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I was already collaborating in the early '80s as a social worker and then again in the early 90's as an educator and I was not even aware.  My bosses did not even know the concept, skills and strategies that involve collaboration.  They just wanted us to get in groups and solve problems with no direction. But once state testing came into play and they wanted high scores, it was left to us to find ways of working with the students that were failing and made sure they passed.  Just like Margart Heffernan stated that everybody's involvement (energy, imaginataion and momentum) can result in creating the best beyond measure.  It is so true because I have witness great results of collaboration.

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Why Collaborate?

• to share expertise

• share skills

• share responsibility

• build social networks

• increase efficiency

• promotes problem solving

• share and support technology integration

Let me share some successful stories:

As a classroom teacher, we had no class assistance with the Special Ed, 504 and Bilingual students.  Even though, I knew that they had something special to contribute.  So, I read about Cooperative Learning strategies.  I started to design my classroom with three different kinds of level students in each group...a high, medium and low.  My high level group consisted of my GT and "A" students.  My medium group were my "B" students which some were my border students (high 70's) and my low group were my special groups.  Throughout the school year, I saw some of my low group students advance to the medium group. They felt so proud and valuable but best of all they were succeeding.  I tried to encourage other teachers to try Cooperate Learning but they did not believe in students talking to each other at the same time (fixed mindset).

It is a long story on how I became an administrator because I did not interview and did not want it....I was just assigned to replace my best friend who got promoted as a Principal right before TAAS not STARR testing.  I was kind of scared because my Principal was used to the rating of Exemplary every year and 98% of out students were of low economic status and Hispanic. As time went by, I discover that if you treat teachers as you would want to be treated, they will be happy and assure that their students succeed.  Every Friday, we would release them for a 15 minute break with goodies. We provided time release for them to share ideas with not only their grade level but with all levels.  As I did my walkthroughs, I would release them to take a quick break.  They always knew that if they were ready to blow up because of class disruptions, they would just call the office and one of us would immediately assist them.  Technology was an area that some teachers were afraid to learn so we would assign a mentor to take them by the hand and guide them.  We did not believe in having only superchickens because we assure each one that they were important to us and the students. Whenever there was a problem in any grade levels, teachers were there to share ideas and assist.  I did not believe in teachers staying late at school for various reasons. We strongly believe that the teacher's lounge was a place to relax and not a gossip area---especially complaining of students.  I strongly believe that if you keep your employees happy, they will transfer it to their class where positive learning can occur.  Like we say, "two heads are better than one".

I am hoping that my group will give me lots of feedback on how to improve my eportfolio.