Planning successfully with a partner

Collaboration with others is one of the most important parts of being a media specialist. Working with partners during our class projects has been practice collaborating with peers. On a small scale the importance of keeping logs and records of communication with teachers is important. It helps to keep record of which teachers have used the media specialist as a resource so that the media specialist can approach those who haven't before. It was very interesting to see how Sue Kimmel divided cooperative planning into different segments. The categories: Drifting, orienting, coordinating, making connections, and making sense are ways to walk through coordinating with a teacher. Using the data Kimmel collected on how teachers plan, a media coordinator can react effectively to fill in the needs of the primary instructor.

I liked the way Patricia Montiel-Overal understood that the roles in schools have been changing and making collaborating even more important. She believes that the two key elements of collaboration are coordination and cooperation. From my experience these are necessary in effective collaboration. When I have collaborated with partners in the past we are only effective and efficient when we are able to communicate openly about what we are expecting from one another and the outcome of the assignment.