RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION 1

Savannah Torrance

Effective Communication and Collaboration

Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 496 Field Experience ePortfolio, Fall 2019.

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Effective Communication and Collaboration

Introduction

Communication is an important part of any relationship, and education is no different. It

is essential to communicate with students, fellow teachers, parents, and other staff members.

Communicating opens the door for new ideas and successes. “If you see a turtle on a fencepost,

he didn’t get there by himself.” No one is able to succeed alone, so collaborating and

communicating are how we help our students succeed and grow into the individuals they are

meant to be. An effective teacher is one who communicates and collaborates with everyone

involved in education.

Rationale

For this competency, I chose to use the surveys for the 8th grade English rotation review

day. There are three 8th grade teachers that teach classes at the same time. We gave our students

surveys for them to rate their comfort levels with five different topics and then, under my

suggestion, we cross-referenced students’ responses with their quiz scores to determine what

remediation group would be best for the students. Because there were three teachers, an inclusion

teacher, and me, we were able to each take a group to work with for a half hour. This review day

took collaboration between all the teachers and students and worked quite well. The students

were able to get help in their weaker areas and be taught a reinforcement lesson by a different

teacher, thus giving the student exposure to different teaching styles in hopes the student would

receive the information differently and be able to understand it better. We saw better

understanding of the topics, which was displayed on the unit test, across the entire 8th grade.

My second artifact are records of call logs from several phone calls home I made for

students. I was unable to provide a copy of the negative phone call home I had to make as there
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were other logs from other classes. The photos I have attached are for positive phone calls I

made to parents. My cooperating teacher and I identified students who would potentially have

issues, either behaviorally or academically, and called early on in the year to tell parents

something positive to establish a good connection. Each parent expressed their excitement at

being contacted and thanked me for reaching out. This strategy allowed me to engage parents to

collaborating in their child’s education.

Reflection

Collaborating with your students is such an important part of teaching. When we involve

our students in their learning, they benefit. The opportunity for them to evaluate their own

knowledge is a helpful skill that will serve them well in their future. I loved involving the

students in their remediation group placement! The vast majority of students seemed to evaluate

themselves well and were spot on for where they needed to be, which was verified by the student

quiz scores. Because they told us where they felt they needed to be, the students were much more

active in participating in their groups, which is defended by research as well. “Teachers need to

empower their students and give them a leading role in their own education…. By engaging in

the process of thinking about and assessing their own work, they act on the evidence of their own

learning and take responsibility for it,” (Dyer 2015). In addition to their participation it helps

them take responsibility for their own learning. It also helped to expose them to other teaching

styles. I had a few students tell me they didn’t understand what their teacher meant until they

were in my group, and I know there were some of my students who felt the same while learning

from other teachers. This is definitely something I would like to do in a future classroom. I know

that not every school will have the same teacher to teacher support Salem has, but I still want to

find a way to collaborate with the students for their own learning.
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Making good phone calls home was one of my favorite things to do. Getting the

opportunity to tell a parent that their student was a wonderful example in class was such a

positive experience. While the phone calls home were positive and didn’t require the parents to

help with student behavior, I found it actually did help. Students came back into the classroom

with a positive attitude and were ready to learn. They wanted to continue to be the example I told

their parent they were. It was a great form of collaboration with parents as it built a connection

between the parent and myself. This would allow me to reach back out to the parent, if needed,

to discuss any problems. With my students, I had wonderful responses. One of the students told

me she was in the car with her mother when I called and heard everything I said. She told me

how much it meant to her and I saw a huge increase in her participation in class. Another

student’s mother told me she was expecting a very different call, as she often got called for her

son’s bad behavior from last year. She told me how glad she was I called and that she would tell

her son. He came back in the next day ready to learn and participate. Like in the later student’s

example, “parents who have never received positive feedback about their child might be

astounded to receive such a call. The simple act of a positive phone call can help them to refocus

their view of their child in relation to school,” (PBIS Rewards). I am looking forward to

implementing this strategy in my future classroom.

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References

Dyer, K. (2016, November 23). The importance of student self assessment #edchat.

Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://www.nwea.org/blog/2015/the-importance-

of-student-self-assessment/

PBIS Rewards. The Power of a Positive Phone Call Home. (2019, October 31).

Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://www.pbisrewards.com/blog/positive-phone-

call-home/