Collaboration Skills for School Professionals - Case Study Example

Case Study Collaboration Skills for School Professionals Introduction Collaboration and teamwork have proved to be the most efficient way of resolving the majority of the problems that face students, at all levels of education, and for both Each member of the group is expected to have flexibility so as to accommodate other members’ opinions, and this will enable them come up with the best procedures and solutions. For the group to be successful in its mission, it must have well-defined strategies for different tasks assigned to each member of the team (Friend & Cook, 2010). In this paper, I am going to look at some cases with two students with disabilities and how to come up with the collaboration among the teachers Mr. Alvarez and Mrs. Anderson that will assist students, Zach and Patrick. Individuals Involved Mr. Alvarez is a member of the teaching staff in the school, and he will be assisting in Zach to address his reading goals, which they will be conducting in the resource room. Mrs. Anderson, Zach’s class teacher, will also be involved, and she will be playing the follow-up role on the progress made by Zach and Mr. Alvarez in addressing the reading goals. Problems in the Case Zach is one of the students and has a specific learning disability in reading; he receives 30 minutes of resource room support from Mr. Alvarez to address reading goals. He likes math, and he enjoyed the geometry unit in the class just completed and a typically quite worker during independent work time. He never comes in during recesses nor does he stay after school to feed the class guinea pig when his fellow students attend. He responds angrily to teasing by yelling back and sometimes even cry, arguing with Patrick, and pushes Patrick if he doesn’t respond to his requests or comments. He is another student, in the same class with Zach, with identified disability, and he never misses in any class activities that are in line with kits and plays. He has an average performance when it comes to academics, participating a lot in the extracurricular activities especially football, both at school and community level. He is talkative and a noise maker, furthermore, he usually fall into 11quarrels with Zach causing a lot of disruptions both to their fellow students and teachers during class time. He teases Zach (and, at times, other students) by name calling, or making harmful comments, calls out during class or gives unrelated or inappropriate class information during class discussions. He likes arguing with Zach, or other students, whenever he is asked to stop teasing or halting other undesired behaviors that peas off his fellow students, with his teachers as well. All these disability problems in Patrick get observed when he interrelates with others, and also his fellow students frequently raise complaints on the same. Seeking Collaborative Solutions for Zach Some of the past researches and studies conducted on students with similar conditions shows that his problems are likely to be a result of attitude and some inner feelings when it comes on how to handle different matters. According to Friend and Cook (2010), reading problems can be said to be as a result of having negative attitudes towards doing some forms of literature that perhaps require a number of reading skills. This can be evident when a student performs well in one unit and fails to deliver the same in other units at the same academic level (Friend & Cook, 2010). This is evident in the fact that he likes math and enjoys a lot of units in math such as geometry, having in mind that are less involved with issues of literature. His personalities get further observed when he fails to attend recess nor stay behind with the other students in feeding the class guinea pig. If not controlled and taken into regular check by his teachers, the boy is likely to drop in his academic performance as well his social life (Friend & Cook, 2010). According to Friend and Cook (2010), the particular teamwork formed with the purpose of assisting such students must come up with well-laid goals, strategies, and some aims that they will be striving to reading skills and shaping his/her personality. Other previous research show that,the consequence of this particular solution is that if not tken care of, the studebnt may start performing poorly in mthematics joining with the other already poorly performed units. The possible solutions for Zach’s problems are for the school teaching staff to identify a group made up of four to five teachers who seem to have a relatively better relation with him (Friend & Cook, 2010). In this case, the mathematics teacher will be more relevant as compared to the others since the boy enjoys the math subject, taught by this particular professor. Mr. Alvarez will be another member of the formed collaborative teamwork which will assist him by offering daily resource room support for a period of 30 minutes. The consequence of this solution is that if not followed and implemented, then the boy will develop adverse reading conditions that the collaborative partnership will not solve. According to Friend and Cook (2010), the class teacher, will form the part of the collaborative teamwork, and in this case he/she will be reporting the daily complaints raised by the other students concerning the student’s conduct. The chosen member of the group for this role, will be keeping in check on the progress on matters of student’s ability towards reading, by the others on regular basis ( Friend & Cook, 2010). During these meetings, they will be discussing on any additional instructional support that the student may need so as to improve his/her reading ability (Friend & Cook, 2010). For Zach’s case, his parents must also be included in the teamwork since they will be keeping in check on how the boy will progress when at home. Another member of the group will be his literature teacher, who will be assisting Zach on how to improve in his writing and reading skills. The writing teacher will help in making follow ups on how the boy will be performing in the daily homework given in class and another takeaway assignments. One of the psychology teachers around the school need to be part of the teamwork, and his/her particular roles will be taking the student through some counseling sessions (Friend & Cook, 2010). The first and foremost step will be identifying some teachers who can form the best membership for the group as discussed above (Friend & Cook, 2010). In this case, findings from studies guide them to delegate duties for each one of them and Zach’s family will have to attend this session task delegation in the school and provide their ideas. The other step will be formulating the timetable and schedule on when the boy will be attending those sessions that are outside the classroom. For the sake of Mr. Alvarez, he will be receiving 30 minutes of resource support from him, after the usual lunch break. Since the boy is a day scholar, then it is a family/student centered solution and the parents, especially his mother will be responsible for the steps taken as well as accountability. According to Friend and Cook, the collaborative members will be conducting a regular meeting to check on the boy’s improvement, where the parents will be expected to visit the school and give their report. According to previous studies, we will know that the problem has gotten successfully solved when all the group members prove to have some levels of satisfaction with the boy’s conduct and general academic life. Another reliable source of information will be his fellow students whom the class teacher and other teachers will be interviewing and concerning Zach’s general outlook in the category. For this case, the collaborative members will be able to identify whether the student’s change was only at face value or if it was intrinsic ( Friend & Cook, 2010). Seeking Collaborative Solutions for Patrick The case of Patrick will follow almost the similar steps as for those of Zach since they are classmates and share all the units and are being taught by the same teachers. In coming up with the teamwork members, the class teacher, Mrs. Anderson must be one of the members (Friend & Cook, 2010). They will have to reach his family and get their information concerning their view on Patrick’s way of conduct when at home and how he interrelate with other neighbors and relatives. Hoping that they will comment on the same problems that are evident here in school, they will be part of this group. The family will have to invite the coach of the football team where Patrick takes part into their home and get to hear from him. Hoping he will be having the same complaint from the community football members, from the community football team, the parents will ask him to be part the group. The psychology teacher and other members of the counseling will also be needed to form part of the group since they will get required to take the boy to counseling sessions. They will identify some of the possible problems, among other issues, that make the boy behave how he is behaving. The particular teacher in charge of the classroom kits and plays will be part of the group since she always gets in touch with Patrick during these specific times of games and kits. The collaborative membership formed will be required to have weekly meetings where they will be discussing their observations in terms of student’s conduct whenever they get in touch with him/her (Friend & Cook, 2010). The family’s role will be to ensure that he attends all the sessions at the church since this will help in the process of building him spiritually. At the church, he will be able to receive some of the Christian teachings in the desired ways and conduct of a real Christian and how to socialize with others. By observing his daily behaviors, his family will be able to note some form of dynamism and report this during their weekly meetings, and this alert the team on their progression (Friend & Cook, 2010). The class teacher will have the duty of monitoring Patrick’s conduct while in class and note if there are some significant changes in behavior from the other aspects of characterization implanted in him. Mrs. Anderson, the class teacher, will also be required to submit her daily report when the others will be doing the same in the scheduled weekly basis meetings. The community football team coach will also be significant by giving the reports concerning the boy’s conduct and if there are some observable changes. The primary work will be relying on the counselors, the psychologist teacher inclusive, who will be doing regular counseling on the boy and checking on his behavioral responses (Friend & Cook, 2010). While in the school, the counseling department will be asking the boy to attend on some of the Christian Union teachings organized by the members of the school’s Christian Union. This union will play the similar role for that of the church, in all aspects of spiritual building and character molding, and these will have a significant result on his conduct. According to Friend and Cook (2010), the collaborative partnership will be able to know if the problems have been solved by doing a number of interviews, face to face or oral, to the student’s friends. As for Patrick’s case, it will also include all those who get interact with him in his day to day activities, like his classmates, Zach being inclusive. The class teacher, as well as the other members of the teaching staff, can do an oral interview with separate students from Patrick’s class and hear from them concerning his conducts. A Friend and Cook believe that (2010), the teachers will be able to identify if indeed the teamwork formed had some impacts towards changing the student’s character or whether it was a waste of time and other resources. The community football team will also have to find out from the other team members on their views concerning the latest conduct and other behavioral characteristics of the boy. Similarly, the teacher concerned with the classroom kits and plays will have to do the same research among the other members of the classroom kits and plays. All the group members will table their findings and find out if they have met their set objectives, aims, and goals (Friend & Cook, 2010). This is because collaboration team works get always formed so as to identify a problem and come up with solutions for solving the problem, whereby an individual couldn’t manage (Friend & Cook, 2010). Conclusion Collaboration and teamwork have always proved to be the best way in dealing with some of the issues lowering both academic morale as well the morale of our students (Friend & Cook, 2010). It is true that some of these problems cannot get solved by individuals but rather a group who will come up with ideas and the best solutions for the particular problems in question. For the case of the two students, Patrick and Zach, a collaborative team will have to be formed, made up of all the relevant members as discussed above. Each of the members of the particular teams will have to play their respective or specific roles and will have to remain accountable to their line of assigned duties. This will assist in establishing the boy’s problems, finding the best solutions and the way forward that will eventually make the group achieve its primary set agenda and goals. References Friend, M. & Cook, L. (2010). Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals. Publishers: Pearson. 6th Edition. Read More