Pre-Planning

The partner I choose for the collaboration project is my old college roommate, Elizabeth Kopchick. Elizabeth is in her 3rd year of teaching second grade at Hadley-Murphy Elementary School in the Lapeer school district. I choose Elizabeth because I know that she’s a teacher who will go above and beyond for her students and because it will be “out of my comfort zone” for her grade level. While I am a certified elementary teacher, I am in my 2nd year of working at a middle school library. Therefore, my mindset and general library knowledge tends to be more advanced at this grade level as opposed to the elementary level. I am aware that it may be more difficult for me to take on the younger collaboration project and it will require extra time to “re-familiarize” myself with the elementary level, but I think it important for me to have a wide-range of abilities and experiences when working with teachers and libraries.

As with most “new ventures”, I do have a few challenges that will really stretch me as a LMS. This school year, Elizabeth has several low students which will require extra attention and adaptations to the assignments in order to reach all students at their personal level. Our lessons will need to include differentiated learning to almost all areas which may be tough for some ideas. Also, this school does not have a sufficient amount of computers for the students. Due to this, Elizabeth told me that she is “horrible at incorporating technology into the classroom”. While it will take creativity, I am hoping to conquer her fears and the school’s technology inadequacies to ensure the students have some experience using the computer for this project.

When I originally emailed Elizabeth about working with me on this project, she replied with a resounding “Of course I’ll work with you!” In this same email, she included a list of several of her upcoming units/ areas of study in her classroom as suggestions for our topic. I asked if there were any particular units that she felt she could use more resources or additional help in planning to enhance the students’ learning. The animal research project was one that she mentioned she only had 10 books for her class so they had to take turns doing their “research”. These books are great for this project and provide an easy introduction to research for these young students but having other resources would be helpful. Therefore, we are planning on expanding on this unit in her classroom through our collaborative efforts.

Some general brainstorming ideas I have come up with include kid-friendly websites where some students will be able to work independently and others will work one-on-one with myself or Elizabeth to complete their research. Presenting the information in a PowerPoint presentation will be a great way to familiarize the students with this program and can be worked on throughout the research process. All ideas dealing with technology will need to be done in small groups due to the lack of computers. Having print resources available will allow all students to be researching at the same time while they take turns using the computers. I have a few possible ideas for how to help the students organize their notes but want to talk to Elizabeth to see what she currently uses and how much information she wants them to find.

Before I make any definite plans, I want Elizabeth to explain in detail what she has done in the past and how she hopes to improve this lesson. Her thoughts and expectations will help guide my sections to ensure they align with the curriculum. Regular communication will be essential for us to make sure that we are building off of each other and working together as opposed to dividing the lessons in half and each planning on our own. My goal for the collaboration is to have them flow together and have us both involved in the planning of each lesson – although one will most likely take the lead depending on our individual strengths.