What does collaboration day mean to teachers? To young and aspiring it means a chance to meet with others in their fields and learn new and inspiring techniques of bring "the message" to young people (or getting better scores on the NCLB test). To teachers in the middle of their careers it is a chance to meet but not get too excited because they now have the wisdom and know how to bring "the message" (use the time to grade papers). To the teachers at the end it is a chance to pretend that they are collaborating but in fact "we" are hiding and pretending because we do know that "the message" is pretty much the same but the delivery is the secret-see 180 Shows A Year (I think it was a book, if not it should be).
So here I am collaborating with all of those who read this (1)? I wish I could be more inspiring and reflective upon my career-I still think that all teachers should teach pedagogy courses for two years as they leave the profession-just nuts and bolts, no pie in the sky.
But then I guess that I should be "collaborating" with some new teachers so that I could show them "the message technique" but I also question whether we still have time for "the message" because of NCLB-we need to score well (or our students need to score well) and "the message", well it can wait for another day (or political climate)!
Peace