Your new schedule awaits your return, sitting silently in your mailbox at school. With palpating heart and sweaty hands you skim the page to find …

• COLLABORATION, Professional Learning Communities (PLC),
  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 2:00–2:45

It’s back. Written in the schedule again. The only difference is that this year it looks like you will be collaborating more often, not less. Three days of teaming? You panic. With mind racing you wonder, “How will I survive this year? Summer, oh summer – how I loved you! Wait. Should I have taken that secretarial position at the local bank?”

It’s true. Collaboration time evokes radical thoughts, and strong reactions. Why? Professional Learning Communities can be relationally sticky, and downright wasteful. It’s true! Here’s the reality. We (educators) consider the assassination of our time, sitting in unproductive meetings, not only offensive, but also egregiously inefficient. How do you know your PLC time is not useful? Consider this list:

• A colleague on the team is perpetually late or even missing in action, so you have to hunt him/her down.
• No agenda, purpose, or end product determined for the meeting. Instead, the conversation drifts like autumn leaves in the September wind.
• Boss Hog and Silent Sitter. One colleague dominates every moment of your team’s time while another remains mute. Can you say, “Awkward”?

Collaboration swallowed by the aforementioned pierces our professional passion. But, it need not be so. With a few tweaks, we can flourish as educators and swim in the sea of productivity, positivity, and purpose – together.

Here’s how:

1. Do unto others.

• Be considerate of one another’s time. Make an effort to STOP preparing and get to the meeting promptly. Remember, all of your teammates have copying to do as well. If you are standing at the copy machine, prepping, while your colleagues are in the team room waiting … enough said.
• Be an upper! Give compliments to your colleagues, and smile! To have a good team is to be a good teammate! Demonstrate a commitment to positivity. It takes more strength and self-control to share sunshine than storm clouds. Choose happy.

2. The final countdown! During the last five minutes of your teaming time, CREATE YOUR AGENDA for the next meeting. This will help generate a sense of purpose and expectancy for your upcoming encounter. The linchpin is actually sticking to the previously created agenda. Deviations are dangerous. Avoid at all costs!

3. Be present in each other’s presence. Actively listening honors both human connection and creative problem solving. Stephen Covey was onto something when he said that we should, “Seek first to understand before being understood.” While living in Italy, I realized that Italians are experts at being present. How so? We’ve all seen the pictures of small groups of natives outside their villas, talking the evening away – gesturing, arguing, laughing. The stories that the cobblestoned pathways have heard over the generations and centuries, oh my! Italians demonstrate the very essence of being present: truly living in the moment, listening, connecting, and sharing.
   (Photo of a quiet street in Italy by Gabrielle Brulotte)

Is collaboration worth the effort? Consider this. If equally yoked and moving in the same direction, two oxen can transport more than double the weight that two single oxen are able to pull.

We can do far more when working together. Collaborating with intentionality helps all of us achieve higher levels of productivity. We cannot increase the amount of time granted within our school day, but we can be more industrious with our time. To do so, let us:

• Arrive alert, alive, on time
• Be positive
• Connect with our inner Italian and stay present (Eat more pasta, if necessary!)

Cheers to “Le Dolce Vita” of collaboration, and to the beginning of the 2015–16 school year!

Until next time,
Staci

Check out a related blog post by tech teacher Alexandria Mooney: Collaboration Is Key

Do you have questions about effective collaboration or want to share your own PLC experiences with colleagues? Please share your thoughts in the Comment field below.