Transcript

[CHATTER]

KARL WIEDEGREEN

When we work together, we are able to create something great for our students. That collaboration creates an amazing school environment.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MARY BETH CUNAT

One of the biggest challenges of any school is people go into their rooms and they close their doors and that’s the way teaching used to be, right? So you have to begin making it not OK to close your door.

KARL WIEDEGREEN

So often we hold all the good things we do to ourselves because it becomes kind of like a competition.

GEORGIA MELIDIS

But when you’re able to collaborate with your colleagues, it really affects the student’s education. We’ll make sure we’re having the exact same homework?

In terms of building a team, you have to think about where are the strengths. Our principal saw that I have this strength and he has that strength so when she put us together, it was hard at first.

OK, there are differences in opinion.

KARL WIEDEGREEN

Yeah, big time. The truth is that we didn’t really like each other.

GEORGIA MELIDIS

Because we were very different people, different styles.

KARL WIEDEGREEN

But when we started working together, we were both passionate about working, we were both willing to put the time in.

MARY BETH CUNAT

They started talking to each other. Well, what text are you using? How are you making that connection? How are you going to run your writing conference? It was like the conversation of the month.

KARL WIEDEGREEN

We’re both understanding that the main goal as a teacher is to get those students to learn. Yeah, there new opinion.

GEORGIA MELIDIS

Got it.

KARL WIEDEGREEN

Got it? Teacher collaboration at Wildwood is really intentional. In our schedule when we have our preps, they’re aligned to each other.

GEORGIA MELIDIS

I wanted to also talk to you about our current budgeting activity. Do you think they’re ready to take a whole four day three night vacation and with a $1,000 budget?

KARL WIEDEGREEN

We didn’t do this last year as far as doing the activity. We did the questions, we did everything like that. But we didn’t do the activities--

GEORGIA MELIDIS

We didn’t prep them as much.

KARL WIEDEGREEN

Right. Like that whole area in that project was what struggled on.

GEORGIA MELIDIS

Remember because last year we also had a few issues with the itemised lists that they weren’t being specific enough with the cost?

KARL WIEDEGREEN

And what we can do to help them out with that is like every morning we can have a little mini activity that will have budgeting that they have to do. And then moving on into the big activity, which is this vacation.

GEORGIA MELIDIS

Yeah, perfect, I like that because it’s just a little bit more building every day. So that’s a good idea.

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That relationship when you can bounce ideas off of each other? It’s to the benefit of the students.

KARL WIEDEGREEN

All you can about these balls. We should be helping each other out and stop holding in all the things that we do great and sharing it with others so that they can make those same gains within their classroom. And that’s really what’s important about is that the collaboration creates that equality for all students.

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