Rangitaki | Blogs

Please note: The following blog has been repurposed from Forum: Collaboration in Kāhui Ako (VLN) for demonstration purposes, to show how blog posts can be used across a Kāhui Ako group.

The day has finally arrived for us to dive in and share our CoL stories. Our leaders are now appointed who (in some cases) may have always worked with students or in small groups, are now working (and learning) alongside fellow colleagues as coaches and mentors.

No doubt you’ll want to share what’s on top for you, your role in your school and across the CoL. We invite you share any celebrations, frustrations, wonderings or ideas. All of which could also benefit others on a similar journey. For example, what does your role look like now as you support each other during this professional learning process.

We’d also like to tease out the theme around collaboration. If this is an important part of our Kāhui Ako, do we understand what collaboration means to us and do we know if we're successful in a collaborative model? It might be helpful to define what we mean by the term collaboration.

If we agree that teaching isn’t an isolated instance and that collectively we can make practice-based decisions that can ultimately lead to improved student outcomes, then what does collaboration look like beyond sharing?

edTalks: Collaboration beyond sharing, Rebbecca Sweeney

If the idea of collaboration is something that is new or needs further teasing out, then you might like to use a self-review tools like the Collaboration Framework (CORE Education) that can be used to help groups identify:

• What effective collaboration that makes a difference for learners looks like

• Next steps towards becoming a more effective collaborative group

• A way of monitoring progress towards the collaborative state

• What does leadership look like for you? Do you have role clarity for those involved within school and beyond? How are you building relational trust?
• What does professional inquiry look like? Is it collaborative? What sort of evidence-based practice/frameworks are you using within your school, across the CoL?
• How are you addressing needs-based goals between and across schools? How will know if these have been achieved or successful?

We’d love to hear more.

Please feel free to introduce yourselves and add your own stories below. If commenting, you can also acknowledge the stories that come before and find pathways to build on new knowledge/reflections. Similarly if you have any questions, feel free to ask, that way we'll strive to model collaboration in action. 

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