Quick Reads: Thinking About Collaborating?

Here are some comments from educators who participated in collaborations posted in the Collaboration Center on www.cilc.org.

I.  Title/Objective: Pre-K Class Interaction
A Pre-K class from Southern Indiana connected with two other classes to share activities, culture, weather, and information about their communities.

• Involvement:
• 3 teachers
• 3 classrooms
• 66 students
• Sites:
• Laredo, Texas
• Spring City, Tennessee
• Rockport, Indiana
• Impact for Student Learning
  “Students were able to interact in two languages and gained lots of cultural information and valuable information that would not be thought of for students of this age.”

• Impact for Teacher Learning
  “Teachers interacted with classes and also learned valuable information from peers.”

• Lessons Learned
  “Lessons ranged from weather, culture, frogs, farm animals, Spanish vocabulary lesson, oviparous animals and fairy tales.”

III. Title/Objective: Advanced Placement in Art
Two Advanced Placement Art Classes met to prepare for the AP Studio in Art Exam.  Their conferences to provided students an opportunity to share the progress of their art works as they moved toward completion of their portfolios.  Students presented and spoke about work from their portfolios in Drawing and 2-D Design, beginning with a broad presentation of their body of work and then focusing on one select piece.  Participants were able to ask questions about technique, materials, and intent as each artist shared his/her work.

• Involvement:
• 2 teachers
• 2 classrooms
• 24 students
• Sites:
• Eastchester High School, Eastchester, New York
• North Penn School district, Lansdale, Pennsylvania
• Impact for Student Learning:
  “This project provided an opportunity for students to share their AP art portfolio work with another audience.  It increased their confidence and ability to present their work in front of an audience”

• Impact for Teacher Learning:
  “This project gave the teachers an opportunity to discuss the work their students were doing, providing each other’s students with additional thoughts and insights into their artwork.”

• Lessons Learned:
  “There was a technical issue wit showing the range of work in the students’ portfolios.  Each site approached it differently:
• Eastchester put images of the works in Power Point, connected a computer to the camera, and, using an alternate input, displayed the works.
• North Penn went to the AP website and displayed the images from there.
  We tested this part of the project ahead of time (before connecting with the students) to make sure it worked well.”