provide some release time for
>> you to meet with grade levels?
>>
>> In addition, I have done cluster training with classroom
>> teachers who have a gifted cluster. Clustering the students
>> makes it easier to insure that their needs are met and
>> improves collaboration. For the cluster training, I worked
>> with primary teachers for one-half day and intermediate for
>> the other half. We spent the time on practical
>> differentiation techniques that they could use (menus,
>> contracts, cubing, anchor activities, tiering, etc.) I made
>> a wiki and put the forms online on our intranet so that the
>> teachers could put their own content into the forms.
>>
>> Some resources that I have shared with teachers are Sunshine
>> Math Superstars (from Florida Panhelenic Council) which has
>> great open-ended problem solving. I also like the "Math
>> Rules" materials. For Comm Arts, we use Balanced Literacy
>> and the teachers already have a great program and a lot of
>> good resources (Fountas and Pinnell). We use Study Island,
>> as well.
>>
>> I hope you can find a kernal of something to help you here.
>> If not, I'll keep thinking. You can email if you'd like.