PTS Name: Developing as a Professional Educator
Element: Working with colleagues to improve professional practice
Indicators
As teachers develop, they may ask, “How do I…” or “Why do I…”:
- Create opportunities to collaborate with my colleagues?
- Collaborate with teachers, administrators, education specialists, and paraprofessionals to ensure that all students’ diverse learning needs are met?
- Engage in thoughtful dialogue and reflection with colleagues to solve teaching-related problems?
- Participate in making and implementing school-wide decisions?
- Contribute to school-wide events and learning activities?
- Establish and maintain relationships with other school staff to become a visible and valued member of the school community?
- Use observations of colleagues to improve my teaching?
- Prevent and resolve personal and professional conflicts with colleagues?
- Contribute to the learning of other educators?
Descriptions
Examples may include, but are not limited to:
- Viewing other teachers in your school with a specific focus in mind (e.g., lesson closures, informal assessments, group work)
- Asking colleagues to survey a lesson through the lens of a specific teaching practice
- Sharing best practices with your colleagues
- Networking and sharing resources online or in person with teachers from other schools and districts
- Inviting non-teaching staff, such as guidance counselors and speech therapists, to meetings to give another perspective on students’ needs
Problems of Practice
Challenges with this element frequently include:
- Taking constructive criticism personally
- Feeling too overwhelmed to view the classrooms of your colleagues and to learn from their
teaching practices
- Minimizing the potential contributions of non-teaching staff when determining student needs
or interventions