A teacher in a childcare program shares her perspective on collaborating with other professionals in her classroom (running time: 0 min., 53 sec.).
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Shawanda:
Ashley is actually the third outside consultant that I have worked with in the last two years. Last year we received NAEYC accreditation and had a consultant help us prepare for that. We were also part of a special project where a literacy coach was assigned to my classroom to show me a new way of reading to the children. Like Ashley, the literacy coach had good ideas; but she really didn’t spend time trying to understand how I do things and how her ideas meshed with mine. I want to focus on the individual needs of each child but that is challenging when it has to be separate from what the rest of the group is doing. If I could get Ashley to see things more from my perspective, there should be ways to do what she wants me to do within the classroom routines. I just think it is important to be realistic about what one teacher can do especially when there are basic standards to uphold and a new curriculum to learn.