Awesomeness

As the great University of Kansas head Football coach Turner Gill would say, "This here project got me fired up." I can still remember true collaboration as it happened in my first few years of teaching.    Me, a Science teacher, working with Social Studies, English, and Math teachers on collaborative projects on a very frequent basis.  The four of us getting together almost daily to share what worked and what didn't. Contemplating how we would change this and tweak that.  Our teaching lives were built around collaborating within our "academy," and we had a damn good time doing it.  Oh yeah, the students learned a lot too.

That was almost 15 years ago.  The pressures of standardized testing, reduced plan times, and bigger class sizes have forced many of us to go into hiding.  We've settled with simply doing our "own thing."  Sure, we collaborate in our department meetings, but the idea of reaching out to someone outside of the Science Department is almost strange to me now.

Last year, Amy Cameron and I did a unit on Endangered Species.  It was a fun, successful project, but I must admit, it was weird working so closely with another teacher.  Not because Amy is weird.  Well, she did brush her teeth with dog toothpaste once, but whatever.  It was the collaboration that seemed so foreign to me.  It had been years since I had practiced true collaboration.  I didn't seek out advice from my colleagues.  I had simply grown accustomed to running my classroom my own way.

I found the most important step was to just TRY to collaborate.  I set aside my worries and went with the flow.  As our project progressed, I found it not only easy to collaborate with Amy but very enjoyable and rewarding as well.  Most importantly, I believe the students learned some valuable, worldly lessons that will stay with them for a very long time.  By being open to learning and sharing knowledge, the rest took care of itself.

So, my goal on this project is simply to TRY and see where this thing leads.  So what if I hardly know Sutcliffe or that Leech is clear across the building? I AM GOING TO TRY.  Everett is like 1000 times smarter than me, and Dixon is reading this right now shaking her head at all of the grammatical errors.  SO WHAT?  I am going to TRY.

There will be challenges and obstacles, without a doubt.  We don't share the same students, and we all have different plan times.  Not only do we teach different subjects, but we work with students with vastly different ability levels as well.  This will be a challenge, but one I am going to TRY to give my very best.

Heath Cooper