TEA Collaborative Learning Group
FINAL Report

Huffman

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Overall, in what ways did your collaboration with your team impact your professional growth? (e.g., how did this work impact your approach to and understanding of: content knowledge, pedagogy, process of science, teaching standards, use of technology, etc.)?
To do it well, teaching is an incredibly busy and time consuming job. It is seldom that we feel there is time to stop and reflect on what we do and how we can improve it. By meeting regularly with my colleagues and focusing discussions on pedagogy and content, we were able to take time to reflect on what works best in our classrooms. We then took the time to evaluate ways to improve our delivery of instruction.

In what ways do you think your colleagues were impacted by being a part of this collaborative team?
I think that my teammates became aware of polar science and the great diversity of research being done in the polar regions. They also found ways to bring authentic experiences to their students and to question their definitions of "inquiry." I think they also appreciated the close relationships we were able to forge with several scientists.

How does this experience compare to / contrast with other professional interactions you have had with your colleagues?
The Antarctica experience was one of the most exciting and rewarding things I have ever been involved in, and I feel that my colleagues, who for the most part would not want to have been in my shoes, were very excited to vicariously share the adventure. That hook was the impetus for all of our work together, and there is nothing else that I know of that compares with the awe we all experienced and then brought into our classrooms.

Overall, what were the most significant outcomes of the mentoring experience?
There were many significant outcomes. We shared and developed many activities to bring polar science and learning to our classrooms. Inquiry teaching was explored in depth and our definitions refined as we began re-engineering existing lessons as well as creating new ones. Together we explored the difference between assessment OF learning and assessment FOR learning and began developing ways to assess throughout the learning experience.

What do you believe are the key elements to a successful mentoring experience?
The main key to a sucessful mentoring experience is having a group of people committed to an honest dialog and willing to spend the time working together.

What recommendations do you have for other TEAs who are working with colleagues to transfer their TEA experience?
Be flexible--be creative--listen to what your colleagues want to get out of the experience. Think out of the box.

What, if any, resources/products were created by your team? How can we best make these available to the broader TEA community?
We helped each other work on curriculum design and pedagogy. Our lessons weren't necessarily written up in a way that would be easily shared, although we did put together a packet of lessons to transfer the Antarctic experience to our classrooms. We also have some assessment for learning ideas.

What are your recommendations for improving or modifying the mentoring experience?
My honest evaluation is that in theory the mentoring experience is a good idea. Teachers spending time together discussing pedagogy, designing better lessons, and reflecting on their practices is a wonderful thought. In reality, though, teachers have very little extra time and asking them to invest 150 hours of time without college credit or fair renumertion is an imposition. In a perfect world, perhaps a better idea would be to have teachers meet in the summer for a week in a nice facility where they will be paid a stipend and earn college or contact credit toward recertification. Then during the school year they can try some of the lessons they have learned or developed in the summer; they could have follow up meetings during the year to discuss how those lessons worked in the classroom and how they would change them in the future.

Additional Reflections: