BCTELA

Joanne Panas is a coeditor of English Practice. She teaches part-time English in Richmond and is also an educational consultant and writer. Her biggest challenge is trying to put together all the wonderful things she’s learning.

This fall marks the beginning of my fifteenth year as a teacher. I can hardly believe it at times, especially when I’m learning something new and feel like a beginner all over again. Looking back from my vantage point, the terrain I have traveled has been marked by many “aha” moments as a teacher and learner. Early on in my career I was nearly stymied by the Classroom Management Mountains, but with great guides (thank you, Barrie Bennett and Peter Smilanich!), I began to climb. Then, just when I got good at making my way through the Management Mountains, I had to negotiate the Rapids of Literacy and Reading Strategies (I’m still making my way through those waters). Certainly there have been flat, sunny Fields of Familiarity to wander through, but even those get boring after a while and I seek out new landscapes to traverse.

The most recent part of my journey as a teacher has been into the intriguing and challenging Canyons of Collaboration. It’s something that’s becoming more common and more necessary in our world: people are collaborating in a variety of venues (such as the workplace and online) for a wide range of purposes (to create new products, to inform, to entertain). Like many English teachers, I’ve turned my classroom into a place where students work collaboratively in a number of ways: they think, build criteria, create products, and give feedback together. They are becoming experts in collaborating with a wide range of people, both online and in person. I’m becoming more comfortable with student collaboration in the classroom, using it to supplement and complement the individual work that students also need to do.

Throughout my career I’ve always shared my work with other teachers. I thought I was collaborating, but I realize that it was not collaboration in the truest sense: I had not worked together with others to complete some kind of project. Adapting someone’s unit and returning it to them with my changes is not the same as collaborating with them. I’ve only begun to truly collaborate in the last couple of years, and at times it’s been a difficult shift. I enjoy my profession partly because I get to work independently and “be my own boss” to a certain extent. I love the responsibility and the feeling of accomplishment from creating and teaching successful units and lessons (though it’s not as much fun to have to take responsibility for the ones that fall flat). But I had begun to feel that I was missing out on something when I saw the work some of my colleagues were producing in collaborative teams, and so I decided to hike into those Collaboration Canyons for myself.

When I worked as a helping teacher in my district, I had the opportunity to coplan and partially co-teach a couple of units. This fall, I am co-planning, co-teaching, and co-assessing one of my courses with a resource teacher. I am also co-planning one of my courses with several other colleagues, although each of us will also do some planning on our own. What I am finding out is that collaboration is incredibly valuable for both me and my students—I get the benefit of many minds to help me think through ideas, and it forces me to clarify what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and how it fits with the major outcomes of the course. My students get well-designed, challenging courses that are purposeful, authentic, and help them learn. I’m finding that this Canyon is all about depth!

But make no mistake, collaboration is also hard work and requires perseverance. My co-planners and I have to make time in our busy lives to meet together. The work is engaging and challenging, pushing me to clarify and synthesize what I know about research-based practice, and to communicate thoughtfully and clearly with my colleagues. It’s exhausting at times, but I believe it’s worth the effort. I’m excited about implementing our planning and continuing the process of collaboration throughout the year, and I’m keen to see the difference that collaborative planning and teaching makes for students.

If you’re thinking that you might want to try (or continue) collaborating with a colleague (or a few), I have some suggestions from my own experiences. Keep your collaborative efforts manageable—co-planning/teaching a few lessons for one unit might be a good place to start, or just focusing on the big themes and goals for a unit (which doesn’t have to look exactly the same in both classrooms). Seek out a collaboration partner among colleagues with whom you’ve already shared some ideas or discussed professional development; don’t overlook your teacher-librarian or colleagues in other subject areas! Ask around your district for helping teachers, literacy coaches, or others who can work within your schedule. Have a clear sense of what you want to accomplish; collaboration works well when all parties understand what they want to do together and what their limits are (e.g., time, subject matter, materials, goals for students). Get creative about finding time. For example, some districts may have funds for collaboration or professional learning communities; some schools may find ways to cover off classes or you may be able to switch prep blocks to make it work.

Despite some of the frustrations and challenges I’ve had at the beginning of my collaborative practice, I see my journey through the Canyons of Collaboration as a key aspect of my development as an educator and as a learner. It is such an enriching experience for me, and I can see that it will enrich the learning and lives of my students. This pattern of feeling like a beginner, struggling through the challenges, and emerging richer for the experience is one of the best things about being a teacher—there’s a constant sense of renewal. For me, as for most teachers, September is a beginning filled with promise and anticipation; as I start my fifteenth year, I wonder what’s going to be next on my journey. I hope that, whatever is coming over the horizon for you on your own journey, you will find inspiration and support in the pages of this issue of English Practice. Happy trails!

Joanne Panas for Krista Ediger and the BCTELA Executive