Responding to Collaboration Challenges

So happy to start this dialog blog with Mary Kate - a good format for the topic of collaboration.  Our teaching allows us so many opportunities for collaboration and different forms of co-teaching.  And we are so fortunate to have the technology that has cleared the boundaries for collaborating, yet there are always obstacles. 

In her first post Mary Kate posed the question “what are my challenges?”  This is such a powerful question because if I begin to voice the challenges I begin to recognize them head-on rather than ignoring them. 

I immediately started to make a list when I thought about this question:

·      Time management

·      Desire to do it all  (different from wanting it all) –

·      Learning to face new responsibilities

·      Insecurity

I realized after creating this initial list that each of the items are intertwined and each can be obstacles for me personally but I tried to think about them one at a time. 

Time Management …

One of the first comments left on Mary Kate’s post was simply “TIME!”  And we all know that it isn’t just about time but finding mutual time to work and think together.  Maybe that is why I like twitter so much – you can usually multitask when you are on twitter!  But face-to-face collaborations deserve full attention and I admit I am easily distracted!  So this is clearly an area that I have to get better at.  I need an attitude of one thing at a time and to work on the discipline of scheduling my time. 

Wanting to do it all…

Don’t we all want to do it all?  Probably not!  I am smarter than this and I know deep down that trying to do it all can often mean not doing anything with depth.  But, even though I know better, I still have the desire to read every book that is recommended on lists and tweets!  If it is a good story or more importantly a book that will be meaningful to a child, I want to read it!  I also want to write more. Also, I want to spend quality time with friends, family and colleagues.   So maybe my true challenge is to slow down and take the time needed to do a few things more thoroughly.  Translating this to my work at school I have to realize that each collaboration or project will require different depth and take different amounts of time and that is okay. 

I loved when Mary Kate wrote:

“I have to look at all the possible activities and decide which ones I have to do, which ones I want to do, and which ones I can’t do.  The want-to-do-activities seem to be the ones that slide. “

I think that it is really important to consider each day and decide that we need both, not just the have to do’s but the activities that we want to do as they are equally as important.

Learning to face new responsibilities…

Like many, I am in a new season in my life where I have the honor to help care for my parent.  I am learning to manage my time in this part of my life and still find the space for the things I want to do.  The biggest challenge is to not have the guilt when I am choosing to do other things.  Balance!

Insecurity…

I think that insecurity sometimes stops us from collaborating without us even realizing it.   When we work together we assume that we are each bringing something to the one another and in the end the work will be much richer.  But if we doubt that we have anything new or original to say or to offer then we aren’t as willing. 

I am personally working on this area in my writing.  I keep the encouraging words of others playing in my mind as I push myself out of this self-doubt as a writer.  I am thankful for this nudge from Mary Kate to get back to blogging and writing! 

Perhaps this self-awareness will serve me well as I work with other teachers by being more aware and understanding if someone is feeling the same way about some area of his/her teaching. 

This quote and my feelings about working together sum up why working on obstacles is so important to me:

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up. —Oliver Wendell Holmes

There is magic in sharing, talking and collaborating with others.  You can feel the energy; you can feel the flow of ideas born or old ideas reformed.  There is a momentum of positive thinking.  Maybe it is just because I truly love being around others, I am not sure, but I know the magic of a team of people working together.  What are some of your obstacles in making this happen?  What are some of your best collaborative experiences?

Here is a great new middle grade book that illustrates teamwork in a community!